Last year was a trying time, both on and off the field, for the 2006 world champion St. Louis Cardinals, facing up to the death of Josh Hancock, the opening-day injury to Chris Carpenter, a baseball facial given to Juan Encarnacion, and, to top it all off, a 78-84 record, their first losing record since the 1999 season.
And this year already has the markings of another tough go with the revelation that All-Star first baseman Albert Pujols’ right arm is being held together by Scotch tape. Yes, since 2003. Stats haven’t been hurt, you say? Sure, but that doesn’t mean that Redbird fans shouldn’t be concerned. How much should they be concerned about other things?
OFFENSE: C
Provided the arm holds up, Pujols will be Pujols. Last year was an off-season for him, and he still put up awesome numbers (.332, 32 homers, 103 RBI). Add him to two new revelations in the outfield in the persons of left fielder Chris Duncan and center fielder Rick Ankiel, both of whom had breakout years last year and should only improve upon them this year. And the addition of Troy Glaus at third base should be a boon as well, but there are a ton of questions as well, like will second baseman Adam Kennedy return to his Angel-ic form? And how much can Skip Schumacher contribute over a full season in right field this year? Who’s going to lead off now that David Eckstein is gone? And, well, what about everyone else in the lineup, especially in case of the yearly freak injury that seems to happen in St. Louis?
PROJECTED LINEUP: 1 Schumacher RF 2 Kennedy 2B 3 Pujols 1B 4 Glaus 3B 5 Duncan LF 6 Ankiel CF 7 Molina C 8 Izturis SS 9 Pitcher’s spot
STARTING PITCHING: D
Adam Wainwright made the hard transition from closer to starter look somewhat easy last year, even without a stellar record (14-12), his ERA (3.70) would seem to point to a lack of run support for him. Braden Looper apparently got more (12-12, 4.94 ERA) and needed it, but not as much as Anthony Reyes (2-14, 6.04). Matt Clement missed all of last year recovering from shoulder surgery, Joel Pineiro has been dealing with shoulder woes all through spring training, Mark Mulder may not be back until May if all goes perfect, the issues seem to have no end. To try and bolster this glaring weakness, the Cardinals recently signed Kyle Lohse, but he could be a Band-Aid on a broken leg.
PROJECTED ROTATION: Wainwright, Looper, Pineiro (?), Clement (?), Reyes/Lohse
BULLPEN: C
Now, providing that the starting pitching holds out for the first six innings or so, the bullpen looks to be pretty solid. Jason Isringhausen had a great year (32 saves in 34 opportunities, and 281 career), and Ryan Franklin did a good job getting to game to him in the setup role. Russ Springer put up eight wins out of the bullpen along with a 2.18 ERA in 66 innings. The other pieces of the bullpen (Randy Flores, Todd Wellemeyer, Tyler Johnson, et al) are solid enough to make for a very dependable unit as long as they don’t have to overextend themselves.
CONCLUSION:
Manager Tony LaRussa doesn’t have too many losing seasons on his resume alongside those two World Series titles, and this year, more than likely, will not be another one. But, as they are not as good as the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers, just slightly better than the Cincinnati Reds and quite a bit better than the Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates, there’s only one place that these Birds fit in, right in the middle, both in record and standings.
PREDICTION: 81-81, third in National League Central
