Baseball College

If you haven’t seen this 4 minute video on YouTube, I suggest you check it out immediately and laugh until you hurt.

Jason Schmidt is a Dodger - let’s just accept that and move on to someone else, shall we?

Barry Bonds damn sure better not become a Cardinal, and not because of the whole cloud that follows him wherever he goes.  I’m a firm believer of pitching being the part of the game that wins the most championships, and if we spend our money on more offense, our pitching will suffer, a lot.  I understand that we didn’t exactly have the greatest staff this year and we won the World Series, but we have to remember that we backed our way into the playoffs by playing the season at five games over 500.  Unfortunately, the regular season is a journey, not a race, and with other teams in the Central spending money, we can’t expect to win a division by playing 5 games over 500.  Let’s go get some pitching.

It sounds like we’re making a strong push for Miguel Batista, and I’m fine with that.  I’d also really like to see Dotel in a Cardinal uni as well.  It looks like a trade for pitching may be more of a possibility with each passing day.  Matthew Leach seems to think so, anyway.

I’m still celebrating the World Series Championship, but I’d really like to repeat in 2007, and we still have quite a bit of work to do.  I think Walt’s done a fantastic job so far, and I think he’ll continue to do so.

According to Matthew Leach and ESPN, Chris Carpenter has just been signed to an extension through 2011.

The breakdown will look something like this:

2007 - 7M

2008 - 9M (option)

2009 -2011 -  49M.

Essentially, this is just a 3 year extension worth 49 M to him.  Either way, I think this is a steal, because with contracts going bonkers like they are now, ya gotta figure that Glendon Rusch will be able to get 12-14M per year by 2009.

Say Hello to your newest members of the Cardinals…. and Gary Bennett again.

Sounds like we paid 4M for Wells, a one year deal.

A 3y/10M deal for Kennedy.

Bennett is making 900K for one year.

Marrero is making an undisclosed amount as of now - my guess is that it will be comparable to Bennett’s contract.

A few signings that needed to be made, but nothing that will propel this team to new heights.  We’ve still got some money to play with, so I’m sure there’s a couple more deals in the wings.  For now, good start!

First off, the MVP race.  Ryan Howard won the 2006 MVP award, but a lot of people, including myself, think it should have gone to one Albert Pujols.  However, it didn’t, and we must move on - I’m sure Albert already has.  He’s the one that’s always saying in interviews, “I just tryeeng to hell my teen win a chanpionsheep.”  He did that this year, and I think that he could give two craps about the 2006 MVP.  I think if Albert hadn’t missed that chunk of the season this year he would’ve won the MVP without much of a debate, but kudos to Howard for staying healthy and helping his team get closer to the playoffs than they may have without him.  Albert’s consistent excellence makes him more valuable to his team year in and year out than any other player in the bigs right now, and I don’t need him to win an award to solidify my opinion on that.

Anyway, moving on to the Soriano signing.  7 years, 136 million, 18 million a year.  In my opinion, the Cubs should focus their attention first and foremost to pitching.  We saw what happens when a pitching staff has a stellar ERA in the playoffs - they win the World Series.  The Cardinals’ offense was nothing to write home about, but they still went 11-5 in the posteseason because of their pitching.  Soriano is a great bat, and the Cubs are going to have a nasty offense next year, but as of right now, they’re going to have to score a TON of runs to win a majority of their games.  Let’s be honest though, any pitcher the Cubs bring in that isn’t a freak of nature will be hurt by midseason anyway; that’s just the way it works.

We Cardinal fans can worry about the Cubs all we want, and most of the time before the season starts, we do, but recently we’re almost always on top in the end.   The Cubs are making a serious push to be contenders again, and for that I give them credit, but unless they get some pitching help, they’ll be completely useless by September in 2007 as well.

Brandon Webb took home the hardware today being named the NL’s Cy Young.  He was followed in second place by Trevor Hoffman.

Carpenter finished in third place, receiving only two first place votes.

I expected this outcome, and feel pretty indifferent about it.  I personally don’t enjoy seeing a closer finish ahead of Carpenter in the race, but Hoffman had a very good season.

Congratulations to Brandon Webb.

I’m still floating on cloud three billion after #10.

Let’s take a look at the possible bullpen of 2007, shall we?

We all know that Tony likes to carry 12 pitchers on his squad, so that means we have seven spots to fill in the bullpen. I would assume that our long reliever spot(s) will not involve a whole lot of money spent, so my guess is that Thompson and/or Hancock will be in the mix once again in 2007.

As for middle relief, I don’t believe that anyone will offer Randy Flores ridiculous money, and we have Looper locked up, so, hello middle relievers. To be honest with you, I wouldn’t mind seeing Looper in a different uniform next year, because for the money we are paying him to do a mediocre job, we could find a quality 2B or a couple of utility guys. If on the off chance this happens, I guess we have a small hole in our bullpen - would we take another gamble and try further to reinvent the enigma that is Jorge Sosa?

Our setup men, Kinney and Johnson, both look like locks to come back next year.

Our closer is still up in the air.

If Wainwright moves to the rotation, it is because Izzy is healthy. Fine.

If Wainwright remains the closer it means one of two things:

1. Izzy is not healthy - if this is the case, we have to assume that he will eventually come back during the season. If he does, the question becomes, who closes? I think Wainwright’s success in the role will go a long way in determining the answer to that question. However, I don’t know how keen I am of paying our setup guy 8 million bucks. If we were to move Wainwright to make room for Izzy, where would he go? He could go to the rotation if someone is struggling, but it’s hard to make the transition from closer to starter mid-season. He could go to the setup role, but that seems like a waste of his talent. I guess we just better hope that Izzy is healthy at the start of the season.

2. It is easier to find a starting pitcher on the FA market than it is a legit bullpen pitcher. If this is the case, I’m fine with Wainwright in the bullpen for another year, but then the issue of wasting his talent comes up again if he’s in the setup role instead of the closer’s role.

This position in the bullpen appears to me to be the only real question mark, and I think that there are much worse problems that could occur with a team’s bullpen.

This bullpen looks to be the least of our current concerns right now. If someone said that to me in September, I would’ve punched them in the face in hopes it would knock some sense into them. OK, maybe I wouldn’t have gone that far, but I would’ve definitely laughed sarcastically.

Next time, we’ll address the offense and what we can expect to see for the 2007 version of the Cardinals. We may also throw in what we’d like to see.

<< What a shirt - if you can't read it, it says Smooch Your Pooch, hence the lips.

Anyway, now that the parade has finished, I feel it's time to start looking towards next year and our quest to repeat. The first question that I pose to whoever is reading this thing is this: Who do you think will be in our 5 man starting rotation in April?

Here's a couple things to think about when you're making your picks...

1. Where will you find Adam Wainwright? Are we going to put him in the rotation, or will he remain our closer until (and possibly even after) Izzy gets healthy. Maybe Izzy will be healthy in April, who knows.

2. How much of a pay raise did Jeff Suppan and Jeff Weaver earn with their performances in the postseason, and will we be able to afford both of them?

3. Who is on the FA market that we would be interested in?

All that being said, my rotation goes a little something like this:

1. Carpenter

2. Weaver

3. Mulder

4. Reyes

5. Wainwright

I think that we will re-sign Mulder and Weaver, mainly because it really sounds like both of them want to be here (A home town discount perhaps?) I have Weaver in the #2 slot because I think his stuff is coming around, and at this point, I believe it is better than any of the other 3.

I think Suppan may have priced himself out of our range with his performance in the postseason.  I wish him all the best with whoever he pitches for next year, and I do hope it's us.  Realistically, I don't think it will happen.

I think Izzy may be healthy come April, and that will give Wainwright a chance to be in the rotation. I have him in the five slot because I think he will be far less effective initially in a starter's role than he was as a setup/closer.

Well, whaddya think? I went with the conservative approach in my picks, but it's an approach that I hope comes to fruition, because I would love to see this rotation next year.

Can you believe it? I sure can’t.

Let me give you a rundown of the way my day went. I was unable to post a game 5 preview because I had to take a section of the CPA exam. Needless to say, in the hours before the test, I was very nervous. Once the test was over, I had a work party for my girlfriend that I was required to attend, which also makes me a little nervous because I know I’m going to be uncomfortable for about 95% of the party. As soon as that was over, it was time to get nervous for game 5. All in all, one of the most nervous days of my life, but one of the most rewarding as well.

I am now 24 years old and was born on game 1 of the 1982 World Series, a game which the Cardinals lost 10-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers. I really thought that was a bad omen for me and Cardinal fans in general, and for 24 years, it was. This World Series win is something that blows my mind and puts me on cloud nine at the same time.

I’ve been waiting for this day to come my whole life, and it is here when I least expected it. It comes when a team that wins 83 games in the regular season comes to life at the right time. It comes when a team that loses their closer (blessing in disguise) has to turn to a lanky rookie to close out games. It comes in a year when “the experts are idiots” according to a sign hung at Busch Stadium last night. Nobody picked the Cardinals to win, and I think that’s what makes this so sweet. ESPN.com had their playoff predictions, and one out of 18 “experts” picked the Cardinals to win in the first round.

I have a lot of respect for what the Tigers have done in the last few years, and I have all the respect in the world for Jim Leyland. That being said, I almost feel bad about all the errors they committed in the World Series. It was getting downright unbelievable towards the end, and I just hope that the reflections on this World Series give credit to the Cardinals for playing well, not getting lucky on account of the Tigers’ misfortune.

2006 is in the books in the baseball world, and what a way to end it. Our 10th World Championship after a 24 year wait - how sweet it is!

In the words of you know who, “Go Crazy Folks!” Go crazy.