With no Albert Pujols or Dave Duncan, first year manager Mike Matheny led the Cardinals to their second consecutive wild card.
After going deep in to the playoffs for the second consecutive year as wild card contender (the first yielding a World Series championship) the Cardinals are being appropriately quiet in this offseason. Going in to 2012, St. Louis needed to fill the deep void left by homegrown hero Albert Pujols and long time manager, the mad mad mad mad mad mad mad mad Tony LaRussa. Those roles were covered with surprising grace by Carlos Beltran and Mike Matheny respectively, justifying the relative inactivity on behalf of the St. Louis front office. Lack of flash aside, the Cards did make some moves and roster tweaks that look to make them as pesky as ever in the NL Central.
One notable quality addition is Randy Choate, a journey man left handed relief arm that has been absolutely lights out at points in his career. The signing makes some sense in light of Mark Rzepczynski's relative lack of consistency, but signing any 37 year old to a three year deal, no matter how cheap, carries significant implied risk with it. That being said, the Cardinals seem aware of what their window for success is and are adapting as intelligently as everyone has come to expect them to. Even if Choate sucks or breaks down, the St. Louis pen still has plenty of capable arms to float them through a season.
You can almost hear the fans at Busch Stadium chanting "CHOATE! CHOATE! CHOATE!"
The Cardinals have one of those problems everyone wants, a glut of young talent. Rafael Furcal is the front runner for starting shortstop with Kozma having proven himself a more than competent backup and Kolten Wong waiting in the wings. The end result is the creation of a certain expendability in players like Skip Schumaker who as a versatile player who would be desirable in many lineups becomes more valuable as a trade chip, which is exactly what he became. Having a roster loaded with youngish talent like that helps you keep your window jammed open that much longer.
One major thing the Cardinals are going to have to cope with is the loss of free agent pitcher Kyle Lohse, who after putting a up Cy Young level performance in 2012 is not likely to re-sign with St. Louis. The aging rotation is probably the biggest risk facing St. Louis, but even if Lohse was re-signed there would be a good chance he wouldn't repeat that kind of year. I don't expect the Cardinals to win the division with Cincinnati's absolutely staggering lineup looming over the division, but the addition of a second wildcard in each division does make St. Louis a likely contender for the next several seasons to come.
Ivan Rodriguez has stated an interest in playing again this season. The former MVP has proven more than durable, carving out a major league spot behind the plate that has spanned more than two decades. Pudge can't hit like he used to, and he is coming off an injury riddled season, but he could prove relevant to a team who wants a decent bat off the bench, or just one looking for some veteran influence.
The Cardinals have extended Yadier Molina to a 5 year $75MM dollar contract. Extending catchers is always risky as it is an oft-injured position but talent like Yadier's is rare and the 3x All Star is still pretty young, and seemingly only getting better. Assuming he hits anywhere close to the way he has been for two or three of these contract seasons, maintains his glove and stays healthy, this contract will look like a bargain. Hopefully the front office told him to stop reinforcing Brandon Phillips' claims that the St. Louis Cardinals are all "little bitches" so he can refrain from flipping out and throwing punches or spitting all over the place every time he gets upset about something.
Mike Napoli was acquired for next to nothing from the Blue Jays (who incidentally acquired him only a few days before for VERNON WELLS. Still blown away by that one.) and flourished in his first year in Texas. In the latter half of the season he hit almost .400, and while that is a complete anomaly, it proves his bat is legit. He announced earlier this week that he wants to test free agency. My guess is that he plays his ass off and earns a four a five year extension with Texas that will see him in a DH role by the end of his contract.
Long time Red Sox Captain Jason Varitek and veteran backstop Bengie Molina announced their retirements earlier this week. I'm just writing this in to say congrats to the two of them on two long lasting careers. I'd be shocked if Varitek didn't stay in Boston and get some sort of front office/managerial position at some point.
Clearly, I tried to find the most adorable name for contract discussion, and frankly it saddens me that there isn't a key for a backwards "R". Anyways what I'm going to do with this is just offer brief opinions about recent signings.
Edwin Jackson
Jackson last year with the Cardinals
If everyone in the MLB retired today and wrote an autobiography about there careers, I'd want to read Edwin Jackson's before everyone else. In Jackson's nine year career he has pitched for seven different teams. His career stats look like those of a back of the rotation pitcher (4.46 ERA, 60-60 win loss) but has steadily improved, last year posting a 3.79 ERA and a 12-9 win-loss. He was the author of the ugliest no hitter I've seen in my life, throwing 149 pitches and walking eight batters. He was also one of the main players in St. Louis' Hail Mary series of trades that got them in to the playoffs and eventually won him a World Series ring. And now, for one year, he's a Washington National.
So what's with the Bobby Bonds treatment? Edwin Jackson is a deceptively good pitcher. Every fourth or fifth outing it seems like he gives up 15 runs in two and a third innings, but he wins more than most four pitchers. I'm not saying he deserves Cliff Lee money but if Suppan can get 4 Yrs 42 Mil then I think Jackson deserves to at least get to know his neighbors. If I had to guess, the Nationals trade Jackson to the Rangers on July 15th.
Edwin Jackson's No Hitter
Ryan Rowland-Smith
I don't know much about this dude. He's an Australian and I saw him get smoked in an interleague game that brought Seattle to Miller Park. I also know that his dad is a "celebrity trainer".
That being said, apparently he's also part of Theo Epstein's mystery plan that is going to put rings on the fingers of the Chicago Cubs some day. I'm skeptical about the whole Epstein revolution and it doesn't help my skepticism that he is bringing a guy around who neither the Mariners or the Astros felt was up to standard. I guess we'll see.
Gerardo Concepción
I don't know very much about Concepción other than the fact that he's a young Cuban pitcher with a pretty decent amount of promise. What I do know that there is an incredible amount of mystique around all of the foreign free agents who have come to light this offseason. Darvish and Cespedes being obvious examples, but even some Milwaukeeans have already adopted Aoki as an adequate substitution for Braun assuming a suspension takes place. None of this has to do with Concepción necessarily, but it wouldn't do Cubs fans much good to look at this guy as some definite ace. For the record I've heard most scouts put his ceiling at a high four, low three pitcher. Still, a very young and promising looking prospect is never a bad acquisition. Concepción looks a lot more like a sneaky Epstein move for potential championships down the road.
Casey Kotchman
This signing actually made me a little jealous. Being of the mindset that defense wins as many games as home runs do I had no idea why no one in Milwaukee thought would be a good platoon partner for Gamel in games when one or two runs might make the difference. Alas, Kotchman is now an Indian. I think it's an awesome, relatively cheap signing for the Tribe who only have former Brewers prospect and current bust Matt LaPorta manning first. Travis Hafner is also capable of maybe playing first but my guess is that he is too busy watching sick 1999 clips of the WWE because according to Wikipedia he's a "huge fan of Stone Cold Steve Austin".
To be honest I don't have much to say about this signing and what it means for Cleveland, but I will use it as a pedestal to talk about how horse shit awards are. Golden Gloves being the obvious example in this case. Here's an interesting Kotchman fact: he holds the major league record with 2,379 chances without an error at first base. Gold Gloves? Zero. Here are some first basemen with Gold Gloves in the AL-Mark Teixeira, Mark Teixeira, Adrian Gonzales, Mark Teixeira, and Mark Teixeira. I'm not trying to take anything away from the dude, but if he weren't a Yankee and a slugger, Mark Teixeira would not have four gold gloves. The same could be said for Jeter's five.
Awards are meaningless anyways but if I didn't appear crotchety on here I wouldn't be doing my job.
