6 months without Glaus (assuming he doesn’t come back) is a much greater loss than 2 months of Aramis Ramirez (estimated DL time).

The Cubs success has more to do with their $140 million payroll than their farm system.

The “depth” from the eighth best system sure hasn’t helped the major league club very much lately.

I’m not seeing how all this supposed offense is going to make up for the extremely poor pitching we’ve been receiving of late. Even if Ankiel, Ludwick, and Glaus come back and perform, we still need better pitching. And that all begins and ends with Mr. Carpenter staying healthy.

I agree with Tim. This poll should have been a no-brainer!

Chris Duncan is coming back to Earth. I could see this coming.He gets off to a good start hits a few HR’s and you have these people saying “see i told you Duncan could play in the major leagues”. He has been stuck on 3 HR’s for a month now it seems. I am bashing him because he deserves to be bashed. He needs to produce or sit!!
Great point about the Cubs payroll Jerry!

Milwaukee’s reaping the benefits of drafting in the top 10 and paying them. It is a completely different situation that what we are doing in STL. We are trying to fuse veterans and rookies into a contending lineup and rotation/bullpen. Milwaukee had the “luxury” of letting these kids grow up on 60-80 win teams, outside of Braun. Even so, he was part of an 83 win team, not exactly spectacular.

Prince Fielder, 7th OVERALL pick, 2002
Rickie Weeks, 2nd OVERALL pick, 2003
Ryan Braun, 5th OVERALL pick, 2005

Sure, they have scored some wonderful late round picks in the past. Gallardo, Parra, Gamel and Hardy. But every team gets some gems in the 4th-12th rounds. That is more a testament to the work ethic of those players than it is the philosophy of the organization.

We are hoping to build this team around a mid-first round pick (Wallace) and a supplemental pick (Rasmus). Imagine if we had three top 7 picks to work with down in the minors, in addition to a plethora of top 15 picks.

The youth movement would be a lot more fruitful if we sucked for 15 years straight. If you want to give the Brewers love, give them love for not blowing all of those picks like Pittsburgh. Otherwise, lets talk about Tampa Bay, Arizona, Atlanta, Oakland, Baltimore, Texas, SF, etc. in the same breath as Milwaukee.

What do people on here think about the possibility of the Cardinals pursuing Peavy? The pitching staff needs more help than just Carpenter IMO.

Bob,

Some excellent points there. You could also throw in Matt LaPorta, who is the prospect that landed CC Sabathia. Many of the cornerstone players for the Brewers are top-10 picks. But don’t ignore the organizations deft ability to scout/draft/develop said players. Milwaukee is quite good at identifying, scouting and then developing hitters of the Weeks, Fielder, Braun, Gamel, Hardy, LaPorta … So on, so on.

That’s not a coincidence.

dg
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What is up with Glaus? Any idea when/if he’ll be back?

Seems to me that 10-15 years ago Cards had a good farm system. Anyone remember?

I voted other.I think Carpenter’s injury will have the greatest impact on the NL central. It has the greatest impact simply because of his contract and how hamstrung the cards will be for a couple more years while paying this oft injured man.

DG,

I’m right there with you. I live in Milwaukee and am peppered with talk about how great the system is. I agree, they can develop a bat with the best of them. Drafting potential is one thing, fulfilling it another.

There are holes however. They have serious pitching deficiencies in the upper levels of their farm.

My point is merely that Milwaukee and STL are hard comparisons. I’d love to get where they are with youth, but it would mean a lot of 65 win seasons to get there. That’s not worth it to me.

Milwaukee needs to be compared with Tampa, Pittsburgh, KC, etc. I find myself asking why we can’t be more like the Angels, Red Sox, Marlins and Braves…perrenial contenders that still find a way to draft great prospects. I think we’ll get there, but it’s a big work in progress.

Please dont tell me how Dick Ankiel is gonna help…lets see another strike out guy who the other team knows in any clutch situation they can strike him out immediatly. yes its great when he connects those 25 times a year in blowout games where the pitcher hangs the crap out of a pitch. Um oh yeah some of you writers shoved lil dunc down our throats ,,,boy has he come on in the limelight huh,,,,the cards are wasting another year of playing with the best player in the game ,,,,the owners of this franchise do not deserve albert pujols,,,only help they have is if carp can actually take the ball ever 5 days and ludwick can return to lastyears form. if im a gm told that i need to pick true impact mlb players off this cqards roster id say ,,,,albert, yadi, ludfwick,, waino, carp, franklin, glaus, maybe schu but other than them their all dave duncan turnips that he can sometimes get blood out of or minor leaguers we use till league figures them out. I think the best baseball town in america (according to JACK BUCK) DESERVES BETTER ,,,,oh yeah ownership did i hear that we may sell 3 million again this year ,,,,so you coukld have added another major leager and dumped a project ……..i could go on but wont ….and please pease all writers other than the commish please dont tell me how good larussa is…i wish hed ask whitey why you dont warm pitchers up and not bring them in or pitch power arms two and three days in a row ???

DG,

Great point on LaPorta too, I missed him. I am anxious to see if we are going to truly commit to drafting great players and getting them to STL. If we want everyday bats and arms to come through the minors, we need to draft the best available players and get them signed, as we did with Wallace. I realize there is more to it than that. But I would rather see this money spent on the farm rather than blowing millions of dollars on the likes of Ron Villone, Kip Wells, Juan Encarnacion, Aaron Miles, etc. There is no good reason you can’t fill those holes with a farm system if you are drafting for potential AND depth. These were fringe signings or potential signings…a below avg lefty specialist, a 5th starter, an average OF with some pop and a utility player. That was 2007-2008. In 2009…Ring (I realize he was a pickup, but he is on the farm nonetheless), Boggs, Mather and Tyler Greene. We’ve come a long way.

‘08 v. ‘09 numbers are revealing. Rasmus, who’s swing is truly sweet, may have nevertheless been rushed up a bit this year. Ankiel, who’s defense is Edmonds-like, is also still learning at the plate. Both are good enough athletically to improve as the season progresses. And both have to if we have any hope of playing in the post-season. As far as Peavy is concerned, his contract with the Friars runs through 2012 with an option year in 2013. You’d figure the Padres would ask for a quite a bit and the kitchen sink. That’s not to say a deal couldn’t be worked out. But given Mozeliak’s apparent reluctance to take the training wheels off and play GM (Chris Antonetti, we hardly knew ye.), it’s unlikely. Interestingly, Peavy was a 15th-round pick in 1999.

You cannot rely on as many rookies as the Cardinals have so far this season and expect to make the postseason.

You cannot bank on players coming back from injury and being at all-star caliber and expect to make the postseason.

You cannot keep pulling players from the bottom of the barrel and hope to reform them while paying them next to nothing and expect to make the postseason.

The Cards do not have the depth to play this short on players and be in contention come July. The bats aren’t there, the pitching isn’t there, the bullpen isn’t there. There are alot of articles saying don’t panic, but that is exactly what we should do. Mozeliak needs to do something and his passive “I’ll wait and see what falls into my lap before I do something” approach to GM isn’t going to cut it. We need three everyday starters in the OF and have a good bench OF. We need a starting infield that plays at the same position every day and a good utility infielder. We need 5 starting pitchers who have proven that they can go late into games and eat up innings for a whole season. We need a bullpen who doesn’t give up leads and keeps us in ballgames when they come in from behind. We absolutely need a lights out closer.

The Cardinals have approached the central division for the last few years as contented to play for the wild card. I do not accept this approach. I need to see a team and an ownership who is committed to winning and putting a quality product on the field.

Personally, I don’t feel like we’ve lost much at 3rd. Barden and Thurston are dong just fine. We are a different team when Waino and Carp are right and that day is soon. One more arm and some healthy outfielders…..we’re golden. Oh…Also, keep K.Greene away from the lineup.

The impact that a player makes coming up from the farm system means just as much as drafting good players. The Cardinals have brought more youngsters up in the past few seasons, but their growing pains have clashed too much with Tony LaRussa’s managing style. You can chalk part of it up to LaRussa using the platoon advantage to play the hot hands and rest others over a 162 game season, but it’s like the point already made about the young players Milwaukee brought up: the Brewers brought up core players playing everyday regardless and the Cardinals have them in a platoon system where struggling bats sit on the bench instead of working through their slumps.

I may not be remembering correctly, but didn’t the Cardinals pass on a high priced prospect in the draft a few years ago because they did not want to pay him what he was worth?? Who is to say if the Cardinals had top 10 drafts the next three years they would not trade down or draft someone they could pay less… so called “low hanging fruit?”

The Cardinals have the greatest player in modern history and is surrounded by minor leaguers. Its just a crying shame.

Let’s face it: no playoffs this year, and probably not next year either. I would trade Pujols out of the division (and probably the NL) to whatever team has the deepest farm system and is willing to part with 2 or so young major leaguers on the cusp of being stars and 2-3 top prospects, with preferably at least one top bat and two or so good young pitchers.

“Playing for”……You have temporarily lost your mind. There is no way to get rid of Albert and sleep at night. The guy is the best……ever. All we need is another quality arm to start and another for the pen.

RASMUS etal Got the superstar attitude.Almost runs out a ground ball,almost
hits the cut off man,almost backs up bases. Been told I’m going to be great since was in diapers.Ain’t seen nothin better than SHU who ain’t got the attitude.Stop watching the ball and run what do we need base coaches for other than tell how many outs there are?RUN DON’T WATCH