Hall of Fame Committee Will Consider Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and a Few Others
Some time last year, after the Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, a reporter asked Cardinals pitching prospect Trevor Rosenthal why he was selected as a finalist for the National League’s Most Valuable Player award.
“It’s definitely something I’ve been thinking about,” Rosenthal said. “A lot of people are asking me, ‘What do you want more? The MVP or winning the Cy Young?’ I’m taking all the plaudits. What can I take from this?”
From the perspective of a person who has watched and followed the Cardinals’ organization since Rosenthal was a kid growing up in suburban Seattle—the guy who has been known on a first-name basis with every current Cardinals player, and who will likely be the face of the franchise entering his ninth season with the club—the question was fairly easy to answer:
“Winning the Cy Young,” said Rosenthal.
He didn’t look like he was joking.
The next morning, he was named the National League’s Cy Young runner-up, by a vote of 10-2. The award is given to the pitcher who best performed in the most recent season, but Rosenthal actually turned in a Cy Young season in 2014, a year after he became the organization’s first 25-game winner since Steve Carlton.
In fact, the 2013 season was the first for the organization since 1991 to win a Cy Young Award. Before that, the Cardinals had won the award only three other times since 1930:
1930 World Series champion Detroit Tigers (Al Kaline, Ernie Lombardi)
1934 World Series champion Chicago Cubs (Earl Webb, Don Newcombe)
1938 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies (Bobby Thomson, Fred Merkle)
The Cardinals won’t be in the World Series again until this autumn, but they still have a very compelling case to make that they are now the best Major League Baseball team and probably the best baseball franchise in all of America.
To get there, they’ve had to be a better team all year. They�