Hot At The Core
Joe Strauss Of The Post-Dispatch
August 6, 2002
Shortstop Edgar Renteria is enjoying the best season of his career after assurances that he's a vital part of the Cardinals.
Edgar Renteria turns 27 on Wednesday. Any celebration will pale against this season's professional coming-of-age.
The Cardinals' veteran shortstop enters the season's final eight weeks as the National League's leading offensive player at his position while positioning himself for a first-ever Gold Glove. It is a time he couldn't have seen for himself little more than a year ago. "I'm playing the way I think I should play," Renteria said recently. "I'm having fun playing the game and helping the team win. I'm playing my game."
Like most of his teammates, Renteria is coming off a tough trip and enters tonight's series opener against the Montreal Expos in a two-for-16 funk covering the past five games. However, the mini-slump follows one of the most productive stretches of Renteria's career. He batted .404 in July and constructed an eight-game hitting streak that saw him go 16 for 33 with three home runs, eight RBIs and 28 total bases. He generated five three-hit games and one four-hit breakout in July.
Ascending from a troubled 2001 season that tested him with trade speculation, lapses in concentration and questions about his fitness, Renteria enters the home stand with a .307 batting average. He is hitting for the same average at home and on the road and is batting .379 since the All-Star break.
"I have no problem saying he's the best shortstop in the league," says manager Tony La Russa, who wouldn't have made such a claim last season.
General manager Walt Jocketty theorizes Renteria's misgivings began with an erroneous report early last season that maintained the Cardinals were seeking offers for their shortstop. Though Jocketty insists the report was untrue, rival general managers bit hard on the rumor. Many called to voice interest in Renteria.
Renteria was listening. No matter how often the Cardinals insisted he was going nowhere, Renteria couldn't shake the suspicion that he was trade bait.
"It's harder to concentrate when you think you might be traded," Renteria said. "I kept hearing I was going somewhere else. But I wanted to stay in St. Louis. I like the city and this team."
Jocketty tried to calm his player with little success. Later, La Russa, who speaks fluent Spanish, engaged Renteria in a more extensive conversation. The manager assured Renteria he was considered part of the team's core. Renteria tried to believe, but he never took both eyes off the calendar.
When the waiver deadline passed last July 31, Renteria smacked four hits and began a tear that saw him hit .321 in August and .303 in September.
Because Renteria's accent is heavy, his humor and intelligence are often unappreciated by visitors. Hitting coach Mitchell Page considers him one of the team's most perceptive students, a talent capable of making adjustments from pitch to pitch rather than game to game or week to week.
"Edgar doesn't miss much," Page said. "He's not going to struggle for long because he's so good at adjusting. He hits good pitchers. He hits anywhere you put him in the lineup. You can't ask for anything more."
Smitten by home runs last season, Renteria has become a more controlled hitter this year. His value increases significantly in pressure situations; he is batting .365 with runners in scoring position and .318 in late-inning pressure situations. "Edgar could hit 20 home runs, but he would hit only .240 or .250," says Page. "When he takes the approach he has now, he'll still drive the ball and drive in runs, but he can hit .300. Which is the better hitter?"
Said Renteria, "I'm more experienced now. That helps me feel more comfortable at those times (with runners in scoring position). I try to stay patient because I know I'm probably going to get something to hit."
Renteria made his debut with the Florida Marlins as a 20-year-old in 1996, hitting .309 in more than 100 games. The next year he won Game 1 of the World Series over the Cleveland Indians with a two-out single in the ninth inning. He underscored his clutch nature in Game 7 by driving in Craig Counsell in the 11th inning to win the Series and establish himself as a national hero in his native Colombia.
Two weeks shy of his 27th birthday, Renteria collected his 1,000th career hit July 26 on a bunt single against the Cubs.
The hit was symbolic as well. The single briefly gave Renteria more bunt hits (five) than home runs (four). "I'm trying to use the whole field and if the defense gives me a bunt, I'll take it," he says. "I'm not thinking about hitting home runs, just hitting the ball hard."
Two nights later against the Cubs, Renteria appeared with two runners on, one out and his team trailing the Cubs by two runs. He punished closer Antonio Alfonseca's pitch 412 feet for the first game-winning home run of his career to cap the Cardinals' unlikely comeback from deficits of 6-0 and 9-4.
Last Tuesday, Renteria homered in consecutive at-bats for the third multiple-home run game of his career in the Cardinals' 5-0 win over the Florida Marlins. The Redbirds haven't won since.
For as much as Renteria has experienced, he may have just enjoyed his best month ever.
"It was a great month for me," he said. "I'm feeling very comfortable. I'm swinging the bat well. The team is winning. I'd like things to stay just like they are now."
Renteria knows how success can be fleeting, which enables him to appreciate the fat times. Renteria witnessed the Marlins' world championship team being gutted before the 1998 season. One of the few survivors, Renteria was eventually dealt to the Cardinals in December 1998 after an All-Star season. Signed through next season with club options for 2004 and 2005, he is part of what La Russa describes as the team's core.
"He is a core player," La Russa insists.
The acquisition of third baseman Scott Rolen offered La Russa the opportunity to juggle his batting order, possibly moving Renteria to the No. 2 spot he occupied in much of April. La Russa resisted, citing the shortstop's comfort level in run-producing situations.
Renteria already has exceeded last season's 19 doubles and enjoys a slugging percentage almost 100 points higher than a year ago. He is also averaging less than one strikeout per 10 at-bats, dramatic improvement over both his career (one per 6.6 at-bats) and 2001 (one per 6.8) ratios. Among Cardinals, only cleanup hitter and center fielder Jim Edmonds and left fielder Albert Pujols carry better combined on-base and slugging percentages than Renteria, who leads his league's shortstops in batting and is second in RBIs.
"I'm enjoying this season. I want to enjoy the next two months as well. This is a very good team and I want to contribute to what we're doing," he says. "I want to look ahead, not behind."
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