Twelve Days of Christmas 2009: Day 12
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
twelve first-place votes receiving,
(nearly) eleven ultimate zone a-rating,
ten titles winning,
nine runs a game creating,
eight WAR achieving,
seven triples tripping,
six wins off-walking,
five All-Star Games;
four expected fielding-independent runs,
three MVPs,
two Gold Gloves,
and a Cooperstown inductee.
- In December, the Veterans Committee elected longtime Cardinal manager Whitey Herzog to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- Catcher Yadier Molina and pitcher Adam Wainwright won their second and first Gold Gloves, respectively.
- Albert Pujols won the third MVP award of his career, surpassing Rogers Hornsby and tying Stan Musial.
- The Cardinal pitching staff posted a 4.05 expected Fielding-Independent Pitching run average, fourth in the National League and their best since 2005 (3.96).
- On July 15, the Cardinals hosted the fifth major-league All-Star Game to be held in St. Louis, tied for the third-most of any city.
- The Cardinals had six walk-off wins in 2009, with their final two coming back-to-back against the Cubs:
- Brendan Ryan led the team with seven triples, the most since David Eckstein in 2005 (7).
- Albert Pujols led the league with 8.4 Wins Above Replacement, the third time in his career he eclipsed the eight-WAR mark. 8.4 WAR means that his value as a free agent would’ve been around $38 million.
- After arriving with the Cardinals, Matt Holliday created about nine runs per game. By ESPN’s method, he created 8.92 RC27, by Baseball-Reference’s, 9.5 RC/G, and by our extrapolation of Fangraphs’s wRC, 8.7 wRC27.
- In 2009, the Cardinals won their 10th division title, tied for the second-most in the league since divisional play began in 1969 (Braves are first with 16).
- Brendan Ryan led NL shortstops with a 10.6 Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), best for any Cardinal shortstop since the stat began in 2002.
- Adam Wainwright received 12 first-place votes for NL Cy Young from the Baseball Writers Association of America, the most of any pitcher (including winner Tim Lincecum, who received 11).
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