I'd be surprised if Jay is still around as a starter in 2015.

BA makes it known that their 'projected starters' lineups are based only on the guys on the roster and what they're doing right now. It's mostly an academic exercise.

Jay, of all the people presently on the roster, probably is most likely to be the starting CFer in 2015. Granted, we'll have probably imported a replacement (for reasons I don't understand; Jay's capable of being an asset as a starting CFer), but unless you're comfortable projecting McElroy or Tillson, guys that haven't played past short-season rookie ball yet, as starting CFers in 3 years, you kinda have to go with Jay by default.

I don't even expect Molina to be here in 2015, but given the options in the system, he's the guy that BA is going to put in there.

As for his prospect list, I'd put Jenkins, Wong, Adams and Swagerty all ahead of Cox. I'd probably put Rosenthal ahead of him as well. I have Cox as a fringe top-10 prospect at best and actually think Matt Carpenter is a better bet to produce at the big-league level. Lynn and Sanchez have to come off the list as 'graduates', though I don't think Sanchez is nearly as hot a prospect as they do because I don't see any way he stays healthy with that delivery.

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/the-...e/post?id=3352
5. St. Louis Cardinals trade RHP Shelby Miller, OF Jon Jay and 3B Zack Cox to the Baltimore Orioles for CF Adam Jones

New Orioles GM Dan Duquette has made it clear to rebuild the Orioles he needs to start with the rotation. Miller gives the Orioles a potential front-of-the-rotation starter to go with Zach Britton, top pitching prospect Dylan Bundy and Brian Matusz (should he recover from his disastrous 2011 season). Jay can take over for Jones in center field, and Cox could become their long-term solution at third base, eventually playing next to shortstop Manny Machado, the Orioles' best position-player prospect.

The Cardinals get the pure center fielder they’ve been looking for in Jones and continue to help offset the loss of Pujols. Their starting rotation depth is good, and the farm system is loaded with arms, so giving up Miller, though painful, is the price to pay for player of Jones’ caliber. He will be a free agent following the 2013 season, so it's possible the Cards wouldn't have to part with so much quantity for his services; however, they would need to give up Miller, one of the game's top pitching prospects, and the key to this trade

That would be, absolutely, without question, the dumbest thing I've ever seen a general manager do.

In fact, I will immediately discount anything I ever see, hear or read from the author of that article because of it.

Christ that would be stupid. Just staggeringly stupid. "Hey, the Cardinals have a bunch of arms - how 'bout they give up the best one of them for less than he's worth AND include a couple of decent players with him for a guy they will have plenty of payroll space to just sign in 2013!" Oh yeah, and the reason they'll have that payroll space? Because Chris Carpenter and Carlos Beltran, 2 guys that are going to account for $22 million in payroll in 2012, will be off the books and replaced with Shelby Miller and Jon Jay in 2013.

What an absolute jackass.

EDIT:

Oh wait - it's Jim Bowden. No !@#$ing wonder it's stupid. I take it all back - I never gave any credit to anything he ever wrote or said anyway.

There's a reason that moron is out of baseball.

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me either. You're sending the Orioles the replacement for the player they lost, your best pitching prospect and 3rd base prospect for a non-star player who has averaged 108 k's in the last 4 years.

I'm not convinced that Jones is a more valuable offensive player than Jay at all. He has a little more power - that's it. He generates a hell of a lot more outs and his OPS+ after being park/league adjusted was exactly the same as Jay's last season.

He has a higher ceiling, but even Jay still has some room for growth.

Jay and Cox for Jones would be close to fair. Otherwise all you're doing is buying into the hype on a player that's spent 4 years showing 'potential' and only 1 year where he was truly a good player. Even then, he was by no means a great one.

If you trade Shelby Miller, you trade him for Hanley Ramirez (and I think the Marlins would do that in a heartbeat). You don't trade him and Zack Cox for a marginal upgrade over Jon Jay.

So how bad is the Cardinals season going to be not that it's "Offical"ly 2012?

Mocking somebody else's typo FAIL

Meh.

If it was suppose to be official I would have spell checked.

Allen Craig is going to put up a .870+ OPS this season.

Don't you mean supposed?

Craig is going to be out first part of the season. His OPS last year was .917.

Yeah, supposed. :D

As in "The Cubs were supposed to win a World Series at some point in the past century, but it just didn't work out."

I was going to buy a DVD called Chicago Cubs: A Century Without Success

One of these days the Cubs roster who wins the WS is going to sign that DVD for me.