All Cardinals team 1965-2017, position players

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All Cardinals Team 1965-2016

As a Cubs fan I'm going to traverse dangerous ground, picking an all St. Louis Cardinals team from the years 1965-2016. I chose that time frame because I've generally been able to see the players I picked. The time frame just misses the greatest Cardinal of them all, Stan Musial. I'll start with the positional players and follow up with the pitchers later.

Catcher: Yadier Molina Yadi gets the nod here, but it isn't the slam dunk younger Cardinal fans might expect. Throughout the 70's, Ted Simmons was behind the plate for the Cardinals and he was an offensive force to reckon with. Ted got a cup of coffee with the Cards in 1968 and 69, but really took over in 1970 and stayed with the Cardinals through 1981. During his time with the Cardinals Simba batted .298 with an OPS of .824 and a WAR of 44.8. Ted had 4 seasons with a WAR of 5 or more. He was very good. Yadier gets the nod for his defensive skills and leadership. At the time I'm writing this, Yadi has a career offensive WAR of 21.8 but a defensive WAR of 21.4, which is remarkable. Yadi's leadership is also off the charts so he gets the nod, but not by a lot.

First base: Albert Pujols The Cardinals have had some good production from their first basemen from 1965 until now, but this is a pretty easy choice. Orlando Cepeda was the NL's MVP with the 67 world champion Cardinals, but had a relatively short tenure. Jack Clark came along for and had a couple of good years in the 80's. From 2001-2011 Pujols averaged about 45 homeruns, 120 RBIs, and averaged a WAR of almost 8. One of the best players in the history of the Cardinals and the game.

Second base: Tommy Herr Relative to other positions, second base hasn't been a strength of the Cardinals since 1965. In the old days, yes, Rogers Hornsby and Frankie Frisch were pretty good. Herr wasn't bad he just wasn't great.. He manned second for the Cardinals for most of the 80's. Tommy finished with a WAR of 18.9 in his 10 years with the Cards. He did have a career year in 1985 when he drove in 110 runs while hitting only 8 homers. Tommy was a solid player with the Cards for a decade.

Shortstop: Ozzie Smith Another easy choice. Ozzie was possibly the best fielding shortstop in the history of the game. In addition, while having very little power, Smith was a surprisingly effective offensive contributor. For his 15 seasons with the Cards, Ozzie had an offensive WAR of 42.3 and a defensive WAR of 34.6. Ozzie is another member of this all Cardinals team who gets here in large measure because of his glove.

Third base: Joe Torre Before Joe was managing the Yankees to a bunch of world championships, he was playing third base and mashing for the Cardinals. Torre's tenure with the Cards was from 1969-74. Torre had a massive year in 1970, hitting .363 with 24 homers and 137 RBIs. He had 230 hits which especially impressive considering Torre couldn't run. Torre wasn't a particularly good glove at third, but his bat was good enough to carry his glove.

Left field; Lou Brock Here's a painful reminder of a bad Cubs trade. After the Cubs traded Brock to the Cardinals for Ernie Broglio, he went on to have a hall of fame career. For his years with the Cards, Brock had a WAR of 41.6. That number would have been considerably higher if he didn't have a defensive WAR of -16.3. Still, all in all, Brock was a dynamic player for the Cardinals. His skills were on full display in three world series with the Cardinals. In those three series, he hit .391 with 5 homeruns, 16 runs scored, 13 RBIs and he also added 14 stolen bases. While the Cubs may been criticized for trading Brock for Broglio, don't forget the Cubs also got Doug Clemens. As a Cubs fan I can say that doesn't help.

Center field: Jim Edmonds I knew Edmonds was a flashy fielder and power hitter, but looking at his stats, I'm reminded of what productive player he was. A quick look at his stats shows he hit 241 in his 8 seasons with the Cardinals. That's 30 a year. His OPS over that time frame was .947. While Edmonds had a knack for make the routine play look great, he was still a great outfielder. His defensive WAR was only 3.7 in his years with the Cardinals, but the eye test scores him higher than that. Willie McGee was another candidate for the this position. McGee had a WAR of 8.1 in 1985, the highest in the National League that season, but never got above 4.4 after that. Mostly Willie averaged about a 2 WAR. That's why Edmonds gets the nod.

Right field: George Hendrick I'm sure being named to this team would leave George speechless. Of course, during his playing career, he was almost always speechless. This position wasn't as strong as many other positions on the team. Still, in the 7 years George played for the Cardinals he was a solid producer with an OPS of .815. George hit 122 homeruns during his stay with the Cardinals to go with a batting average .294. Hendrick's WAR averaged about 2.5 during his years in St. Louis. If I was flopping a lineup, I might put Willie McGee in right, but went this way since Willie was more of a center fielder.

So, there's a Cubs fan's all Cardinals team. How does it compare to yours? Remember, keep it clean and respectful.