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.

It’s been two years since the St. Louis Cardinals suddenly dealt former uber-prospect Colby Rasmus to the Toronto Blue Jays mid-season for a host of pieces in return. And in the two years since that deal, the value of what’s come of the trade is still very much undetermined. There are some that say the deal was what sealed the 2011 World Series win, while others feel it was a necessary move to salvage the remaining value of Rasmus’ quickly dipping stock at the time. Yet the truth of the matter probably lays somewhere in-between, and the absolute value of how the Cardinals have emerged is on the verge of being a potential loss in the long-term.

At the beginning of the 2011 season, Rasmus was a troubled, yet still integral part of the future of the team. He was the former top prospect of the organization as little as two years prior, and was just a year removed from a 23 home run breakout effort. Yet, that seemed like decades ago by the time the trade of him away was necessitated. The triangle of issues created between Colby/Tony Rasmus, Tony LaRussa and ultimately John Mozeliak, pushed Rasmus away from being a coveted talent, and into the problem child bin, and regardless of talent, problem children don’t get the same returns as promising talents do. So Mozeliak made a July trade to send Rasmus away in exchange for Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Corey Patterson and Marc Rzepczynski, his stock had gotten to the point where it was just good to get anything back in return for him.

Of all of the acquisitions made in that deal, the then25-year-old lefty made the biggest difference in the club’s playoff and postseason run, and set up a solid basis of what to expect coming ahead. This was of particular importance as well, because he was the only part of the deal that had any guaranteed time with the team after 2011. Regardless of what Rasmus’ actual production was, he still carried a decent amount of name value and upside perception, so to come away from that deal with only a middle relief left-hander, that pitcher better surely become among the best at what he does. However, the year and a half since Rzepczynski has been a full-time Cardinal has been perhaps less fulfilling than any part of Rasmus’ on-field run.

Since the beginning of 2012, in 79 games, Rzepczynski has posted a 1-3 record, with a 4.77 ERA in 54.2 innings. His WHIP across that time has been a robust 1.44, and he has surrendered better than a hit per inning pitched. In fairness, he shouldered an inadequate amount of the load a year ago, as the only consistently available left-handed option, as the team went through a carousel of veteran flame outs around him. Yet, this season he’s struggled more than ever, posting a 7.88 ERA and surrendering a run in four of his nine appearances, with at least two in three of those efforts in an inning or less work. Overall, batters have hit .361 against him on the season, and that will not do in the leverage of the situations he’s called upon (or really any other either, at that), and yesterday, just a year and a half after being the promise received in return for promise dealt, Rzepczynski found himself headed towards a place he hadn’t been to since 2010: the minors.

In the first move to shake some life into the team’s lifeless bullpen, the club optioned him to Memphis in exchange for the 2011 organizational pitcher of the year, Seth Maness. This is a shocking move, whereas in it didn’t seem likely that the team would put itself voluntarily down to one left-handed reliever, but it also sends a message: get it done, or you’re replaceable. There’s a chance he won’t stay down for long, just enough time to rediscover what he lost along the way. There’s also the chance that he becomes a victim of the ever-emergent depth of arms converging on the Cardinals pitching staff from the minors. This is not a team to fall behind in fortune with, because there is always somebody who is pushing for a chance. It likely isn’t a death sentence for him, but it definitely will serve notice to anybody on the staff that is struggling.

All in all, looking back it’s tough to say what is what about the absolute outcome of the Rasmus/Blue Jays deal. What is clear is that something had to be done in the moment, and that the outcome of it did improve the team at the absolutely right moment. Despite popular opinion, it’s not THE move that won the World Series for the club; seasons like that don’t hinge on one moment. However, it did play a role in that moment, and with the after effect as it is shaking out around the only remaining part of the deal so soon after it was completed, perhaps it was the ultimate all-in maneuver for the moment.

Last Thursday, the Cardinals ensured that perhaps the most crucial brick its foundation would remain in place. The club reached an agreement with general manager John Mozeliak to a three-year contract extension that will carry him through the 2016 season, which will be his ninth serving the team in his current capacity.

During those nine years, he has guided the team through two crucial restructure phases, both built around World Series victories. The first came when he assumed his role after the 2006 victory and former GM Walt Jocketty departing for the Cincinnati Reds, and the second after the 2011 season and the departure of both manager Tony LaRussa and three-time MVP Albert Pujols.

Yet throughout these times, the team’s overall roster has continued to improve. Due to a combination of smart Major League level moves and a reinvestment in the minor league system, building resurrecting it from the among the most depleted to one that has been ranked the best in baseball entering 2013. While his place in St. Louis is secured, Mozeliak is facing yet another crucial turning point in equipping the team to continue to keep its relevance. Adam Wainwright’s pending free agency and extension negotiations are the top order of personnel business for him. This would be one of the signature moments of his career, keeping the club’s top arm in tow for likely the rest of his career.

It is a good opportunity to reflect on the most signature moments of his tenure, which has both seen bold moves, as well as some notable concessions.

5. Trading Colby Rasmus, Trevor Miller and Brian Tallet to the Toronto Blue Jays for Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepczynski, Corey Patterson and Octavio Dotel

This was a trade that had to be done, yet was still slightly stunning when it happened in July 2011. Rasmus had been long hailed as the club’s future franchise player, but his explosive relationship with LaRussa, then the fans, made it a must that a change be made. Mo made it the first big move that turned around that season for the club, and received back plenty of strategic depth. Edwin Jackson stabilized the starting rotation and Octavio Dotel was a crucial late inning veteran. Rzepczynski was a revelation in the playoffs that season, posting a 1.26 ERA over the NLCS and World Series.

4. Trading Jim Edmonds to the San Diego Padres for David Freese

Edmonds was one of the great Cardinals of all-time, a six-time Gold Glove winner in the Busch Stadium outfield and a fan favorite for eight seasons. But by the winter of 2007, he was in his decline coming off a season where he struggled to hit .252 and hadn’t played in over 120 games in two years. It’s always tough to trade a franchise cornerstone, and when Mo dealt him for a 24 year old that was still in Single-A in 2007. Although he had hit .307 with 96 RBI the previous season, it was still a considered a reach at the time. Freese responded by jumping Double-A completely, and responded by taking the regular reins at third base for the big league club just two years later. This transaction has gone on to represent the first of Mo’s string of moves dedicated to building through the minor leagues for future MLB payout.

3. Trading Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen and Shane Peterson to the Oakland A’s for (and subsequent resigning of) Matt Holliday.

In the post-Edmonds and Scott Rolen days of 2009, Albert Pujols had been left to carry far too much of the offensive load for the team. In his first blockbuster move, Mo pulled the trigger on a deal based around the team’s top prospect at the time in Wallace for Holliday. Wallace had hit .311 while rapidly rising through the Cardinal organization since being made the 13^th overall pick in the 2008 draft. However, he wasn’t truly a fit at the MLB level in STL, and his high regard as a prospect made him an ideal trade chip. Holliday on the other hand, was a high priced rental in Oakland with an expiring contract. The Cardinals needed a bat, Oakland wanted more youth as usual. It was a match made in heaven.

Holliday went on to hit .353 after the trade, helping to push the team into the playoffs. However, the concern was that the team wouldn’t be able to keep off the Yankees or Red Sox to keep him in town. However, Mo aggressively finished out the high stakes dealings with acquiring Holliday by inking him to a seven-year, $120 million deal. It remains the largest in team history, and also a move that showed much needed foresight, due to a future for the organization he likely had already envisioned looming…

2. Not resigning Albert Pujols

Not being able to retain a player of the status of Pujols never sounds like it could be a tally in the great accomplishments list of a GM. Yet in the case of the departure of Pujols in December 2011, it was high mark in Mozeliak’s tenure for the shear boldness and overall organization insight in showed. If the Cardinals had issued a 10 year deal at over $200 million to Pujols, it would have effectively killed the ability to retain any depth for the club over the next decade. Deals for Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina would have been impossible, and staying competitive when Freese, Allen Craig, Jon Jay, Jason Motte and virtually any other player hit the open market. By refusing to do the big move in the moment, he set up the future.

1. Resigning Yadier Molina

The concern after the loss of Pujols was that Molina wouldn’t be far behind. Amongst the fan base, there were murmurs of the Cardinals not willing to put up the money to keep its cornerstones intact. In the whirlwind of changes that happened leading into the 2012 season, an extension for Molina was a priority, and one he delivered on. Yadi’s five-year, $75 million deal kept the club’s new most valuable player in tow and showed the team was prepared to spend where it needed to. It was a calming signing for both team and fans, and showed Mo’s grasp on the big picture is always on point.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, you are aware the St. Louis Cardinals are in the middle of a very bad stretch of baseball. Before Monday’s win at New York, the club had dropped 5 straight and if you take out the sweep against the AAA padres on a 4-17 stretch of baseball.

Bad.

For whatever reason, I do not believe the sky is falling and all is lost for either this season or the future of the organization. Perhaps it is because I like Mike Matheny, and want to believe he will get it turned around. Perhaps it is that Mozeliak has earned some trust that he makes moves for the long-term good of the club, and not just knee-jerk reactions to fix immediate needs. Perhaps it is because I believe in the talent and leadership of this team, and understand what they have been up against with all the injuries. Or perhaps, I have allowed a paradigm shift to take place this season to take the long view and not get so caught up in the “window is now” mentality that has pervaded the Cardinals organization for the last several years.

It solidified in my mind last Friday night as I was on Conversations with C70 podcast. As I was talking with host Daniel Shoptaw, he reminded me the importance of getting out of that “all-in” mentality that it’s this year or nothing. Should fans have the expectation to put a winning product on the field? Of course. Is expecting to win a World Series or deep playoff run every year realistic? No. And again, do not take this as I am throwing in the towel on the Cardinal’s chances for this season. Just trying to provide some perspective.

The messaging from the media and front office the last few seasons has created a sense of urgency to “win now”. The conversation always centered around the need to win before Albert Pujol’s free agency, or before Tony LaRussa retired, or while Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen were still producing at a high level.

We are in a different era now.

Yes it would be nice to get Berkman, Carpenter, and Beltran another ring; but this team has positioned itself to be a contender for a long, long time. There is good talent at the major league level, and the deepest farm system in years. That farm system is being bolstered by another solid draft

*Quick aside: I was overall happy with the Cards draft, and think they can sign a bunch of players based on where they slotted…but my gosh wouldn’t it have been nice to see one completely risky pick on a raw high schooler with a ton of talent? Isn’t that the point of having 5 of the first 59 picks, you get to risk one of them? Dan Kantrovitz played it safe in his first draft. Time will tell if he plays it this safe in every draft. I sure hope not…he was sitting on an incredible opportunity this year to take a very high upside but risky player, and didn’t do it. *

Heading into the Mets series, the Cardinals boasted the 3rd best run differential in MLB, and best in NL. Pitching has obviously been more problematic than offense during the May/June slide. But here is the main problem as I see it. Lack of veteran presence within the bullpen.

Some would say Mozeliak went all-in with a bunch of second year arms in the bullpen and that was foolish….that the club made a huge mistake letting Dotel walk. Be careful before quickly jumping to that conclusion. Yes, Dotel is a great pitcher, but Mozeliak had an experienced left-handed reliever in Marc Rzepcynksi coming off a great 2011. He also added two veteran relievers in the off-season that should have provided the needed veteran presence: Scott Linebrink and JC Romero.

Unfortunately, Romero severely underperformed and was released. Rzepcynski has struggled, and Linebrink got hurt. What is Mozeliak supposed to do? The Memphis roster has already been depleted due to the huge number of injuries this season. Should Mo trade off top prospects for bullpen arms this early in the season? It seems the approach is to ride out the tough stretch for the time being and allow players to get healthy, and deal from a position of strength and not urgency.

My plea to Cardinal fans is to take the long view. Realize the window to win is big, and a knee-jerk move to shore up a short-term problem may not be in the best interest of the organization for this year, and certainly over the long-term. The Cardinals will figure it out. A veteran presence is needed in the bullpen, perhaps Linebrink is one piece and we trade for another in July. But all is not lost.

The window to win is bigger now than ever.

I like the band Green Day. Deal with it.

They have a song called “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” that I can picture another green, well actually Tyler Greene to be more specific, humming over the last few years.

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don’t know where it goes
But it’s home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When the city sleeps
And I’m the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a…

My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating
Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me
’til then I walk alone

Someone “up there”, aka in the big leagues, did find him and give him a chance going into the 2012 season. Many of you know Greene’s story, the 29-year old former first-round draft pick that could never quite live up to his potential. 2012 was D-Day so to speak, finally the time Greene was expected to put up or shut up. He is out of minor league options. It is now or never for him, or as I like to call it…

Greene Day.

St. Louis Cardinals GM John Mozeliak made a commitment to Tyler Greene coming out of spring training, indicating the club was committing to him as their starting second baseman. That was a strong commitment with the incumbent starter, Skip Schumaker, re-signed and solid 2011 producer Daniel Descalso also available to man the position. It showed just how highly management valued Greene’s skill set and potential. The prevailing thought was Greene could thrive under the more nurturing managerial presence of Mike Matheny than he did under the iron fist of Tony LaRussa.

Slight problem…Greene performed very poorly in spring training and to start 2012. Matheny showed from the outset he would not be Mozeliak’s puppet, and play whoever performed best, regardless of Greene being out of options. Greene started just 10 of the team’s first 27 games.

April was a very rough stretch for Greene. He earned only 35 ABs, 7 Hits, 13 K’s, 1 SB, 1 HR, and 4 RBI’s. April slugging % was a putrid .314. The Greene experiment was not working out quite as well as Mozeliak had hoped.

Then the injuries started mounting and Greene earned starts due to the fact that he was on the 40 man roster and physically able to play 9 innings. Greene has started 17 of the last 23 games through May 29th.

May numbers look a little better than April. 3 HR, 8 RBI, 5 SB, .239/.299/.507, and 6 doubles in 71 ABs. In addition, Greene has made some great defensive plays, even in key spots of close ballgames. It offers hope for a team depleted with injuries. Is Greene trending in the right direction to become an impact player, or is it just a stretch of decent following a stretch of bad?

The lineup card starts to get pretty crowded when Allen Craig, Jon Jay, Matt Carpenter, and Lance Berkman return. Schumaker is an outfielder by nature, and Descalso has been hitting very poorly, but can be a better defensive option. Kolten Wong may be just a season away from big-league ready, so the window of opportunity for Greene is now.

Greene Day.

A deeper look at Greene’s numbers provides some valuable insight.

For the season, Greene has put the ball in play 71% of the time. Over the last 31 days that jumps up to 75%, but you still want your speed guys to put it in play 85-90% of the time. He will continue to be a batting average liability due to low walk rate (8%) and high number of strikeouts (25%), but he has shown nice power when makes contact and good speed when he gets on base.

For the 2012 season, his line drive % on balls-in-play is 28%, which is very solid. He is hitting 32% fly balls and 17% of those have left the yard. Even if that normalized to near league average of 10%, he would be on pace for 16 home runs in 500 ABs. More important than Greene hitting home runs (in my opinion) is that he continues to hit line drives and get on base for the other guys in the lineup.

Baseballhq.com tracks hard hit ball %. So far this season, Greene has a 33% rate of hard-hit balls. His prior three seasons he posted rates of 16, 26, and 18% during his big league ABs.

From a defensive standpoint, FanGraphs has Greene as a -3.1 UZR (falls between “Average” 0 and “Below Average” -5), and a -3 Defensive Runs Saved this season through 218 innings at 2B this season. By comparison, Descalso has a -1.6 UZR and 1 Defensive Run Saved in 139 innings at 2B. In other words, Greene can still improve his defense and he needs to hit that much better than Descalso to stay in the lineup.

Greene is a very polarizing figure among Cardinal nation. It seems most fans either desperately want to see him succeed or are calling for his head after every mis-step.

He certainly is a key piece in the Cardinal engine for the 2012 season, particularly as the team looks to navigate through all of their injury issues. This is finally the year he either has to live up to expectations or pack his bags while the Wong Express makes its way towards St. Louis.

Greene Day.

Can’t lie, I’m pretty excited about writing this piece for i70 this year.  I’m hoping to look like I actually know what I’m talking about, and maybe just go ahead and extend my streak to two.  You see, last year, for the “Key Player” project, I wrote about a young man by the name of David Freese.  My incredible good fortune insight, luck stunning analysis, and fluke happenstance major league scout-like analysis identified the eventual NLCS and World Series MVP more than 7 months ahead of time.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Is there a single player, let alone pitcher, whose 2012 season will be more important to the St. Louis Cardinals’ success this year?  To borrow a phrase from the recently departed Tony LaRussa, if Adam Wainwright isn’t, then he’s certainly tied for first.  The organization, the fan base, and the entire National League had high expectations for Wainwright’s first season back to the bump following his Tommy John surgery a year ago.  For months, everyone has anticipated his return, and many of us have expected/hoped for dominance–an important arm if the Cards are to return deep into the 2012 postseason.  And that was before Carpenter went down.

“Hey, maybe one of these days, we can pitch during the same season again. Whaddya say?”

It’s been a year and a half since we’ve seen Waino pitch in a game, so it’s easy to see how a person could forget exactly just how dominant this guy has been.  For those who remember him as “pretty darn bueno”, but exactly how bueno is escaping you at the moment, here’s a quick recap on the last two years he’s pitched.

So, let’s see…something along the lines of 21 wins, an ERA near 2.21, 10 CGs, 214 Ks, a sub-one WHIP, and a Cy Young Award, all in about 227 innings should pretty much meet expectations, right?  Holy 12-to-6s, those are some ridiculous numbers!

Honestly, it’s probably ludicrous to think Waino’s 2012 campaign will be anything close to either of his past two seasons.  The one thing that drives many of these numbers (save ratios, and the “all important” win category), is IP–a number sure to be significantly lower this year.  I said in another post on another site that I could see him going more than 200 innings this year, a number that I’d now argue against.  170 to 180-ish seems more like reality at this point, though, you just never know for sure.

One thing is certain, though, with Carpenter out indefinitely, all eyes will be focused on Wainwright every time he takes the ball.  I remember many very similar conversations a year ago, though the names were exactly the opposite–let’s hope Wainwright’s April & May turns out better than Carp’s did last year.  The reality is, Wainwright’s season probably lands somewhere between Carps’s low points of April & May (a 1-7 start, with win #2 coming on June 23rd), and the highlights (wins in deciding games 5 vs. Halladay in the NLDS & game 7 of the World Series).

Big picture, long-term, though…I trust that John Mozeliak will work with Mike Matheny to be sure that Adam Wainwright & his workload are handled in 2012 in a way that’s best for Waino over the course of his career.  So, if we don’t see the Wainwright that we know he can be (and maybe even better with that new arm), be patient–better to have him long term & healthy than sacrifice it for a run at another ring, and risk a more serious injury, and threaten his career.

Remember when they shut Jamie Garcia down down the stretch in 2010?  If you don’t think that worked, maybe you haven’t considered all sides of the argument.  And before you jump in with the “but Chris Carpenter…” rebuttal, remember Waino is 30 and if he keeps doing what he’s done, he’s headed for a $20MM/yr range-type deal.  Carpenter, on the other hand, will be 37 in one month, and just inked a two-year $21MM deal–likely the last deal of his career.

My supposition is that by the time June rolls around, we’ll know if we might be talking about the future possibility of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright pitching in the same rotation ever again, and by the All-Star Break, I’ll bet we know one way or the other.  One thing’s for sure, Adam Wainwright is going to be a critical piece going forward in 2012 and beyond!

*Way to go, Kyle McClellan.

On Friday the St. Louis Cardinals announced Skip Schumaker has an oblique strain and will be on the shelf for a while. If there was ever a time for Tyler Greene to take advantage of a situation in order to make the Cards’ Opening Day roster as their second baseman, this is it.

Earlier this year, the Cards touted Greene as having every opportunity to win the starting job at second. Greene is out of options, and has been a prospect on the verge seemingly forever. But his 2012 Spring Training has been less than stellar offensively (.136 AVG, 0 HR, 7 K in 22 AB), and Greene has proven to be prone to the yips defensively. The talk always used to be “Greene tightens up around Tony LaRussa.” Well, LaRussa’s gone. So every time Greene goes 0-fer or botches a play in the field this year, it becomes more and more glaring.

To make things even worse, the sure-handed Daniel Descalso has been hitting the ball well (.409, 1 HR, 3 K in 22 AB) so far this preseason. His ability to play all over the diamond makes him an important player; an offensive surge makes him tough to keep out of the lineup at all. Spring Training stats are never anything to get too excited over either way, but when the difference is as stark as it is between Greene and Descalso, it’s kind of hard not to notice.

Normally, Schumaker’s injury may have landed him on the DL had it occurred during the regular season, but such a move is not necessary during Spring Training. He will rest for a few days or a few weeks or whatever it takes. But no matter what, he’s making this club. For one, he makes too much money not to. But Schumaker is also a valuable asset both in the clubhouse and on the field. He is a core player on this team, even if he’s only fringy core, and is one of the leaders on the roster. When the Cardinals head back to St. Louis in a few weeks, Schumaker will be a member of the team.

Perhaps the fact that both Schumaker and Descalso are such valuable and versatile pieces helps Greene some. All he really does well is play middle infield, and when he’s on he can look pretty good doing it. Descalso excelled as a late-inning replacement at third base in 2011, and Schumaker may be needed in the outfield more than anywhere else if his injury heals before Allen Craig’s does. But if Greene continues to struggle and Descalso continues to look locked in, Mike Matheny will have no choice but to start the latter at second. Maybe he employs a platoon at the position when Schumaker returns so he can move both guys around their other positons as necessary, who knows. Regardless, in that scenario—which does not sound at all outlandish—where does Greene fit?

This truly could be do or die time for Tyler Greene. He has received a lot of playing time at second base this spring, and that will only increase while Schumaker recovers. Greene has to find a way to settle down, find his stroke at the plate, and play his game in the field to remind the Cards’ powers that be why they drafted him in the first place. Otherwise his time may finally run out for good with the St. Louis Cardinals.

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

There is a famous line in the film A League of Their Own where Tom Hank’s character says, “Crying… Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball.” I have always remembered that line. For some reason, a slight variation of that popped into my head when I read yesterday’s Post-Dispatch article about Mike Matheny. “Sleeping…Are you sleeping? There’s no sleeping in baseball”.

Matheny was too excited to sleep before his first Grapefruit League game as a manager. He decided to pop out of bed at 3 am and was at the park a little after 4 that morning. It reminded me the St. Louis Cardinals went from the game’s most experienced manager to its least within a few weeks of winning the 2011 World Series. While it is too early for any kind of “spring training report card”, I do want to make some early observations regarding the Matheny era, and pose some questions as to what Cardinal fans should keep on their radar early in the season. After all, a two-year contract does not leave a lot of time for learning on the job.

I have generally had good feelings about the Matheny hire. Mozeliak had been grooming him for the position, and Mozeliak certainly has earned the benefit of the doubt on big decisions like this. Matheny seems to be doing all the right things early on in the job; consulting the right people, reaching out to the players, reaching out to former (and estranged) Cardinal legends. He has provided a smiling face to the media, which is certainly a welcome change.

He faces a lot of challenges as well. As previously alluded to, he does not have a lot of time to earn his stripes – losing will not be tolerated with the Cardinals 2012 roster. If the team is hovering around .500 at the All-Star break, you can bet there will be some fans calling for his job. Despite losing Albert Pujols, Dave Duncan, and Tony LaRussa, the general consensus in Cardinal Nation is that the 2012 team is better on paper than the championship 2011 team due to the addition of Carlos Beltran and the return of Adam Wainwright. There is a lot of pressure on Matheny.

Something I have encouraged people to keep a close eye on is the Cardinals first twenty-seven games of the 2012 season. After Opening Day with the Marlins, the Cardinals play twenty-six consecutive games against the NL Central (ranked the worst division in baseball). The schedule is kind to Matheny this season, as interleague play pits the Cardinals against the second weakest division in baseball, the AL Central. While that seems to be an advantage, I put a lot of importance on the early games for so many reasons, not the least of which is Matheny setting the tone for his managerial reign.

Here are a few early observations.

1. Matheny runs a tight ship. The practice schedule runs on airport time. Matheny does not round to the nearest five minutes. If you are a pitcher you better be ready for you session to start at 9:38 am, because that is when the skip has it scheduled.

2. Matheny puts emphasis on player development in spring training. Look at the number of at-bats and innings pitched already for the younger prospects in the first two games of the spring. More than that, I was intrigued at how Matheny worked the prospects into the hitting and pitching groups during the first two weeks of spring training. LaRussa seemed to have a more “show me what you can do” approach in spring training, where he got his key guys a lot of reps and let everyone else try to earn a shot. Matheny is putting a bigger emphasis on the organization’s responsibility to develop the next wave of players that can contribute at the major-league level. Could you imagine LaRussa putting Tyrell Jenkins in Chris Carpenter‘s throwing group on the first day of camp?

3. Matheny is a “hands-on” manager. LaRussa would typically watch Grapefruit League games from just outside the dugout. Matheny is inside the dugout, working and instructing the team. Matheny is out on the field throwing batting practice.

Some intriguing questions to be answered.

1. Game management

How will he use his bullpen when the games really count? What kind of pitch count will the starters be on? Will he bunt and steal? I hear mixed reports. On the one hand, I see where he is working with the team on better base running and stealing, and that he wants to better utilize the bunt and hit-and-run. On the other hand, I hear how he is going to use advanced metrics much more than LaRussa did. In Sabermetricville, bunting is a crime unlike any other….never, never, never give up outs. How will Matheny manage moving runners over in traditional sacrifice situations.

2. Handling veteran players

This, in my opinion, is his greatest challenge as a manager. He is not only managing a lot of guys close to his own age, he is managing some former teammates as well. Will he command the respect of the clubhouse or be a “player’s manager”? Is it possible for him to be both in his first year? Will the veterans show him the same level of respect they showed LaRussa. It is hard to move from a friend and a peer to a boss.

Yadier Molina‘s quote yesterday about Matheny getting to the park so early, was very interesting to me. He said, “It’s OK if he gets a little nervous. I get nervous, too, every time”. I certainly could be reading too much into that, but that is not a comment I would make about or to my boss. Again, I know it is a stretch to read anything into that one comment, but it got me thinking about the relationship between Matheny and the veteran players. If they ever get the sense that Matheny is just Mozeliak’s puppet, he could have a very hard time keeping control of the clubhouse.

With all of that being said, I do expect Matheny to be successful. I want him to be successful. He is a great baseball mind, a hard worker, a man of great integrity, and someone that cares deeply about carrying on the Cardinal Way. He seems to have enough fortitude to handle criticism and the constant questions regarding his experience.

Watching the first two games of spring did cause me to think a lot about the new manager and his role. It really sunk in that someone new is calling the shots from the dugout, and we do not quite have a blueprint for their game management style. While there is uncertainty still in so many areas, one thing is for sure…Matheny is not sleeping on the job.

Yadier Molina and the St. Louis Cardinals announced on Thursday that they’d reached an agreement to extend the two-time World Series Champion, three-time All Star, and winner of four consecutive (and counting) National League Gold Glove awards.  Oh, and it’s the second-richest contract for a catcher (Mauer, MIN) in baseball history.  Or any history for that matter, I suppose.  Molina will be the backstop for St. Louis from 2013-2017, and the deal includes a mutual option for 2018, when Molina will turn 36, which could make the deal worth $88MM in total guaranteed money over 6 years.

But, was it a good signing?

Like most signings, we may not know the answer to that until 2016 or 2017.  I can tell you this much, though: the list of people who like this deal include John Mozeliak & Bill DeWitt.  Obviously, Yadi Molina likes it, and I imagine Brian McCann and Buster Posey were wearing pretty big smiles when they heard the news too.  For what it’s worth, you can add me to the list–I like this deal, and I like it a lot.  (Side note: I’m betting the days of Lincecum, Cain & Posey playing together in San Fransisco are numbered.)

Photo Courtesy: Erika Lynn

$15MM is a lot of money for a catcher, there’s no denying it.  The difficult thing about quantifying that, as Mozeliak pointed out, is that this is not an offense-driven dollar figure.  For all the talk about intangibles, leadership, and clubhouse presence that a guy like Yadi brings to the team, there’s no column on his baseball-reference page for those type of things.  Sure, you can count his pickoffs, or compare his caught stealing rate to other catchers his age, but there are no metrics for the way catchers handle a pitching staff, or in Yadi’s case, handing down knowledge collected through Tony LaRussa, Dave Duncan, Chris Carpenter and others to young pitchers like Shelby Miller, and Carlos Martinez.

It’s difficult to compare apples like Johnny Bench to Oranges like Yadi Molina.  But know this: His compensation was not based on his offensive production.  Though it was a factor, his defense was the primary driving force behind the numbers in this contract, and anyone who ignores, overlooks, or tries to downplay that is making a mistake.

When you ask yourself what the Cardinals’ realisitic, legitimate alternative options were, had they not locked Yadi up long-term, you don’t find much to feel good about.  You can talk about Tony Cruz & Bryan Anderson all you want, but they’re both a far cry from bringing what Molina can to the table.  It was imperative that the Cardinals spend money for a catcher, and in my opinion, far better to spend what they did and get what they got, than the alternatives the organization faced.  To put so much on the shoulders of younger guys in the organization, or pay McCann or Ianetta free agency money primarily for offensive-production, when that’s clearly not a deficiency on this team, would’ve been mistakes in my mind.

Not to mention, whose shirsey are you going sell if you lose Pujols AND Molina to free agency within a year of each other?  There’s a lot of revenue generated there, folks, don’t kid yourselves.

The organization has not stashed the supposed “truckloads of money that they were going to pay Pujols”.  Berkman, Beltran and Molina will attest to that.  What’s more, I believe the Cardinals have been smart with these deals, and not gone long-term with guys that they shouldn’t have.  Remember, Beltran (and his new agent, Dan Lozano) originally sought a three-year deal.  Consider that now it’s only Holliday & Molina that are signed through 2017, and that Garcia just signed a deal last year.  Add to that the facts that Waino has two years to go, as does Carpenter, and that Lohse & Westbrook’s salary is coming off the books this year, and it puts the organization in pretty good shape, financially.  Also, they’re fresh off a World Series Championship, which is good for the bottom line to say the least, and that many of the other pieces to the puzzle are arbitration eligible, with a little ways to go before entering free agency, and the financial picture improves even further.

Jason Motte is scheduled to become a free agent in 2015, a year before Mitchell Boggs and David Freese, and those are the young guys who are closest to free agency.  Mo has said said, as recently as last season, that he’s not seen the farm system this healthy since he joined the organization…which was in 1995.  1995.  This Yadi deal is just one piece to a very good-looking puzzle for the long-term success of this Cardinals franchise, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here!

Nearly complete with our look around the St. Louis Cardinals we land on catcher this week.  With the absence of both Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan, Yadier Molina’s role might be more important than any other Cardinal heading into 2012.

New manager Mike Matheny originally joined the St. Louis Cardinals before the 2000 season and stuck around through 2004, bringing great stability and defensive prowess behind the plate for St. Louis. He handed the reins of the pitching staff over to his understudy, Yadier Molina, in 2005, and the rocket-armed, Molina has been there ever since.

The four-time Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina enters spring training this year a lifetime Cardinal seeking a long-term extension, just like Pujols a year ago. Molina is heading into the final year of his contract and he would like to stay in St. Louis.

The 29-year-old Molina, the youngest and most talented of three brothers to catch on in the major leagues, is coming off perhaps his best season. In addition to a strong year behind the plate, he set career offensive highs with a .300 average, 14 homers and 65 RBIs, then added nine RBIs in the World Series. This in addition to his handling of the Cardinals pitching staff and assault on base runners

However this season presents another challenge for Molina. One he has been able to avoid so far in his Cardinal Career.  Whether or not his contract talks affect his play will take time to tell. One thing is for certain. Molina enters this spring as the best back-stop in the National League, let alone his own division.

Geovany Soto, Cubs.  Catcher Geovany Soto slumped in 2011, hitting .228 with 17 homers, 54 RBIs and 46 runs scored.  Soto struggled with injuries early in the season and never got on track, striking out 124 times in 421 at-bats. There is still plenty of power in his bat and Soto could collect more hits in 2012. 20 to 25 home run potential.  Just know he could hit anywhere from .215 to .290 any given season.

Ryan Hanigan, Reds. Hanigan appears to be a good bet to pair in a catching tandem next season, splitting time with Devin Mesoraco.  After hitting .354 in August, Hanigan came back to Earth with a .235 average in September. With a .267 average and minimal to no power Hanigan will be fighting for his job most of the spring and regular season.

*Devin Mesoraco, Reds.  Super prospect failed to impress in his September call-up.  Maybe this will keep him under the radar, because he has all the tools to be a top 5 catcher for years to come.  He hit .289 with 15 home runs in AAA last year.

Jason Castro, Astros. Missed all of last season after undergoing major knee surgery, will miss the first part of Spring Training after undergoing surgery in December.  He hit .205 with two homers and eight RBIs in 195 at-bats in his Major League debut in 2010. Still, the injury casts some uncertainty over Houston’s catching situation entering spring camp. Castro, the club’s first-round pick in 2008 out of Stanford, is slated to be the starter next year in what would be his first full season in the Major Leagues.

Jonathan Lucroy, Brewers. Lucroy put together a fine sophomore campaign with 12 homers, 59 RBIs and a .265 average.  Lucroy went deep five times in May but didn’t show a lot of power the rest of the way. His .247 average after the break will cast some doubt on his 2012 value but regular playing time should help him.

Rod Barajas, Pirates. Playing for the Dodgers, where he started 85 games behind the plate and batted .230 with 13 doubles, 16 homers, 47 RBIs and a .287 on-base percentage. He missed nearly a month during the summer while recovering from a right ankle sprain.  A short-term commitment for the Pirates, who are hopeful that top catching prospect Tony Sanchez will be ready to ascend to the Majors in the next year or two.

Yadier Molina, Cardinals. Molina’s ability to hit for average and supply respectable power makes mixed with his superior work behind the plate means that he will continue to get as much playing time as he can handle.  In 2011 the Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina slugged 14 homers, stole four bases, drove in 65 runs, scored 55 times and hit .305. Career highs across the board.

By the time 2012 is said and done here is how I see things shaking out amongst the NL Central backstops. Here more than any other position I factored non-batting statistics and play into the equation.

1. Yadier Molina
2. Geovany Soto
3. Jonathan Lucroy
4. RobBarajas
5. Ryan Hanigan
6. Jason Castro