The St. Louis Cardinals’ 2011 season already got off to a rocky, distracted start when Albert Pujols reported to camp without a contract extension. Now it looks like the Cards might have lost one of their best players for the entire season.

Starting pitcher Adam Wainwright, who has blossomed into one of the best hurlers in baseball, is leaving the Cardinals’ Spring Training camp in Jupiter, Florida to have his pitching elbow examined. The prevailing opinion that I’m seeing flash across Twitter and in every article popping up on the ‘net is that Wainwright is most likely headed for Tommy John surgery.

Here is the latest from Derrick Goold STLToday.com:

General manager John Mozeliak said he believes it is a “significant injury” and the early word is “not encouraging.”

Tommy John surgery is one alternative to repair the damage for which  Wainwright is being checked.

“After his bullpen on Monday, he did feel something in his right elbow,” Mozeliak said. “I can say just based on the initial evaluation from our training staff, things do not look encouraging. But before we jump to any conclusions, we’ll just wait until the re-evaluation this afternoon.”

Mozeliak said there would be an update Wednesday afternoon.

Looks like Tony LaRussa’s season just got more complicated, and the Cardinals’ chances of winning it all in what could be Pujols’ last season with the team just took a major hit. Sheesh…all this and it’s not even March yet.

Hey Cubs, maybe this really will be your year!

Haha. Yeah, right.

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* – Adam Wainwright photo credit: Elsa/Getty Images North America via Zimbio.com

It’s always been my view that baseball writers — who have biases/grudges, and therefore probably shouldn’t vote on these awards anyway —  need to stop looking at wins, and realize the most important stats for Cy Young award choices are, in this rough order: ERA, WHIP, Complete Games (hereafter, CG), Innings Pitched (IP), Batting Average Against ( BAA), and strikeouts (Ks).

Wins are a very distant 7th in my book.

Bob Costas called these imperative stats “esoteric” during a telecast last week; that’s his way of telling us he acknowledges their importance. Whether or not he and Baseball’s Ruling Class will heed attention to this prism is another story.

National League

Ubaldo Jimenez won 15 games in the first half of the season, and led the discourse through most of 2010. But Jimenez has been subpar since the break: 4-7 with a 4.15 ERA. Overall, he is no longer in the top 10 in ERA or WHIP.

So I think it’s a two horse race between 21 game-winner Roy Halladay of the Phillies and 20 game-winner Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals.

Halladay’s worked 20 more innings in the same amount of starts, and even though Wainwright is second in the NL in that important category, those innings are the equivalent of two-plus games. Roy also possesses a 9-5 lead in complete games over Wainwright, who’s second there as well (included for Halladay is a perfect game back in May).  Those two stats might swing the pendulum into Halladay’s favor. Also, Halladay’s K:BB ratio (7:1) is better than Wainwright’s (3:1).

What is in Adam’s favor is his batting average against and hits allowed are much lower. In fact, no pitcher in the National League has allowed more base hits than Roy Halladay’s 231.

But my vote would still go to the man who now “seems destined to start Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Oct. 6 at Citizens Bank Park.”

(Honorable mention to Mat Latos of San Diego, Roy Oswalt of Philadelphia and Tim Hudson of Atlanta.)

American League

C.C. Sabathia is the closest example to Jimenez we’ll find in the AL. Aside from a horrific May (ERA of 5.15), Sabathia has been consistently good all season. In fact, his 3.18 ERA is lower than his Cy Young season of 2007 (3.21).

Considering  most of the sports media’s headquarters are adjacent to Yankee country, I somewhat understand why he was considered the frontrunner much of 2010. But if our writers and talking heads — like Harold Reynolds of MLB Network –  would do three minutes of research like I have, might they discover that the big man is 7th in ERA, tied for 9th in WHIP and 12th in BAA.

Yahoo Sports’ Les Carpenter finally did last Friday, where he assessed what Sabathia’s disastrous start in a crucial loss last week to David Price and the Rays did to CC’s Cy Young chances.

Sabathia tops out in one area: wins, where his 21 lead the AL. But five of those were against the last-place Orioles and ten of his 21 wins were versus the cellar-dweeling Orioles, Royals and Mariners. Also, look at the Yankees’ stellar offense compared to Seattle’s (Felix Hernandez) or Oakland’s (22 year-old Trevor Cahill), among others.

The point here is that wins and losses are BY FAR the most overrated pitching stat. In fact, they’re mostly irrelevant. I’d personally take a 5-18 pitcher with an 2.8 ERA and a good WHIP, over an 18-5 pitcher with a 3.9 ERA any day. Last year, the writers agreed, as 2009′s Cy Young winners, Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum, won “only” 16 and 15 games respectively.

That “King” Felix Hernandez is being mocked for having a 13-12 record on a 61-96 team with baseball’s worst offense, is absurd. His typical stellar outing often results in a loss, as it did last Thursday , for example.

As Jess Coleman of Bleacher Report elucidated last week:

“Of all the stats we looked at, W-L records are the least representative of a pitcher’s ability. Why? Because a pitcher can pitch the best game of his life and still lose the game. It all depends on how good your team’s offense is (a factor you do not contribute to as a pitcher in the AL) and the pitcher you are opposing.

Clearly Sabathia is the beneficiary of the better offense. The Yankees have scored the most runs in the Majors, the Mariners have scored the least. “

Coleman also relayed that Seattle scores just over three runs in games Hernandez starts, while Sabathia enjoys a whopping six per game. Further, I’ll add that the Mariners have scored a paltry 14 runs in Felix’s 12 losses! Imagine Sabathia dealing with that futility? You cannot, as it’d never happen. New York also has a better bullpen to hold leads, and is simply a far superior team — 33 games superior in fact.

Coleman concludes well, so I’ll let him state the following:

“I would hate to see Felix Hernandez—the league leader in ERA, strikeouts, and innings pitched—be stripped of an award he clearly deserves simply because he is on a bad team. Even if you consider wins, Hernandez outdoes Sabathia in nearly every pitching category.”

Hernandez plays on a terrible team, yet leads all of the Majors in ERA at a microscopic 2.27, strikeouts (232), and tops the AL in IP and BAA. He’s second in WHIP, complete games, has more quality starts (30) than any pitcher in nearly a decade, and also has fewer walks  than Sabathia and David Price. To top it off, Hernandez also went 3-0 versus the Yankees this season with an incredible 0.35 ERA, two complete games, and a shutout.

Confidently, my vote would go to Felix Hernandez. The 24 year-old Venezuelan, who’d likely have 24 wins if he played in New York,  might even deserve unanimous victory. I could probably make a better argument to vote Sabathia 5th behind Hernandez, Price (19 wins, 2.73 ERA; 4-0 w/ a 1.6 ERA in Sept.), Jon Lester (19 wins, 2.96 ERA) and Clay Buchholz (17 wins, 2.33 ERA) than second.

We shall see.

What are your 2010 Cy Young picks?

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Together, Wainwright and Schumaker have produced what is perhaps the six strangest seconds of sports video that you’ll find on YouTube.

Here it is, in all its WTF glory:

(hat tip: The Big Lead)

If YOU have any information on the strange activities of Adam Wainwright and Skip Schumaker in the video above, please direct them to the comment section below.

And my apologies if you have any nightmares from viewing this.

In a 24 hour period, as the Washington Nationals were knocking around St. Louis  — and perhaps ruining the Cards’ playoff chances —  they also knocked the Cardinals around…literally.

Three times in fact.

Saturday night, Nyjer Morgan – who’s currently appealing a suspension for throwing a ball at a Philadelphia fan last weekend – scored the 13th run in Washington’s 14-5  rout. But instead of scoring casually,  Morgan, who played amateur hockey, lowered his shoulder for a hockey-like check into Redbirds catcher Bryan Anderson.

Morgan was not in the starting lineup on Sunday afternoon. Why? Washington skipper Jim Riggleman feared his center fielder would get hit by Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright in retaliation. And why not? It’s baseball’s unwritten rule.

On Sunday, Riggleman and many Nationals players apologized to Anderson and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa for what even Riggleman called an “unprofessional” play, but Morgan did not.

The fireworks also did not stop Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park:

With St. Louis trailing 4-1 in the 9th, Washington rookie closer Drew Storen threw the first pitch of the inning behind Cardinal slugger Matt Holliday. Both benches were warned.

Earlier in the 4-2 Nationals win, Washington shortstop Ian Desmond slid into second after a routine double, then rose up and landed an elbow to the head of St. Louis shortstop Brendan Ryan.

The teams won’t play again this season and have no specific rivalry or bad-blood between them, which begs the question:

What in the name of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin caused such mayhem in D.C. this weekend between two baseball teams?

But it also means something else: it’s time to dole out some midseason awards.

Since our primary focus here at Midwest Sports Fans is, well, the Midwest, I am going to focus my award giving to just the Central divisions of the American and National League. Let’s get right to it.

NL Central 1st Half MVP: Albert Pujols, and I really don’t need to say anything else about it. His name itself is becoming hyperbole. I want to see a new version of “The Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials featuring Pujols. They could be called “The Most Dominating Presence in Baseball” and include lines like “he once struck out, just to see what it felt like” and “he’s seen less pitches than the World Cup, yet his goatee alone has hit more home runs than Ryan Ludwick.” Albert Pujols is amazing and is not just the NL Central MVP, but the MLB MVP for the first half of 2009.

AL Central 1st Half MVP: This one is not so clear cut. Let’s take a look at a few of the candidates (stats as of July 9th):

• Joe Mauer, Twins: 60 G, 224 AB, .388 BA, 15 HR, 47 RBI, 48 R, 1.118 OPS
• Justin Morneau, Twins: 84 G, 319 AB, .317 BA, 21 HR, 69 RBI, 56 R, .984 OPS
• Jermaine Dye, White Sox: 77 G, 276 AB, .297 BA, 20 HR, 54 RBI, 51 R, .940 OPS
• Zack Greinke, Kansas City Royals: 10-5, 2.12 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 129 K, 29 BB

Obviously I really want to say JD, or even Scott Podsednik, and I think there is an argument to be made for them as their value has been highlighted by the injury to Carlos Quentin, but I have a hard time giving it to anyone other than Justin Morneau or Joe Mauer with the impressive stats both have racked up.

It certainly isn’t Zack Greinke, whose team becomes more irrelevant with each passing week. If his ERA was still 1.00, then maybe. But he hasn’t been as lights-out recently, which is to be expected since he isn’t the greatest pitcher in the history of mankind and all beings, as some have suggested.

While everyone is salivating over Mauer, and don’t get me wrong — he has been great since returning from injury, Morneau has been producing at a high level for 24 more games and over the span of almost 100 more ABs than Mauer. Plus, batting average is an overrated stat, so Mauer gets no bonus points from me because he’s making everyone dream about .400. Both are great candidates, and by the end of the year such a difference in games won’t be so magnified, but right now I have to go with Morneau, who has been the most consistent run producer in the division over the course of the entire first half.

NL Central 1st Half Cy Young: I see two primary contenders: Adam Wainwright of St. Louis and Yovani Gallardo of Milwaukee. Here are the stats:

• Yovani Gallardo, Brewers: 8-6, 109.2 innings, 2.95 ERA, 120 K, 51 BB
• Adam Wainwright, Cardinals: 9-5, 122.1 innings, 3.09 ERA, 110 K, 45 BB

Pretty damn close based on the numbers (and you could probably throw Ryan Franklin in the mix here too, who has been great as the Cardinals’ closer). My first instinct when comparing Gallardo and Wainwright is to go with the guy pitching for the team in first place, but it’s hard to use team record as a tie-breaker considering the Cardinals are only one game up on the Brewers in the standings. Or is it? With two pitchers this close, sometimes it comes right down to head-to-head battles.

Thus far in 2009, Wainwright has absolutely dominated Milwaukee. He is 2-0 in two starts against the Brewers, going 15.1 innings and giving up just a single run while striking out 18. Gallardo, on the other hand, has struggled somewhat against his team’s primary competition for the division title. Despite having a better overall ERA and WHIP than Wainwright, Gallardo is 0-1 against St. Louis. Sure, he pitched 8 innings of shutout ball while only giving up 2 hits in the teams’ May 25th battle, so you can’t blame him for the no decision there, but that game was not head-to-head against Wainwright like the July 7th game was. In that battle, Gallardo lasted only five innings and gave up four runs in a 5-0 loss for the Brew Crew.

So maybe that one game difference for the Cardinals is the difference between Wainwright and Gallardo. I’m giving the 1st half Cy Young for the NL Central to Adam Wainwright.

AL Central 1st Half Cy Young: Lots of legit contenders here. Let’s list them out with stats:

• Mark Buehrle, White Sox: 9-2, 3.14 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 114.2 innings, 65 K, 25 BB
• Joe Nathan, Twins: 0-1, 1.13 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 33.1 innings, 22 saves, 43 K, 7 BB
• Justin Verlander, Tigers: 9-4, 3.59 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 115.1 innings, 141 K, 35 BB
• Edwin Jackson, Tigers: 6-4, 2.59 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 114.2 innings, 93 K, 33 BB
• Zack Greinke, Royals: 10-5, 2.12 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 127.1 innings, 129 K, 29 BB
• Fausto Carmona, Indians: 2-6, 7.42 ERA, 1.81 WHIP, 60.2 innings, 36 K, 41 BB

If we were giving this out to the pitcher who has been the most generous to opposing hitters and teams, Fausto Carmona would win in a landslide. And yes, this is the same Fausto Carmona that went 19-8 with a 3.06 ERA in 2007. But obviously I only listed Carmona here to throw more salt in the multitude of open wounds Cleveland’s start has given its fans. More on him later.

Back to the subject at hand. Zack Greinke obviously has the best numbers, but I just don’t believe in handing out awards to players whose teams are not in the playoff race. There is a different level of pressure when your team is expected to win and when games are meaningful. If the award were Most Outstanding Pitcher, it’s Greinke by a landslide. It’s not, and it clearly states in the fine print of my own personal Cy Young and MVP criteria that last place teams (Cleveland sucks so bad they don’t count anymore) cannot have Cy Young or MVP winners, so we’ll let Willy Wonka tell Zack Greinke what he’s won:

(By the way, credit goes to Hugging Harold Reynolds for tweeting that video yesterday. I hadn’t seen that in forever, but always loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie Bucket is a golden god.)

Honestly, I can’t find a whole lot to separate Buehrle, Verlander, and Jackson. All three have had excellent seasons. I’d give the edge to Buehrle because he owns the Tigers and Verlander sucks against the White Sox, and both have more wins than Jackson, but it’s really splitting hairs between those three.

My 1st half AL Central Cy Young goes to Joe Nathan, who has just be out-of-this-world awesome. The Twins’ pitchers (other than Nick Blackburn, who is having a very good yet under-the-radar season) have struggled this season. Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, and Kevin Slowey have all dealt with injuries and bouts of ineffectiveness. The one constant (throughout all the years Ray, has been baseball) has been Joe Nathan at the back end of the bullpen making sure that when the Twins do have a late lead, they do not surrender it.

I’m not a huge proponent of giving Cy Youngs to closers who typically pitch less than a third of the amount of innings a top-line starter does, but Joe Nathan has given up only 18 hits in 33.1 innings and is 22-24 in save opportunities. He has been beyond dominant and there is no way the Twins would be as close to first place as they are without him. It’s a competitive field, but Nathan is the choice.

NL Central Manager of the 1st Half: Tony LaRussa, and I don’t think it’s close. Ken Macha has done a nice job in Milwaukee keeping the Brewers in the race without C.C. Sabathia or Ben Sheets, but LaRussa has the Cardinals in first place with one legit hitter in his lineup. Yes, that hitter is the great Pujols, but look at the rest of the team’s offensive stats. Putrid. And it’s not like their pitching has been lights out. Ryan Franklin has been a revelation in the bullpen, and getting Chris Carpenter back has helped, but this is still a rotation that counts on guys like Kyle Lohse, Joel Piniero, and Todd Wellemeyer. That LaRussa has the Cardinals in first place is a testament to his managerial genius (and to Pujols’ utter dominance, of course).

AL Central Manager of the 1st Half: I really want to say Ozzie Guillen, and I think that he’s done a great job, but my vote goes to Jimmy Leyland of Detroit. It’s not just that the Tigers are in first place, it’s that they’ve been able to rebound from last season’s disappointment with a far less potent offensive attack and without the benefit of an above-average bullpen. Leyland has navigated his way through the struggles of Dontrelle Willis and Armando Gallarraga, plus had to deal with Magglio Ordonez’s sharp decline. Leyland essentially has a lineup with only three hitters who have been consistent producers (Miguel Cabrera, Brandon Inge, Curtis Granderson), yet there the Tigers sit, a couple games up and eight games over .500.

2009 has been an excellent rebound season for Detroit, and Leyland deserves credit as the man steering the ship. He also deserves credit for having one of the most hilarious old school baseball cards ever. The hat, the mustache, the sunburned face…I’m not sure if he’s at Spring Training, a train conductor, or working at a carnival.

And with that, let’s transition into a few “alternative” awards for the first half.

NL Central Least Valuable Player of the 1st Half: Milton Bradley wins this one. Signed in the offseason after putting up terrific numbers in Texas, The Angry One has only gotten 203 ABs so far this season and hasn’t done much with them. He’s hitting .236 and, even worse, is slugging only .374. Ouch. Plus, he is being his usual distracting self and getting into public pissing matches with his manager when he’s not forgetting how many outs there are in an inning. Like most things having to do with the Cubs, you just get the feeling that this is not going to end well.

AL Central Least Valuable Player of the 1st Half: Fausto Carmona of the Indians. We touched on his stats above, and they really say it all. This guy has just gone straight downhill since 2007 and the Indians have to be wondering if he’ll ever be able to recapture the ability that made him appear to be one of the bright young pitching stars in the big leagues. Despite a rough 2008, a lot was expected out of Carmona this year. Well, the Indians have gotten a lot out of him…it’s just all been bad.

AL/NL Central Worst Manager of the 1st Half: Hands down Eric Wedge. You need look no further than this site, where our very own AJ Kaufman calls for Wedge’s head in pretty much every article he writes. The Indians were expected to contend for the AL Central crown, yet they are 13.5 games out and 19 games under .500 already.

AL/NL Central Manager with the most potential to give his kids truly awful awesome names: Eric Wedge. If he had any sense of humor he would name his kids Orange, Potato, and Cheese. No such luck though. As it is, he and his wife named their kids Ava and Dalton Cash. Oh well.

Come to think of it though, Dalton Cash Wedge is a pretty sweet and unique name. The kid is either going be a scrappy middle infielder/#2 hitter in the majors or the lead actor in his generation’s version of Dawson’s Creek. Well done Eric. (See, we don’t always criticize you on Midwest Sports Fans.)

AL/NL Central Quote of the 1st Half: This one is easy and goes to (who else?) Ozzie Guillen. And there were a few of them, all of which were gloriously derogatory towards the team from the North Side.

“But one thing about Wrigley Field, I puke every time I go there. That’s just to be honest. And if Cub fans don’t like the way I talk about Wrigley Field, it’s just Wrigley Field. I don’t say anything about the fans or anything now. But Wrigley Field, they got to respect my opinion. That’s the way I feel…I don’t care if they hate me. They don’t feed my kids. If they hate me, that’s cool.”

That’s just a great quote, although the part about Ozzie not talking about Cubs fans may not be entirely true. Ozzie also had this gem:

“…our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans.”

AL/NL Central Home Run Call of the Year: Hawk Harrelson, two days ago. Hell yeah!

That’s all I’ve got. Sorry for not even mentioning your teams Reds, Astros, and Pirates fans…they’ve all been pretty uninteresting so far this year, at least as far as I’m concerned. But feel free to add your own midseason awards in the comments.

The White Sox bring out the brooms again tonight, and then play the Twins in a pivotal pre-All Star Break series. As Hawk might say, I loooove baseball.

* – Jim Leyland baseball card image credit: Vinewood Sports Cards

* – Albert Pujols photo credit: Urban Shocker