Quick, who was the last Cardinal rookie pitcher to qualify for the ERA title? If you said Rick Ankiel in 2000, give yourself an extra chocolate rabbit this weekend.

With darkhorse rookie Jaime Garcia winning the fifth-starter job out of camp this spring, the Cardinals are going against recent La Runcan tradition, that is, a predilection for veteran starters. Tony La Russa’s gunshyness about pushing young pitchers — especially young lefties — into the spotlight too soon is understandable, given Ankiel’s famous flameout after finishing second in the 2000 Rookie of the Year vote.

But before Ankiel’s rookie season 10 years ago (has it been that long?), the Cardinals under La Russa regularly featured a rookie in their rotation: Alan Benes in 1996, Matt Morris in 1997 and Jose Jimenez in 1999. Moreover, the team has a proud history of rookie pitching performances. In honor of Garcia — who was fourth on the team this spring with a 3.20 K/BB and had a 7.71 K/9 — being poised for another, let’s review some of the best.

A few words of caution are in order first: We estimated WAR for these players (using the great Kalkman WAR Calculator). To account for varying run environments, we adjusted pitcher FIPs along the way. We’re confident in the results, though we’re happy to be corrected/overruled if someone has a better handle.

We swear we don’t have a thing for Irishman Mike O’Neill, whose name has now appeared in two of our last six posts. He and Ed Karger own two of the best rookie pitching seasons you’ve probably never heard of. The list includes some players you probably have heard of, as well: Hall of Famers Dizzy Dean and Three-Finger Brown (and one player who probably should be in the Hall, Paul Derringer), as well as Cardinal heroes Harry Brecheen, Morris and Mort Cooper. And like Ankiel, some of the great rookies started well but soon met their demise, like Dick Hughes and John Fulgham. Curiously enough, the only Cardinal pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year Award, Todd Worrell, didn’t make the top 20 (his 3.71 FIP didn’t distinguish him much in 1986, when the NL run environment was relatively low).

Harvey Haddix was nicknamed the Kitten, and Brecheen (one of Bob Broeg’s favorites, we should note) was the Cat. May we propose "Gato" for Garcia?

Update: Though only one Cardinal pitcher has ever won the Rookie of the Year Award, several have received votes:

For more, see the entire Cardinal rookie of the year voting history.

This entry was posted by Pip on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under by the numbers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.