The "Official" Cardinals Discussion Thread.

[BigRedChief]

Figured that if we had one thread to discuss Cardinals "stuff" it would be easier to find. What do you think? Good idea?

[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by epitome1170

With Jocketty it was always a money game... from my understanding, he has a spending limit for certain positions. Grudz was asking for too much and it would not fit in that slot so Jocketty let him get away. Big mistake IMO

Grudz only got 3 mil per when he signed with the Royals IIRC. Pretty cheap for what he brought to the table.

[BigRedChief]

Cards payroll is going down
By Joe Strauss
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Wednesday, Mar. 18 2009
Taking into account base salaries, disabled players and termination pay, the Cardinals have obligated about $93.2 million to the projected 25-man roster for the April 6 season opener against Pittsburgh.

The number drops from 2008's $101.792 million season-opening figure that committed more than $26 million to five players who made a combined seven appearances.

Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. confirmed "some slippage" in the team's
attendance and sponsorship projections stemming from the nation's financial crisis that exploded shortly after last season.

"If you add all that together, it's a challenging economic environment," DeWitt
said. "It's not unique to the Cardinals. Other clubs are feeling the same
thing. We're tightening our belts."

Including major-league payroll, the Cardinals' baseball operations incurred
more than $150 million in expenses last season against overall revenue
exceeding $200 million.

The club realized an operating profit of $23 million-$25 million, according to sources, before spending more than $17 million to service debt on Busch Stadium.

This year, for the first time in new Busch Stadium's four-season history, the club will not sell 3 million tickets before opening day and is not assured an operating profit beyond its debt service on the stadium. The Cardinals expect some relief by hosting the All-Star Game in July, but ownership still has constructed a "worst-case scenario" in which attendance stalls at around 2.8 million.

With 2.7 million tickets already sold, the club no longer fears such a doomsday
possibility.

"There are a lot of factors," said DeWitt, who oversaw a payroll that topped $110 million at last season's end. "Right now we're projecting (a drop to) 3 million attendance. Also, sponsorship categories like automotive and financial are not as strong as they were before. We're seeing some slippage."

DeWitt believes the Cardinals will rank among baseball's top 10 or 11 payrolls. He allows that the club is "very sensitive" to attendance because of broadcast contracts dwarfed by large-market clubs. The New York Yankees, for example, anticipate industry-leading revenue exceeding $450 million this season.

DeWitt refused to speculate on this season's profit-loss.

"I think it's too early to say that," he said, owing to attendance as a
variable. "I'm not going to confirm the financial statement other than to say we do have substantial debt service on the ballpark. And to the extent we've had excess money the past few years, we've re-invested it in the operation."

REDUCED INCOME?

While the club has realized a 90 percent renewal rate among its season-ticket holders, it is laboring to book all-inclusive and premium-seating areas typically reserved by corporations and civic groups.

DeWitt insists the club remains dedicated "to have a payroll commensurate with revenue. I think you have to have a strong payroll, and we do."

The Cardinals derive no direct revenue from the All-Star week. However, the club credits its anticipated season-ticket renewal rate of 92-93 percent on hosting the event. (Season-ticket holders may purchase one All-Star ticket per seat they control.)

REVENUE AND ROSTER

The move limited the club's financial flexibility, leaving it to trade for
shortstop Khalil Greene ($6.5 million) and sign two discounted lefthanded
relievers, Trever Miller ($500,000 guarantee) and Dennys Reyes (two years, $3 million).

A lack of maneuverability prevented the Cardinals from pursuing marked-down free agent second baseman Orlando Hudson after eating Adam Kennedy's $4 million salary.

The club resisted outside pressure to acquire another starting pitcher,
choosing instead to wait on ace Chris Carpenter's recovery from a nerve
condition that affected his shoulder and unrelated surgery in November to
transpose a nerve near his right elbow.

"We did what we needed to do," general manager John Mozeliak said. "As we sit here today, our lefthanded relief is better. Our starting shortstop is a significant upgrade as an offensive player. A lot was hinging on where 'Carp' would be. We had time to wait. Do I feel we lived up to what we said we would do? Yes. More importantly, the world has changed. I still think we are a better team than where we were last year, even with those changing conditions."

The club aggressively pursued free-agent closer Brian Fuentes in December with a heavily backloaded two-year, $18 million package. Fuentes eventually signed with his first choice, the Los Angeles Angels.

Pursuing Fuentes struck many as contradictory to the team's buttoned-down payroll. However, club sources insist a successful pursuit of Fuentes probably would have necessitated a salary dump involving outfielder Rick Ankiel or Ryan udwick.

DeWitt still is bruised by suggestions the club failed to move at last July's
non-waiver trade deadline for financial reasons. DeWitt and Mozeliak instead insist the club's refusal to part with a package of premium prospects inhibited any deal.

"It was all about the players involved, not about money," DeWitt said.

AT THE CORE

"It depends on how revenues develop," DeWitt said. "I think we showed an ability to be creative with Reyes."

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Signing Hudson would have been a mistake, as he was a type A and would have cost us our 1st round pick.

[BigRedChief]

Projected line up:

Shumaker 2B
Chris Duncan RF
Pujols 1B
Ankiel CF
Ludwick LF
Greene SS
Molina C
Pitchers spot
Mathers 3B

After Glaus somes back:
Shumaker 2B
Ankiel CF
Pujols 1B
Ludwick LF
Glaus 3B
Duncan RF
Molina C
Pitchers spot
Greene SS


If Rasmus makes it:

Shumaker 2B
Ankiel LF
Pujols 1B
Glaus 3B
Ludwick RF
Greene SS
Molina C
Pitchers spot
Rasmus LF

whats your guys opinions of not what it should be but will be the Larussa line up.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Signing Hudson would have been a mistake, as he was a type A and would have cost us our 1st round pick.

Yeah, I don't know who they would have got that would have had value? No reason to pay twice what a player is worth when we got some young guys needing a chance to show what they can do anyway.

We aren't the Yankees, Red Sox or Cubs. As long as we stay in the top 10 MLB payrolls we will be competitive.

We are going to have our best offense in years. We are sacrifing middle infield defense to do that but if Carp comes back having Carp, Wainright and Lohse in a playoff series will allow us to compete with anyone.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Ludwick should hit 4 rather than 5. Ankiel Ks too much.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Yeah, I don't know who they would have got that would have had value? No reason to pay twice what a player is worth when we got some young guys needing a chance to show what they can do anyway.

We aren't the Yankees, Red Sox or Cubs. As long as we stay in the top 10 MLB payrolls we will be competitive.

The biggest key to this season is the OF. Skip is a great utility guy, but we need to hope that Duncan, Rasmus, Ankiel, and Ludwick all play well, as we will be able to flip one of Duncan, Ank, or Ludwick for a longer term solution at second.

I'd say maybe a guy like Dan Uggla, but having him and Greene in the same lineup would not be good for us, IMO, as I'm not a big fan of station to station baseball, nor do I find it as applicable in the NL.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Ludwick should hit 4 rather than 5. Ankiel Ks too much.

I agree but Larussa loves ankiel in that 2nd spot. And Tony loves Glaus in the 4th spot.

[BigRedChief]

Chris Carpenter cruises, first to complete 6 innings

By Derrick Goold
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter extended his Grapefruit League scoreless inning streak to 14 consecutive and became the first Cardinals pitcher to throw a pitch in the sixth inning. More than just flaunting his health in Wednesday’s start against Baltimore, Carpenter showed a relentless ability to ground and grind an opponent’s lineup.
Carpenter worked six scoreless, needing just 64 pitches (38 strikes) to stymie the Baltimore Orioles at Roger Dean Stadium.

The Orioles didn’t get a ball in the air until fifth inning and that was a foul popup to first baseman Albert Pujols. The three hits Carpenter allowed were all on the ground, all just out of the reach of one of his infielders. He was helped along by two double plays, both turned by second baseman Skip Schumaker. But the Orioles had difficult elevating any of his pitches. Fifteen of his 18 outs came on ground balls. Two were strikeouts.
He pitched three perfect innings.

Carpenter completed the sixth inning with help from an exceptional play in the field by shortstop Khalil Greene. On a sharp grounder by Ryan Freel, Greene dashed to his left, dove and snared the ball. He was able to scramble to his feet and throw the Orioles’ leadoff hitter by a stride.
Carpenter has yet to give up a run this spring.

“If he’s healthy he’s as good as anybody,” manager Tony La Russa said this morning. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we missed the postseason the last two years, and he hasn’t pitched much in the past two years. He’s that good.”

The way the pitching schedule currently sets up, Carpenter will start the fourth game vs. Pittsburgh.

[BigRedChief]

First he gets a SI cover story and now some due recoginition in USA Today. Glad to see the best player in baseball getting his due props.

Focus of Cardinals first baseman Pujols: Higher power

By Mel Antonen, USA TODAY
JUPITER, Fla. — Albert Pujols, a two-time National League MVP, is the only baseball player in history to hit 30-plus home runs in each of his first eight seasons. He goes to church, repeatedly mentions his devotion to God and raises money for children with Down syndrome in the USA and mission trips to help the poor in his native Dominican Republic.

He has a good start on a Hall of Fame résumé at a time when baseball's trust with the public has been compromised. Superstars Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez have fallen from grace because of links to banned substances, and the throne of baseball's next great hero is there for the taking.


SPRING PREVIEW: St. Louis Cardinals
Pujols' combination of on-field dominance and humanitarian work would seem to make him a natural candidate. Yet in this time of greater scrutiny of superstars, he says he's concerned only with getting the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series and using his position to empower people who are less fortunate.

"I don't judge. Only God can judge," says Pujols, a first baseman. "I've always had the responsibility to God to be a role model, so it's not just now. I play to represent God, something bigger than baseball. This is not about me. I leave everything up to God."


Pujols, 29, is a legend known as El Hombre in St. Louis, a baseball-crazy city that had its heart broken by Mark McGwire, who hit a record 70 home runs for the Cardinals in 1998 and then, in the spring of 2005, raised suspicions of his own steroid use with his nebulous testimony before a congressional committee.

In eight seasons with the Cardinals, Pujols has hit .334 with 319 home runs and 977 RBI. He's a seven-time All-Star who has won a batting title, a Gold Glove and four Silver Sluggers. This season he will enter the sixth year of a seven-year, $100 million contract.

Last season he won his second NL MVP despite an injured right elbow that caused numbness in his pinkie and ring fingers and required offseason surgery. He hit .357 with 37 home runs and 116 RBI.

In seven seasons he has served two stints on the disabled list (for a 2006 side muscle injury and a 2008 calf injury) and never hit fewer than 32 homers or driven in fewer than 103 runs.

Pujols has never tested positive for steroids nor been ensnared in any report or investigation that felled other players; his name did not appear in the 2007 Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drug use in baseball.

Yet more than two years after the Mitchell Report rocked baseball, Pujols still is steamed that he and his son, A.J., then 6, watched an erroneous report from a St. Louis TV station that claimed he had been named in the report hours before its release.

The episode made him wary of the news media, creating a barrier he has removed this spring, when he has agreed to at least two extensive interviews with national outlets.

"We switched it off because it was a lie," says Pujols, a father of three. "It was a slap in the face. They can ruin a reputation. My son looked at me with his innocent face and said, 'Daddy, why did they say it?' It was tough. It's the dark cloud we're under. But it's not true, and I want to make the game my son loves so much better."

'A 10 in every department'
Pujols, an only child, was raised in the Dominican Republic by various family members, mainly his grandparents, Bienvenido (Papa) and America, after his parents divorced when he was 3. Pujols doesn't like talking about steroids. He knows not everyone will believe him when he says he does not use performance-enhancing drugs and cringes at the thought of hurting his family.

"They would be embarrassed, disappointed, because it would be stupid," he says. "That's not the way I grew up. Papa would give me a whoopin.' I can't make you believe what I stand for. I can only tell you my story."
It begins as a poor boy playing baseball with a lime on the streets of Santo Domingo and memorizing the lineups of the Atlanta Braves in the 1990s.

"They had (Fred) McGriff, Terry Pendleton, Alejandro Pena, (David) Justice and all that pitching," Pujols says. "They were the team to beat."
Pujols' story continues with his move to Kansas City with America and dad when Pujols was 16. It's about having to learn English in high school and going to junior college near Kansas City to play baseball and study engineering.

It's about meeting his future wife, Deidre, in 1998. She brought him to church, the steppingstone for a life-altering experience that framed much of what he believes: He knew baseball was hard work, but he had no idea that God's gift of eternal life was free.

He and Deidre set up the Pujols Family Foundation in 2005.
"As he gets older, he realizes how important that is," Deidre says. "He hungers to utilize his resources to empower others. He believes that if God is going to promise salvation as a free gift, he's going to do what God requires. It is that simple. That's the kind of person he is. That's what makes him special."

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa says Pujols is a tireless worker. "He's a 10 in every department. Albert is competitive and smart. He has a tremendous amount of preparation and a strong religious faith. He doesn't want to dishonor any of those qualities."

Statistically, he has not. His average season after eight years in the big leagues: a .334 average, 42 homers and 128 RBI.

"He is the best hitter in both leagues," Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Manny Ramirez says. "He hits for average. How can you get better than hitting .340 and 40 home runs every year? And don't forget, he's a great first baseman."

'His heart gets more tender'
His childhood in the Dominican shaped his notion of community and sacrifice.

Pujols grew up in several houses, some with dirt floors and no plumbing. He had to haul water — 2 gallons in each hand — to the house so his grandmother could cook and wash.

At one point he lived in a three-bedroom home that housed 12 people, including his dad, grandparents, uncle, aunts and cousins. Pujols' dad was a painter and softball pitcher who was hired to pitch for multiple teams.
"My dad always supported me," Pujols says, even if it meant selling items such as necklaces and fans at the pawn shop to pay for food. "Sometimes we didn't have anything to eat for breakfast, but if we could eat lunch and dinner, we weren't poor."

He maintains family ties, visiting his grandmother, now in Miami, where she cooks him his favorites, including a stew with vegetables, plantains and seven types of meat.

The foundation also allows Pujols to remain connected to home. At the last World Series, he received the Roberto Clemente Award, given by Major League Baseball to a player who exemplifies the Hall of Famer's selfless work. Clemente died in a 1972 plane crash while delivering relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Most award winners are honored after a decade's worth of work, and three of the previous five winners were 40 or older. Pujols won the award even though he started his foundation in 2005. Then 28, he was the second-youngest winner.

Pujols has an 11-year-old daughter, Isabella, with Down syndrome, and his work in the USA is geared toward helping other special-needs children. The foundation has programs such as proms, mother-daughter teas, bowling outings and bicycling camps. The prom is Pujols' favorite event. "He cuts up the rug and dances with every (child)," Deidre says.
The foundation also pays for annual mission trips to take dentists, pediatricians and optometrists to the Dominican Republic, a journey Pujols always makes.

A typical trip transports 19 people at a cost of between $30,000 and $50,000 for a week. After the Cardinals won the 2006 World Series, Pujols skipped the trip to the White House as well as an invitation to play in Michael Jordan's golf tournament in the Bahamas to be with pediatric dentists seeing 815 kids.

That winter Pujols paid $20,000 to buy two portable dental units and another $60,000 to buy a new van for an orphanage, said Homer Sedighi, a pediatric dentist from St. Louis who accompanied Pujols on the trip.
"He loaded 20 suitcases of equipment and supplies in our minivan," Sedighi says. "I wanted to help, but he said, 'You do the doctoring. I don't want anything to happen to your fingers.' "

Pujols' pride in his work is evident. In 2006, the year the Cardinals won the World Series, he finished second in NL MVP voting to the Philadelphia Phillies' Ryan Howard and voiced his concern that a player from a non-playoff club won the award. The tables were turned last season, when Pujols — whose club missed the playoffs — edged Howard.
But there is no tension among the stars, says Howard, a St. Louis native. They live within a few minutes' drive of each other, have trained together in past offseasons and, Howard says, hope to collaborate on charity work in the future.

"I think Albert has a very big heart and he's not afraid to show that," Howard says. "He is a pretty good ambassador for the game."
Deidre says her husband gets emotional when he hauls in a new bed for a needy mother and realizes how much it means to her. "His heart gets more tender. A woman is so happy, she's crying on his shoulder. It completes him."

More, Pujols says, than any acclamation ever could.
"I don't do this because I want to hear, 'There goes a good guy,' " he says. "I want to help people. I want to set an example, be obedient to God. I want to be remembered for what I do away from the field rather than on."

[Chief Henry]

Prince Albert should have 3 national league MVP's. El Hombre's almost too good to be true.

[oldandslow]

Originally Posted by Chief Henry

Prince Albert should have 3 national league MVP's. El Hombre's almost too good to be true.

Yup. Musial, Gibson, Pujols...

Best Cardinals I have seen play in my lifetime.

[BigRedChief]

Bump for the new season