Troy Glaus, Brian Barden, Joe Thurston, Mark DeRosa, David Freese, Pedro Feliz. All these men have manned third base since the Cardinals traded away Scott Rolen before the 2008 season. Rolen’s trade (for the aforementioned Glaus) ended six years of stellar play, frustrating injury, and conflict with management. Let’s take a look back at the Rolen Years in St Louis.

Prologue. Rolen was a superstar in Philadelphia, the 1996 Rookie of the Year and widely seen as the heir to Philie great Michael Jack Schmidt. Scott had become increasingly frustrated with the Phillies’ lack of success on the diamond, and around 2000 began to complain Philadelphia was not committed to winning. He also started a verbal sparring match with Larry Bowa, his manager, over a variety of things. Before the 2002 season he was offered a 10-year/$140 million deal to stay with Philadelphia for the rest of his career. He signed a one-year deal for $8.6M instead, and made it clear he would become a free agent after that season.

Rolen,born in Jasper Indiana, was a Cardinal fan growing up. The Cardinal third sacker in 2002 was Placido Polanco, who was competent on both sides of the ball but didn’t possess the power Rolen did. With it now obvious Rolen would be moving on from The City of Brotherly Love speculation grew he was headed to St Louis. The Cardinals did indeed get him, trading Polanco, Mike Timlin, and Bud Smith to Philadelphia on July 29, 2002. Rolen made his Cardinal debut the next day, and his St Louis debut on August 6 to a prolonged standing ovation.

2002-2004: Stellar Play. The Cardinals led the NL Central by 5 games on July 29, and were playing .569 ball. They played .650 ball after acquiring Rolen and won the Central title, finishing 13 games ahead of Houston. Rolen hit 14 HR and posted a .915 OPS in his 55 regular season games, solidifying an already dangerous lineup. In the playoffs, the Cardinals avenged their NLDS loss to Arizona the year before with a series sweep. In what was a harbinger of things to come, however, the club lost Rolen for the season in Game 2 when he and Diamondback Chad Moeller collided between second and third while Rolen was attempting to field a slow ground ball in the seventh inning. Rolen injured his left shoulder on the play.

Still, it was an auspicious start with the Cardinals. In 2003 he carried his .910 OPS pace for the entire season, hitting 49 doubles, 28 HR, and posting a .286/.382/.528 line in 154 games. He also led the majors in UZR and was second by 0.1 point in UZR/150.

In 2004 the Cardinals were picked to finish third in their division, behind the defending champion Cubs, and Houston. Things did not quite work out that way. Leading the early charge was Rolen, who got off to an absolutely blistering start. As of Memorial Day he was hitting .348, with an 1.032 OPS and 13 HR. At the break he’d slowed down a little bit, having only added 5 more homers, but he was still slugging .600 and was the leading candidate for NL MVP.

Assisted by his MV3 (as they later came to be called) compadres Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds, the Cardinals took over first place on 11 June, and after a memorable comeback win at Wrigley on July 20 simultaneously led the Division by 9.5 games and broke the Cubs. Their lead eventually ballooned to 17 games on 7 September.

Three days after their divisional lead reached its zenith, the Cardinals were in Los Angeles to start a 3-game set with the NL West leading Dodgers. In the top of the third Rolen fouled a ball off his shin. Innocuous enough. He then hit a bases-clearing double to give the Cardinals the lead. In actuality he had severely bruised the shin with the foul, and running out the double aggravated it. Rolen came out of the game the next half-inning and missed 18-games in September.

He struggled to get his timing back the last 6 games of the regular season and went oh for 12 against those same Dodgers in the NLDS. MVP-Rolen returned against the Astros in the NLCS, where he hit 3 HR, including an epic 2-run shot off Roger Clemens to give the Cardinals the lead for good in Game 7. Sadly that was his last hit of the year, as he went 0-15 in the World Series while the Cardinals got swept by Boston.

Still, in the 2+ years after the trade St Louis had advanced to the NLCS twice and the World Series once, and Scott Rolen was key to that success.

2005-2007: Frustration. 2005 started very slowly for Rolen. He hit only 4 HR in his first 30 games, and although his OBP was still high he was only slugging .453. On 10 May while running out a slow grounder to the pitcher, Rolen collided with Dodger first baseman Hee-Seop Choi on the first base line. While bracing for the collision Rolen turned his shoulder into Choi, and although no obvious injury could be seen on the replay it did significant damage. The Cardinals placed him on the DL after the game, and he had surgery on the ailing shoulder. Rolen returned to the lineup on 18 June, but over the next 26 games he hit no home runs, only 5 doubles, and looked lost at the plate. The Cardinals shut down Rolen for the season on July 21, and he underwent a second surgery to repair the shoulder.

As 2006 unfolded, it appeared the surgeries had worked. Rolen rebounded in 2006 from the 2005 setbacks, and looked like his old self. After homering on July 2, he had 12 HR on the year and was chugging along with a .992 OPS. He hit 10 more homers the rest of the way, but began to struggle driving the ball, as his OPS fell over 200 points from that 2 July high. More ominously, the first signs of problems between himself and manager Tony LaRussa began to appear in the media. LaRussa sat Rolen for a 21 Sept game against the Astros, which Rolen characterized as ‘a benching’. The feud continued to simmer through the Cardinals’ improbable run to the World Series Championship.

In that post-season, he again struggled in the NLDS, only getting one hit against the San Diego Padres. He went 0-3 in Game 1 of the NLCS and did not start in Game 2. After that, he caught fire. Rolen ended with a 10-game hitting streak, slugged .541, and homered in Game 1 of the World Series.

Whatever mistrust and hard feelings existed between he and LaRussa continued to fester, and the weakness that surfaced in Rolen’s shoulder the second half of 2006 continued to linger. He got off to a slow start in 2007 and never really got going. He only hit 8 home runs on the year, and after 112 games with a .265/.331/.398 he finally came out of the lineup and was placed on the DL 2 September. He underwent the knife for a third time on 11 Sept, which cleared out scar tissue that had built up, among other things. Most observers began to doubt Scott Rolen would play much longer for the Cardinals. The end came faster than expected.

That winter LaRussa sent Rolen a letter detailing what he expected out of the former All-Star in 2008. The contents of the letter are not known even today, but whatever was said did not sit well with Scott. It became clear the two men could not c0-exist in the same locker room. Faced with the choice of removing his manager or trading his now 0ft-injured third baseman, the Cardinals GM John Mozeliak opted for the trade. The Scott Rolen Era ended on 14 Jan 2008, when he was traded to Toronto for Glaus in a straight-up swap of third basemen recovering from injury.

Epilogue. Rolen played only 88 games for Toronto before being dealt to Cincinnati at the 2009 trade deadline. Walt Jocketty, who had been the Cardinals GM that traded for Rolen in 2002, was now the Reds GM and willing to try again. Rolen played 40 games for the Reds in 2009, then resurrected his career in 2010. His 129 OPS+ last season was his highest since 2004, and his veteran leadership was again key to a team’s success as the Reds made a surprise run to the NL Central championship. Scott will again man third for the Reds in 2011.

Rolen should be remembered as the second-best third baseman to date to play for St Louis. In his 6 seasons with the Cardinals he won 3 Gold Gloves and was an All-Star 4 times. Rolen had his highest career OPS while with the team (.879), he hit 111 home runs, and was the pre-eminent defensive third baseman of the time. Only injuries were able to slow him down. If he had not lost 2.5 seasons fighting the shoulder issues, he may well have passed Ken Boyer and become the best third baseman ever to play for St Louis.

There was hope the unsettled third base situation, a situation that hurt St Louis on both sides of the ball in 2009, would resolve itself in the person of David Freese. Sadly things didn’t quite work out that way.

In 2009 the Cardinals entered spring training with Troy Glaus as their third baseman. He played exactly 14 games. David Freese came up to man the position after Glaus went down with a shoulder injury, and tore up his ankle. He played 17 games. Queue the revolving door: with Brian Barden, Mark DeRosa, Joe Thurston, and Khalil Greene all taking a turn at the hot corner. Cardinal third baseman put up the worst offensive numbers of their position players (.229/.292/.369); even the pinch hitters had a better line (.221/.306/.385). Had to get better in 2010, right?

Not so much. Cardinal third sackers weren’t the weakest offensive link in 2010 – that distinction went to the shortstops. And they did out-perform the pinch-hitters (.260/.317/.338 to .229/.307./.316). But as a group they still did not bring much offense to the table, and certainly did not bring the power numbers expected from the position.

As in 2009, a number of men manned the position in 2010.

David Freese returned after his 2009 ankle injury healed, and started 66 games at third for the Cardinals. He hit the best of the third baseman, posting a .298/.362/.409 line, but was a little below average (-4 runs saved on the Dewan scale) defensively. Freese suffered a bone bruise to his right ankle in a 5 June home game against the Brewers, and it hobbled him to the point where he had to go on the DL. Then he fractured his left big toe while on the DL, and sustained a lower right leg injury during his rehab assignment. On August 3 he learned he actually had a torn tendon in the ankle and would need surgery to fix it, ending his 2010 season.

Felipe Lopez was signed to be a super utilityman but ended up starting 51 games at third. Defensively he graded out slightly better than Freese (-2 runs saved on the Dewan scale). Offensively he started off very well, posting OPS+ of 111 and 133 the first two months of the season. When pressed into service as the everyday third baseman, however, his production suffered. Lopez’s last two OPS+ numbers were under 50.

In his defense, Felipe aggravated a chronic elbow injury pitching one inning during St Louis’ 20 inning loss to the Mets. He spent some time on the DL as a result, and although he returned to full duty the elbow continued to bedevil him throughout the rest of the season. Eventually some clubhouse discord surfaced involving Lopez, and he was sent home with 2 weeks left.

The Cardinals acquired Pedro Feliz August 19 for minor leaguer David Carpenter, two weeks after Freese’s season-ending surgery was announced. It was telling the Cardinals felt they had upgraded at third by adding Feliz, who had been wholly unremarkable offensively with the Astros (.221/.243/.311 in 97 games). Feliz played some reasonable defense but continued to be a liability at the plate, posting a .208/.232/.250 line in 125 PA with the Cardinals. He started 30 games at third.

These three men accounted for 91% of the Cardinal starts at third. Tony LaRussa started 4 other players there: Daniel Descalso (9 starts), Tyler Greene (5), Aaron Miles (twice), and Allen Craig (once). Miles’ two starts were behind Adam Wainwright and Jamie Garcia; the Cardinals lost both games. One can only surmise LaRussa pulled part of his lineup out of a hat those two days, because Miles has played 24 games at third in a career spanning almost 800 games. Craig’s one start was 15 August behind Kyle Lohse, and the Cardinals lost that day too. Freese was lost for the season, Lopez in a huge funk, and the game was 4 days before Feliz was acquired; perhaps LaRussa figured what the heck. Greene started 7 games in 2009 at third, but is primarily a shortstop, and didn’t get much action at third this past season until September.

Descalso began his minor league career at third, but has mostly played second base and short during his ascent through the Cardinal system. Called up in September, he got a couple of week look in the lineup, which included those 9 starts at third. Of all the players who manned the position after Freese went down he’s the most intriguing, since he is only 24 and probably blocked at his primary positions by Brendan Ryan and Skip Schumaker (although the Cardinals might find a new player at second this off-season). It’s hard to evaluate his hitting over 37 PA. He had one 4-hit game against Pittsburgh, then endured a 2 for 21 funk before closing the season with 3 hits in his last 7 at bats.

Looking ahead to 2011, Lopez is gone, Feliz is a free agent, and Freese should be fully recovered. Descalso could be an option at third, but most likely will be a bench player if he makes the team. The Cardinals either have to hope Freese can stay healthy for a whole season or look to upgrade the position either through trade or free agent signing.