The St. Louis Cardinals project to have an Opening Day lineup full of players who will regularly get on base and it also features plenty of power to drive them in. The one thing the team will lack, however, is speed.

The Cardinals stole 91 bases in 2012, which tied them with the Texas Rangers for 24^th of 30 teams in Major League Baseball, but players who stole more than a quarter of the Cardinals bases last season are either hurt or no longer with the team.

Shortstop Rafael Furcal stole 12 bases last season but is out for the season with an elbow injury, and fellow shortstop Tyler Greene, who had nine stolen bases, is now with the Houston Astros.

That leaves the Cardinals with about four regular stolen base threats. Slow-footed but incredibly intelligent catcher Yadier Molina stole 12 bases last year and could very well steal another dozen or so this season. Rightfielder Carlos Beltran had 13 stolen bases last year, but he is 35 years old and has slowed down considerably in recent years after various knee injuries.

The other proven stolen-base threat from last year’s team is centerfielder Jon Jay, who had 19 last season. He will likely lead the team again this season unless outfield prospect Oscar Taveras makes the team, but even he hasn’t stolen more than 10 bases in a season during his four seasons in the minor leagues.

Shortstop Pete Kozma stole just two bases during his brief 26-game stint with the Cardinals at the end of 2012, but he once stole 24 bases in 2008 and had 13 in 2010, all in the minor leagues.

Other than those options, the Cardinals will likely enter the season with a pretty slow team, but that’s not necessarily a terrible fault.

The Cardinals won the World Series in 2011 after stealing just 57 bases, which ranked last in the National League, and only the Detroit Tigers had fewer steals with 49 that season. The Cardinals also made it to within one game of the World Series in 2012 while ranking 24^th.

And they aren’t the only team that has found it can win without stealing bases. In fact, just three teams that made the 2012 playoffs ranked in the top half of baseball in stolen bases. The Oakland A’s were ninth, the San Francisco Giants were 10^th and the Washington Nationals were 15^th.

Otherwise, all of the best teams didn’t steal many bases. The World Series-champion Detroit Tigers actually ranked dead last for the second year in a row, but they had great power and great pitching.

Those two factors are also why the Cardinals shouldn’t be too concerned about the number of bases they steal in 2013.

They have a lineup that should easily rank in the top 10 in all three of the Triple Crown categories, batting average, homeruns and runs batted in, and they have a pitching staff that should be more than solid if not for too many injuries.

Sure, Chris Carpenter is no longer an option at the top of the rotation, but the Cardinals have arguably the most young talent on their pitching staff since the days Tony La Russa decided to come to St. Louis because Matt Morris and Alan Benes were on their way to the big leagues.

The Whitey Herzog disciples will forever yearn for the days when Cardinals players of the 1980s slapped the ball into play and ran like the wind around the bases, but those days have long since passed. And they aren’t coming back anytime soon, at least not as long as the Cardinals furnish a lineup with five batters who can hit 20 or more homeruns.

So while the Cardinals style of play might not be terribly exciting on the basepaths, nearly every other aspect of their play is good enough that they will likely once again be playoff contenders come September.

With catchers Salvador Perez and Manny Pina being out for 2-3 months with knee injuries, the Kansas City Royals made a trade Tuesday, acquiring catcher Humberto Quintero and outfielder Jason Bourgeois from the Houston Astros for minor league left-hander Kevin Chapman and a player to be named later. To make room for the newest Royals, the team put Perez and Pina on the 60-day disabled list.

Ever since Perez’s injury, the Royals expressed interest to acquire a catcher outside the organization. There were rumors the Royals invited Ivan Rodriguez to camp, but it ended up being just rumors. Instead, the Royals went the trade route, getting Quintero.

The 32 year-old Quintero is a nine-year major league veteran, playing for the San Deigo Padres from 2003-2004 and with the Houston Astros from 2005-2011. He’s been a career backup catcher, appearing in 379 games. Quintero appeared in 88 games in 2010, the most he’s played in a season.

Quintero’s career line is .234/.268/.321, so the Royals didn’t get him for his hitting. They got him for catching and throwing ability and his major league experience. For now, Quintero expects to play two to four days a week, splitting playing time with Brayan Pena.

It was clear the Royals didn’t see Max Ramirez as a solution, despite his good spring offensive numbers. In fact, Ramirez only started a handful of spring training games as a catcher, so the Royals didn’t have much faith in his catching abilities. Cody Clark doesn’t have major league catching experience and it’s likely the Royals believe Clark would be a better fit for AAA Omaha, where they also need catching help.

There is one concern and hopefully it’s a minor one. This spring, Quintero was out with a bulging disk in his back but returned to action over the weekend. At least it’s not his knee.

As for Bourgeois, the 30 year-old outfielder has four years in the majors, playing for the Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and Astros. Bourgeois played 192 major league games in his career with a .262/.307/.324 line with 431 plate appearances and 22 RBIs. His speed and versatility are his main assets, with 46 career stolen bases, with 31 of those in 2011. Bourgeois also hits well against left-handers, with a .328 batting average compared to .205 against right-handers.

Bourgeois is not a everyday player, so Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain and Jeff Francoeur have little to worry about. But with his versatility of playing all outfield positions and some second base, players like Mitch Meier and Jarrod Dyson have some competition for the reserve outfielder job. Who knows, maybe Manager Ned Yost might have Bourgeois in the second base mix between Johnny Giavotella, Chris Getz and Yuni Betancourt. It is spring training after all.

Probably not. The Royals see Bourgeois as a right-handed reserve outfielder who’s a cross between Meier and Dyson. The odd man out in this situation could be Dyson, who bats from the left side but doesn’t have the versatility of a Bourgeois.

Both Bourgeois and Dyson have options remaining, so it’s likely one of them makes the Opening Day roster and the other one goes to Omaha. If Bourgeois goes to Omaha, he would serve as outfield depth in case someone get injured. If Dyson goes to Omaha, he would get more playing time, perhaps improving his chances of developing into an everyday outfielder. If either player makes the Royals roster, it will be as a reserve outfielder.

The Astros get Chapman, a 24 year-old left-handed relief pitcher who played two seasons with A+ Wilmington and AA Northwest Arkansas. His career ERA is high at 5.06, and he gave up 9.1 hits per nine innings. But his strikeouts per nine innings is 12.4, so Chapman gets a lot of strikeouts. Chapman projects to be a reliever if he makes it to the majors. And that could be soon, since he’s with the Astros.

The other player the Astros get is our old friend player to be named later. It’s uncertain who it is, but according to Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow, this player was a big reason the Astros did the trade. Don’t worry, Royals fans, it’s doubtful the PTBNL are either outfielders Bubba Starling, Wil Myers or pitcher Jake Odorizzi. It better not be, if Dayton Moore wants to keep his job. And if Royals fans want to keep their sanity.

Quintero and Bourgeois are not long-term solutions for the Royals. Quintero was acquired to fill the gap of Perez and Pina being gone for half the season and Bourgeois was acquired to provide outfield depth and perhaps give Dyson and Meier some competition as a reserve outfielder. For now, they fill some holes, if nothing else.

“What might have been?” Four sadder words were never uttered by a sports fan, and we all know a story for which those words fit.

Look no further than Bo Jackson, his career in both football and baseball cut short by a horrific hip injury. Or Gale Sayers, the most electrifying runner in football before knee injuries in back-to-back seasons stole his ability at just 26 years of age.

The most graceful, powerful, gifted of athletes are not immune to injury, and few things are more tragic than when an immense talent is neutralized by such an injury.

Baseball, like all sports, has countless numbers of such stories. Well documented in recent years is the plight of Mark Prior, one of the most coveted of pitching prospects in history. Prior was Stephen Strasburg before the media hype. He signed an enormous rookie contract, dominated every level of his rise to the major leagues and was set for stardom at age 22 when injuries began plaguing him. Now 30, he hasn’t pitched in a major league game since the age of 25.

Strasburg is now in the same boat as Prior, battling to return from Tommy John surgery at just 22.

The Royals regrettably have their own “what might have been” story. A name burned not only into the minds of older Royals fans but one forever etched in the team’s Hall of Fame, Steve Busby fell victim to arm injuries when he was poised to become the Royals’ first great pitcher.

The Royals drafted Busby out of USC in 1971, where he’d attended originally because of a dream of playing football. Injuries had already plagued Busby. A high school knee injury proved a red flag to the San Francisco Giants, who drafted him in 1967. They reduced their contractual offer to Busby, prompting him to elect to go to college. The injury also nixed his plans to play football.

When Busby arrived in Kansas City in 1972, the ace of the staff was Dick Drago, who’d been the mainstay of the Royals’ staff since the team’s inception in 1969. Drago had accumulated a record of 49-56 over the team’s first four seasons. Paul Splittorff was establishing his role in the rotation, having gone 20-22 over his first couple of campaigns. Busby joined the team in September and notched a 3-1 record, including a complete game victory in his debut. In five starts he posted a 1.58 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 40 innings.

The team was on the verge of contention, and Busby fit right in with the other two young starters. In 1973, the team shot to 88-74 and Busby, at just 23, recorded a 16-15 mark and a 4.23 ERA. Busby’s WAR was 2.9 that season, and he probably wouldn’t have garnered much attention, were it not for a start against the Detroit Tigers on April 27. Busby became one of the youngest players to throw a no-hitter. Busby walked 6, struck out 4 and bested Jim Perry for just the fifth win of his young career.

In 1974, with a year under his belt and a fastball/slider combination clicking, Busby became the Royals’ biggest star. He was named an All-Star and led the team with a 22-14 record. His WAR of 6.1 was by far the team’s highest. But it was on June 19 in Milwaukee that Busby made history by throwing his second no-hitter, allowing just one walk in a 2-0 win over Clyde Wright and the Brewers.

Only 27 pitchers have thrown two no-hitters to this day, and at the time only 22 had thrown two. That day, Busby became the first pitcher to throw no-hitters in each of his first two full seasons.

One red flag during the 1974 season was that Busby threw 20 complete games and 292 innings. While not abnormally high totals for that time, Busby tended to throw a lot of pitches in his outings.

1975 was another All-Star season for Busby. The team rebounded to 91-71 and Busby went 18-12 with a 3.08 ERA, and his WAR was again 6.1, far exceeding anyone else on the pitching staff. He pitched 260 innings and 18 more complete games that season.

Winning 90 games and their first division championship, 1976 was a glorious season for the Royals. But it proved disastrous for Busby. He said he first noticed a lack of strength in his shoulder during the 1975 season, and it grew progressively worse. After just 13 starts in 1976, Busby was diagnosed with a “rotator cuff tear.”

At the time, surgery for such an injury was unheard of. Legendary doctor Frank Jobe advised that Busby attempt to “throw through it” because surgery was a last option. But finally, Busby had no choice but to go under the knife – the first “rotator cuff surgery” – and he was forced to watch as the Royals reached the playoffs for the first time.

By that time, the team had several established stars, led by George Brett and Hal McRae who battled down the stretch for the batting title. Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, Doug Bird and Al Fitzmorris took up the slack in the rotation that season.

The team went on to win 102 games in 1977, with additions of pitchers Jim Colburn, Larry Gura and others. Busby meanwhile rehabbed and threw a three-inning trial in Daytona that season.

In spite of their success, the Royals did not give up on Busby. He attempted to return to the team’s rotation in 1978, making five starts. He also pitched in 14 minor league contests en route to recovery.

1979 looked promising for Busby. He pitched in 22 games, 12 as a starter, and went 6-6 with a 3.63 ERA.

But the shoulder just wasn’t what it used to be, and in the Royals’ World Series run of 1980 Busby could only manage a 1-3 record in 11 games. He pitched well in eight starts in Omaha that season, but sadly the Royals finally gave him his release on August 29, just before the playoffs. He was just short of his 31^st birthday.

Busby did attempt one last comeback, signing a contract with St. Louis in January of 1981. But he never pitched in another game. Busby has since worked in broadcasting and worked in baseball instruction. He was enshrined in the inaugural class of the Royals Hall of Fame in the 1986.

Busby dispels the legend that he often threw as many as 200 pitches in a start – he guessed the most pitches he ever threw in a start was about 130, although he did pitch a 12 inning game in 1975. Busby also says that, contrary to legend, he is not the first player to be put on a “pitch count” when he attempted a comeback. He says that was common for players who were recovering from injury.

Busby admits that if he had come along after medical advancements had been made on rotator cuff injuries, he would have stood a much greater chance of returning from the injury. He says that had doctors known then what they know today, he wouldn’t have let the condition go undiagnosed for nearly as long, that he wouldn’t have done such great injury to the shoulder by trying to press through it, and his recovery would have been aided by improved rehabilitation techniques.

While the Royals rose to their greatest heights following Busby’s best seasons, he was the team’s first pitching star. Throwing no-hitters and going to All-Star games before the age of 26, the sky seemed to be the limit for him. Had he stayed healthy, Splittorff, Leonard and others might have looked to him as their ace.

By age 25, Busby had a record of 59-42. Busby’s 6.1 WAR total, which he posted in both 1974 and 1975, has only been bested 9 times in KC history, three times by Bret Saberhagen and by Kevin Appier, and once by Charlie Leibrandt, Mark Gubicza, David Cone, and Zack Greinke.

Had Busby been able to pitch on the great Royals teams of 1976 to 1985, who knows what kind of numbers he could have posted?

But like Prior, Mark Fidrych, Kerry Wood and others, injuries robbed him of his effectiveness at an all-too-early age. Every team has its “what could have been” story, and sadly, Busby is the Royals’.