Thursday, January 25, 2007

Can the Redbirds of St. Louis Repeat? - St. Louis Cardinals 2007 Season Preview

The friendly city of St. Louis was awash in red after the underdog Cardinals surprised the nation & won the World Series. The Cards beat the heavily favored Mets in dramatic fashion to win the National League Championship Series and in the World Series, beat a Detroit Tiger team that was on an amazing wave of momentum. Skipper Tony LaRussa won his third World Series, while Albert Pujols won his first. The Redbirds may have limped their way only 83 wins to finish during the 2006 regular season, but they came through then it mattered.

Although Redbird Nation had an exhilarating end to 2006, the winter for the Cardinals has been relatively full of fanfare. Even though the Cardinals have not signed a marquee free agent, the team took the initiative to extend ace Chris Carpenter’s contract, as well as resigned Jim Edmonds and Scott Speizio, who was nothing short of clutch in the playoffs. Meanwhile, pitchers Jeff Suppan and Jason Marquis left the team for greener pastures and join rivals within the division.

However, fans should feel confident that the National League Central is fairly weak this season, with exception of perhaps the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cardinals have a good as chance to win the division. The Cardinals have won consistently in the past decade, and there’s no reason to doubt the team can’t do it in 2007. The Cardinals do not look as strong on paper as they have in past seasons, but there’s no doubt that they will be contenders in the Nationals League.

Right now, the Cardinal pitching rotation remains unresolved. The only pitchers penciled in the starting rotation are ace Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder, who resigned with the team and is coming off an injury riddled 2006, and Anthony Reyes, a young pitcher who showed amazing composure during the playoffs. Carpenter, of course is the man in the starting rotation as he’ll be expected to win and put up solid numbers as usual. Mark Mulder will be counted on returning back to pre-injury form; Anthony Reyes will need take his success from the playoff run in 2006 and translate into to big things in 2007.

The team went to the bargain bin to shore up starting pitching and hope the gamble pays off. The Cardinals signed veteran Kip Wells, who has had an up and down career with the Pittsburgh Pirates & former Mariner Ryan Franklin who struggled in 2006.

The bullpen in 2006 was amazingly reliable and will be counted on to do the same in ’07. Adam Wainwright broke through last season after injuries to Jason Isringhausen. His deadly curveball buckled Carlos Beltran in the NLCS and he pitched well in the World Series. He’ll be counted on to close this upcoming season and put out the fires that will be waiting for him. The bullpen is deep with Braden Looper as the setup man, Ricardo Rincon, Randy Flores, Brad Thompson, Josh Kinney and recently signed Russ Springer.

The offense, although aging, still has a lot of firepower and will be productive. The team of course, has the deadly first baseman Albert Pujols batting the middle & we know he’ll do a lot of damage and put up some amazing numbers. Third baseman Scott Rolen also carries a big stick, and although he struggled with some ailments at times in 2006, especially a sore shoulder, he’ll be a key to the offense and should keep in line with his career numbers since.

At the top of the order will most likely be shortstop David Eckstein, who despite his size & stature, has a lot of intangibles and always manages to contribute in most every way. Based on his track record, he should continue to produce and be integral to the team. New Cardinal Adam Kennedy will be playing second base and he’ll be expected to continue his success that he had at the plate in Anaheim with St. Louis.

The outfield will be manned by longtime veteran Jim Edmonds, young Chris Duncan and Edwin Encarnicion. Possible contributors include longtime veteran Preston Wilson & So Taguchi.

Jim Edmonds is probably past his prime, but he’s a human highlight film in the outfield and can still rake at times, though his average and power numbers have gone down steadily the past few seasons. He’ll be expected to be still the traffic officer out there and fans should expect a SportsCenter moment or two.

The wild card in the outfield will be Chris Duncan. At times, he looked a little lost in the outfield, as he’s a former first baseman and learning the nuances of a new position; however, he has a potent bat, and should be expected to improve on his 22 home runs, plus have a monster year with more playing time. Edwin Encarnicion should be in right field everyday, but super bench guy So Taguchi should be expected to garner a lot of playing time, along with Preston Wilson who is serviceable & has power, but strikes out too much and lacks plate discipline.

Yadier Molina will be the everyday catcher, and hopefully can bring some of his World Series success into the regular season. Former Expo and National Gary Bennett will be the backup catcher.

Outfielder John Rodriguez and Larry Bigbie along with infielder Aaron Miles will come on the bench. They will be counted upon as part of a platoon or in pinch hit situations.

In the end, although the Cardinals lost a few key players that helped in their run to the World Series, Redbird fans should still count on the team to do well and contend in 2007. Although it is unknown if the Cardinals can duplicate their World Series run from 2006 in the upcoming season, but Tony LaRussa, Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter and company should keep Busch Stadium rocking. Even though the Cardinals didn’t make a huge splash this winter, expect the team to continue to win and possibly take the NL Central again.

6 comments:

SAMO said...

I think the Cards have to be the favorites to go back to the World Series from the NL. I think Adam Wainwright is the real deal and will have a great year.

Unknown said...

The NL is very weak, and there no clear cut favorites.

St. Louis has a very good chance to win the division and go far in the playoffs.

The Mets have fallen a notch since they have not gotten the starting pitching they sorely needed and the NL West and Central right now are pick 'ems with exception of a few teams.

Anonymous said...

cris carpenter is a different Cards' pitcher from back in the day...

you're thinking about Chris Carpenter.

I think the Cards will be good again this year as worthy defenders of the championship.

Unknown said...

thanks, fixed...

Anonymous said...

I think it's cool that you take the time to do this. Do you do one for every team? Overall it's a nice summary of the 2007 Cardinals, but here's a few notes of interest.

Edwin Encarnacion is on the Reds, the Cardinals have Juan. Even though Edwin plays 3B, I probably wouldn't lose any sleep if the Cards actually had him and put him in RF in place of Juan. OK, I'm kidding...sort of.

Scott Speizio should see lots of time at the corner outfield and infield spots. Probably (and hopefully) moreso the outfield than the infield, meaning Pujols and Rolen are healthy and don't miss many games.

Larry Bigbie is gone, after proving to be a bust.

Preston Wilson is a free agent that has yet to be signed by anyone, although the possibility of him returning to the Cards is real. Your description of him, however, is dead on. If they do sign him I'm about 50-50 for him actually starting (in LF) in place of Encarnacion, with Duncan moving to RF. The only problem with that is Juan would be an expensive backup and would probably have to be traded. OK, so that really wouldn't be a problem after all.

I expect Rolen & Edmonds to top their numbers from 2006. Rolen did well but his surgically repaired shoulder seemed to tire near the end of the season. He should be stronger this year, not tiring during the season and bringing up his overall numbers.

Edmonds had the same shoulder cleanup surgery he had before his big 2004 season, only on the other shoulder. He also had surgery on the toe that was giving him trouble in 06, thankfully giving up on the attempts to cure it without surgery. While it's questionable he can repeat his 2004 success, he should put up better numbers than he did in 05 & 06.

Although it is still possible that Wainright will be the closer this season, it looks like management is gearing him up to start. I am glad for this because I'm really excited to see what he can do over 150-200 innings.

Isringhausen is supposedly going to be ready for the start of the season after having hip surgery. It is widely believed that his hip problems were the main cause of his poor performance in 06 instead of just having a bad year. If this is true, then he should return to his old self, leaving Wainright free to go into the starting rotation.

Spring training may bring changes from what they're thinking right now, but they are expecting Wells to be one of the starters. The rotation, therefore, should look like this: 1) Carpenter, 2) Reyes, 3) Wainright, 4) Wells, 5) Mulder (when he returns around the All-Star break), but for now a competition between the following: Franklin, Narveson, Thompson, Looper, Hawksworth, Cate & maybe a few others.

Realistically, I think Thompson & Looper should stay in the bullpen.

Hawksworth is probably a year or so away.

Cate faltered as a starter, was turned into a reliever and did well, then did well as a starter again late in 2006. So who knows about him?

Franklin would be a decent option for 5th starter and Narveson, a lefty, seems like he may be ready for the bigs. I'd like to see the early season #5 spot go to one of those two over the other choices.

The bullpen seems to be strong and very deep. Not many of the choices, if any, can be sent to the minors if they don't make the team. So the possibility of a trade during Spring Training is very real. Josh Kinney is my favorite to have the best season from the Cards bullpen.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this. I'll keep an eye on your site.

Cardinals Fan in California

Unknown said...

Yes, I am trying to do one for every team and I'm trying to improve the process. Some of the the entries I need to do a lot of research, and a portion of them can be done off memory. I had to do quite a bit of reading on the Cards, aside from basic knowledge of the team. Doing these reviews has been a challenge and a great exercise.

Thanks very much for the input. I'll fix the mixup with the Encaricions. I thought Bigbie was on the team, but I didn't know he was released.

My impression of Wilson was based on what I saw of him in DC as a member of the Nationals, where was not that great at all.

Wow. Thank you for your detailed post. I figure that I'll need to amend a few things before April, but what you have said has given me a new perspective on the team.

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