Adron Chambers and Shane Robinson are battling hard for spots on the St. Louis Cardinals roster this Spring Training.

Up until now, Robinson is leading that charge, putting up much better offensive numbers and playing solid defense.  Chambers had been his normal self, showing great speed in the field and on the base paths.

It was his speed that allowed Chambers to show off a flashy defensive play Friday as the Cardinals played the Astros.  Chambers chased a fly ball into the left field corner, eventually sliding and producing a stellar grab on the warning track.  Courtesy of MLB.com, here’s the video:

Adron brought a part of his game Friday that most had not seen real well until now, however.  His 3-for-3 performance was capped off by a three-run home run in the sixth inning.  Again, courtesy of MLB.com:

Chambers has long been intriguing to the makeup of the roster due to his speed and athletic ability.  If he can start to find his stroke at the plate, he may just find himself in St. Louis instead of Memphis.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

While hanging out at a local bookstore recently, I discovered an entertaining book that had somehow slipped under my radar. I spent the next half an hour flipping through the pages of Flip Fl0p Fly Ball and enjoying the endless infographics they provide.

The author of that book, Craig Robinson, also likes to blog and share new graphics along the way. It seems that the player on everyone’s mind around Cardinal Nation and Major League Baseball is Albert Pujols.

During the stretch run, there were many moments that were acknowledged as potential last appearances for Pujols, whether it be at Busch Stadium or simply as a Cardinal. Robinson has captured those in a way that is very true to his style and agreed to let i70baseball share it with you here:

Clicking on the graphic below will take you to the original posting on Robinson’s site.

Follow Craig Robinson on Twitter.

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.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ front office finds itself in a very tough spot heading into the offseason. In his first 11 seasons with the Cardinals, first baseman Albert Pujols has by most accounts already established himself as one of the top 2 players in franchise history, with Stan Musial being the other. In that sense, it’s really hard for management to let Pujols finish out his career in another uniform. We’re talking about one of the two best players in 120 years of Cardinals baseball. Then again, the Cardinals and their fans are accustomed to winning. It’s hard to believe the Cardinals can pay Pujols the type of money he’s reportedly asking for (more than $200 million for a contract of 8-10 years) and continue to field a competitive ball club. I think it’s fair to say that most Cardinals fans want Albert Pujols to stay, but Cardinal Nation better be careful what it wishes for.

Albert Pujols is past his prime – This is not an opinion, it’s simply fact. Pujols is going to turn 32 years old heading into next season, and his average has gradually declined each of the past 3 years. He hit .357 in 2008, and that has fallen all the way to .299 this season. His home run total and RBIs have also fallen each of the past 2 years, from 47/135 in 2009 to 37/99 in 2011.

But those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. The best indicator that Pujols is in decline is the simple fact that opposing pitchers no longer fear him the way they used to. From 2005 through 2010, Pujols average more than 100 walks per season, with more than 30 per season coming intentionally. In 2011, Pujols drew only 61 walks (just 15 intentional). Pujols also set a career high for groundballs… which mean fewer line drives, fewer fly balls, and fewer home runs. All those groundballs led to a career high 29 double plays, which nearly set a National League record.

So Cardinals management and fans have to ask themselves: If Pujols is putting up these kind of numbers when he was 31, what will his numbers look like when he’s 35… 37… 40? Will those numbers be worth roughly 23-30 million dollars per season? One thing to consider is that the Cardinals offered (and Pujols agreed to) a contract of $100 million for the past 8 seasons. Was he underpaid? Maybe, but that’s not really anyone’s problem other than Pujols. He agreed to it, and he gave the Cardinals some great production in his prime. Do the Cardinals owe it to him to pay him more while he’s in decline?

Do Cardinals fans want historic moments or championships? – To be clear, I do think the Cardinals can continue to contend with Pujols in the short term. His contract will not hinder the team’s chances at a title in 2012 especially, considering they’ll have basically all the critical players returning from the 2011 squad plus starting pitcher Adam Wainwright, who will return after missing all of last season with an elbow injury. But once the Cardinals get into the middle to late part of the decade, it could get ugly. If Pujols is re-signed, the Cardinals will have him and Matt Holliday making a combined $45-50 million dollars in their late 30s. That’s nearly half of the team’s payroll (the Cardinals’ ownership group likes to stay in the $110 million range) for those 2 players, and you’d still need 23 more (including 6 starting fielders and 5 starting pitchers). Fans will likely have to revert back to the late 1990s mentality of heading to the ballpark to see history… as Pujols will likely be chasing his 600^th… and perhaps 700^th home runs. Maybe fans would be ok with that, maybe they wouldn’t be, but it’s likely what they’ll get if Pujols stays a Cardinal for an astronomical amount.

What Happens to the “Next” Great Cardinals First baseman? – I don’t think it’s a stretch to make this blanket statement on behalf of Cardinals fans: For 7 years, $120 million, Matt Holliday has thus far not been worth it. Well, they’re just going to have to deal with it, because for the next 5 years, like it or not, he will be the everyday left fielder, and make roughly $17 million dollars per season doing so. Now consider that Allen Craig is not due a significant pay raise for at least 3 more years, and made all of $414,000 dollars last year. That’s it. While it’s still unclear whether or not Craig can make it as an everyday player in the big leagues, it would be a shame to lose such a great, young, and affordable player because there’s no room for him in the Cardinals’ lineup. The same could be said for the first base position down the road.

The Cardinals have already shipped away one of their most promising young first base prospects in Brett Wallace. Wallace was part of the trade that brought Matt Holliday to the Cardinals back in 2009. In limited action with the Astros, Wallace has not quite found his comfort zone in the big leagues, hitting just .248 with 7 home runs. Maybe he never will find it, who knows. The Cardinals current top prospect at first base is Matt Adams, who hit .300 with 32 HRs and 101 RBIs in just 115 games for Class AA Springfield last season. Is he the next great first base prospect? Who knows. What we do know is he’ll never make it to St. Louis if Pujols re-signs. Now, if you asked me right now whether in 2017 whether I’d prefer a 37 year old Albert Pujols making $30 million or a 28 year old Matt Adams (or someone else) making less than $5 million, in the interest of fielding a competitive team I’d probably take Adams or another up and coming player. BUT… that would mean the Cardinals wouldn’t have Pujols in 2012-2015 when he’d likely still be doing quite a bit of damage at the plate.

In a perfect world, the Cardinals would sign Pujols for 5 years, $150 million. Pujols would get the $30 million a year he’s reportedly after, and the Cardinals could revisit things in the 2016 offseason and resign Pujols for a less expensive contract. That contract would still likely be a massive overpayment on the Cardinals’ part, but it wouldn’t be quite as bad as it could be at the same rate for the 2017-2021 seasons.

But unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world. The Cardinals will likely either grossly overpay for Pujols, giving him a contract of 7-10 years and $200-$300 million… or… Pujols will leave and finish his career somewhere other than St. Louis. Neither of those two choices is ideal, but if you had to take one of them, which would you choose? It’s really a matter of your head versus your heart. Your head says “we’re overpaying him, it won’t be worth it” while your heart says “I’d hate to see him in Cubs blue.”

Only time will tell how Pujols contract will saga will play out, but until it does, be careful what you wish for.

The 2011 season did not start the way Joakim Soria wanted it to.

Through April and May, he gave up 16 earned runs over 23 innings. He was 3-3 with 5 blown saves in 12 opportunities.

Nearly every Royals fan was calling for his removal from the closer role (or the entire team, in some cases). There was talk about trading him before his value went any lower, converting him to a starter, or possibly even demoting him.

Many said his career was over and that the Royals needed to start fresh with the younger, more exciting Aaron Crow.

Well, Ned Yost did end up giving Crow the closer role.

However, he made it clear that it wasn’t permanent and that he wanted Soria to work some things out as a middle reliever until he felt more comfortable on the mound.

He ended up pitching 5 scoreless innings in 3 games as a middle reliever, which was good enough for the Royals’ skipper.

Yost immediately gave Soria back the title as closer, which turned out to be one of his best decisions of the year.

Since that point, Soria only has 2 blown saves while giving up 11 earned runs in 35.1 innings. He has also had 41 strikeouts compared to 7 walks in that same time period.

These numbers might seem completely inaccurate to most Royals fans because it feels like he has been much worse over the past three and a half months.

The main reason for this is because his two blown saves since the 1^st of June were the two most heartbreaking losses for the Royals in that span.

The first of the two came on July 30^th against the Indians. The Royals gave Soria the ball with a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 9^th. He gave up a sacrifice fly to tie the game and a walk-off 3-run bomb by Matt LaPorta to end it.

Then came the Tampa Bay Rays game on August 10^th. No Royals fan will forget this one, so there isn’t a need to go into great detail. Crow and Soria gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the 9^th to lose 8-7. It was the epitome of a heartbreaker for the Royals and their fans.

Other than those two games, Soria has been almost lights out. It’s hard for fans to see it, but he is back to his old self.

Wanting a trade or a role change for Soria needs to come to a stop. His first two months of this year were horrendous to say the least, but he has definitely regained his form.

Other than perhaps Greg Holland, Soria has been the most consistent pitcher for the Royals this year.

He is still the leader of the Royals’ bullpen and should continue to be as they make their push in the next couple of years.

A good closer is tough to come by, and the Royals have one in Soria.

It’d be a shame to mess that up as they get closer to becoming a real contender.

Most Cardinals fans are still steaming over Ryan Franklin’s latest blown save and that’s understandable. What they should be is ecstatic about what’s to come during the remaining 5 ½ months of the 2011 season. Do they have issues at closer, yes. Ryan Franklin’s 11.57 ERA and 4 blown saves in 5 attempts have Cardinal Nation begging for Jason Isringhausen to make a comeback. But the closer issue will get worked out soon: Tony La Russa, stubborn as he can be, will make a change soon Franklin doesn’t turn things around. And with the closer issue behind them, the Cardinals will once again be the team to beat in the National League Central.

That may seem hard to believe, especially given all the doom and gloom hyped up prior to the season (yes, I’m guilty as well). The Cardinals, of course, do not have the services of ace Adam Wainwright, and most experts picked the Cardinals to finish third in the division. I picked them to finish 4^th. But let’s reflect back on the first 16 games of the 2011 season, essentially 10% of the season, to see what really lies ahead for this team.

A look back at the first 16 (10%) of the season:

-The team managed more than 3 runs just once in its first 8 games, compiling a record of 2-6

-The Cardinals are 2 games under .500 at home.

-Ryan Franklin has blown 4 saves in the 9^th inning, all of which resulted in losses.

-Matt Holliday missed 7 games after an emergency appendectomy.

-Albert Pujols’ average was down to .128 at one point, and is only at .239 currently.

-Colby Rasmus dropped a fly ball that would’ve won a game, instead he dropped it and the Cardinals lost.

-Chris Carpenter has no wins, including a game in which he got 8 runs of support.

…and despite all these things, the Cardinals are 8-8 and just 1 game out of first place. Now ask yourself: “Is Albert Pujols going to hit .239 all season?” Certainly not. “Is Chris Carpenter going to go winless?” Nope. I trust you follow where this is going. Bottom line, the Cardinals are playing some pretty ugly baseball, and yet they’re just a game behind the Reds, and assuming a closer does his job 80% of the time, the team should be no worse than 11-5 right now.

How have they done it? Colby Rasmus, Matt Holliday, and Lance Berkman are on fire at the plate. The starting pitching, save for one bad start by Carpenter and Jake Westbrook, has been lights out. And yes…Albert is beginning to be Albert again.

The Cardinals will finally return to Busch Stadium today… hosting the Washington Nationals, and then the division leading Cincinnati Reds. I fully expect to be writing about the first place St. Louis Cardinals come next Tuesday.