St. Louis Cardinal fans are seemingly obsessed over former players.  Brendan Ryan, Rick Ankiel and Lance Berkman have all been on fans’ minds throughout the season.

Tyler Greene?  Not so much.

The middle infielder, who many believe cracked under the pressure that Tony LaRussa placed on him while they were both in uniform for the Cardinals, found himself on the outside looking in after a weak spring training with the Houston Astros.  He was released from his contract prior to opening day and he drifted off into oblivion.  Or Chicago.  Same thing in most people’s minds.

Tyler Greene is a Chicago White Sox infielder.  That news was a surprise to me as I read a recent article over at the St. Louis Sports Page about former Cardinals and how they are performing.  I had not heard anyone talking about him.  No fans rumbling about his arrival in the big leagues when Gordon Beckham went down hurt.  No sudden jubilation when he signed a contract with the pale hose on April 1st.

Surprisingly, not even a blurb on the internet when Greene went yard on April 26.

Greene is playing well in Chicago in very limited duty.  He has produced a .276/.323/.483 slashline in 29 at bats, producing a single home run and two runs batted in while scoring four times.  He has entered the game as a pinch runner or pinch hitter almost as many times (5) as he has on the field as a second baseman (6).  He has yet to attempt to steal a base and has committed one error in 29 chances.

Tyler Greene is a bench player in major league baseball, continuing to patrol the middle infield and run the base paths.  Leaving St. Louis has not injected his career with a sudden level of success.  The absence of Tony LaRussa has not allowed Greene to improve to the level that everyone thought.

Even so, it appears that no one cares.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at i70baseball.
You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

One of the St. Louis Cardinals’ biggest questions marks during the offseason was how the team would fill the middle infield positions, and the answers the Cardinals found could end up making those positions of strength throughout the season.

The Cardinals had planned to have Rafael Furcal be their starting shortstop on opening day, as he had been last season. But Furcal’s torn right elbow ligament didn’t heal in the offseason and he had to undergo surgery during spring training.

That left Pete Kozma, the player who hit .333 in 26 games for the Cardinals last season, as the man to fill one of the most important positions on the field. However, the Cardinals still didn’t have much confidence in Kozma because they still had bad memories of him being the organization’s first-round pick in 2007 that had a .236 batting average in six minor-league seasons.

But shortstop was only one half of the uncertainty surrounding second base for the Cardinals during spring training.

Daniel Descalso played 143 games for the Cardinals in 2012 and played stellar defense whether he was at second base, shortstop or third base, but he also hit just .227. The Cardinals didn’t think they could survive another season with a second baseman who hit under .230 so they asked Matt Carpenter work on learning the position during the offseason so he could potentially take over second base in 2013.

Carpenter did his work and won the job in spring training, but that still meant the Cardinals planned to enter the season with a rookie at shortstop and a former utility player who hadn’t had more than 300 at-bats in a single season.

That combined inexperience justifiably sent shivers down the spines of many Cardinals fans, and for good reason.

The Cardinals had tried to patch holes in the middle infield before with limited success. They traded for Furcal only when Brendan Ryan and Tyler Greene proved they weren’t going to be good enough at shortstop. Also, the Skip Schumaker experiment at second base lasted for a couple of years, but he was replaced by the .227-hitting Descalso last season.

So for better or worse, the Cardinals ended up with Kozma and Carpenter as the middle infield combination for 2013, but early results show this concoction could not only work, but it could work pretty well.

Carpenter hasn’t played second base yet because he’s been over at third base while David Freese recovers from an injury, but he and Kozma have already made an impact one series into the season.

Carpenter had three doubles in the team’s first three games, and he played solid-to-great defense at third base. Kozma hit .308 in the opening series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, including a double and a homerun.

Granted, that is an incredibly small sample size. Both players could eventually be exposed throughout the course of the season and consistently take terrible at-bats. But at this point, each has looked confident at the plate and in the field, and they are both getting results.

If that continues, the Cardinals might win a lot of games because of a middle infield composed of two players who the team didn’t even consider good enough to start until circumstances forced them into the lineup.

Sometimes the unexpected gifts are the best of all.

Our final look around the St. Louis Cardinals stops on the pitching staff. As games in Jupiter begin shortly here is a look at the make-up of said staff before they break camp.

The 2011 St. Louis Cardinals were admittedly built around their offense. The trade of Brendan Ryan coupled with the acquisition of Ryan Theriot meant a defensive sacrifice at one of the toughest spots in the field. Combining this with Skip Schumaker at second and the rather limited range of the outfield, the team surrendered 84 unearned runs, the most in the majors.

The pitching staff, initially, was thought to be somewhat of an asset, if not overly a huge strength. The tandem of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright would be generally considered one of the strongest 1-2 combinations in the majors. As Murphy’s Law quickly pointed out, that wasn’t the case.

Heading into 2012 the Cardinals, with a healthy Wainwright, look to have the best rotation in the NL Central.

Chris Carpenter;  11-9, 3.45 ERA, 191 K, 105 ERA+, 1.256 WHIP

The first half of 2011 was a pretty rough one for Carpenter. As of June 17, he was 1-7 with an ERA of 4.47. After that, though, something clicked in his head, and he became the Chris Carpenter we’re accustomed to seeing, going 10-2 the rest of the way with a 2.73 ERA.

As an unforeseen consequence of the playoff run, however, Carpenter threw a total of 273.1 innings. Back when teams had four-man rotations, this wasn’t generally a big deal. Nowadays, especially for a pitcher who turns 37 in April and has had two surgeries on his throwing arm, it could be pretty significant. The Cardinals have already announced they will abbreviate his pitching schedule in spring training, and possibly beyond, in order to accommodate his arm. Carpenter signed a new two-year deal in the off-season, likely making the Cardinals the final team of his career.

Adam Wainwright; DNP

As soon as it was announced Wainwright would undergo Tommy John surgery, the season got a lot darker. There’s little question that even with Carpenter on the team, Wainwright had been the ace of the staff the last couple of seasons. In a two-year span, he’d gone 39-19 with a 2.53 ERA, 1.131 WHIP, and 3.48 K/BB ratio.

By all accounts, he’s throwing hard and able to snap off his curveball as effectively as before the surgery. Here’s hoping for a full season of health from him. The Cardinals picked up his option for 2012 and 2013, after which he’ll become a free agent. When he’s healthy, he’s one of the dominant starting pitchers in the league. This is, unfortunately, the second major injury he’s suffered in the last four years (he suffered a finger injury in 2008 that forced him to miss more than two months), so one has to wonder whether durability will become an issue.

Jaime Garcia; 13-7, 3.56 ERA, 156 K, 102 ERA+, 1.320 WHIP

Most likely the biggest factor was fatigue. After Garcia missed part of 2008 and most of 2009 due to Tommy John surgery, Garcia threw 163.1 innings in 2010 (previously, the most he’d thrown was 155 innings…in 2006). Typically, pitching coaches try to limit the increase in innings on a young arm to no more than 25 over the previous season, but Garcia blew past that in 2011: 194.2 in the regular season and another 25.2 in the playoffs.

Garcia has emerged as a legitimate above-average pitcher, and the return of Adam Wainwright should help alleviate some of the pressure on him. He signed an extension to his contract through 2015, with team options for 2016 and 2017, so he’ll be around a while. When his game is on, he’s on; he just has to improve the consistency of when he’s on.

Kyle Lohse; 14-8, 3.39 ERA, 111 K, 107 ERA+, 1.168 WHIP

Lohse is in the final year of his contract, and he was fully healthy last year and produced, unlike the first two years of his contract. He may not be as effective this year (his Batting Average for Balls in Play was an unusually low .269, a full 33 points below his career average), but if he stays healthy, he’s one of the better number four starters in the league. One interesting note about his career is that his best years tend to come every third year: 2002, 2005, 2008, and 2011 were all notable for being better than the rest of his career. Also, he’s the only member of the Cardinals’ starting rotation who hasn’t undergone Tommy John surgery.

Jake Westbrook; 12-9, 4.66 ERA, 104 K, 78 ERA+, 1.533 WHIP

Westbrook was the odd man out in the rotation during the playoffs, but he still played an important role. Westbrook pitched in two games and threw two scoreless innings, including the crucial 11th inning of Game 6. Facing four batters, two of which included Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli, Westbrook limited the Rangers to a single base hit, setting the stage for David Freese’s heroics.

Other than the season he missed due to Tommy John, Westbrook’s been a generally durable pitcher. He reported to camp this year having lost about 25 lbs. in an effort to increase his endurance and lighten the workload on his legs. I won’t be so bold as to predict a 20 win, sub-3.00 ERA season, but if Furcal can stay healthy and the Greene/Descalso combination can perform adequately at second base, it’s not unreasonable to expect 13-14 wins and a solid 180-200 innings from him. Coming from a fifth starter, you can’t ask for too much more.

Bullpen

At the end of the 2011 regular season, the Cardinals ranked 17th in bullpen ERA. But this was a group that evolved during the course of the season, as young relievers settled in, and by the time the Cardinals got to the World Series, it was a very different bullpen than it was in the frustrating days of early September. Jason Motte was never formally named the closer under Tony La Russa; maybe he’ll get that title from Mike Matheny. Marc Rzepczynski is viewed as an untapped gem, and maybe with a full season working under pitching coach Dave Duncan, he’ll become a dominant setup man.

Injury Contingencies

Now, should one of the starters go down, the two most likely emergency starters would be Lance Lynn or Kyle McClellan. McClellan held his own as a starter last season for most of the first half, but eventually he faltered, perhaps due in part to lack of stamina (formerly a starter in the minors, he pitched the first three years and the last half of 2011 in the bullpen). Lynn is also a career starter in the minors who found his niche in the majors in the bullpen. He started two games last year, and other than his first rough outing, he was pretty lights out: in his final 17 games, he went 1-0 with a 2.15 ERA and allowed a slashline of just .204/.281/.301 while striking out 35 batters in 29.1 innings. During the playoffs, he was pretty solid. In the NLCS and World Series, apart from Game 6 (when he gave up three earned runs in 1.2 innings), he gave up a total of one earned run in 9.1 innings.

After this three game series in Chicago, the Cardinals will travel to Cincinnati for a weekend set against the Reds. Now that Johnny Cueto has been activated from the disabled list, it will also be the first time the Cardinals will face him since the benches clearing skirmish that ended Jason La Rue’s career.

The Commissioners’ Office referenced the Roseboro incident as a guideline for determining punishment for the players and coaches involved in that unfortunate situation, and we have looked at that in a previous I-70 Baseball article. Now it is time to turn our attention to the Cueto incident, and see how the Commisioner did in this case.

August 9, 2010

The Cardinals and Reds had been battling for the lead in the National League Central since mid-May, with neither team being able to make much progress on the other. At the start of this game, the Cardinals trailed the Reds by two games.

There was controversy from the very beginning of the game, but not the type you would have thought. It was between two players from the Cardinals. A promising rally against a struggling Mike Leake had the makings of a huge first inning. As a result, Brendan Ryan ran down to the batting cages to get ready for his at-bat. A double play ended the rally unceremoniously, and Ryan had to hustle to get on the field in time to start the home half of the first. On the way, he couldn’t find his glove and chose to run out with one borrowed from a teammate. Just before Chris Carpenter was about to make his first pitch, somebody in the Cardinal’s dugout found Ryan’s glove and time was called. The volatile Cardinals hurler gave Ryan a glaring look as he switched out his equipment.

Between innings, Carpenter gave an earful to Brendan Ryan. Unfortunately for the two players, the exchange was captured on camera and replayed over and over.

The game was rather uneventful, and over before the last pitch in the fourth inning was thrown. Both pitchers were able to get through their first three innings without much difficulty. The fourth would be a different story as the Cardinals sent 12 men to the plate. When the final out was recorded, they had a commanding 7-0 lead.

Carpenter and two relievers would combine for the win, giving the Reds three runs in the late innings.

What the Cardinals did not know at the time were some inflammatory comments made by Brandon Phillips. He was speaking to a sports writer from Dayton, and took the opportunity to rip on the Cardinals.

I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals.
All they do is b***h and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little b****es, all of ‘em.
I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs.

Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.

– Brandon Phillips, August 9, 2010

Oh, the Cardinals would learn of Phillips’ comments before the start of the next game.

August 10, 2010

Johnny Cueto would get the start for the Reds in the second game of the series. His opponent from St. Louis is the rookie left-hander, Jaime Garcia. Garcia being a rookie may have a significant impact on what was about to happen.

The Cardinals would manufacture a run in the first inning, thanks to a lead-off double by Felipe Lopez.

Things would turn nasty when the Reds came up to bat for the first time.

Brandon Phillips tapped Yadier Molina’s shin guards, as he usually does in his first plate appearance. Instead of choosing a more old-school approach of having his pitcher throw at Phillips, Molina decides to take matters into his own hands. He stands up and starts barking with Phillips. As the two exchange pleasantries, both benches clear and a mob begins to form around home plate.

Yadier Molina, Mark Wegner and Brandon Phillips

What happens next is captured in detail in the MLB Video Archives. You can see both the Fox Sports Ohio and Fox Sports Midwest broadcast of the event. In addition to the MLB video, our friends at Viva el Birdos have broken the event down into who did what to whom, albeit with the bias of a Cardinal Fan’s point of view.

It doesn’t matter if you are a Cardinals fan or a Reds fan, this conflict turned ugly. At the back of it all was Reds starting pitcher, Johnny Cueto. He was kicking Cardinals players repeatedly – and while still wearing his spikes. A very dangerous situation, indeed. The concussion that Jason La Rue sustained in the brawl would ultimately cost him the remainder of his baseball career.

What happens next angers Cardinals fans to this very day. Johnny Cueto was allowed to stay in the game.

Perhaps there is something to the notion of karma. Cueto would end up taking the loss, and the Cardinals would pull even with the Reds after this emotional victory. An dominating afternoon win by Adam Wainwright on the following day would give the Cardinals a sweep of the series, and a one game lead in the division. Sadly, it would be their last one as a disappointing homestand followed by a brutal road trip through Washington, Houston and Pittsburgh ended all playoff hopes for the 2010 season.

But that’s not the real end to this story.

A Slap on the Wrist

Major League Baseball was about to take punitive action against several Cardinals and Reds players and their managers.

The first failure of Major League Baseball happened immediately following the brawl. In the Roseboro incident, Shag Crawford wasted little time ejecting Juan Marichal. We will never know if he would have done the same to Roseboro because the Dodgers catcher had to leave the game due to injuries sustained in the attack.

Neither home plate umpire, Mark Wegner, nor crew chief Jeff Kellogg took any action towards Johnny Cueto. He was allowed to stay in the game, which in retrospect might have been a good thing for the Cardinals. He was clearly rattled and the Redbirds hitters were able to take advantage of that. Mark Wegner did eject both managers: Tony La Russa (St. Louis) and Dusty Baker (Cincinnati).

Next came the suspensions. Both managers were suspended for two games. It was the suspension for Cueto that raised eyebrows in Cardinals Nation. The big right-hander was given a seven game suspension for his “violent and aggressive actions.” All three were fined an undisclosed amount, as were Brandon Phillips, Yadier Molina, Russ Springer and Chris Carpenter. In case you are wondering about Springer’s fine, it was because he was still on the disabled list, and was not eligible to be on the field when the brawl took place.

Any way you look at this, Johnny Cueto got off with just a slap on the wrist. A seven game suspension meant that he would only miss one start. While the League Office did not know that Jason La Rue’s concussion was career ending, they did know that he had been placed on the disabled list immediately after the game. If the Commissioner were trying to apply the Roseboro Incident here, he really missed the mark. Juan Marichal was suspended for nine games when he took a baseball bat to the helmeted head of John Roseboro. He was also prohibited from making the final road trip to Los Angeles, which forced the Giants to rearrange their rotation to accommodate the ruling. In addition, Roseboro only missed a few games and never went on the disabled list. Even more infuriating was the part that Roseboro played in instigating the confrontation in 1965, which would have been taken into consideration in Marichal’s punishment. The only thing La Rue did was try to get between Cueto and his teammate, Chris Carpenter.

On the subject of fines, even though the one to Cueto was not disclosed, we can make some guesses relative to the one handed out to Marichal. The Giants hurler was fined $1,750, which was approximately 3% of his salary for the 1965 season. Marichal was an established star at the time and was earning the pay you would expect from a top player of his era. In 2010, Cueto was earning a league minimum of $445,000. 3% of that would be $13,300, and that is probably close to what he was actually fined. That amount would be consistent with other players whose fines were made public.

But let’s look at this another way. Cueto just signed a five year deal to avoid his arbitration years. That deal is paying him $3.4M for 2011. 3% of that would be a whopping $102,000. When was the last time you heard a player being fined anywhere near this amount ?

While there were some similarities between the Roseboro and Cueto incident (pennant race, a player using their equipment to injure another), there were some striking differences. Johnny Cueto was not provoked like Juan Marichal. Marichal also stopped hitting Roseboro when he saw that he was bleeding from under his batting helmet. Cueto kept on kicking until the scrum of players broke up.

The biggest difference between these two events is the power that the MLB Player’s Union carries. In 1965, the union was weak, relative to the team owners. As a result, baseball decisions coming out of the League Office tended to favor the position of the owners, not the players. Things were changing quickly, the union was not in the power chair quite yet. A ripple effect of this is that umpires were not shy in taking control of situations on the baseball field.

In 2010, the players union carries much more clout. The implication is that the League Office will not do anything to upset them, and put a future collective bargaining agreement in jeopardy. Umpires, except perhaps Bob Davidson, are less likely to take control of events in a baseball game, relying instead on filing a detailed report and letting somebody else make the decision about what to do, and whom to fine.

Tough Guys, Big Hearts

There must be something truly special about catchers. John Roseboro originally sued Juan Marichal, but later settled for a much reduced amount without going to court. That was later put behind the two men as Roseboro acknowledged his part in the event and subsequently forgave Marichal for his actions. They two became friends, and their story ends with Marichal delivering the eulogy at Roseboro’s funeral.

The last we heard from Jason La Rue was that the effects from the concussion were still persistent and making his daily life difficult. He also indicated that he has no plans on seeking any civil litigation as a result of Cueto’s attack, preferring to put the matter behind him. That’s already several steps down the path that Marichal and Roseboro took. Mr. Cueto, the ball is now in your court.

Bob Netherton covers Cardinals history for i70baseball.com and writes at On the Outside Corner. You may follow Bob on Twitter here or on Facebook here.

Being an outspoken defender and ever-faithful fan of Brendan “Boog” Ryan, I was both delighted to be asked to contribute a piece dedicated to my favorite shortstop and yet bummed about the context. Hearing the label “former Cardinal” attached to Brendan still tugs at my heart, and seeing Brendan in a Mariners uniform this year will be bittersweet.

During the offseason, the Cardinals openly shopped Brendan Ryan amid cruel rumblings that Ryan had become a distraction in the Cardinals’ clubhouse. Brendan was eventually traded to the Seattle Mariners for Class A pitcher, Maikel Cleto. Those of us who enjoyed Brendan’s personality and marveled at his valuable defensive wizardry were appalled by the seemingly lopsided deal. But I digress…

This spring as in countless years before, fans all over the nation will be coming out of hibernation to reunite with baseball. Cardinal fans will notice new names on the roster, and the infield will showcase a different glove with #3 Ryan Theriot replacing #13 Brendan Ryan at shortstop.

Recap: The Cardinal Years

Brendan Ryan was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 7^th round of the 2003 MLB amateur draft (215^th overall) at age 21. Working his way up the farm system, Ryan was promoted to Class AA Springfield Cardinals by the middle of 2005. A wrist injury limited his playing time considerably for the 2006 season. However Brendan rebounded in 2007, playing at both AAA Memphis and the big club, making his major league debut with the Cardinals on June 2, 2007. In 2007 Brendan split his time among 2^nd base, 3^rd base and shortstop. In 2008 Brendan played primarily middle infield and notably hit his first career grand slam on August 20^th at San Diego, giving the Cardinals a 5-1 win.

Brendan’s 2008 sophomore batting average slumped to .244 from .289 in 2007, but then rebounded to an impressive .292 for 2009 when Brendan also showcased a breakout season as the Cardinals’ everyday shortstop. Ryan turned heads with his brilliant defense and spectacular range (1^st in the NL that season). His .984 fielding percentage ranked him 4th among all shortstops for 2009 and Brendan also led the NL in assists during both the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

The 2010 season started out bumpy for Ryan who opted for wrist surgery in February after battling pain and discomfort for years. The surgery delayed his Spring Training progress and after an attempt to retool his swing under the guidance of Cardinals hitting coach, Mark McGwire, Brendan started the season struggling to find his comfort at the plate. His 2010 batting average danced around the Mendoza line much of the year, ending at a meager .223 (a far cry from the .292 he posted in 2009.)

Looking Ahead:

In January, Ryan avoided arbitration, signing a 2-year, $2.75 million contract with his new ballclub. He enters Spring Training in competition for the Mariners starting shortstop position with 33-year-old incumbent shortstop, Jack Wilson. Wilson spent most of last season plagued by injuries and is in his final year of a 2-year, $10 million contract. Brendan’s chances to start at either shortstop or 2^nd base are considered extremely good.

I expect Brendan Ryan to rebound from his poor offensive showing in 2010. Mariners fans will delight in his range and defense while a new ballclub, manager and league may provide the perfect fresh environment for Brendan’s unbridled passion and enthusiasm for the game.

Keep your eyes on the 2011 highlight reels. I predict we will be seeing a lot of Brendan Ryan this year, even though he will not be wearing the Birds on the Bat.

Go Boog, Go! ;)

Erika Lynn is a contributor for i70baseball.com, BaseballDigest.com and writes about the Cardinals at Cardinal Diamond Diaries. You can also find her on Twitter: @Erika4stlcards

References: Baseball-Reference.com and mlb.com

Blake Hawksworth is getting acquainted with his new Dodgers teammates in his first spring training outside the Cardinals organization. He was taken in the 28^th round by the Cardinals in the 2001 draft, and not surprisingly, it took him 7 seasons of development before he made his big league debut. Despite struggling in AAA Memphis, Hawksworth took full advantage of his first opportunity to play in the major league and is looking to bounce back from his sophomore slump.

After joining the Cardinals at age 19, it took Blake 5 years to get to AAA Memphis. His ERA was 5.28 in 2007, and ballooned to 6.09 in 2008 before he finally settled in with a 3.58 ERA in 2009. The success was enough to earn him a mid-season role in the Cardinals’ depleted bullpen, and he never looked back. In his 30 appearances in the big leagues in 2009, he was lights out, putting up a 2.03 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, gave up just 2 home runs and posted a 4-0 record.

But in 2010, the big league hitters caught up to Hawksworth and neutralized his early success. In 45 appearances (90.1 innings) hitters shelled him for 15 HRs, which helped raise his ERA to 4.98 with a WHIP of 1.64.

2010 definitely didn’t turn out how Hawksworth or the Cardinals would’ve liked and the club dealt him to the Dodgers for shortstop, Ryan Theriot, during the offseason. The move was made in part because the Cardinals needed to replace recently ousted shortstop, Brendan Ryan, and in part because they had a deep bullpen, especially in the right-handers department.

Fast-forward to spring training 2011 and now the trade is looming as one the Cardinals might want to have back. Starting pitcher, Adam Wainwright, is lost for the season with an elbow injury and the Cardinals will likely look to right-hander reliever, Kyle McClellan, to fill in for at least some of those starts. McClellan may take the role permanently. As the saying goes, you can never have too much pitching.

As for Blake Hawksworth, he’s looking to lend a helping hand to a Dodger bullpen that ranked 11^th in the National League in bullpen ERA, while it was asked to eat up the 6^th most innings in the league. While he’ll certainly miss seeing the Pittsburgh Pirates’ lineup 19 times a year, he is moving to the lowest scoring division in the National League and that certainly won’t hurt his chances of rebounding in 2011. Blake’s former teammates will pay him a visit in Los Angeles for a 4 game series April 14-18, and he’ll make his first trip back to Busch Stadium August 22-24. Aside from those 7 games, most Cardinals fans will be wishing Hawksworth the best as he continues his career out on the west coast.

Sometimes, players do not leave behind fans just because they leave behind a team.

Modern baseball, free agency, and the business of the game has players changing teams at a rate that is so alarming that people, even for a brief second, wondered if Derek Jeter would in fact be a Yankee by the time teams reported to Spring Training. Despite the speed at which teams will allow a player, by choice or otherwise, change uniforms, some fans do what they can to remain a fan of that player for the remainder of his career.

Some players catch our attention because of their off the field antics, some for their defensive prowess, others just for their guts alone. Some of the guys that take the field were once part of that next batch of “can’t miss” players to hit the major leagues in our favorite team’s uniform.

Fans of the Cardinals and Royals have seen their share of players come and go in recent years. Fan favorite short stops, former top of the organization outfielders, chick comment inspiring outfielders and top of the rotation pitchers have found their way into other organizations since they last wore the birds-on-the-bat or the baby blue.

This week, join us here at I-70 as we help you catch up on some of the players that are out and about in Major League Baseball. Come back throughout the week to check in on former Royals John Buck, Carlos Beltran, Zack Grienke, David DeJesus, Coco Crisp, and Mark Teahen. Our team of Cardinal writers will bring you up to speed on Blake Hawksworth, Brendan Ryan, Ryan Ludwick, Scott Rolen, Rick Ankiel and JD Drew.

The team will recap their years on the Royals and Cardinals, the success (or lack of) since leaving the team, and a look ahead at what 2011 might hold for them. We hope everyone enjoys this look at some of our favorite guys that no longer wear the uniforms we love.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

This time last year, the St. Louis Cardinals were picked by just about everyone to win the NL Central with little trouble. They had just signed Matt Holliday to the richest contract in franchise history, Brad Penny was added to round out the rotation, and they were the defending division champs. No other teams made huge moves before 2010 to try to catch the Cards. Some picked the Cincinnati Reds as a dark horse candidate, but that was about the extent of the legitimate threats. The NL Central was the Cardinals’ to win or lose.

And we all know how that turned out.

Fast-forward one year. The Cards made a lot of moves early to shore up the 2011 club in anticipation of spending this part of the offseason trying to re-sign Albert Pujols. It was a smart move, because that’s exactly what is happening: this week the team announced they have re-opened talks with the legend’s agent, and things are moving in a positive direction. That’s great news for Cardinal Nation. But after that piece of business is taken care of, the question remains: will it be enough?

The division champion Cincinnati Reds had little to do this offseason. A piece here and a piece there was really all the tweaking needed…most of their 2010 club is returning and healthy. So they could be counted on as, at the very least, co-favorites for the 2011 crown with the Cards before the Hot Stove proceedings really got underway. When the Cards re-signed Jake Westbrook, the team appeared to have the best rotation—on paper, of course—in the division. Add offensive upgrades in Ryan Theriot and Lance Berkman, and the Cards were poised to take the Central back from the Reds in 2011.

But the Theriot and Berkman additions are not all they seem. Theriot was added at the expense of Brendan Ryan’s incomparable defense, effectively weakening the Cards’ middle infield (and possibly their entire pitch-to-contact staff). Berkman will be asked to play a full season in the outfield for the first time since 2004, and he has recent injury issues to go with his advancing age. Perhaps it was these perceived weaknesses and a belief the Reds could be prone to a regression that led some of the other teams in the Central to ask, “Hey…why can’t we compete with these guys?”

First, the Milwaukee Brewers got busy revamping their god-awful rotation and acquired Shawn Marcum from the Toronto Blue Jays. Then they surprised everyone by trading for former Cy Young winner Zack Greinke, sending some of their best young talent to the Kansas City Royals in return. These bold moves instantly thrust the Brewers into the conversation about who would win the division this year. The Brewers have always been able to hit, and now apparently they can pitch, too.

Not to be outdone, the Chicago Cubs went out and got the lefty power bat they’ve craved for so long in Carlos Pena. They also added a rejuvenated Kerry Wood to their bullpen. But the Cubs have lots of problems too, and were believed to be rebuilding while they wait out the terrible contracts of Alphonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome, and Carlos Zambrano. Still, the rumors persisted, and finally Chicago decided to make some noise in the NL Central projections Friday by trading half their farm system to the Tampa Bay Rays for RHP Matt Garza. Suddenly they have a deep rotation to go with a deep bullpen. If their head cases can keep their cool, the Cubs will not be a pushover in 2011.

The Brewers and the Cubs obviously see an opportunity this season; why else would they trade away so many young, cheap players for veterans? These teams are not without their flaws, to be sure, but they look a heck of a lot better than they did last season. The Reds look to be just about as good as they did last year. Even the Astros cannot be completely dismissed; they have a young lineup, but their rotation of Brett Myers, Wandy Rodriguez, JA Happ, and Bud Norris is decent at worst. No, this is not the new AL East. But it certainly does not look like the same old NL Central, either.

After taking all that in, how much better do the Cardinals look this year than last? Can they compete in a four team dogfight for the NL Central crown? Maybe John Mozeliak better speed up the Pujols negotiations a little…he might have some more work to do for 2011.

Chris Reed is a freelance writer who also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and at Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

Ryan Theriot is projected to be the Cardinals Opening Day shortstop, and Skip Schumaker the second baseman. Many have expressed anxiousness at how well they will play defensively. How will Theriot and Schumaker compare to recent keystone combinations?

Fangraphs started keeping defensive data in 2002, so let’s look at Cardinal combinations starting with there. Take a walk down memory lane and remind yourself of these duos. When multiple players played the position in a season, I chose the guy who started the most games there.

• 2002 – Fernando Vina and Edgar Renteria
• 2003 – Bo Hart and Renteria
• 2004 – Tony Womack and Renteria
• 2005 – Mark Grudzielanek and David Eckstein
• 2006 – Aaron Miles and Eckstein (yep, Miles; 471 PA)
• 2007 – Adam Kennedy and Eckstein
• 2008 – Kennedy and Cesar Izturis
• 2009 – Skip Schumaker and Brendan Ryan
• 2010 – Schumaker and Ryan

Interesting that 2009-2010 marked the first time since 2000-2002 the same two players started the majority of games at second and short.

Using UZR/150 from Fangraphs, here is how each individual performed.

• 2002: Vina -0.8, Renteria 5.8
• 2003: Hart 7.7, Renteria 6.1
• 2004: Womack 2.7, Renteria 0.6
• 2005: Grudzielanek 9.2, Eckstein -6.9
• 2006: Miles -5.4, Eckstein 1.7
• 2007: Kennedy -1.8, Eckstein -13.6
• 2008: Kennedy 18.0, Izturis 8.6
• 2009: Schumaker -8.5, Ryan 9.6
• 2010: Schumaker -17.2, Ryan 12.1

We see a ton of variation in these statistics, even among those with multiple seasons at the same position. Ryan was the best defensive shortstop of this group, Renteria was very good, Eckstein was ultimately not very good during his time in St Louis. On the other side of the bag, Kennedy was above average defensively for most of his career (despite the wide statistical variation seen in St Louis), and Schumaker is well below average.

For the one-season guys, starting at second base, Vina and Womack were in their primes before advanced defensive metrics came to be, making it hard to generalize this one season as indicative of their careers. Hart only played part of one more season (2004), again making it hard to determine if 2003 is an accurate reflection of his talent. Grudzielanek had some very good defensive seasons with the Royals after leaving St Louis, and his 2005 score is right in line with those years. Miles is poor defensively and has seen his innings in the field at second base decline every season since 2006. Izturis has long been considered an excellent defensive shortstop and his career numbers back that up.

Back to the 2011 pairing. Virtually everyone who has weighed in on the subject projects Theriot as below average defensively at short. However, his pre-2010 numbers were pretty good by UZR/150: 4.4 in 2007, 2.3 in 2008, 4.1 in 2009. Only last season did he show a marked drop-off (-18.1), but he only played 246 innings at short (in comparison to at least 850 in each of the previous 3 seasons). Theriot will probably not play to the level of Renteria, Ryan, or Izturis, but he almost certainly won’t be as big a liability at second as Eckstein was in 2004 and 2006. Schumaker is a below-average second baseman and will continue to be so.

Theriot will be a step back from Ryan, but is not as weak a defender as Eckstein was. There won’t be a superhighway up the middle for ground balls to take into the outfield. This combination will not be as stone-fingered as the 2006 and 2007 Cardinal versions were. In fact, given the trend of having one position post a negative or average UZR/150 and the other a positive, 2011 should be just like 7 of the last 9 seasons in St Louis up the middle.

Happy New Year! It is time to flip the calendar once again. The St. Louis Cardinals would probably prefer to forget most of 2010. Bright spots like Jaime Garcia’s breakout rookie campaign, the continued ascendance of Adam Wainwright, and solid offense from the middle of the order were overshadowed by devastating injuries, down production from the top and bottom of the lineup, and focus/attitude issues that led to the early ouster of Felipe Lopez and eventual trade of Brendan Ryan.

But New Year’s Day provides an opportunity for rebirth. Bad habits are identified and eradicated; fresh outlooks and routines are established. And then by Mardi Gras we’re all smoking, drinking, and overeating again. Such is life. The Cardinals also need to examine their collective reflection in the figurative mirror and find things to work on. Some are big and some are small. But all are important to the type of team that they will field in 2011. In fact, their success or failure this year pretty much depends on them.

Sign Albert Pujols – Yeah, yeah yeah…let’s bring out the dead horse for another beating. But is there really anything more important for the Cardinals to do over the next month or so? I mean, the entire future (and a good chunk of the legacy) of the franchise hangs in the balance here. Do they make Pujols the richest player in baseball? Does he walk if they don’t? Can the team compete with that salary on the books? Will they trade him? It really is unbelievable how big this decision is—probably bigger than acquiring Lou Brock or deciding to dump Steve Carlton—and it will be made within the next few weeks.

Address organizational depth issues – Part of the reason the 2010 team fell short is the injuries sustained during the season. The pieces used to compensate for those losses were woefully inadequate. Aging veterans are fine as role players and late-inning replacements, but when they’re asked to start for weeks or months in a row it leads to trouble. Obviously it may not be feasible to stock the bench with top-notch talent, but the Cards have to find a middle ground. The players in the Cards’ farm system have to step up when called upon, and the front office needs to be a little more selective regarding the veterans they bring in.

Stay healthy – This may seem like another obvious one, but that does not make it less important. Kyle Lohse, David Freese, and Lance Berkman will all be expected to make major contributions to the 2011 Cardinals after recent injury issues. And their importance pales in comparison to what it would mean to the Cards to lose Pujols, Holliday, Wainwright, or Yadier Molina for an extended period of time. Yes, a little luck is involved here. But keeping this team together and humming for the majority of the year will go a long way toward establishing them as a contender in the NL Central.

Beat the teams they’re supposed to beat – How many times did we see the 2010 Cardinals beat the crap out of the Phillies or the Dodgers only to turn around and lose two of three to the Pirates and Nationals? And the only NL Central team they were able to beat handily last season was the division-winning Reds. That must change in 2011. All the Cardinals needed was one more win per month to take the NL Central in 2010. Kind of puts a 5-10 record against the Houston Astros in perspective, doesn’t it?

Play a Hard Nine – Tony LaRussa’s philosophy seemed to be lost on the 2010 Cardinals, especially when playing sub-.500 teams. The moves made by the team are clearly meant to upgrade attitude and focus rather than overall talent. The 2011 Cardinals are going to have to bear down for what could prove to be a grinding season. They must learn to play more effective small ball. They have to take extra bases and play smart, effective defense. They have to play like underdogs, because that is exactly what they will be in 2011. The Cards can no longer win on reputation alone.

So here’s to hoping the Cardinals do better than most of us with their New Year’s Resolutions. If they want to win a more competitive NL Central in 2011, they really have no choice.

Chris Reed is a freelance writer from Belleville, IL who also writes about the Cardinals for InsideSTL on Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he wants. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.