The Climate for Edgar Renteria
TOWER GROVE — Back in 1997, a young shortstop named Edgar Renteria was still a few days away from a defining moment in his career — that title-winning single to center field in the 11th inning of the World Series’ Game 7 — when he took a seat at a press conference. Renteria and the upstart Florida Marlins were the surprise winners of the National League pennant, the wild-card team made good, and they came in to Cleveland for Game 3 tied 1-1 in the series.
Naturally, the first question Renteria fielded was about the … cold.
Q. Edgar, what are your experiences in cold weather, what do you think of playing in very cold weather?
EDGAR RENTERIA: Yes, I spent three years playing in cold weather in the Minor Leagues and I love playing in cold weather, I love the cold.
Q. Why do you like playing in cold weather?
EDGAR RENTERIA: I don’t know, I just enjoy it. I like it a lot.
Maybe the transcription is wrong, because that answer has certainly changed. Renteria doesn’t “like it a lot.” Renteria likes it hot.
Or, at least warm.
SS Edgar Renteria: Cozy as a Cardinal?
As the Hot Stove season simmers, Renteria was among the players to officially file for free agency Monday, a few days after the Detroit Tigers notified him they would not pick up his option for 2009. The St. Louis Cardinals are in need of a shortstop and are intrigued by the idea of reuniting with Renteria, who was an All-Star and Gold Glove shortstop for the Cardinals through 2004. Renteria, who is 33, is coming off an uninspiring season with the Tigers, where he hit .270 (second lowest in his career), slugged .382 (his lowest since 2001) and played erratically enough in the field for some to wonder if his career his tilting toward third base.
There are some worrisome indicators for Renteria’s career curve.
But there is also a compelling trend in his statistics.
He appears allergic to the American League.
Of his 1,860 major-league games, Renteria has played 291 of them for an American League team — over a grand total of two seasons. Two disappointing seasons. Back in 2005, he committed 30 errors and hit .276 with 100 strikeouts for Boston, who wooed him away from the Cardinals in the Shortstop Carousel of ‘05. Traded back to an AL team last winter, he struggled again. His splits illustrate this NL leaning:
CAREER: 7,140 AB … 1,090 R … 127 HR … 817 RBI … 241 E … .290 BA … .405 SLG
IN AL: 1,126 AB … 169 R … 18 HR … 124 RBI … 46 E … .274 BA … .384 SLG
IN NL: 6,014 AB … 921 R … 109 HR … 692 RBI … 195 E … .310 BA … .410 SLG
The numbers are striking, especially in the batting average. But it was while digging through these numbers that something struck me — the georgaphy of Renteria’s career. Consider the two American League teams Renteria has played for would be considered cold-weather clubs, their summer regular season bookended by a chilly start in April and a chilly finish in September. Two of the three National League teams that Renteria has played for are warm-climate clubs, Florida to start his career and Atlanta, where he regained the performance Boston froze out of him.
It may not be the league. It’s location.
Location. Location. Location.
I don’t mean to go all Chuck Todd on you here with a bunch of numbers and the trends they tell, but this morning I decided to dig into the cold-weather concept here as a possible explanation of Renteria’s struggles in the AL. I went through Renteria’s career stadium by stadium and in 10 current ballparks that play in the north (Camden, Fenway, Yankee …), he’s done fine: .297 average and a .426 slugging percentage. Three retired cold-weather ballparks — County, Three Rivers and Veterans — were not as friendly with a .240 average and .326 slugging. But that’s cherry-picking stats to prove a point. In seven warm-weather ballparks (the Chase and Turner fields and Dolphin Stadiums of baseball), he’s a .287 hitter with a .387 slugging.
On a trusty yellow legal pad (my own dry-erase board), I tracked a whole bunch of these numbers looking for a warm-weather trend (Florida! Florida! Florida!). Checking into his former home ballparks is somewhat more helpful than just grouping ballparks by geography:
Dolphin … 229 games … .286/.355/.377
Busch II … 469 games … .289/.347/.411
Fenway … 88 games … .282/.341/.393
Turner … 170 games … .304/.363/.423
Comerica … 77 games … .331/.373/.451
Those numbers could illustrate the evolution of a career as much as the performance in a specific place. The stats at Detroit’s Comerica Park are especially intriguing as they show the improvement he made offensively through this past season.
But the ballpark research is faulty because it doesn’t do it by temp. It’s a rough and sketchy sampling.
August is August is August, whether the ballpark is Fenway or the Big A or Safeco.
And we do know that Renteria really digs August.
One of the real leaders of the Cardinals’ core that led the club to such success earlier this decade, Renteria told reporters when he came to Atlanta that he dislikes hitting in the cold and that the weather might have been a reason why he was so chilly toward Boston. He’s hinted at other times about not liking to play in the colder months, especially early in April.
Renteria is a mid-summer hitter, and that was especially the case when playing for an American League team. He hit .342 last August and is a .298 hitter in his career in summer’s hottest month. His lowest months by batting average are April and September, with .282 and .275 respectively. His slugging percentage is lowest in September with a .384. Consider his month-by-month averages from his career and from Detroit in 2008 and Boston in 2005:
APRIL … Bos .228 … Det .314 … Career .282
MAY … Bos .354 … Det .235 … Career .288
JUNE … Bos .231 … Det .256 … Career .286
JULY … Bos .274 … Det … .220 … Career .309
AUG … Bos .342 … Det .294 … Career .298
SEPT … Bos .229 … Det .305 … Career .275
Cold Snap: Renteria bats in Detroit
There are many ways to read these numbers and there is a significant margin for error either way. Could be Renteria tires. Could be the way the schedule broke for the Tigers in 2008. Could be. Could be. The sore thumb sticking out there in this argument is Renteria’s .314 average and .448 slugging percentage in April 2008, while with Detroit. Wasn’t April chilly at Comerica? Explain that.
Easy.
Again, turn to the trusty yellow legal pad. In the last week of April, the Tigers played at Toronto — an indoor ballpark, the kind not factored into the above discussion of ballpark — and in pleasant, mid-60-degree to 70-degree weather against Texas and the LA Angels. In those 10 games, Renteria hit .368 and slugged .578. Of the 34 hits Renteria had in the first month of last season, 14 came in that 10-game span. In the “cold” games, Renteria hit .278 and slugged .361.
Detroit played 15 games last April in temperatures that were below 60 degrees, and only three of their outdoor games were warmer than 70 degrees.
The shortstops available to the Cardinals via free agency include incumbent glove Cesar Izturis; Rafael Furcal, a possible lineup-changer with his speed and ability to hit leadoff; Orlando Cabrera, a steady contributor and slick glove who was also part of the ‘05 Carousel; and Renteria, who brings the comfort of familiarity. But is his game also familiar? Is there a feeling that Renteria would thrive in a return to the National League, like he did back in 2006 with Atlanta? Will Renteria warm with the weather …
The Cardinals, like Detroit, played 15 games at temps below 60 this past April.
But they also had 14 games warmer than 60 degrees.
***
Off to vote …
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
I would much rather have furcal, even though he is fragile. Has way better speed than renteria, better arm, just as good defensively and when he’s healthy has very good offensive production.
I would rather swing the deal for Khalil Greene. It shouldn’t take much in the way of prospects since SD is dying to shed payroll. He offers pop. Good numbers outside of Petco and a far superior glove to Renteria. He might not hit for much average but then again neither did Izturis. His pop would make him a far more productive hitter than Izturis is. Also, maybe a change of scenery and hitting coaches will help him. Also, he will be in a contract year.
DG, in your post yesterday you mentioned that the Indians could be a potential trade partner for the Cards. I’ve heard Peralta put out there as a player on the trading block, and he has put up impressive numbers his whole career. Not a lot of speed, but he is a lock for 20 HRs and 70+ RBIs every season. On defense though he has struggled, just by looking at his total errors for 2008: 14 errors for 2008…but 25 homers a year is a lot of homeruns from a SS.
Are the Indians interested in shopping him? Bryan Anderson would most certainly be a good starting point for trade talks, Cleveland catcher Victor martinez had a terrible 2008 season.
Lopez can play, and I don’t question that. But will he give 100% for 162 games a year? He has good role models here in St. Louis, with guys that play hard like AP and Yadi. Maybe guys like that will have a positive affect toward Lopez. I’d like to see Lopez back for 2009 to remain to play second, and then try and possibly see if the Indians would trade Peralta. Then maybe you could bring Grenne up at midseason, that way we could see what we have in Greene. He didn’t have a ton of ABs this year at Memphis, and with his injury issues in the past I don’t have a since for what sort of player Greene can develop into….
Furcal: Too expensive. May get more money than he’s worth cause of the offseason hype.
Greene: Too Low OBP
Isturis: Good, if he doesn’t want too much of a raise/ doesn’t mind platooning.
Eckstein: No.
Renteria: Read Below,
If the Cards can get a good deal on him, I say go for it!! He had a bad year in Detroit, but the guy can still hit and play decent defense. He’s lost a step, but I think his decline’s been overblown.
Also, if he’s willing to play 1st Base for an injured Pujols, that would be a plus. Also if he’s willing to play a little 3rd Base. (ala Garciaparra)
I have always liked Renteria. This is not going backwards at all. I would much rather have Renteria/ Ryan or Renteria/Isturis combo, instead of sinking 10 million a year on Furcal. Put that money in Pitching!!!!
Go Cards.
Izturis at 2nd and renteria at ss, would finally be a good middle infield
You are all stating the Cardinals claim to fame……..why do we want Renteria back? WE HAD HIM!! Why didn’t they buck up and pay the man and we could have held him through a little more of his ‘prime’. Why did we let the guy walk? Probably because he was offered a contract paying more and we didn’t want to pay. Some time, some way, the cardinals MUST realize that they are going to have to pay to get/keep players…young upside players. Instead….let the guy walk. Wait til he gets older and cheaper, and take a flyer on the guy. Geez, when will it end?!?
Is it not enough that St. Louis has become the place where old has-been pitchers come to die? Now we’re going to become the position player graveyard?
Not to insult anyone, but are you all joking?
Edgar was and All-Star one year ago (07), top 5 in gold glove voting, and in the top 5 in batting! Last season he underperformed, but was still not far behind Perahlta or K. Greene.
K. Greene, whom I’m a big fan of has had at least an injury per-season over his career, and although he may be slightly better on D, the projected offense would be a wash.
Signing him back at 5-7 million for a few years brings veteran stability and dependability. How many times has the guy ever been on the DL? Look it up.
The only player “better” available is Furcal, but with his injury record and presumed contract demands I’m really not that interested. I’d hat for the Cards to invest the suspected 5 years 50 million in a guy who only plays a combine three years. You could make a case for Cabrera being better at this stage, but his free swinging will hurt us in the long run. He’s also coming off a good season and into a fairly lucrative contract.
Renteria is the most logical option right now. Continue the youth movement, and sign Edgar for 2-3 years until a younger guy is ready.
For the people saying Renteria is “washed up”: what are your reasons for that thinking?
Some of you guys sound like the bitter ex-boyfriend who’s gf left them for a cooler guy, and you can’t handle it.
That was an interesting read….thanks DG.