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.

More Keith Law...

Wow, has Keith Law of ESPN given me a world of content to critique on in this slow period of the baseball universe. I was going to give myself a break for the afternoon, but I felt the need to once again write.

Once again, he criticizes the O’s, this time with Cal Ripken, Jr. and his Hall of Fame credentials. While he’s not voting at all, as he’s not a part of the BBWA, he gives his take on who should be in the Hall of Fame class of 2007.

Here’s what he says:

“I do agree with the criticism of Ripken's streak -- he probably hurt his team at a few points by his refusal to take a day off -- but he's also one of the five best shortstops in history and changed the way people in baseball think about who can stay at shortstop. (Let's hope that Ripken prominently thanks Earl Weaver in his acceptance speech, as it was Weaver who put Ripken at short, contradicting the conventional thinking that shortstops needed to be small and slight.)”

Again, I agree with Law’s logic, but disagree with his implication that Ripken hurt the team. We all know Ripken is renowned for the Streak, but for me what made it amazing is that whether he was struggling or on a tear, he played and tried to contribute, whether he got the big hit or struck out. Yes, he had some MVP worthy seasons, and some he struggled to hit .250, but what made him great in my eyes was that he went to work everyday and never seemed to dog it out. He was the consummate professional and played the game with pride.

The parable of working at any job and lessons from Ripken’s career should be spread to kids, whether they are a superstar or riding the pine.

Whatever you think, going to work everyday for 16 years plus without taking a day off is hard, and that’s what makes Ripken great.

Let’s forget Ripken, this is where Keith Law is dead wrong.

He’s dead wrong when it comes to Tony Gwynn.

This is what he says:

“Also a player who's a bit overrated by conventional thinking, but clearly worthy of enshrinement. Younger fans may not realize what a quick, athletic player Gwynn was when he came up, before he started to pack on the pounds."

Mr. Law, I don’t care if Tony Gwynn has a body of a greek god or had a gut. Yes, he looked more like an everyman than a perfect human specimen, but you don’t have a lifetime batting average of .338 without having skill or being an expert at the game. Sorry, if you have a lifetime average of .338, and are in the top of 10 of that category, you are surely not overrated.

It sort of sounds like Gwynn got slighted by law because of his appearance, and that’s stupid on his part. An athlete is one who has a discernable skill and from what I remember Gwynn was a hell of a player, and not because of his physique.

He also mentions that he’d include McGwire, Bert Byleven, Alan Trammell and Ron Santo on his list for those to be inducted.

Before I go, I’ll list what he has about McGwire.

"One great reason to vote for him: If he gets in, then all of the insufferable sanctimony on the part of voters who want to tell you they didn't vote for him on moral grounds (sorry, doesn't make you a good person, and probably just makes you pompous) will stop, since the next likely target (probably Sammy Sosa) won't be eligible for a few years. Until someone shows me that McGwire broke a rule that existed at the time and had any kind of defined punishment, I see no reason to apply the ex post facto logic more commonly seen from third-world dictators."

Plain and simple, he’s right. Baseball became rich and rebounded off him, so unless the St. Louis Cardinals & baseball want to refund the fans for a tainted product, whether proven or not, I’d say vote him in; however, the court of public opinion has spoken about McGwire and the issue and no one can beat that sentiment, whether he’s in the Hall of Fame or not.

St. Louis Cardinals and Cleveland Indians - Civil Rights Game, March 31st, 2007; Memphis, Tenn.

Link: http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061204&content_id=147222&vkey=news_t235&fext=.jsp&sid=t235

I think this is very cool and very nice of the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals and Memphs Redbirds to do. Obviously, baseball was very integral in not only sports history, but as well the Civil Rights movement thanks to Jackie Robinson and the contributions of many others.

As you may or may not know, Memphis was where Martin Luther King Jr. sadly lost his life at the Lorraine Motel in 1968.

If it was not for Jackie Robinson, and last, but not least the contribution and life of Martin Luther King, needless to say, a lot of things would be different today.

Tickets go onsale Indians.com, stlouiscardinals.com and memphisredbirds.com on Dec 5th and mlb.com on Dec 6th.