Yardbarker: Chris Carpenter

Chris Carpenter has a hungry heart.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:52:00 -0500

We had a great time at the GSBD. Nothing warms my heart more than watching some stuck-up millionaire in a tragic suit jacket bid thousands of dollars on an autographed guitar. I'm sure it holds a lot of meaning for him. As in, name more than three songs by this man. Go on. And then go home and lick your CY.Okay, I no longer want to keep this brief. It's been too long.Jim Rice signed for everybody. You would have seen the contempt in his eyes if he'd bothered to make eye contact wi...

MVP Mauer vs. Cy also-ran Carpenter smacks of inconsistency

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:10:17 -0500

Minnesota’s Joe Mauer missed the first month and won the AL MVP in a landslide while Chris Carpenter lost the NL Cy Young Award because he missed 30 games.

The Cy Young stats

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:00:12 -0500

So the NL Cy Young award recipient was announced the other day, and surprisingly, it didn't go to the guy with the most wins, or the best ERA for that matter. Instead, it went to Tim Lincecum, who lead the league in FanGraphs WAR by a pretty big margin. Naturally, given the two candidates that he narrowly beat, this sparked a lot of debate about whether or not FanGraphs' WAR was the best way to go. From what I gathered, a lot of people thought that timing should...

This Week in Sportswriting: Conventional Wisdom and Statistical Reasoning Conflict

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:41:31 -0500

We've been having our fun with statistical looks at the candidates for MLB awards around these parts. But in the greater sportswriting world, some of the choices writers -- and coaches -- make are apparently meant for ridicule, not rational discussion.Take, for example, the decisions of Will Carroll and Keith Law to leave Chris Carpenter off their Cy Young ballots. It solicited a nasty tweet from flat-earther Jon Heyman, and Law's decision in particular sparked a five-alarm message bo...

Defending Law

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:04:29 -0500

Note: This is not in defense of Keith Law’s voting order. Please don’t confuse it as such because my points have little to do with how Javier Vazquez or Chris Carpenter pitched in comparison to each other throughout 2009. Let’s get this out of the way before someone spoils it in the comments: I am [...]

Two Internet Writers May Have Cost Chris Carpenter the NL Cy Young

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:00:47 -0500

The BBWAA has acknowledged the internet folk of late, but their glasnost hit a snag in this year’s NL Cy Young voting. Both ESPN.com’s Keith Law and Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll bucked conventional wisdom slightly, leaving St. Louis starter Chris Carpenter off their ballots. This mild disparity may have cost Carpenter the award. Each voter chose [...]

Timmmmmah!

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:39:30 -0500

B & C would like to congratulate San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum on winning the 2009 National League Cy Young award. The narrow victory over Chris Carpenter earned ”The Freak” back-to-back hardware, making Timmy the first NL hurler to do so since teammate Randy Johnson won four consecutive Cy’s with the D-Backs from 1999-2002. To honor Lincecum’s big day, here is a classic commercial from the wonderful land called YouTube… And here’s to hoping that Lincecum sticks to blazing fastballs instead of just blazing up.

Ballot Bawling

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:37:24 -0500

It turns out that the two internet voters, Keith Law and Will Carroll, left Chris Carpenter off their ballots. Some people are not happy about that, according to ShysterBall. I actually think the problem is that with only three slots, it’s tough to give recognition to a pitcher who was very good, but doesn’t [...]

Digging into Cy balloting

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:34:19 -0500

...dig into the Cy Young balloting, shall we? Two voters, Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus and Keith Law of ESPN.com, did not include Chris Carpenter on their ballots. Carroll had Wainwright in the...

Waino, the Cy Young, and Me — a poem by Chris Carpenter

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:02:21 -0500

I got this in the mail last night, and I think it's worth a post. I'll turn this over to VEB-er MikeJGolde, the responsible party: I took apart Carpenter's (awful) article about Wainwright and reconstructed it into something more appropriate. His work of art follows the jump: Look at his body of work.Just start with that.What Adam Wainwright did this year, he did all year long.He was consistent through the whole season.Look at whatever number you want...

Cubs Top 10 Prospects by Baseball America and Minor League Free Agents

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:13:37 -0500

Baseball America has listed their top 10 Cubs prospects....drumroll please...

Starlin Castro
Brett Jackson
Josh Vitters
Andrew Cashner
Jay Jackson
Hak-Ju Lee
Logan Watkins
Chris Carpenter
Ryan Flaherty
D.J. LeMehieu

I was expecting Kyler Burke to make the list, but apparently repeating A ball justifiably knocked him down. You can compare and contrast with Arizona Phil's Top 15 list from last week. You can see past Baseball America top 10 lists for the Cubs over at Wiklifield.

Keeping with the minor league news, Arizona Phil has been keeping track of the Cubs minor league free agents on the right sidebar and there now appears to be an official list.

Chicago Cubs (11)

Pitchers: LHP Casey Fossum, RHP Vince Perkins, RHP Jose Pina

Catchers: Mark Johnson

Infielders: Matt Craig, Luis Rivas, Bobby Scales, Nate Spears

Outfielders: Doug Deeds, John-Ford Griffin, Brad Snyder

The only differences from Phil's list are C Robinson Chirinos and RHP Austin-Bibens-Dirx, so I assume they've already resigned with the Cubs. The rest can still sign with the Cubs and according to Phil's sidebar note, Cubs have exclusive negotiating rights until the MLB free agency filing period ends, which I believe is this Saturday.

A bit of nostalgia on that list are some ex-Cubs including(and I'm sure I missed a few): Bobby Brownlie (Atlanta), Federico Baez (Cincinnati), Mark Bellhorn (Colorado), Ryan Harvey (Colorado), Lincoln Holdzkom (Pittsburgh), Juan Mateo (Pittsburgh), Rocky Cherry (San Diego), Shingo Takatsu (San Francisco), Jackson Melian (San Francisco), Josh Kroeger (Chicago White Sox), Michael Restovich (Chicago White Sox), Jason Waddell (Detroit), RIchie Robnett (NY Yankees), Jerome Williams (Oakland), Buck Coats (Toronto).

Don't forget to enter the TCR Free Agent Frenzy contest...

Wainwright for Carpenter, Carpenter for Wainwright, Somebody for DeJesus

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:00:33 -0500

At the P-D they're taking good advantage of the Cardinals' dual Cy Young candidates, as they've gotten both Wainwright and Carpenter on record as being Spartacus. (I would have liked one more, maybe PINEIRO: Why Joel Pineiro should win the Cy Young.) For my money Wainwright's take on Carpenter is more interesting: But we should talk about this year. This year he just out-executed everybody. If he wouldn't have lost that time because of inj...

Wainwright on Carpenter

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:36:26 -0500

Adam Wainwright writes a guest article for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch making the case for Chris Carpenter winning the NL Cy Young award: Chris Carpenter, besides maybe Tim Lincecum, has the best stuff of anyone in the major leagues that I have seen. He is, really, an amazing specimen of a pitcher. He has missed years [...]

Four things about Chris Carpenter and three about Ted Wilks

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:13:25 -0500

More photos » by Al Behrman - AP St. Louis Cardinals' Chris Carpenter was the last person who hadn't hit a grand slam off Cincinnati Reds pitcher Kip Wells prior to the second inning of a baseball game, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Al Behrman) Browse more photos » Is this the best year Chris Carpenter's ever had? Well, no. But it's an interesting addition to his baseball...