Yep. The meteorologist types are calling for 12-20 inches of snow. Not that I am very old but in my 60 years I am not sure I am seen that much snow over about 3 times in my life. Such is life. We plan for snowmageddon. Just live in a rural area like this and watch the people flock to the Dollar General and other places to stock up.

Now for some random acts of thought.

• Do Cardinal fans think Ryan Franklin will be the closer throughout the entire season? I just don’t trust he is the one.
• Is Skip Schumaker the very best we can come up with as a second baseman? I guess with current budget restraints (that’s called waiting on Pujols) I would say probably.
• How many games will we win this year? 91
• Will the Cardinals and the Reds have another brawl? Count on it. In fact we appear to be a bit chippy and I see us also duking it out with the Brewers and the Cubs (thanks to Theriot) with small skirmishes.
• What is Matt Holliday’s favorite kind of sunflower seeds? Bar-B-Que. I have tasted them and yuck from me.
• Will Colby Rasmus steal 20 or more bases? Yes, he finally is given the green light more.
• Does Chris Carpenter go on the DL this year? Absolutely. Maybe twice.
• Will Berkman hit .275 for the season? Yes, He might even get to .285.
• How many third basemen will the Cardinals use? Can’t count that far but guess it is 9 different ones.
• How many games will Jaime Garcia win? Dozen.
• Will any ex-Cardinal player return after the season starts? Of course, I am not saying Aaron Miles. Most likely a pitcher like (gulp) Isringhausen or Marquis.
• Will Pujols re-sign with the Cardinals? We all want to know. Gut reaction is NO.
• =========================================================

63 days til Opening Day!

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Headlines you might see in 2011.

4thebirds….
85% Sports
Aaron Miles’ Fastball
Bird Brained
Bleed Cardinal Red With Me
C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Diamond Diaries
CardinalsGM
El Maquino
Fungoes
Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Goodnight
I70 Baseball
The McBrayer-Baseball Blog
Pitchers Hit Eighth
RetroSimba
Throatwarbler’s Blog
View From The Cheap Seats
Welcome To Baseball Heaven

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Come on now. Let me have it. Let’s say the Cardinals do not sign and can not trade Pujols and he leaves St Louis for another team. What’s the worst thing about no Albert Pujols?

Business wise, doesn’t it make sense to not tie your team up with so much payroll that it actually cripples the team to get good players and allows for the Cardinals to keep their young players when their “payday” comes around?

Another thing. Left field and First Base are two positions that may be the easiest to fill with some quality players. Ok, not the BEST player but some darn good players are in those spots.

With Albert we have come close a few times, one it all once. So you are telling me that as a Cardinal fan, you are ok with watching Albert Pujols drive in runs, hit home runs like the BEST did, just so you can see it in person and the heck with putting a winner on the field year in and year out. I know, we have been close. Close don’t count.

Think about $30M per year. What kind of players could you get if you spread it out with 2-$12M and 1-$6M players at up the middle positions? Those can be impact players in several spots.

If the Cardinals sign Albert Pujols we deal with it when it happens.

I am not convinced that at the end of a $30M- 10 year-contract (last 3-5 yrs) the team isn’t handcuffing itself.

Hit me with your best shot!

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This is the first summer in a long while that I have chosen to not play fantasy league baseball. But I still went ahead and created my Top 14 at each position. With approximately 9 Fridays left until Opening Day, I am going to send these out and let you pick me apart. There is not any real scientific or sabermetric tool I use for this. I guess I  just use the old- fashioned “eyeball” test.

I start with first basemen.

FIRST BASEMEN

1. Albert Pujols- some have #1 and #2 flipped. Not me.

2. Miguel Cabrera

3. Joey Votto-#3,#4,#5 can be interchangeable

4. Ryan Howard

5. Mark Teixeira

6. Prince Fielder- new contract means more or less numbers?

7. Adrian Gonzalez- hitting in a very good line-up

8. Justin Morneau

9. Kevin Youkilis

10. Adam Dunn

11. Kendry Morales

12. Carlos Pena- Wrigley Field will be good for him.

13. Billy Butler- I like him and wanted to move him up.

14 Paul Konerko

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SECOND BASEMEN

1. Chase Utley-def top in his position

2. Robinson Cano- took awhile to get me onboard

3. Brandon Phillips- may be one or two spots too high

4. Ian Kinsler

5. Dan Uggla- offensively he is a monster

6. Dustin Pedroia

7. Rickie Weeks- like his upside

8. Aaron Hill

9. Chone Figgins- may needs to go down

10. Brian Roberts

11. Howie Kendrick

12. Ryan Raburn-watch this guy

13. Kelly Johnson-these last two are hard to find.

14. Gordon Beckham

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First basemen and Second basemen are in the books. Show me the error of my ways.

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Earlier in the week I presented my ideas as to who would be the infielders for Opening Day. My friend, Jerry, has given his opinion that I was probably wrong in keeping Descalso over Greene. Possibly. Greene can likely handled several positions better than Descalso and he is probably the only one that we want at shortstop when spelling Theriot. I might concede that point. Also, I may have kept one more infielder than they will actually bring north for the opener. For me to explain that, let’s look at the outfielders.

This is probably very easy to do.

Holliday- starting in LF

Rasmus- CF’er

Berkman- RF and spots at 1B

Jay- part platoon in RF and CF

Craig- OF and our other infielder. Allen Craig has experience and will be working out at 3B in spring Training,

To recapitulate:

Maybe neither Greene nor Descalso make the Opening Day Roster. Craig is the new all purpose player.

5 infielders

5 outfielders

2 catchers

13 pitchers

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25 players- Roster

NEXT: Tomorrow is Fantasy Friday and I will give you the Top 14 position players at each position. I gave mine to MLBBlogBuzz to use with others. I will start tomorrow with FIRST BASE and SECOND BASE.

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This is of course just for fun and an attempt to look ahead at some of the things that may happen during the 2011 season.

———————————————————————————————————-

Circa March 1, 2011- Cardinals sign Albert Pujols to unprecedented contract

Albert Pujols signs a $400 million lifetime contract. Albert will play as long as he can and then moved to a service agreement…..

Circa June 15, 2011- Cardinals trade 3 players for Stephen Drew

The Cardinals acquired infielder Drew for two major league pitchers and one mid-level minor leaguer…

Circa July 1, 2011- Mark McGwire resigns

McGwire, citing family reasons, has decided to step down as Cardinals batting instructor…

Circa October 1, 2011- Tony LaRussa hangs it up

Manager Tony LaRussa will take a year off according to the skipper after the Birds finish 2^nd again…

Circa November 1, 2011- The St Louis Cardinals hire a manager

Today the Cardinals announce they have signed their replacement for Tony LaRussa…

Enjoy. It is fiction.

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Some assumptions. I know they get you in trouble. But I am used to that.

• Cardinals will carry 13 pitchers out of Spring Training
• They will have 2 catchers on the roster
• There will be 5 infielders selected from the 40 man roster
• Also five outfielders come from that list
• Spring Training brings surprises and injuries and trades.
• I am not right very often (ok, that is not an assumption but a fact)

Let’s look at the infielders that are currently on the 40 man roster.

Ok, I am keeping Pujols at first base. His back-up will likely be Lance Berkman.

I am getting rid of Cox, Kozma and Hamilton and say they need more time in the Minor Leagues.

Now we have six players for four spots. Theriot, Freese and Schumaker are in from previous years. Just sayin’ don’t shoot me over that.

Now it is Descalaso, Greene and Punto vying for the final spot.

Now I am adding here the fact that TLR may take six infielders due to the fact that Schumaker can play an outfield spot.

So we have two spots open. We need a lefthander so that makes it Daniel Descalso or Nick Punto. Punto is a switch hitter so he is in.

Descalso or Greene? Greene or Descalso? Of course Spiring Training is huge for these guys.

I believe, I know it is unbelievable that Tony may accept a youngster, but he goes with Descalso over Greene.

The INFIELD:

Pujols

Schumaker

Theriot

Freese

Punto

Descalso

—————————

That is the way I see it.

Next time is the outfield.

Did I nail it?

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Let’s meander down to the Farm and take a look at the 2010 success for the St Louis Cardinals.

From the Organizational Review column of the Cardinals we find this nugget:

No team had a better winning percentage than the Cardinals’ affiliates, finishing with a collective .549 mark. Every club, with one small exception of the Venezuelan Summer League team, finished over .500. Three teams — Quad Cities, Batavia and Johnson City — at the bottom rungs were .600 or better. Five teams made the postseason and Johnson City won the rookie-level Appalachian League title.

In looking at the Cardinal affiliates we look at the offensive leaders and find some impressive numbers.

Some of the pitchers were incredible.

From the official Cardinal website I am adding a list of affiliates if you would like to check them out further or bookmark them

Memphis Redbirds (PCL)

Springfield Cardinals (TEX)

Palm Beach Cardinals (FSL)

Quad Cities River Bandits (MID)

Batavia Muckdogs (NYP)

Johnson City Cardinals (APP)

GCL Cardinals (GCL)

DSL Cardinals (DSL)

VSL Cardinals (VSL)

=================================

This week we will begin piecing together the final 25-man roster that the Cardinals may break camp with.

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In 2007 this was made of Nick Punto for his lack of hitting prowress.

Nice.

Read this about his time with the Twins.

Yes, that is Nick Punto in the picture.

Let’s hope he is the Poster Child for the 2011 St Louis Cardinals World Champions.

The Cardinals have created a logjam at the Middle Infield positions.

They have created competition for Spring Training. But are the capable of producing numbers? Let’s not forget something here. These are not for starting positions in most cases, it is for the reserve spots. The occasional start. Don’t judge them by thinking of these numbers are starters numbers. I am not going to go through all the other teams reserves and compare them but we should.

When in doubt, punt(o).

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Cardinals sign Nick Punto.

That picture, ladies and gentlemen, represents our infield. Maybe someone we have signed will stick. More on that concept next week. Read us on Monday and we will explore the infield.

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