For several years now the Royals have had one of the better farm systems in Major League Baseball.  Most teams should be so lucky.  The Royals however haven’t been able to translate this advantage into success on the field and there would seem to be one very good reason for this.

You can’t win the World Series with the AAA Storm Chasers.  It takes time to scout and develop major league talent.  While developing young talent can be exciting, it usually comes with long periods of growing pains while the fans wait for the team to assemble all of the necessary pieces to win consistently.  And if you’re a mid-market team like the Royals then you hope that you have enough players developed each year to keep costs down.

In a weak division, the offensive core might be enough to keep the Royals out of the basement for the foreseeable future but to be yearly contenders they are still missing something.  Pitching, pitching and maybe a little pitching.  This is where general manager Dayton Moore earned his paycheck this offseason.

Moore started his offseason by acquiring Ervin Santana (and cash) from the Angles in exchange for LHP Brandon Sisk.  The Angles are of course currently attempting to outspend every other team in baseball and thought they could do better than Santana.  Forced to exercise his buyout option, the move seems more about dumping Santana to try and buy up more expensive pitching arms than it was about picking up prospects.  Santana isn’t exactly anyone’s idea of a team ace but he can definitely eat up innings and has the potential to strike out a ton of guys.  Unfortunately he also has the potential to give up a lot of runs.

Santana is coming off of a pretty bad year where he gave up a league leading 39 of said home runs as well as one of the more undesirable ERAs (5.16).  The Royals are hoping that the Santana they get is the Santana that can strike out 200 plus batters while posting a 3.49 ERA like he did in 2008 and so far so good.  In 7 starts, Santana has a 2.79 ERA.  What probably scares the Royals is that fact that almost half of his earned runs have come off of the long ball.  Still, it seems like a smart move, especially since Sisk, the minor league pitcher they gave up to acquire Santana, now needs Tommy John surgery.

Sisk, who has been a career minor league pitcher, seemed ready to come up and take on a bullpen position.  He posted a 2.54 ERA at the AAA level in 2012 but elbow surgery puts his future into question.  The Angles did place Sisk on their 40 man roster which means they still see potential, but for now the Royals seem to have come out on top of this trade.

But by far the biggest move for the Royals this offseason was the 6 man trade with Tampa Bay.  The trade sent starting pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis to Kansas City in exchange for minor leaguers Patrick Leonard, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery and Wil Myers.

Wade Davis probably isn’t going to win over the hearts and minds of the ever patient Royals fans.  Just another arm for an under achieving starting rotation.  James Shields is another matter as he’s the closest thing to an ace the Royals have had since the departure of Zack Greinke.  He’s had a strikeouts per 9 innings rate of over 8 since 2010 and pitches deep into games.  But even if he’s everything the Royals hope he will be, he is only signed through this year with a $12 million dollar option for 2014.

The Royals gave up the 2012 minor league player of the year for what seems to be a 2 year shot at winning a weak division.  The Rays, who can’t draw a crowd and can’t ever hope to spend the kind of money that other teams in their division do have to rely on smart moves in order to compete and this is one of them.  The Royals have an incredibly deep farm system but giving up what some people consider to be baseball’s best prospect for an outside chance at a championship is risky but it does send a message.  The Royals want to win and they want to win now.  They haven’t been to the post season since they won the World Series in 1985 and they want that to change.

Early in the season they hold a winning record but their hopes of making the playoffs are probably tied to beating the Tigers.  Their offensive core will remain in Kansas City for the time being but the pitching that they have literally bet the farm for will not.  The silver lining here is that the Royals fans finally have something to be excited about, that is unless Wil Myers turns out to be an annual MVP candidate.  If that turns out to be the case, nothing short of a World Series will be worth the cost.

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.

Trevor Rosenthal might have lost the battle for the final starting rotation spot, but the St. Louis Cardinals gained a great resource for their bullpen in 2013.

Trevor Rosenthal – photo from FoxSportsMidwest

The Cardinals officially said last week that Rosenthal is out of the running for the fifth spot in the rotation and will start the season in the bullpen. And while that might be disappointing for a pitcher who had a goal of winning that battle, the move should work out best for both sides.

Rosenthal can throw more than 100 mph and often looked as unhittable as any pitcher in Major League Baseball last season out of the bullpen, and the Cardinals will give him the chance to do more of the same in 2013.

As a reliever, Rosenthal could rare back and throw the ball as hard as he wanted without having to worry about stamina. That gave his fastball the extra few miles per hour that often make the difference in whether a hitter gets a hit or swings threw a pitch.

And he most likely would’ve lost that quality had he moved to the rotation.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander can still crank it up to 100 mph late in a ballgame, but he is a rare (almost unique) pitcher who can throw as hard as a starter as he could if he were a reliever. Others tend to lose a few miles per hour on their fastball once they’re asked to throw more than one or two innings.

Adam Wainwright began his Cardinals career out of the bullpen as the closer for the 2006 World Series championship team. He threw in the high 90s as a reliever but rarely reaches above 94 or 95 mph as a starter.

Granted, Wainwright is plenty effective as a starter and is on the precipice of receiving a whole lot of money because he can pitch effectively for seven innings or more. That could very well be the path Rosenthal eventually follows, but for now he is best suited for the bullpen.

He started one game at the beginning of spring training, and it didn’t go well. He gave up four runs on five hits in two innings against the Miami Marlins while walking two batters and failing to strike out anybody.

Sure, that was an early spring training game, but the Cardinals would be foolish to take a chance on a young pitcher in their rotation when they have others who they have already groomed to be long-term starters for the organization.

Those two are Joe Kelly and Shelby Miller, and they will battle for the final spot in the rotation.

Kelly did not look good in his last start, giving up two runs and three walks in two innings Thursday against the New York Yankees.

But Miller hasn’t been much better. He gave up two runs and three hits in two innings Friday against the Washington Nationals but walked just one hitter.

Overall, Kelly has more experience as a starter and is more of a sure bet than Miller at this point.

Theoretically, the Cardinals could give Kelly the starting job and send Miller to the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds to start the season. Then Miller could come up into the rotation and Kelly could slide to the bullpen if a reliever gets injured, or if the Cardinals find they need more depth in the bullpen.

That situation will work itself out in time, but at least the Cardinals already know they have a flamethrower who can shut down hitters late in a ballgame, even if he technically lost a job to get to that position.

Pete Kozma might have gotten sudden public support along with the St. Louis Cardinals starting shortstop job after Rafael Furcal announced Thursday he would have Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2013 season, but Kozma has deserved some of that respect long before now.

Kozma hit .333 in 26 games for the Cardinals at the end of last season after Furcal injured his elbow Aug. 30 against the Washington Nationals, and he was a big key to the team’s late-season success that got it within one game of the World Series.

But the Cardinals have rarely viewed Kozma in a positive light.

The organization considered releasing Kozma four times while he was in the minor leagues. Granted, the former first-round pick did put up dismal numbers much of his minor-league career, but the Cardinals have continued to treat Kozma as if he is that same minor-league player even after his big-league success.

The club openly solicited trade proposals to find a different shortstop during the offseason. And when a trade never developed because the Cardinals were unwilling to part with their young pitching prospects, they signed Ronny Cedeno as an option in case Furcal wouldn’t be healthy.

“We were looking at just making sure we have protection (and), in essence, if Pete continues to do what he did, he’ll likely be in the big leagues,” Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said. “We didn’t want to just go into the season and find out that Furcal couldn’t go and find out Kozma was not (going to build on) the six-week period. We had a lot of optimism. It was just shoring up the position.”

But Cedeno has hit just .167 in spring training and played poor defense, at times. That’s probably not where the Cardinals will shore up the shortstop position whether Kozma got the job or not.

Kozma also hasn’t gotten much more respect from Cardinals fans. A forum on stltoday.com Thursday was titled “Is there a worse middle infield in baseball right now?”

There certainly are worse middle infields. Can anyone name the middle infielders for the Miami Marlins, San Diego Padres or Houston Astros?

Plus, Kozma and whoever wins the second base job (Daniel Descalso or Matt Carpenter) are solid fielders who won’t embarrass themselves in the field. Cedeno, on the other hand, might be a liability in the field and at the plate.

Overall, that short period of success is likely a large factor in why people have yet to believe Kozma can handle the Cardinals shortstop position full time in 2013 and beyond. They hadn’t seen that sort of success previously in his career, and they were unwilling to get their hopes up in case Kozma was a one-hit wonder.

Instead, Kozma has excelled during spring training, hitting .429 with five RBIs and two homeruns, and the Cardinals have suddenly started talking him up as someone they really want to have as their starting shortstop this year.

“There’s no doubt given what Kozma did for us in the last six weeks of the season last year we do have a high level of confidence that he can continue to add that energy and be that type of player we saw last year,” Mozeliak said Thursday after the Furcal news broke.

It’s funny how circumstances tend to change those types of feelings.

Kozma would be a huge help to the Cardinals if he can hit for a good batting average and get on base fairly consistently. The Cardinals have enough power in their lineup with Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, David Freese and Allen Craig likely to fill the middle of the order, but they’ll need someone on base when they come up.

Kozma would most likely hit in the seventh or eighth spot in the Cardinals lineup, so he won’t face a ton of pressure to be a star at the plate. The Cardinals just need someone who can get on base and hold their own defensively at shortstop this year, and Kozma is a good candidate to fill all of those needs.

He might get his chance this year, but he’ll have done so by overcoming a strong perception by his team that he wasn’t good enough.

For Kozma, that motivation could make 2013 all the more fun.

Spring Training games are in full effect with all 30 teams,  including the St. Louis Cardinals, took to the field to start getting ready for the season.  Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has opened the vaults and given the world access to video clips that were previously locked away.

The Cardinals were a powerhouse team in the National League in the 1980′s.  Three appearances in the World Series, including winning the championship in 1982, as well as some key moments throughout the decade had many people watching the team very closely.

Today, i70baseball brings you nine classic moments from the Cardinals in the 1980′s, courtesy of Major League Baseball.

Use the navigation controls below to take a look at each of the videos.  Leave us some comments and tell us the moments you most remember from the 1980′s in St. Louis.

Bruce Sutter Closes Out 1982 World Series

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Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
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The St. Louis Cardinals have been blessed to have two of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball throughout the past seven years. Unfortunately, they rarely got to see that blessing in full effect.

The Cardinals announced Tuesday that Chris Carpenter won’t pitch in 2013, which likely ends his career as a player for the Cardinals. It also ends a very successful era that still could have been exponentially better without injuries to Carpenter and his co-ace Adam Wainwright.

The Cardinals won two World Series titles and made the playoffs in four of the seven seasons Carpenter and Wainwright were both on the roster. That is arguably the most success any franchise has had during that time.

The San Francisco Giants won just as many championships, but they only made the playoffs those two seasons. The New York Yankees made the playoffs in six of those seven seasons, but they won just one World Series.

Still, the Cardinals had all of that success while rarely having Carpenter and Wainwright healthy at the same time. The only years both pitchers were able to be on the mound regularly during the same season were 2006 (although Wainwright was in the bullpen as a rookie), 2009 and 2010. One of the two pitchers was on the disabled list for an extended period of time in those other four seasons.

Most of the injuries happened to Carpenter. He led the Cardinals onto the field on Opening Day 2007 against the New York Mets and gave up five runs in six innings as the Cardinals lost 6-1. They would go on to finish 78-84, good for third place in the NL Central.

Wainwright moved into the starting rotation in 2007 and compiled a 25-15 record over the course of the next two seasons. But Carpenter didn’t return until 2009, which also happened to be the next time the Cardinals returned to the playoffs.

Carpenter and Wainwright combined for a 72-32 record in 2009 and 2010, the first time since 2006 the two pitchers were both healthy at the same time. The Cardinals won 91 games in 2009 and 86 in 2010, but then injuries destroyed the dynamic duo once again.

Wainwright blew out his elbow in the opening days of spring training in 2011 and missed the entire year after having Tommy John surgery. Carpenter picked up the slack that season with an 11-9 record that betrays his 3.45 earned-run average and his leadership that led the Cardinals to the World Series. He won the playoff-clinching game on the final day of the season in Houston, Game Five of the division series in Philadelphia and Game Seven of the World Series against the Texas Rangers.

Coming off the championship season, the Cardinals hopes were high that they could repeat because Wainwright would be back, and the team would have its two best pitchers healthy again.

Then Carpenter started to feel discomfort in his next during spring training workouts. He wouldn’t make his first start of the season until Sept. 21.

The Cardinals still did well last year and came within one win of reaching the World Series again, but Carpenter struggled against the Giants in the National League Championship Series. He didn’t make it beyond the fourth inning in either of his starts, and his arm wasn’t fully healed.

So while the Cardinals’ announcement that Carpenter wouldn’t be able to pitch this season wasn’t terribly shocking, it still closes the book on one of the most successful eras in franchise history.

But despite that success, the franchise and its fans will close that book wondering how great those teams could’ve been if their two best pitchers hadn’t so often fallen victim to injuries.

The talk of the St. Louis Cardinals’ offseason has been the strength of its pitching staff. A particularly exciting component is the potential of the bullpen, which has a chance to be amongst the best in all of baseball. However, there has been one part of the equation that has largely gone unconsidered in most discussion, and this is Fernando Salas. It is a pivotal season for the up and down Salas, and he has potentially as tough of a future to determine as any arm on the roster.

Salas has truly been a jack of bullpen trades since breaking in with the club in 2010. From spot reliever, to set-up man, to a closer who at once, led an eventual World Series Champion team in saves, to a seldom used long-reliever in the course of three months, he’s seen it all, fast. And that leaves him uniquely equipped for a role on the evolving bullpen of the 2013 Cardinals. But where does he best fit in, if at all?

One thing for certain is that a late game role is unlikely. With Jason Motte putting the clamps down on the ninth innings, and the seventh-to-eight inning sequence locked down between Edward Mujica and Mitchell Boggs in the lead roles, with Randy Choate and potentially Trevor Rosenthal on hand as well to add some variety. Earlier on in the game, Marc Rzepczynski would be in the mix, but it this is where Salas has been fit into, the hybrid of “if needed” as bridge/spot reliever. That’s a tough place to sit at, and is very circumstantial to being overtaken by the desire to have another arm in the mix as well, such one of the losers of the battle for the fifth starter, such as Joe Kelly or Lance Lynn. Both would be higher caliber arms, and fit into the role of a prototypical long reliever better.

In all actuality, injury may be his ally. It’s an ugly truth, but it’s an ultimate one in the course of the year: guys get hurt. And this is where Salas’ most valuable asset, his versatility, pays off the most. He can fill in at any level of the pen if the depth is rocked, or the young arms have adjustment issues. The kicker is, he’s far less effective early in games as opposed to late. In his career, the disparity in opponent’s batting average in the sixth and seventh innings (.304 and .276 respectively) in comparison to the eighth and ninth (.188 and .196), yet the backbreaker is that he’s given up 11 of his 14 career home runs in the final two frames. So the gift comes with the curse.

The Cardinals’ ultimate enigma sits in a very fitting place for himself. If there is anybody that could benefit from showing up to Jupiter and looking a lot better than anybody expects, it’s him. For the team, yet another great, battle tested arm to put to use is the best kind of problem to have. But for Salas, he’s a fish that’s swam in many types of water, but risks finding himself out of it completely if can’t find a middle ground. But if he intends to hold some sort of ground in the battle for a spot in this year’s bullpen from day one, he better get accustomed to shooting early and often.

One of the men most responsible for the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2011 World Series championship is currently locked in a battle with the team to be paid more like the star he is becoming, but this isn’t the type of battle that should raise serious concerns.

David Freese is one of the most talented young position players the Cardinals have, and he has plenty of potential to grow into another St. Louis baseball superstar. So far, the team has gotten an incredible bargain with Freese, who has made just $1.7 million total in his four-year career and is currently the 16th highest-paid player on the team.

It’s time for Freese to start earning more money. In his four years with the club, Freese has hit .296 and his power numbers have increased exponentially each year. He finished with career highs in hits, homeruns, doubles, runs scored and RBIs in 2012. And don’t forget he has a career .345 postseason batting average and was the MVP of the 2011 National League Championship Series and World Series.

He could fairly easily make a case that he deserves more than the $3.75 million he is asking for this offseason. The Cardinals have countered with a $2.4-million offer. The case will go to arbitration sometime between Monday and Feb. 20 if the two sides can’t strike a deal.

Now, while all of this sounds as though Freese and the Cardinals can’t see eye-to-eye on his worth, this is more of just a typical baseball business deal. Nobody will have their feelings hurt too no matter how the case finally plays out. The Cardinals have already finalized similar deals with relievers Jason Motte, Mitchell Boggs, Edward Mujica and Marc Rzepczynski.

Even if the case goes to arbitration and the Cardinals win, Freese will be in line for a big-money contract within the next three years. He won’t be a free agent until 2016. By that point the Cardinals will know whether Freese is going to be a franchise cornerstone at third base or if he will succumb to his substantial injury history that has kept him from playing 100 or more games in all but one season.

However, the Cardinals would still be smart to lock Freese up with a long-term deal as soon as possible because player salaries will only continue to rise throughout Major League Baseball.

The Cardinals made a smart decision early in Albert Pujols’ career to sign him to a 10-year, $110-million contract in 2001, and that deal was considered a bargain by the time it expired at the end of the 2011 season. Pujols’ next contract was worth more than twice that amount when he signed a 10-year, $240-million deal last year with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Freese and the Cardinals would both be in better positions if they could work out a long-term deal sometime soon, but right now the organization has other pressing matters. Namely, Adam Wainwright’s contract.
Wainwright is scheduled to be a free agent at the end of the season, and his asking price will likely be astronomical if the Cardinals can’t sign him to a contract before he hits the open market.

The Cardinals did sign catcher Yadier Molina to a five-year, $75-million contract last offseason, so they will have a strong core group of position players for the next few years.

And that’s what makes Freese’s contract situation a tad bit irrelevant. The difference of little more than $1 million this year shouldn’t have much of an effect on future negotiations.

Freese will get paid what he is due at some point. How soon the Cardinals will be willing to make that commitment is what will be the most interesting part of this situation.

The St. Louis Cardinals come into the 2012 offseason having won a World Series in 2011 and falling one game short of returning to the Fall Classic in 2012.  The team, for the most part, is set at almost every position.  They have publicly said they will be exploring the option of upgrading the middle infield, the only two spots on the team that anyone can easily look at and say “they could be better”.

But that bothers this writer.  I do not like a team that simply “stands pat”, no matter how successful they have been in the past.  This team can be better at a few spots on the field and with today’s notebook, I look to the top of the free agent class and ask the simple question: Why not look at Michael Bourn?

Now, hear me out before you jump on me for not being a Jon Jay supporter, for wanting to throw money around just for the sake of spending, or for blocking prospects as they progress through the Cardinals’ system.  I assure  you, there are good reasons to examine the possibility of one of the top outfielders available on the market wearing the Birds On The Bat.

Defense Is Key
Personally, when I look at the middle of the diamond (catcher, second base, shortstop, center field), I prefer to have guys that will solidify the defense.

Now, I’m not trying to say that Jon Jay is a bad defender.  Quite the opposite really.  That’s the point here, if I can look at a player and say that he is an upgrade in defense at a key position where I feel the team is already strong, that shows a lot of respect for the other player.  Michael Bourn is a two-time Gold Glove Award winner in center field and has the speed to help cover the gaps that are left by having power guys like Matt Holliday and Carlos Beltran at the corners.

This Bench Needs Help
It was Chris Reed who mentioned in a recent discussion the lack of faith in the bench.  Adron Chambers and Shane Robinson are average players, but pinch hitting late in a game when the Cardinals need runners, they do not inspire a ton of confidence.

Jon Jay has proven in the past that he is more than capable of coming off the bench during a ball game and producing.  In addition, he has proven in the past that he can produce when not in the lineup consistently.  He is the type of player that can jump into the starting lineup at any point but can also be a weapon late in games.

It Is Not Financial Suicide
Looking at what the Cardinals have coming off the books for this season (Lance Berkman, Kyle Lohse), reinvesting that money in a player like Bourn is not the end of the world.

Many experts project Bourn to get a contract very similar to that of Torii Hunter when he signed his former deal with Anaheim.  That projects to a 5 year/$90 million contract or an average value of $18 million per year.  Puma’s 2012 contract was for $12 million while Lohse was earning just under $12 million himself.  Personally, I feel that Bourn will land closer to $15 million a season for around four years, though either number is within reason for the Cardinals.

The youth of this franchise offers some financial flexibility over the next few seasons.  With key positions being patrolled by home grown talent and other prospects being projected to take over other positions, the time for being able to take on a bit of salary is now.

It Doesn’t Block Prospects
The Cardinals key prospect in the outfield is Oscar Taveras, who has spent most of his minor league career patrolling center field.

That being said, Taveras has been projected by many to have a future at the corner outfield positions and the Cardinals, most likely, see him as the right fielder of the future after Beltran’s contract plays out.  The only person displaced by the addition of Bourn over the next four to five years is Jon Jay.

It Solves The Top Of The Lineup
It has been a long time since the Cardinals have had a player that can solidify the leadoff position the way Michael Bourn can.

Yes, he strikes out a lot.  I do not like that in the leadoff role any more than the next guy.  But he steals a lot of bases, walked a career high 70 times last season, was able to show occasional power with nine home runs, and is a commodity that the Cardinals have not had in a very long time.

Summary
Sometimes you have to be willing to upgrade even when you are satisfied with what you have.  The Cardinals have a chance to improve themselves defensively, on the bench, and at the top of the order in a big way by taking a look at Bourn as a key component of the future.

While I do not feel the Cardinals have to make a move like this to continue to be successful, it would be nice to see the team make a move like this in an effort to get better.  After all, it would be nice to win the division instead of fighting their way into the playoffs through the wild card.

Bill Ivie started i70baseball to write about his love for the game and the teams he enjoys watching most, the Cardinals and the Royals.

I wrote this article for school. We were not allowed to do any research, hence the significant lack of numbers. Leave a comment and I will revise it so there are more stats.

The Kansas City Royals pitching staff was horrific this past season, with Luke Hochevar and his 5.39 ERA, and Jonathan Sanchez giving up 7 runs in 1 1/3 innings to the Mariners. I have a proposition, which will hopefully make the Royals 2013 season the first memorable one since 1985. This would be an anomaly, as the Royals have the longest playoff drought in any professional sport since fifteen years before I was born. Being a Royals fan is difficult, as you have to get accustomed to losing. But if Dayton Moore, the Royals General Manager, would consider these ideas, the Royals may win what is expected to be the worst division in baseball in 2013.

The Royals need starting pitching. Anibal Sanchez is their best option. Sanchez started the 2012 season with the Miami Marlins, who traded him to the Detroit Tigers at the trading deadline. He struggled out of the gate, but picked it up and had a fantastic end of the season. His great performance spilled into the postseason, where he dominated the Oakland A’s and the New York Yankees. He makes the start for game 3 of the World Series, which, as I am writing this, has not occurred yet. Sanchez appears to be the best realistic option, as a Zack Greinke reunion seems to be unlikely.

Speaking of Greinke, if the Royals were to get him, I believe that it would require them to get creative. I think that I can assume you do not know who Mike Sweeney is. He was a first baseman for the Royals before he became injury plagued. The player is not the comparison, his contract is. I was reading a Rany Jazayerli article (a blogger and founder of Baseball Prosepectus) the other day, and he presented the idea of taking the unique clause out of Sweeney’s deal, that says the Royals cannot be bad. Let me explain- the clause says that if the Royals don’t finish over .500 (81-81) in 2003 or 2004, Sweeney can walk away. In the first year of his contract, (2003) the Royals won 83 games. The contract worked, as it kept what was at the time one of the best hitters in the American League in Kansas City. Greinke left Kansas City because he wanted to win, if the Royals give him this clause, if he does not win, he gets to leave.

Dayton Moore claims that he would like to pick up Kyle Lohse. I share another theory with Rany, and that is Moore should stay away from Kyle Lohse. Lohse currently plays for my beloved Cardinals, but he is a free agent this offseason. I have looked at all of Lohse’s splits, (stats) and all of them appear to say that he relies heavily on the Cardinals good defense, and luck. Since 1985, Kansas City is where luck keels over, balls up, and dies. Kansas City has a below average defense. (as a team). Lohse is going to get paid a substantial amount more than Sanchez, and Sanchez has appeared to be better over the last few seasons.

I hope that you have been able to draw a fair amount from this article, but if one thing could stick with you, it would be this; The Kansas City Royals need starting pitching, and Anibal Sanchez seems to be the answer. I am not saying that the Royals will be the best team in baseball, I am just saying that they might be competent, and competent is all that we are asking.