THE WATERCOOLER
(Post-Dispatch columnists and beat writers share their thoughts on a question of the day.)

Question: With general manager Jim Hendry saying Monday that the Cubs will raise payroll again next season, what chances do the Cardinals have to stay competitive in the NL Central given their projected budget?

JOE STRAUSS
Acquiring a legitimate closer and depth for the rotation should give the Cardinals an expectation of 90 wins. That should compete next season within a division including a financially taxed Houston Astros, a Sheets-less and Sabathia-less Milwaukee Brewers and a still rebuilding Cincinnati Reds team. The Cardinals still appear dependent on the Cubs taking a step back. Budget is secondary to personnel decisions. Kyle Lohse last year proved a much better acquisition than, say, Carlos Silva.

RICK HUMMEL
The Cardinals still will be competitive — if they add starting pitching help themselves. Jake Peavy doesn’t help that Cubs’ offense any and, as you saw, any team with decent right-handed pitching (Los Angeles Dodgers, most recently) can carve up the Cubs’ right-handed hitters.

DERRICK GOOLD
The Cubs having a budget that could be $40 million more than the Cardinals gives them more ability to take risks and a larger margin of error, especially with their pitching. They can gamble on injury risks like Rich Harden and Jake Peavy at such high dollars because the gap in payroll gives them that option. The Cardinals don’t have that luxury and have to hinge their ability to contend on Chris Carpenter being healthy, filling in holes with cost-effective options (i.e., Trever Miller) and having more depth in place. The difference in payrolls comes down to this: Kosuke Fukudome. The Cubs have the ability to paper-over their big-money import’s poor performance with another big-money outfielder. The Cardinals have to get big bangs for their bucks to contend. The Cubs can have a few busts from their bucks and still win the division.

BERNIE MIKLASZ
The spending isn’t the only issue, but clearly the Cubs have a tactical advantage over the Cardinals because of their aggressive expansion of payroll. That said, money isn’t everything. The Cubs have wasted plenty of it by signing the likes of Kosuke Fukudome. But the Cubs have gained the upper hand in this rivalry by putting so much emphasis on starting pitching. The rotation carries the North Siders and the edge will be even more pronounced if Jake Peavy lands at Wrigley. The Cardinals haven’t kept up in the arms race.

JEFF GORDON
This is an interesting scenario. The Cubs will have new ownership soon. So the current regime wants to win in 2009. Why worry about the future? The next owner may want his own guys. The Cardinals are taking a longer view. Bill DeWitt is stressing player development and John Mozeliak is managing his assets for the long haul. These two aren’t going anywhere. But that doesn’t mean the Cards can’t compete in ’09. Thanks to the influx of Chris Perez, Kyle McClellan, Colby Rasmus, Jason Motte, etc, Mozeliak will be able to assemble a playoff contender for $100 million or less. And thanks to the wild-card rule, the Cards don’t have to fret the Cubs winning 110 games with the Best Team Money Can Buy.

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MIDDAY NEWS AND THOUGHTS

HAVE BATS, WILL TRADE: Joe Strauss reported in this morning’s paper that the Cardinals are poised to deal from a surplus of left-handed hitters created by Rick Ankiel, Skip Schumaker, Chris Duncan and top prospect Colby Rasmus. Is there any question which one of those guys Cardinal fans would most like to see go? But you have to know if all the fans see it, other teams see it, also. If John Mozeliak can pull off a trade involving a quality pitcher for Chris Duncan, I say the Cardinals just go ahead and make him GM for life. No, if the team deals, I think it has to involve one of the other outfielders if you want quality in return. More on this situation in our winter meetings blog.

CRY ME A RIVER: Former Cubbie Ron Santo, who was bypassed for election to the Hall of Fame yesterday, says the voting process needs to be changed. “It’s a travesty,” Santo told the Chicago Sun-Times. “When I saw nobody got in again, I go, ‘Whoa, this is wrong.’ They can’t keep going the way they’re going. They’ve got to put a [different] committee out there.”

That’s it, Mr. Santo. Let’s get a different committee. Obviously all 64 living members of the Hall of Fame who make up the Veterans Committee do not understand what it takes to make the Hall. Santo says he’s not just speaking up for himself but for other players also. However, one has to wonder if Santo would be saying anything at all if he were already in the exclusive club. Santo was a nine-time All-Star, won five Gold Gloves and finished his career with 342 home runs and a .277 lifetime batting average. Is that enough to get you in the Hall of Fame? The Veterans Committee says no. End of story.

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A FEW THINGS TO PONDER

IT’S ALL GOOD: Yesterday in this forum I lamented the fact that I wasn’t going to get to see T.J. Oshie play alongside the other Baby Blues at the Scotty last night. While I didn’t get to see Oshie, I did see history in the making. Three things you’ll never again see happen in the same night at a Blues game: 1) The Blues score 6 goals; 2) B.J. Crombeen corrals a hat trick; and, 3) Alex Steen is on the ice and actually does something (goal and assist.) I know, I know, why do I have to say something negative the day after the Blues finally climb above .500? Perhaps it’s because I expected Steen to have a Brad Boyes-like transformation once he arrived in St. Louis and, up until last night, he seemed to be a total non-factor since coming over in the Lee Stempniak trade. But let me put a positive spin on it and say: Here’s hoping last night was the beginning of a good run for Steen.

(By the way, Blues fans, Jeremy Rutherford is feeling a bit threatened by the deluge of traffic the new Round Two blog is getting. So in the holiday spirit, I implore you to visit his Morning Skate blog to get him more “hits” than Round Two.)

STICKING IT TO THE LITTLE GUY: The NFL announced today that it is cutting more than 10 percent of its headquarters staff in response to the downturn in the nation’s economy. That’s about 150 jobs lost. I’m thinking if you took the salaries of guys like Pacman Jones and Plaxico Burress and gave it to the league, not only could you save those 150 jobs, but you could probably go on a hiring binge. Perhaps I’m just edgy because of all the jobs being lost at A-B and around the country in general, but the huge salaries paid to some guys who don’t care about all of “us” who actually pay their salaries just peeves me. I thought you were supposed to become more conservative as you got older, and here I am talking like Karl Marx. But I’m just sayin’ …

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STAT OF THE DAY

3.18 – Assuming the Cubs land Jake Peavy, that would be the combined 2008 ERA of the team’s rotation. That’s a lower team ERA than any individual ERA on the Cardinals’ staff not named Carpenter … who threw only 15.1 innings last season. By pursuing Peavy, the Cubs are clearly climbing the ladder to the top of the tree, bypassing all the low-hanging fruit.