The St. Louis Cardinals, according to many sources, seem to be searching for starting pitching.

The one thing the team has made sure that everyone is well aware of is the depth of starting pitching in this organization.  If that is true, then why the search for another arm in the rotation?

According to Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post Dispatch, it appears the team feels the need for more innings in the rotation.  The loss of Chris Carpenter, the concern over Jaime Garcia, and the unknown of what kind of workload the young arms can carry has the team willing to add a known “inning eating” commodity.  Most recently, that interest has shown in the Tigers Rick Porcello.

Should the concern be warranted?  Adam Wainwright is now two springs removed from Tommy John surgery and projected to be back to his normal self.  The Jake Westbrook trade and subsequent signing was based off of his ability to pitch a high number of innings.  The Cardinals have not had two pitchers with over 200 innings just once in the last 26 years, as pointed out by friend of the site Jon Doble.

Looking at trends over the last three years for the projected six men battling for the five spots in the rotation, the concern does come through.

Wainwright was injured the entire 2011 season, having a large impact on his three year average of 143 innings pitched.  If we remove the injury season and go back a year further, his average jumps up to 220 innings.  The concern is whether or not his arm can carry that load again, but for the sake of argument in this space, I give him the benefit of the doubt.  Innings Based On Average: 220

Westbrook was brought in to solve the issue of innings pitched.  Despite nagging injuries the last few years, he has approached the 200 inning plateau, though he has not reached it.  His 2010 season was split between the Indians and the Cardinals, but was still a productive one.  His average places him second in this discussion, though he is probably the number three man in the rotation.  Innings Based On Average: 187

Garcia, the wild card of the bunch, has seen injuries and ineffectiveness effect him during his major league career.  At times, he has been a dominant, top-of-the-rotation type pitcher.  At others, he has been sporadic and wild, projecting more at the back of the rotation.  Last season was the worst in his three year average, only producing a little more than 121 innings.  So far this Spring, it appears he has righted the ship and is back on pace to be a big part of this team.  Innings Based On Average: 166

Lance Lynn is a bit harder to project based on his limited exposure at the Major League level.  Many tend to forget that he was a starter during his minor league career, however, and the three year projection goes back to grab an entire year of starting at the Triple-A level.  His average is hurt by his time in the bullpen in St. Louis in 2011, but is still respectable for a guy entering his second year in a big league rotation. Innings Based On Average: 150

The final spot in the rotation will be left to either Joe Kelly or Shelby Miller.  Kelly is the easiest to examine in this conversation, thanks to his production filling in for Garcia last season.  His workload reached a peak due to the need for him in the big league rotation last year and leaves the Cardinals hopeful that he can repeat that performance but concerned that he may have pushed too hard, too soon.  It is also important to note that his 2010 season saw him work out of the bullpen in Class-A ball for a period of time. Innings Based On Average: 138

Shelby Miller has everyone buzzing.  He ranks as one of the top ten prospects in all of Major League Baseball and the team and fans are both excited to see what he can do on the biggest stage.  He gave everyone a glimpse of his potential at the end of last season.  He may be the biggest unknown in this situation and he may also offer a saving grace.  He projects as a top of the rotation starter and will be relied upon throughout his career and that time may come as soon as this season.  Innings Based On Average: 131

The ultimate equation that you would like to apply to an ideal situation is to break up the innings based on quality starts.  A quality start requires six innings pitched from the starter and there are 162 games in the major league season.  That puts most teams looking for 972 innings from their starting rotation in a perfect world.  The Cardinals rotation will fall well short of that goal based off of these projections. Innings For Rotation Based On Average: 854-861

That leaves the team about 110 innings short of where they would like to be.  The name that is driving the most attention right now is Rick Porcello, who’s three year average puts him at 183 innings.  Even if he was slotted to fill the five spot in the rotation, this gains the Cardinals around 50 innings.  A drastic improvement but not one that reaches their goal.

The Cardinals are relying on one of the pitchers in their rotation to overachieve their average and the addition of Porcello, or someone similar, to pick up the remainder of the balance.

Ultimately, the move may not be necessary but at the same time, it is not a bad one.  Assuming the team doesn’t have to part with any key components of the future, a trade for Porcello makes a whole lot of sense once you take a look at the numbers.

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

The St. Louis Cardinals have used three weeks of spring training to find their likely middle infielders for the upcoming season, but one big decision remains as to who will take the fifth spot in the starting rotation. Fortunately, the Cardinals should be in good shape regardless of who they choose.

Three contestants began the battle for the final starting spot at the beginning of spring training, and the Cardinals have already eliminated one contender. They told Trevor Rosenthal last week he would not make the rotation, but he would likely have a prominent spot in the bullpen.

So that leaves Joe Kelly and Shelby Miller to fight for that last spot. Not coincidentally, the Cardinals plan to have both pitch Thursday against the Atlanta Braves in a game that will most likely be the Cardinals final evaluation before they make their decision.

Kelly has made two starts so far this year. He went two innings in each outing and gave up just one run combined. However, his control has been erratic, and he has walked five batters in those four innings.

Miller has also pitched twice this spring, but just one was a start. He’s given up three runs combined, but he’s also walked just one hitter.

Cardinals management said earlier in the week that a decision is near because the winner would need the next three starts to build stamina for the regular season, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The odds favor Kelly for several reasons. He is two years older and has more experience in the starting rotation. Kelly made 16 starts last year, while Miller just came up in September to make a token two starts.

Miller is also a higher-rated prospect who the Cardinals hope becomes a cornerstone of the rotation long into the future. And although Miller has looked impressive in everything he’s done at the big-league level, the Cardinals have been burned plenty of times by bringing up a young pitcher who could’ve used a little more time in the minors.

And that’s where Miller figures to go if he doesn’t win the job. Kelly pitched eight times last year as a long reliever, and he could easily slide back and fortify the bullpen again. However, the Cardinals already have Rosenthal, Fernando Salas, Edward Mujica, Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte as solid righthanded relievers they can bring in to shut down a game. Kelly would likely be wasted in mop-up duty if he went to the bullpen.

The bullpen also wouldn’t be the best spot for Miller because he is going to need to establish the stamina necessary to pitch as a starter for an entire season. He is much more likely to rack up innings with the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds than in long relief out of the Cardinals bullpen.

Either way, Thursday will probably be one of the most interesting days of the Cardinals 2013 spring training.

This is what spring training is all about. Two players came into camp knowing they had to perform well to win a job, and one of them will likely walk off the mound Thursday at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., as part of one of the most exclusive clubs in St. Louis: the Cardinals starting rotation.

In a spring training that has included worries about contract negotiations and the health of starting pitchers, the stability of a right elbow ligament for a position player could be the St. Louis Cardinals’ biggest problem as games get underway.

Shortstop Rafael Furcal received an anti-inflammatory shot in his injured elbow Friday to help ease discomfort created by a bone spur, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Furcal tore a ligament in the elbow Aug. 30 in a game against the Washington Nationals, and he chose to forego surgery in favor of rehab during the offseason. But that decision could come back to haunt Furcal and the Cardinals for the 2013 season.

Furcal has yet to throw or take lefthanded at-bats during camp, and he didn’t sound optimistic about his condition Thursday.

“It still hurts, a lot, when I’m throwing,” Furcal said.

That is very bad news for a Cardinals team that doesn’t have a solid backup option at shortstop.

Pete Kozma played well at the end of last season, but that was a flash of brilliance in an otherwise mediocre career spent languishing in the minor leagues, and the Cardinals have been reluctant to put much faith in Kozma as a major part of the solution at shortstop.

But other than Kozma, the Cardinals are in a world of hurt in one of the most important positions on the field. They signed Ronny Cedeno during the offseason, but he has a career batting average of .247 and hasn’t been able to stick even with bad teams such as the Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets.

The Cardinals looked at making a move for a shortstop during the offseason and reportedly inquired about trading for Cleveland Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera.

Cabrera would be an excellent fit with the Cardinals and would fill a position of need, but other teams know the Cardinals are loaded with good, young pitching, and their asking prices are very high.

The Cardinals understandably don’t want to park with their treasure trove of pitching. Pitching and defense are what generally win championships, and decent hitters are usually easier to find than pitchers who can provide productive innings.

But because Furcal didn’t undergo surgery when he first injured his elbow, the Cardinals are in quite a bind just a month before the regular season begins.

Obviously, the decision to have surgery is ultimately that of the player, and the team likely has significant input, but right now the decision to try and rehab rather than have surgery is creating some anxious moments in spring training camp as Furcal struggles to heal enough to play.

Furcal also has a history of injuries that threatened to derail his career. He was an all-star-caliber shortstop with the Atlanta Braves during the first six years of his career, but he has not played more than 100 games in three of the last five years because of various injuries.

The Cardinals knew they were getting a fragile player when they traded for Furcal at the 2011 trading deadline, and they got quite a bit of production from him before the injury. Furcal has been a .259 hitter with 176 hits in 171 games played in the year and a half he’s been a Cardinals player, but the elbow injury is looking like it could be a problem longer than just the next couple of weeks.

So if Furcal can’t start the season, the Cardinals will have to make a decision just as important as Furcal’s decision about having surgery. They will have to make a deal to get a shortstop, which likely would cost highly regarded pitching prospects, or they’ll have to hope a Kozma-Cedeno platoon at shortstop is good enough to make the playoffs.

Otherwise, the Cardinals could have another one of those incredibly frustrating situations when they count on a player to eventually get healthy, and he never does.

That has happened repeatedly with Cardinals pitchers throughout the years, and it usually results in a not-so-great season because the team didn’t make necessary changes while hoping the injured player would return.

Hopefully, shortstop isn’t the Cardinals’ downfall this year, but it is already the position that will cause the most anxiety this spring.

The St. Louis Cardinals opened camp on Tuesday morning with the traditional pitchers and catchers workouts.  It did not take long for the first quote to fire up the fan base to come out.

Lance Lynn has arrived at camp looking fit having dropped a reported 40 pounds.  He has successfully avoided using the phrase “best shape of my life”, is on the heels of an 18 win season, and addressed the one thing that critics had for him last year by improving his offseason diet to hopefully address the fatigue that set in at the end of 2013.  In the midst of losing starter Chris Carpenter and the buzz around three young rookies hoping for a rotation spot, Lynn is a bright spot in early camp.

Then, on Tuesday morning during a media scrum, a quote came flying out from Lance Lynn.  It may or may not be “out of context”, but it seemed to fire up the fanbase pretty quickly.  Via Twitter, beat writer Jenifer Langosch shared Lynn’s thoughts on the rotation competition this spring:

Lynn on rotation competition: "I was an 18-game winner last yr w/ an All-Star appearance. I have to do a lot of things to lose a spot, IMO."

February 12, 2013 8:49 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@LangoschMLB

Jenifer Langosch

It is easy to see how that could rub some fans wrong.  That is not the way players tend to act around St. Louis.  Players that have been in the league for years, won multiple awards, and are solidified in their positions for years to come say “I’m here competing for my spot on the team”.  It shows a cockiness and brash attitude that this team, and it’s fans, are not accustomed to hearing.

The question here is: was it really wrong to say?

He is right, isn’t he?  I would say, due to the news of Chris Carpenter’s injury, that Lynn’s spot in the rotation is his to lose and in order to lose it, he would have to collapse pretty hard this spring.  His season last year was impressive, especially considering the second half issues he ran into.  The work he has already put in to attempt to fix that part of his game deserves accolades.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch ran an article on Tuesday as well, discussing Lynn with his manager.  Matheny had high praise for his starter and his offseason work.  The manager also had this to say about early perceptions that Lynn was not guaranteed a spot in the rotation this year:

“I know (that) made Lance a little frustrated,” said Matheny “I told him, ‘We want you coming in competing for a spot. We don’t want you rolling in thinking this is yours.’”

It is not easy to say if there is a right or wrong here.  Some will say “Carp would have never said anything like this.”  Others will point out that Lance Berkman was a breath of fresh air and would tend to be brutally honest with the media and the fans.  It is easy to see that type of quote being attributed to Berkman and fans would have applauded his honesty.  So why the outrage that Lynn is doing so?  Is it because of his age?

I freely admit that my immediate reaction was negative.  I don’t like it.  I don’t want a young player who, in my mind, still has some things to prove to sound so cocky.  I want him to talk about working hard to prove that last year was not a fluke.  I also admit that this is a personal preference.  Personally, I don’t like what Lynn said.  However, I also don’t feel what he said was incorrect.

The basic thought is there: an All Star pitcher made a statement that most of us were already thinking.

Is there anything really wrong with that?

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

The St. Louis Cardinals made several changes to their coaching staff this week before free agency gets started. That’s not huge news, but it might be more than the team changes to its player roster during the offseason.

Hitting coach Mark McGwire said Friday he will take the same position with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cardinals also announced earlier in the week that bullpen coach Dyar Miller had not been offered a contract to stay with the team.

The team will replace Miller with Blaise Ilsley, who had been the pitching coach for the AAA-affiliate Memphis Redbirds, and it is expected to promote John Mabry next week from assistant hitting coach to McGwire’s old position as hitting coach, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The team will likely fill the assistant hitting coach position with someone already in the organization.

But don’t expect a similar amount of changes to the Cardinals roster during the offseason.

The Cardinals offered a $13.3-million qualifying offer Friday to starting pitcher Kyle Lohse, but it would be shocking to see Lohse accept that offer or remain with the team heading into 2013. Lohse’s value is very high right now given his 16-3 record in 2012 and a weak free agent class.

But other than Lohse, the Cardinals will likely trot out a team very similar to the 2012 squad. Lance Berkman won’t return, but every other position player on the team’s regular postseason lineup is under contract for next year.

Following the Cardinals disappointing seven-game loss to the San Francisco Giants in the National League Championship Series, many people have trumpeted the need for improvements at the shortstop and second-base positions.

However, those yearnings for new faces up the middle might be misguided.

Assuming his elbow is healthy heading into Spring Training, Rafeal Furcal should be back for the start of the 2013 season. Regardless if people think he is the best possible solution, he is an accomplished veteran who can handle the position. That takes care of shortstop, and Pete Kozma can be Furcal’s back up.

Many also seem to think Kozma was a one-hit wonder down the stretch last season, which he very well might be, but he certainly played well enough while in the big leagues to earn serious consideration as the team’s back-up shortstop.

That is also a much cheaper scenario than signing a mid-level free agent such as Stephen Drew or Alex Gonzalez.

Second base is a tad more tricky. Skip Schumaker did not play well in the second half of the season, but he is still under contract for next season and has proven in the past that he can be an everyday starter. Daniel Descalso is the best fielder on the team besides Yadier Molina, but his surge at the plate in the postseason will have to become his norm for him to hold the second-base job for an entire season.

The Cardinals also have highly touted prospect Kolten Wong, who will have a shot to play second base for the Cardinals, perhaps as soon as 2013. Even if he needs more time in the minor leagues, he figures to be the team’s long-term plan at that position.

Maybe a veteran could fill the spot until Wong is ready, but this year’s free agent class at second base includes players such as Placido Polanco, Marco Scutaro and Adam Kennedy. The Cardinals have already had Polanco and Kennedy earlier in their careers, and both are surely in the final steps of their careers.

Scutaro might be an option. He played great for the Giants this year, hitting .362 in 61 games after he was traded mid-season from the Colorado Rockies, but he is a career .276 hitter. That’s not bad, but Schumaker is a career .288 hitter and does a fine job defensively.

All of that means the team that sneaked into the playoffs, made a miracle comeback to win the division series in the playoffs and missed the World Series by one game will likely be the same team that takes the field on Opening Day 2013.

Changes are always interesting and exciting, but St. Louis fans probably won’t have many of those feelings this winter.

The current team, with supposedly full seasons from Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter and a large group of talented, young pitchers, already has the pieces to create expectations that it should at minimum be in strong playoff contention at the end of the season.

One year ago, Cardinal Nation tasted the very definition of bittersweet as the team reveled in its 11th—and inarguably most dramatic and improbable—World Series Championship while also saying goodbye to Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan, the outgoing brain trust of so much on-the-field success over a decade and a half in St. Louis. Their departure set in motion a transfer of eras to new manager Mike Matheny, and on Friday another big chunk of that transfer disappeared from the Busch Stadium landscape and headed west.

As reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire is expected to depart for the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he will assume the same role under manager Don Mattingly. McGwire cited a desire to be closer to his family as the reason for the move.

It’s hard to know just what a hitting coach contributes to a major league team. He does not teach players to hit—they have to know how to do that before they get past Double-A. He can’t provide a magic bullet to kill a slump, or a magic potion to prolong a streak (not in this era, anyway). Certainly some combination of encouraging words, a watchful eye for changes in approach, and a general bank of knowledge to pass on to the younger generation has a lot to do with it. In the World Series film from 2011, a scene from the batting cages before Game 6—yes, that Game 6—shows David Freese horsing around a bit with McGwire and talking about his stance. McGwire tells him, “Just keep doing what you’re doing, David.” Was it a profound, Nostradamus-like vision from Big Mac? Maybe, maybe not. But it was a neat moment that perfectly framed the notion that McGwire knew what he was talking about as a coach at least some of the time. He wasn’t just the recipient of a bone tossed by La Russa, as so many surmised after the announcement of his hiring before the 2010 season.

But there was Mark McGwire the player, too, and no matter how controversial his feats as an on-the-field Cardinal were, he left an indelible mark on this great franchise in 1998. And though injuries were making it the twilight of his career, he did contribute to the playoff teams in 2000-01 that started the remarkable run the Cards had under La Russa and continue to have under Matheny. It seems odd that McGwire was in the same lineup as Albert Pujols, doesn’t it? But he was…they were teammates for Pujols’ first year as a Cardinal, and he was Pujols’ hitting coach for his last year as a Cardinal. Now that’s bookending a relationship.

And, really, McGwire did the same with the Cardinals as a whole. No one felt any closure with Big Mac after the steroid scandal broke, and we all watched uncomfortably as he painfully stood before that congressional hearing in 2005. He finally took his medicine—albeit years too late—and redeemed himself by doing his job and doing it well. He proved he deserved to be a part of the game again, and he proved he was worthy of donning the Birds on the Bat again. Both were longshots at best for almost a decade.

Maybe it is a shame that McGwire is leaving the Cardinals but still coaching. In the storybook version of this tale, he retires a Cardinal and that’s the end of it. But this is real life, and moving on to another team not only validates his desire to remain in the game; it validates the game’s desire to keep him around.

So long, Big Mac. Thanks for the memories.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

Add another body to the pile.

The St. Louis Cardinals placed lefty Jaime Garcia on the 15-day disabled list because of a shoulder strain. Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Garcia has tears in both his rotator cuff and labrum and is likely to be sidelined for at least two months. The Cards called up Joe Kelly from Triple-A Memphis to take Garcia’s turn in the rotation Sunday against the Cleveland Indians. Anything beyond that is probably semi-up in the air.

At this point, it seems like the only valid response to news like this is a shrug of the shoulders and an uninterested “What’s next?” The Cards are close to being able to field a complete disabled list team now. That this team is even one game over .500 is kind of remarkable.

Though that may not last once the Garcia injury truly hits this team. Sure it’s nice to see Kelly make his Major League debut or a guy like Brandon Dickson get a shot at a couple of turns in the rotation. But if they stumble or prove they are not ready for The Show, what happens then? Do the Cards keep bringing minor leaguers up until one sticks? Do they convert another reliever—maybe a guy like Mitchell Boggs—into a starter?

Right now, the Cardinals have three starters they can count on night in and night out: Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse, and Lance Lynn. But even they are not in ideal situations. Wainwright is still regaining form after missing all of last year, Lohse is prone to streaks of inconsistency as the season wears on, and Lynn is in his first full season as a starter. Jake Westbrook takes the ball every fifth day, but that’s about it in terms of his steadiness. This rotation has no mortal-lock rock to lean on. And that is a scary thing to think about when the season is more than two months old and it’s likely to be at least two more months until guys like Garcia or Chris Carpenter are even sniffing reactivation.

Make no mistake about it—this team is in the midst of quite possibly its greatest test of the year. The only thing that could make it worse is if Rafael Furcal, Carlos Beltran, and Yadier Molina have arms and legs start falling off. Maybe Matt Holliday, David Freese, and Jason Motte could all come down with plague at the same time, too. Would that really surprise anyone?

Man…just listing out those names and thinking about the players the Cards already have on the DL…this team really had a chance to be special, if not dominant, from wire to wire.

I know, I know. In 2006, the Cards had a similar truckload of injuries and got healthy just in time for the playoffs. In 2011, they made up 10.5 games after August 25. Anything truly is possible, and in no way should this team be given up on so early in the season.
But 2012 has all the makings of a “what if” year so far. And those are painful to deal with. Think about it. What If Holliday caught that liner in Los Angeles in 2009? What If Carpenter hadn’t been injured in 2004? What If Vince Coleman got out of the way of the tarp in 1985? And What If the 2012 Cardinals only sustained half the injuries they have to date?

Maybe the better way to look at it is, What If the Cards can get this team whole again? One thing is for certain: if they can’t, they are in serious trouble.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch included a story on St. Louis Cardinals outfield prospect Oscar Taveras. Taveras opened eyes last season when he posted the highest batting average in the Midwest League since 1956. Taveras hit .386 with an on-base percentage of .444. Manager Mike Matheny admitted the batting mark caught his eye and has given Taveras a handful of at-bats with the big club this spring.

For many years the Cardinals built their major league club through trades or free agency rather than with players the team drafted and developed in its own system. From the pennant-winning teams of the mid-2000s, Jim Edmonds, Chris Carpenter, Scott Rolen, Adam Wainwright, Jeff Suppan and Mike Matheny all came to the team via a trade or as a free agent. There were two mainstays, of course, who did come through the Cardinals system in Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina.

Now, though, it appears the Cardinals have lots of help in their farm system. In ranking the Cardinals’ system 3^rd in the major leagues, Baseball Prospectus used this line, “They’ve suddenly become a drafting and development beast, with plenty of help coming beginning in 2013.” On the current big-league team Jaime Garcia, Tyler Greene, Jon Jay, Allen Craig and Jason Motte are among the players who came through the Cards’ system.

Virtually every top-10 prospect list includes Shelby Miller, a right-handed starting pitcher out of the Lone Star State who fits the stereotypical mold of the Texas flame thrower. MLB.com puts Miller at #5 of the top-100 prospects. Predictions have Miller competing for a place in the big league rotation in spring training 2013. Carlos Martinez is another highly ranked right-handed starter. MLB.com has Martinez ranked #30 in its top-100 list. Martinez is just 20 years old and Miller is only 21.

As for position players, Zack Cox and Matt Adams are promising players for the Cardinals. Cox is a 3^rd baseman and Adams plays 1^st base. Kolten Wong is a 2^nd baseman and a product of the University of Hawaii. The team made Wong its 1^st-round draft choice in 2011. He played alongside Taveras at Quad Cities after being drafted last year and hit .335 in an abbreviated season.

It’s always exciting for fans to see players their team drafted, developed and brought through its system. Hopefully Cardinals fans will see plenty of these players in Busch Stadium in the future.

This week, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch caught up with St. Louis Cardinal catcher Yadier Molina to talk about, among other things, his contract situation. Molina’s current deal is set to expire after the 2012 season, which would make the backstop a free agent for the first time in his career.

Unfortunately, this story is starting to sound a lot like the one told by Albert Pujols leading up to his eventual departure from the Cardinals. Obviously, in situations like this one, it is expected that the player will mention that the deal is about business. When it comes to free agency, a lot of monetary figures get thrown around that most regular folks just can’t comprehend. But, to be fair, these players want to get paid what they believe they are worth. And when one team is willing to come closer to that figure than another, and the difference is significant enough to outweigh anything else, then yes—it really is all about business. It is the business of baseball. There may be feelings involved, but business is what ultimately drove Pujols to the LA Angels. And Molina is now faced with similar prospects.

But another cliché Molina tossed into the interview also matched Pujols’ cadence months earlier: the dreaded “It’s out of my hands.” Seriously…this again? Actually, Yadi, no…it is not out of your hands. It is directly in your hands. You are the player. Your performance on the field drives your worth to the Cardinals and any other team that wants to sign you. You and your agent talk about what you believe your worth is, and then you take it to these teams. Maybe you don’t directly negotiate with the team; we get that. But “It’s out of my hands?” Sorry…not buying that bill of goods again.

At any time, Molina and his agent could start throwing numbers at the Cardinals. He is due to make $7 million this year, and is only 29. He is climbing into the upper echelon of catchers’ salaries and figures to get one more lengthy deal. He is still one of the top defensive catchers in the game, remains a clutch hitter, and is a leader in the clubhouse. The cards are on the table—no pun intended. So is the old “It’s out of my hands” routine just a benign way of saying “I’ll go with whoever pays the most” or what?

It is hard to tell, really, because Molina is one of the toughest players to read. He keeps a pretty low profile when it comes to speaking out publicly. One thing mentioned in the article is that he does not plan on imposing the same Spring Training negotiating deadline Pujols did last year, which definitely helps the process. The Cardinals, for their part, have some significant salary room in 2013 but also some significant holes to fill, at least as of now. That team will need a first baseman, at least one starting pitcher (and maybe two), and some hefty arbitration raises may be due to guys like David Freese and Jason Motte. But do they still have enough room for a bigger contract for Molina? And more importantly, does Molina really want to stay in St. Louis?

Speculation that Molina may also bolt for Anaheim to join his chum began to surface before the ink on Pujols’ contract was dry. And the Angels would certainly appear to have the salary space to take on Molina or anyone else they think can get them back to a World Series. But the Cards may have an ace in the hole with Mike Matheny, Molina’s old mentor, at the helm of the team. Or maybe not. It’s entirely possible Molina already knows exactly what he wants to do, and no amount of money or personal lobbying will change that. Of course, that could be the case from either side…at least until the Mystery Team steps in.

The Cards probably shouldn’t let this one get to the free agency deadline. Molina is a core member of the Cardinals, and now represents the old guard—he’s one of the longest-tenured players on the team. And this next contract is as much in his hands as it is anyone else’s.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

Tony La Russa will be remembered for a lot of different things by a lot of different people. The man spent the better part of four decades in the Major Leagues, some as a below-average bench player, most as a Hall of Fame manager. The man won three World Series championships, becoming the second manager in history to win a title in both leagues. He won more than 27-hundred games, defended his players, and coached his players to play the right way: The Cardinal way.

I remember when Tony La Russa came to St. Louis in November of 1995. I was 10 years old, and had always liked playing and watching baseball. Growing up in St. Louis, the Cardinals were my favorite team. But I had never experienced “winning” baseball… frankly, I didn’t even really know or appreciate what it was. I remembered watching the Atlanta Braves beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1995 World Series just a month earlier at my grandpa’s house, but that was really my only real “clue” to what winning was all about. In 1994, there was no World Series due to the strike, and in 1993 my 8-year-old self was not aware of Joe Carter and his walk-off heroics in the World Series. The Cardinals hadn’t been to the playoffs since I was two-years-old (1987) so I was really kept in the dark on the whole “winning” thing.

But then came the Spring of ’96. The Cardinals’ slogan for the year was “Baseball Like it ‘Oughta Be.” I vividly remember a full-page ad the Cardinals’ new ownership took out in the St. Louis Post Dispatch that year, namely because my grandpa cut it out and hung it up on the wall on his basement. Now, many of the phrases escape my memory, but I do remember this much about that nearly-poetic advertisement were:

“It oughta be real grass. It oughta be outfielders diving for a dying quail. It oughta be 2 bucks for a kid. It oughta be something to talk about with your girlfriend’s dad. It oughta be fun. Baseball like it oughta be.”

And how fitting that slogan was.

Tony La Russa embodied that motto for 16 seasons in St. Louis. He wasn’t perfect, but he always tried to have his players play the game the right way. “Play a hard nine” was among the manager’s personal mottos.

And with La Russa in charge, I got my first taste of winning baseball in St. Louis. The 1996 Cardinals went 88-74, good enough for first place in the NL Central Division and a trip to the playoffs. I remember watching rightfielder Brian Jordan squeeze the final out that clinched the division, and the celebration was on. The Cardinals dispatched the San Diego Padres in 3 games in the NLDS, and came within one game of a trip to the World Series, falling to the Atlanta Braves 4 games to 3. But despite the loss, it became official: I went from “liking” baseball to full-blown obsessed with it… and Tony La Russa was a big part of that. He was a huge part of bringing exciting, winning baseball back to millions of Cardinals fans, and sucked in new, younger fans like myself.

When I reached my teenage years, I remember going to a father-son banquet put on by my high school. Tony La Russa was the special guest speaker. Though I was completely tuned in, I don’t remember too many specifics from that speech… only that TLR could moonlight as a comedian if he wanted to. He was funny, charismatic, engaging, and classy.

In college, I got a chance to interview Tony La Russa when the St. Louis Cardinals came to Springfield, Missouri for a pair of exhibition games at Hammons Field, home of the Double-A affiliate Springfield Cardinals (by the way, on that Springfield team were guys you may have heard of: Allen Craig, Jon Jay, Jaime Garcia, Daniel Descalso, Fernado Salas, Mitchell Boggs, and Jason Motte. No wonder Springfield took Game 2 by a score of 10-3). At the time, I was working for the local NPR affiliate as a student reporter, and pleaded with the news director to let me cover the games. National Public Radio and its affiliates are not exactly known for their hard-hitting sports coverage and analysis, so I pitched a story idea about Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation. My news director bit and I was off to the ballpark for two days of Cardinals baseball.

Most of the reporters around were hamming Tony with questions about the team’s perceived weaknesses, their failures in 2007 (which turned out to be the ONLY losing season the Cardinals had in Tony’s final 12 years with the club), and other baseball-related issues. As we know, TLR can get a little testy at times, but when the dust settled and the other reporters left one-by-one, there I was: a giddy little Cardinals fan of 11 years meeting the man who changed everything about the way I viewed baseball in the form of a wet-behind-the-ears 20-something college reporter. I asked Tony about his Animal Relief Foundation, and he lit up. Tony has a major soft spot in his heart for animals. Here’s a portion of what I wrote back in 2008:

“St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa spends over 7 months on a baseball diamond every year, so it’s no surprise that his other passion, the Animal Rescue Foundation, began on the baseball diamond as well. During a game in 1990 while coaching for the Oakland Athletics, a stray cat ran onto the field. After a few minutes, La Russa coaxed the cat into the dugout and kept it there the rest of the game. La Russa says it didn’t take long for him to realize there weren’t any no-kill animal shelters in the bay area. So he co-founded the Animal Rescue Foundation, which saves animals who have run out of time at shelters and would otherwise be euthanized.”

Tony was very gracious and patient with me, and I had the memory of a lifetime.

It is now November of 2011, nearly 16 full years to the day when Tony took over as the Cardinals manager. For Cardinals fans under 30, we literally know nothing other than the Tony La Russa brand of Cardinals baseball. Was he or his brand of baseball perfect? No. I’m sure many older fans reading this miss seeing a little thing they like to call a “stolen base” (whatever that is), and in fact, one of the first articles I ever wrote for this website was on a litany of mistakes La Russa made in one game during the 2010 season: a 20 inning, 2-1 loss to the New York Mets. It was a game that saw pitchers hitting cleanup behind Albert Pujols TWICE in extra innings, and position players throwing 3 innings of relief in the latter stages of the game, all because Tony mismanaged his bullpen and bench. I titled that article “The Most Memorable Game of 2010.” (I think we all know what the most memorable game of 2011 was: the 11-inning thriller that was Game 6 of the World Series).

Tony La Russa will be remembered for many things: batting the pitcher 8^th, using his bench players and bullpen like coins at an arcade, his outrageous tirades at postgame news conferences, his toughness on rookies, his loyalty towards his veterans, his 6 pennants, 3 World Series titles, and more than 27-hundred victories that will most surely guarantee that he’ll soon be entering Cooperstown and no one other player or coach will ever wear the number 10 in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform again.

But what I’ll remember Tony La Russa for is the face of Cardinals baseball during my childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Other than radio broadcaster, Mike Shannon, no one in the Cardinals organization was around longer than Tony La Russa over the past 16 years. I’ll remember that my grandpa used to call him Tony “La Russo.” I’ll remember that some of his decisions used to drive me crazy, and I’ll remember that it sure was fun to watch his teams get after it.

Thank you, Tony, for bringing back that hard-nosed winning tradition to St. Louis. Thanks for leading us into the playoffs nine times in 16 seasons. Thanks for the two unforgettable World Series championships.

Thanks for giving us baseball like it oughta be.