Category Archives: St. Louis Cardinals

Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2010 regular season

April 15, 2010 Brian Walton

With the first in-season transactions of 2010 made on Wednesday, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect all changes made until the short-season clubs begin play in mid-June. I plan to refresh the entire matrix at that time.

matrix-grid-crop-200 The 2010 season-opening view will remain unchanged. You can see it here.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary:

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 287 players under contract from top to bottom. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Along with the major league club and the four full-season rosters, the players participating in extended spring training camp are also included. 44 of them are holdovers from regular minor league spring training, players that did not make a full-season club, joined by 21 new arrivals.

Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. They don’t signify anything other than often a rough approximation of alphabetical order. Roster rotation order and tandem assignments are noted when applicable.

The 37 players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

In a look ahead, the extended spring training players will either join full-season clubs as openings occur or will be augmented by this June’s draftees to staff the 2010 Batavia, Johnson City and GCL clubs. A number are also likely to be released.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 287 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles freshly updated for 2010 now at The Cardinal Nation / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

Full-season clubs

St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs

Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Remember that at this point, there are not yet 2010 rosters for the short-season clubs, Batavia on down, so players are listed where they finished last season – where they will remain until there is a reason to move them.

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

Now that you’ve found this page once, remember one of three ways to get back here. Bookmark the page, type “Roster Matrix” in the dark blue search box at the upper right or use the dropdown menu at the top of the page: “Players/Staff” > “Depth Charts/Roster Matrix”.

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009, July 2009-February 2010, Spring camp 2010, Opening season 2010

Transactions

4/14: C Jason LaRue onto StL DL. C Bryan Anderson from Mem to StL. C Nick Derba from PB to Mem. C Luis De La Cruz from EST to PB.

4/15: OF Chris Swauger onto PB DL. IF Jermaine Curtis off PB DL.

4/17: OF Kyle Conley to QC DL (in FL). 1B Jonathan Rodriguez from QC DL to EST. OF Edgar Lara from EST to QC.

4/21: SP Trey Hearne off Mem DL. RP Josh Kinney onto Mem DL, eff 4/19. RP Jason Buursma off PB DL. RP Ramon Delgado onto PB DL.

4/26: OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. IF Felipe Lopez onto StL DL. OF Jon Jay, IF Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. RP Josh Kinney off Mem DL. RP Pete Parise onto Mem DL.

4/27: C Bryan Anderson from StL to Mem. C Jason LaRue off StL DL. RP Kevin Thomas onto PB DL. RP Francisco Samuel from Spr DL to PB. IF Aaron Miles signed to minor league deal, assigned to EST. New total 288.

4/29: 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem DL. C Nick Derba from Mem to PB. C Luis De La Cruz from PB to EST.

5/1: RHPs LaCurtis Mayes and Chris Corrigan from QC to EST with RHPs Justin Smith and Jason Novak from EST to QC.

5/4: RHP Chuckie Fick to Spr DL, RHP Francisco Samuel up to Spr from PB with RHP Ramon Delgado off PB DL. RHP P.J. Walters off the Mem TI list, LHP Tyler Norrick on Mem DL.

5/5: RHP Josh Dew released (Spr DL). New total 287.

5/7: 1B Francisco Rivera to PB DL, OF Devin Shepherd to QC DL, OF C.J. Beatty from EST to QC, OF Ross Smith from EST to PB.

5/9: OF Shane Robinson to Mem DL, OF Jim Rapoport from Spr to Mem, RP Francisco Samuel to Mem DL, RP Casey Mulligan from PB to Spr, RP Kevin Thomas off PB DL. OF Jarred Bogany from EST to PB.

5/10: 3B Matt Carpenter from PB to Spr. OF Michael Swinson from EST to QC. OF Frederick Parejo from QC to EST.

5/12: RHP Jason Buursma from PB to Spr. RHP Brett Zawacki from EST to PB. RHP Shaun Garceau to Spr temporary inactive list. IF Aaron Miles from EST to Spr. IF Colt Sedbrook from Spr to EST.

5/14: C Roberto Espinoza from EST to QC DL. SS Hector Alvarez released from EST. New total 286.

5/15: IF Colt Sedbrook from EST to PB. OF Devin Shepherd from QC DL to PB. 1B Osvaldo Morales released from PB. OF Ross Smith from PB to EST. New total 285.

5/16: 11 players added to EST. IF Alan Ahmady, OF Tyler Bighames from QC SL. From DSL: Ps Adriano Uribe, Bryan Martinez, Alejando Pinard and IF Luis Pimentel. From VSL: Ps Moises Colorado and Francisco Guzman, IFs Roberto Perez and Wilfred Vivas, OF Anthony Fonseca.

5/17: IF Felipe Lopez off StL DL. SS Tyler Greene from StL to Mem. OF Tyler Henley to Mem DL. Ps Carlos Oraa, Angelo Echeverria to VSL DL. DSL releases: Ramon Urena, Santo Sandoval, Keury Herrera. VSL releases: Sergio Nieves, Fernando Cedeno, Jose Weffer, Omar Viloria, Osmir Medina, Alexander Castellano. VSL signings: Ps Ismael Brito, Jose Perez, Douglas Planchart, Edubray Ramos, Kender Villegas; SS Lainer Bueno, Manuel Marquez, Breyvic Valera; OF Marlon Sucre’

5/20: OF Michael Swinson onto QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza off QC DL. RP Orlando Munoz released from EST. New total 284.

5/22: P Brad Penny to StL DL. P P.J. Walters from Mem to StL. RP Pete Parise off Mem DL.

5/24: P Trey Hearne onto Mem DL. RHR Andrew Brown acquired from Washington and assigned to Mem. New total 285.

5/27: SP Kyle Lohse onto StL DL. RP Fernando Salas from Mem to Stl (+40 man roster). P Tyler Norrick off Mem DL to PB. SP Scott Gorgen onto Spr DL. RP Kyle Mura off Spr DL. SP Brian Broderick from PB to Spr. SP Ryan Kulik from Spr to Mem.

5/28: OF Michael Swinson off QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza onto QC DL.

5/29: RHP Adam Ottavino and LHP Evan MacLane from Mem to StL. MacLane added to 40-man. RP Fernando Salas and OF Joe Mather from StL to Mem. DSL SS Grabiel Hernandez now Ronny Gil and put on disqualified list. Signed RHPs Carlos Matias and Addelin Ceballo, SS Robelys Reyes and OF Domingo Diaz. Released P Juan Mercedes. New total 289.

5/30: OF Chris Swauger off PB DL. OF Devin Shepherd onto PB DL.

5/31: LHP Evan MacLane from StL to Mem. OF Allen Craig from Mem to StL. RHP Arquimedes Nieto from PB to Spr. RHP Eduardo Sanchez onto Spr DL.

6/1: Infielder Alan Ahmady and outfielder Tyler Bighames off suspension. IF Aaron Miles from Spr to StL (added to 40-man). OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. 1B Mark Hamilton to Mem DL.

6/2: RHP Chuckie Fick off Spr DL. RHP Arquimedes Nieto from Spr to PB. IF Jose Garcia from PB to Spr. LHP Dail Villanueva off VSL suspended list.

6/3: IF Luis Mateo onto QC DL. IF Ted Obregon to QC from EST. IF Devin Goodwin from EST to PB.

6/4: OF D’Marcus Ingram onto QC DL. OF Frederick Parejo from EST to QC.

6/5: OF Randy Winn signed by StL. OF Jon Jay from StL to Mem. SP Kyle Lohse from 15- to 60-day DL. New total 290.

6/6: OF Amaury Cazana loaned to a Mexican League club. P Kyle Mura onto Spr DL. P Francisco Samuel off Spr DL.

6/8: RHP P.J. Walters from StL to Mem. RHP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. OF Tyler Henley off Mem DL and moved to Spr. 1B Andrew Brown onto Spr DL.

6/11: LHP Tyler Norrick outrighted (off 40-man). Eight released from EST. RHPs Jose Calero, Luis Orozco, Alejandro Pinard, and Michael Thompson, LHPs John Durham and Kyle Heim, 1B Roberto Perez and 2b Gerardo Mambell. Signed P Roberto Canache for VSL. OFs Anthony Bryant and Corderius Dodd signed, assigned to GCL. New total 285.

6/13: C Tony Cruz from PB to Spr. C Charles Cutler from Spr to PB. 2B Ted Obregon from QC to PB. 2B Devin Goodwin from PB to QC.

6/14: SP Jeff Suppan signed to StL. SP Adam Ottavino from StL to Mem. New total 286.

6/15: C Nick Derba to PB DL. C Travis Tartamella from EST to PB. OF Corderius Dodd not signed (17th). NDFA RHP Ricky Martinez signed. LHP Anthony De La Cruz signed and assigned to DSL. 33 members of 2010 draft class signed. Will be placed when team assignments known. New total 320.

6/16: RHR Eduardo Sanchez off Spr DL. LHR Matt Meyer released. New total 319.

6/17: OF Mark Shorey onto Mem DL. P Ian Parry (39th rd) backed out of signing agreement to attend law school. Signed LHP Iden Nazario (30th). New total 319.

6/19: RHP Chase Reid (41st) signed and assigned to Bat. New total 320.

6/20: LHP Ryan Kulik from Mem to Spr. RP Casey Mulligan to Spr DL. OF Reggie Williams (10th) signed and assigned to JC. New total 321.

6/21: RP Matt Scherer to Mem DL. Ps David Kopp and Chuckie Fick from Spr to Mem. Ps Mark Diapoules and Scott McGregor from PB to Spr. P’s Scott Schneider and Mike Blazek from QC to PB.

6/22: C Nick Derba off PB DL. C Travis Tartamella from PB to JC.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 06/22/10)


St. Louis (25+2)	40-man (40+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse (60DL)	McClellan	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny (DL)	Boggs			Miles			Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Winn
Ja Garcia (L)	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
Suppan	T Miller (L)
	Reyes (L)
	Salas


Memphis (24+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn 2	A Brown2	Pagnozzi	Hamilton (DL)	Descalso	T Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane (L) 1	Kinney			Gotay		Howard	Cazana (Mexico)
Dickson 5	Fick	Anderson
Walters	Parise						Robinson (DL)
O Perez 3	Rundles (L)						Shorey (DL)
Kopp							Rapoport
Ottavino	Scherer (DL)						Mather
	R Hill (L)						Craig
	Hearne (DL)

Springfield (24+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L) 2	Mulligan (DL)	S Hill	C Smith	Jo Martinez1(DL)	Kozma	Folli	Ant. DeJesus
Daley, Jr. 3	Eager	T Cruz	A Brown1 (DL)	Jo Garcia			Chambers
Gorgen (DL)						M Carpenter	Jones
Diapoules	Freeman (L DL)						Luna
Garceau (TI)	King						Henley
Mura (DL)	Buursma
Broderick 4
McGregor
Kulik (L)	Reifer
	Samuel
	Sanchez



Palm Beach (25+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Blazek	Norrick (L)	Cutler	Rivera (DL)	Marmol	Bolivar	Curtis	A Castellanos
G Brown (L DL)	Bradford	Derba	Scruggs	Obregon			Pham
Zawacki 2	D Carpenter	Vasquez (RL)		Sedbrook			Swauger
Nieto 5	Delgado						Racobaldo
Ri Castillo 3	Frevert						Shepherd (DL)
Schneider	Pichardo						Bogany
Bittle (DL)	Thomas




Quad Cities (23+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Novak	Stock	Adams	L Mateo (DL)	Stidham	N Vasquez	Lara
Fornataro 2	M Tapia (DL)	Castro		Goodwin	Jackson		Ingram (DL)
Hooker T4	J Smith	Espinoza (DL)					Swinson
Kelly T5	Notti						R Rodriguez
S Miller T4	Simpson						Beatty
	Terry						Parejo
Rondon T3							Conley (DL)
Calhoun (L) T5
Cardenas (L DL)

M Harris (MIL)

Ext. spring (61+3)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Ferrara (L)	A Castillo	Tartamella	D Medina			Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus	Avendano	A Perez (DL)	Washington	W Perez		R DeLaCruz	R Smith
Butler		A Garcia	J Rodriguez	Vargas		H Garcia	Bighames
C Johnson	Corpas	Moscatel	Ahmady	Vivas	R Ruiz		Jo Edwards
Daugherty (L)	H Hernamdez (L)	Montero	Pimentel	S Rodriguez	C Valera
	Corrigan	Alcala			Y Castillo		R Reyes
	Jimenez	J Castillo					R Rosario
Kington	Ju Edwards (L)	L DeLaCruz					Fonseca
Lawler							Rivero
M DeLaCruz (L)
	Pasen						Taveras
McCully	Rada						V Hill
Moss	Rosenthal						Hage (DL)
North	Santana
Mayes	Siegrist (L)
Russell	Summers
Squatrito (DL)
Uribe (L)	Colorado (L)
	Guzman

Batavia
Johnson City
GCL (36)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
R Martinez (FA)	Benes (35th)	Stanley (4th)	Sanchez (26th)	Walsh (13th)	Tuivailala (3rd)	Cerrato (40th)	Bryant (16th)
Freeman (L 11th)	Kiekhefer (L 36th)	Klein (15th)		Bergman (33rd)	G Garcia (7th)		Longmire (5th)
Aguilar (14th)	Nadeau (L 38th)			Valaika (34th)	Martin (20th)		Ramos (22nd)
Whiting (18th)	Nazario (L 30th)				Elkins (37th)		Biserta (24th)
J Lucas (21st)	Brand (42nd)						O’Neill (31st)
Mendoza (25th)	Revesz (L 49th)						Edmondson (43rd)
A Lucas (27th)	Moye (50th)						Melker (44th)
Patterson (29th)	Copeland (L 32nd)						Williams (10th)
Reid (41st)

DSL (33+5)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	B Martinez			J Lopez	Gil (RL)	B Hiraldo (RL)	Beras
Matias	Concepcion	L Perez	V Ferreira		R Medina		Capellan
Ceballo	D Rodriguez (L)	Baez			Barbuena		Celestino
	Estalis				Agustin		Encarnacion
S Lopez	L Mata				R Reyes		J Pena
	L Polanco						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez							Diaz
JC DeLaCruz	P Pena (L RL)
DeLeon	Paulino
DeLosSantos	Rudecindo (RL)
E Hiraldo	Segundo (RL)
A Toribio	A DeLaCruz (L)


VSL (31+2)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Almeida	Canache	Rivas			Bueno	H Martina	Sucre
Bier	Cueto				Marquez	R Garcia	Acevedo
S Garcia	De Aguas (L)	Velazco			B Valera		Argenal
Oraa (DL)	Echeverria (L DL)	J Gomez
Gerdel	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Guerra							Martines
	Jh Polanco
I Brito	Montanez
J Perez	Solarte
Planchart	Ulacio
E Ramos
Villegas	Villanueva (L)

Codes

(DL): injured – on the disabled list
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+TO) players

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Cardinals home opener live blogging on FOX Sports Midwest

April 12, 2010 Brian Walton

I am returning as a panelist for a new season of FOX Sports Midwest’s weekly live blogs with the first to be held throughout Monday’s Cardinals-Astros home opener. Join in the discussion with the FSM personalities, the Globe-Democrat’s BJ Rains and yours truly.

You can participate via FOX Sports Midwest’s website or once the event begins, you can enter your comments and questions right here in the “CoveritLive” area below.

2009 National League wins leader Adam Wainwright faces Houston’s Wandy Rodriguez as the Cards try to get out on top in their effort to win their third consecutive series to start the season.

Monday’s first pitch is scheduled for 3:15 P.M. Central. For details on all the Opening Day festivities, click here to be taken to TheCardinalNation.com.

<a href="https://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=54d3a05221" >FOX Sports Midwest Opening Day live chat — Astros at Cardinals, April 12</a>

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Cost to attend a Cardinals game up slightly in 2010

April 9, 2010 Brian Walton

(AP photo/Richard Lui)
It is again time to analyze the annual Fan Cost Index (FCI)*, which compares the price for a family of four to attend a major league baseball game across the 30 franchises.

Comparable to their general position in annual payroll rankings, the St. Louis Cardinals hang at the bottom of the top third of the clubs, coming in at number nine, just up from tenth last year. The club’s FCI of $216.56 represents an uptick of 0.7 percent compared to 2009 and is the seventh increase in the last eight years.

					Busch III	Busch II
	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003
StL FCI	$216.56	$214.72	$217.28	$209.23	$207.21	$177.66	$170.45	$164.04
StL YTY	0.9%	-1.2%	3.8%	0.8%	10.6%	4.2%	0.9%	6.6%
MLB rank	9	10	7	7	4	9	9	8

MLB avg.	$194.98	$196.89	$191.75	$176.55	$171.19	$164.43	$155.52	$148.66
MLB YTY	-0.7%	3.2%	8.3%	3.8%	4.1%	5.6%	2.0%	3.3%

#1 FCI	$334.78	$410.88	$320.71	$313.83	$287.84	$276.34	$263.09	$248.44
Team	Boston	Yankees	Boston	Boston	Boston	Boston	Boston	Boston

#30 FCI	$115.24	$114.24	$136.91	$123.42	$120.35	$119.85	$108.83	$94.62
Team	Arizona	Arizona	TB	KC	KC	KC	Montreal	Montreal

Overall, Cardinals FCIs have been pretty stable since the new ballpark opened in 2006. In fact, this year’s average ticket price of $30.14 is only slightly higher than the team’s average ticket price of $29.78 in 2006.

Across MLB, the average 1.5 percent ticket increase this year to $26.74 is the smallest jump since the FCI’s 1991 inception. That may have something to do with the fact that overall attendance in MLB was down 6 percent in 2009. Six teams cut their average ticket price, 13 stayed flat or showed an increase of less than one percent while 11 teams implemented increases. The Cubs rank first in average ticket price at $52.56. Moving into their new ballpark, Target Field, the Twins show the largest average ticket price increase by a huge margin, at 45 percent over 2009.

2010	Avg ticket	Beer	Soft drink	Hot dog	Parking	Program	Cap	FCI
StL	$30.14	$6.50	$5.00	$4.00	$10.00	$2.50	$16.00	$216.56
MLB	$26.74	$5.79	$3.47	$3.79	$12.24	$3.48	$14.10	$194.98

The average FCI across MLB of $194.98 represents a 0.7 percent decline compared to last year. This is the first overall drop in the average FCI since at least 2003. The best value in the game is the $115.24 it takes to see the Arizona Diamondbacks, lowest for the second year in a row.

With some high-end ticket price cuts made during last season, the New York Yankees gave up their 2009 place as having the highest FCI, dropping to third. Their AL East rival and long-time FCI leader, the Boston Red Sox, retook the top spot.

The FCIs of other teams in the NL Central rank as follows: Chicago Cubs (second, up from third), Houston Astros (12^th, down from 11^th), both with above-average FCIs. The other three are clustered near the bottom, but all increasing in a relative term from 2009: Milwaukee Brewers (23^rd, up from 26^th), Cincinnati Reds (25^th, up from 27^th) and Pittsburgh Pirates (28^th, up from 29^th).

* The FCI, developed by Team Marketing Report, is made up of the prices of two adult and two child average-price tickets, two small draft beers, four small soft drinks, four regular-size hot dogs, parking for one car, two game programs and two least expensive, adult-size adjustable caps.

Not every group of four would spend this much money, but it provides a consistent point of comparison across 30 teams over time.

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Walton on KXnO FOX Sports Radio Thursday

April 8, 2010 Brian Walton

Catch me talking St. Louis Cardinals baseball with Matt Perrault and Ken Miller on KXnO FOX Sports Radio 1460 in Des Moines today (Thursday) at 4:35 p.m. CDT.

Go to kxno.com for the live stream.

Cardinals fans in Iowa should be sure to catch Cardinals radio broadcasts on KXnO all 2010 season long.

For Scout.com subscribers who miss it, I will post the audio at TheCardinalNation.com following the segment.

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The Cardinals organization roster matrix: Season-opening update

April 6, 2010 Brian Walton

Note: This version has been superceded. It will continue to reflect 2010 season-opening assignments. To access the current matrix, click here.

With the end of spring training, the start of the major league season and the minor league season commencing on Thursday as well, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

In this update, the major scope is to highlight those selected for the major league club and the four full-season minor league affiliates. As of posting on Tuesday, April 6, these rosters are NOT YET FINAL. For example, there are still about 15 too-many players on the full-season rosters at this time.

In addition, the 68 players invited to the extended spring training camp, underway on April 6, are included. 47 of them are holdovers from regular minor league spring training, players that did not make a full-season club, joined by 21 new arrivals.

For the remainder of the players, the rosters upon which they are listed reflect where they concluded last season. Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. They don’t signify anything other than often a rough approximation of alphabetical order. At the lower levels, starters are not yet broken out from relievers, let alone tandem rotation assignments. At this point, I don’t have confirmation of these roles.

The 37 players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

Full-season clubs

St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs

Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead

In the past, I updated this version of the rosters all summer long, which meant the season-opening view was quickly lost. Based on your feedback, this year, I will instead keep this version for posterity and start a new one to reflect all the in-season changes.

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009, July 2009-February 2010, Spring camp 2010

Transactions

When they occur, they will be listed here and of course the matrix will reflect the updates.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 04/06/10)

St. Louis (25)	40-man (37)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny	Boggs						Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Craig
Ja Garcia (L)	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
	T Miller (L)						Mather
	Reyes (L)



Memphis (24+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn 2	O Perez	Anderson	Hamilton (DL)	Descalso	T Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane (L) 1	Kinney	Pagnozzi		Gotay		Howard	Cazana
Dickson 5	Norrick (L)						Henley
Ottavino 4	Parise						Robinson
R Hill 3	Rundles (L)						Shorey
Walters (TI)	Salas
Hearne (DL)	Scherer



Springfield (24+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L) 2	Dew (DL)	S Hill	C Smith	Jo Martinez1 (DL)	Kozma	Folli	Ant. DeJesus
Daley, Jr. 3	Eager	Cutler		Sedbrook		A Brown	Chambers
Gorgen 4	Fick						Jones
Kopp 5	Freeman (L DL)						Luna
Garceau 1	King						Rapoport
	Kulik (L)
	Meyer (L)
	Mura (DL)
	Reifer
	Samuel (DL)
	Sanchez



Palm Beach (25+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ri Castillo 3	Mulligan	T Cruz	Rivera	Marmol	Bolivar	M Carpenter	A Castellanos
Broderick 1	Buursma (DL)	Derba	Scruggs	Jo Garcia		Curtis (DL)	Pham
McGregor 4	D Carpenter	Vasquez (RL)	Morales				Swauger
Bradford 2	Delgado						Racobaldo
Nieto 5	Frevert
	Pichardo
	Diapoules
	Thomas
Bittle (DL)
G Brown (L DL)

Quad Cities (25+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Blazek T3	Notti	Stock	Adams	L Mateo	Stidham	N Vasquez	Conley
Fornataro 2	Corrigan	Castro	Ahmady (SL)		Jackson		Ingram
Hooker T1	M Tapia (DL)		J Rodriguez (DL)				Parejo
Kelly T5	Mayes						R Rodriguez
S Miller 4	Simpson						Shepherd
Schneider T1	Terry						Bighames (SL)
Rondon T3
Calhoun (L) T5
Cardenas (L DL)
M Harris (mil)


Ext. spring (66+3)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Ferrara (L)	A Castillo	Tartamella	D Medina	Obregon	Alvarez	Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus	Avendano	A Perez (DL)	Washington	W Perez	Goodwin	R DeLaCruz	Beatty
Butler	Calero	A Garcia		Vargas	Mambell	H Garcia	Bogany
C Johnson	Corpas	Moscatel			R Ruiz		Jo Edwards
Daugherty (L)	H Hernamdez (L)	Montero			Valera		Lara
Durham (L)	J Smith	Alcala			Y Castillo		R Reyes
Heim (L)	Jimenez	L DeLaCruz					R Rosario
Kington	Ju Edwards (L)	Espinoza					R Smith
Lawler	Munoz						Rivero
M DeLaCruz (L)	Orozco						Swinson
M Thompson	Pasen						Taveras
McCully	Rada						V Hill
Moss	Rosenthal
North	Santana						Hage (DL)
Novak	Siegrist (L)
Russell	Summers
Squatrito (DL)
Zawacki


Batavia
Johnson City
GCL
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

DSL (40+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	B Martinez	J Castillo	Pimentel	J Lopez	G Hernandez		Beras
Uribe (L)	Concepcion	L Perez	V Ferreira	S Rodriguez	R Medina		Capellan
Pinard	D Rodriguez (L)	Baez			Barbuena		Celestino
Herrera (L)	Estalis				Agustin		Encarnacion
S Lopez	L Mata						J Pena
	L Polanco						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez	Mercedes (L)						Sandoval
JC DeLaCruz	P Pena (L)
DeLeon	Paulino
DeLosSantos	Rudecindo
E Hiraldo	Segundo (SL)
A Toribio	Urena


VSL (34+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Colorado (L)	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez	Vivas	O Medina	H Martina	A Castellano
Bier	Cueto	Viloria				R Garcia	Acevedo
Nieves	De Aguas (L)	Velazco					Argenal
Oraa	Echeverria (L)	J Gomez					Fonseca
	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Almeida	Guzman						Martines
S Garcia	Jh Polanco
Gerdel	Montanez
Guerra	Solarte
	Ulacio
	Weffer (L)
	Villanueva (L SL)

Codes

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Cardinals spring training hitting and pitching in the last decade

March 16, 2010 Brian Walton

Comparing St. Louis Cardinals spring vs. regular season batting average and ERA during the 2000-2009 period.

Recently, I looked at St. Louis Cardinals spring training wins, losses and rankings in comparison to the regular season. I thought I might take a similar view, but this time though the lens of team batting average and ERA.

In the data below, I only have the Cardinals’ spring rankings in the last four years. Their regular season record in batting is quite amazing. In the last decade, the Cardinals have always been in the top half of the league in batting average, though their spring training hitting was not good in 2006 or 2007.

I also listed the top individual hitter each spring and regular season. We are again reminded of Albert Pujols’ greatness. Who remembered that among all the problems that Khalil Greene batted .408 with David Freese right behind at .386 last spring? Me either.

Having a .400 hitter or two each spring is par for the course, but it helps by having Pujols around.

St. Louis Cardinals spring training and regular season results, hitters, 2000-2009

	Spring		Season		Spring		Season
Year	BA	NL Rank	BA	NL Rank	Top hitter	BA	Top Hitter	BA
2009	0.290	5	0.263	4	K Greene	0.408	Pujols	0.327
2008	0.286	5	0.281	1	Pujols	0.407	Pujols	0.357
2007	0.255	14	0.274	7	Molina	0.400	Pujols	0.327
2006	0.260	15	0.269	4	Edmonds	0.424	Pujols	0.331
2005	0.279		0.270	3	Pujols	0.458	Pujols	0.330
2004	0.275		0.278	1	Pujols	0.381	Pujols	0.331
2003	0.282		0.279	2	Pujols	0.415	Pujols	0.359
2002	0.259		0.268	2	Coolbaugh	0.385	Pujols	0.314
2001	0.271		0.270	3	Sutton	0.390	Pujols	0.329
2000	0.290		0.270	6	Polanco	0.439	Polanco	0.316
Avg.	0.275		0.272	3.3		0.411

For the pitchers, I looked at starters. They have done well compared to their peers the last four springs. Three times in the last decade, Dave Duncan’s charges finished the regular season with a team ERA over 4.50 and each time, the staff finished in the second division in the measurement.

Individually, despite having led the Cardinals in regular season ERA four times, Chris Carpenter was the spring pacesetter just twice and only once did his numbers really stand out, back in 2006.

St. Louis Cardinals spring training and regular season results, pitchers, 2000-2009

	Spring		Season		Spring		Season
Year	ERA	NL Rank	ERA	NL Rank	Low ERA	ERA	Low ERA	ERA
2009	4.35	4	3.66	4	Pineiro	1.44	Carpenter	2.24
2008	4.01	4	4.19	7	Thompson	2.70	Wellemeyer	3.71
2007	2.29	1	4.65	11	Wainwright	1.10	Wellemeyer	3.11
2006	3.65	2	4.54	9	Carpenter	0.68	Carpenter	3.09
2005	3.73		3.49	1	Carpenter	3.38	Carpenter	2.83
2004	4.53		3.75	2	Simontacchi	1.13	Carpenter	3.46
2003	5.65		4.60	11	Stephenson	3.12	Morris	3.76
2002	3.34		3.70	4	Williams	2.33	Williams	2.53
2001	4.40		3.93	3	Hutchinson	1.42	Williams	2.28
2000	4.58		4.38	7	Stephenson	1.35	Ankiel	3.50
	4.05		4.09	5.9		1.87

Note the decade averages of spring batting average and ERA are not significantly better than their regular season decade mark. Very close, indeed.

Bottom line, I am not sure there are any takeaways from this, which is really the point. It is dangerous, perhaps downright foolish, to try to read much of anything from spring training stats.

Other spring training-related articles you may have missed:
“St. Louis Cardinals spring training radio and television schedules”
“Cardinals spring training rosters and numerology”
“Cardinals spring training ticket prices this decade”
“Cardinals spring training demographics”

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More St. Louis Cardinals talent inventory rankings

March 12, 2010 Brian Walton

In his “Young Talent Inventory”, now in its third year, famed sabermetric analyst Bill James compiles a list of the top 20 young players across Major League Baseball. Not surprisingly, the inventory, published in “The Bill James Gold Mine 2010”, does not include any St. Louis Cardinals prospects. 23-year-old hurler Felix Hernandez of Seattle is the “most valuable property” at number 1.

James goes further to rank all young MLB talent by organization. In this measurement, the St. Louis Cardinals dropped from number 14 last year to 24 in 2010.

2010		2009
1	Tampa Bay Rays	3
2	Colorado Rockies	8
3	Minnesota Twins	1
4	Arizona Diamondbacks	2
5	Boston Red Sox	10
6	San Francisco Giants	22
7	New York Yankees	29
8	Texas Rangers	19
9	Chicago White Sox	25
10	Florida Marlins	4
11	Los Angeles Dodgers	13
12	Philadelphia Phillies	20
13	Atlanta Braves	9
14	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	11
15	Kansas City Royals	5
16	New York Mets	16
17	Chicago Cubs	26
18	Seattle Mariners	18
19	Milwaukee Brewers	6
20	Baltimore Orioles	24
21	Oakland A’s	12
22	Toronto Blue Jays	28
23	Washington Nationals	23
24	St. Louis Cardinals	14
25	Pittsburgh Pirates	17
26	Cleveland Indians	7
27	Cincinnati Reds	15
28	Detroit Tigers	27
29	San Diego Padres	21
30	Houston Astros	30

Last week, Baseball America posted an article reviewing international signings by organization that they view as being top prospects in their annual Prospect Handbook. The focus is not just this year, but cumulative. It is apparently over the last five or six years, but exact timeframe is unclear.

Eduardo Sanchez (Jim Donten photo) Also, they don’t list all the names, just three from each organization. Still you can get an idea of where BA’s thinking is. The Cardinals are near the bottom with five such prospects, in a four-way tie for 21st. The best is the Yankees with 12 and worst are Marlins and Pirates with two each.

For the Cardinals, the three players listed are all pitchers: Eduardo Sanchez (pictured), Francisco Samuel and Richard Castillo.

A week later, BA came back with a point-in-time comparison to five years ago. In total, there are 21 more international prospects now than five years ago, an increase of 10-12 percent.

Still, the Cardinals improvement is evident by the fact that Juan Lucena was their only player listed in 2005. That one international prospect ranked St. Louis’ system dead last.

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Miscellaneous Cardinals links: March 8, 2010

March 8, 2010 Brian Walton

Offering up some links to interesting St. Louis Cardinals-related reading around the web.

Kill the supervisors…

The problems with MLB umpiring run deeper than the supervisors, but there are unions and processes to follow. Yet there have been three firings.

Geek-a-palooza

This past weekend in Boston, the fourth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was held, with over 1000 in attendance. Among the panelists discussing the use of analytics was Cardinals assistant GM John Abbamondi. Here is a very good recap.

Changing channels?

Though the blood of the Cardinals part-ownership of KTRS would seem to trump the history of the team’s relationship with KMOX, the subject of the radio broadcast rights shifting is at least being discussed again.

BP puts Cards at bottom

Baseball Prospectus has followed up their individual player rankings by system and their top 100 with their organizational rankings, with the Cardinals sitting at #30 of 30. Compared to some other rankings, this feels somewhat subjective, though there may be some methodology behind it that I cannot see.

HGH testing unclear

The commissioner says he doesn’t know if or when testing for HGH in minor leaguers will be ready. Doesn’t make you wonder why they announced it, then? (Also note Bud Selig’s comments defending MLB’s minority hiring near the bottom of the piece.)

In the spirit

This link was posted on The Cardinal Nation message board and the video is so well done I decided to share it here, as well. It should put any Cardinals fan in the right frame of mind for the upcoming season.

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A glance at St. Louis Cardinals 2010 betting odds

March 6, 2010 Brian Walton

Just for fun, not for keeps, we’ll take a quick look at where the 2010 Cardinals line up with the gamblers.

As I often do around this time of year, I just took a peek over at the yellowed betting slip from the Luxor Sports Book in Las Vegas that is stuck up on the board next to my desk. It reflects my bet from five years ago this week, February 28, 2005, when I laid down a whopping $20 on the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series. I received 6-1 odds, meaning I could have won $120.

I was not only betting on a bounce back from the disappointing sweep by the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 World Series, but the excellence of Albert Pujols and Chris Carpenter as well as the nostalgia value of the final season of Busch Stadium II.

As most readers here probably know, the 2005 Cardinals won 100 games again and Carpenter and Pujols took home the game’s highest individual honors, the Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player Awards, respectively. Yet the Houston Astros ended the Cardinals’ dream in a six-game National League Championship Series.

The old slip reminds me why I don’t bet.

Still, I find it interesting to look at what kinds of odds those who are willing to put their money down this year are seeing.

I checked out three online betting sites, where the Cardinals vary from 9-2 to 11-2 odds to win the National League. The Phillies are favorites, with the Dodgers and Cubs behind the Cardinals.

NL pennant 2010	Philadelphia	St. Louis	Dodgers	Cubs
sportsbetting.com	5-2	5-1	13-2	8-1
mysportsbook.com	2-1	9-2	8-1	8-1
bodog.com	3-1	11-2	7-1	9-1

Here are their odds for the World Series. I added in the Yankees, since they are the favorites to repeat. The Cardinals range from 11-1 to 13-1 to take it all this year.

World Series 2010	Philadelphia	St. Louis	Dodgers	Cubs	Yankees
sportsbetting.com	11-2	12-1	12-1	22-1	3-1
mysportsbook.com	6-1	11-1	20-1	20-1	11-4
bodog.com	6-1	13-1	14-1	18-1	11-4

Right before I ended my search, I ran across an even more interesting site. betED.com also provides an over-under bet on number of wins in the 2010 regular season for each MLB club. I am assuming that all betting lines opened at -115, meaning you would need to bet $115 to win $100.

I imagine that odds have shifted from there based on betting interest. As you can see below, the Cardinals’ over/under is 88 ½ wins. If you are the optimist and think they will win at least 89 games, you only have to bet $110 to win $100. The pessimists must be out in greater volume, as it will take a $120 bet to collect $100 on the under, 88 wins or fewer.

No word on whether these lines shifted with last Friday’s word of Felipe Lopez’ signing. I am betting, er… guessing not.

Team	Wins	Over	Under
New York Yankees	94½	-140	110
Boston Red Sox	94½	-105	-125
Philadelphia Phillies	92½	-105	-125
New York Mets	89½	115	-145
Tampa Bay Rays	89½	-115	-115
St. Louis Cardinals	88½	-110	-120
Atlanta Braves	86½	-105	-125
Colorado Rockies	84½	-115	-115
Los Angeles Angels	84½	-105	-125
Los Angeles Dodgers	84½	-115	-115
Texas Rangers	84½	-105	-125
Chicago Cubs	83½	-115	-115
Seattle Mariners	83½	-105	-125
Arizona Diamondbacks	82½	-130	100
Chicago White Sox	82½	-125	-105
Minnesota Twins	82½	-130	100
San Francisco Giants	82½	-115	-115
Detroit Tigers	81½	-105	-125
Florida Marlins	81½	-105	-125
Milwaukee Brewers	80½	-115	-115
Cincinnati Reds	79½	-120	-110
Oakland Athletics	79½	-105	-125
Cleveland Indians	74½	-110	-120
Houston Astros	74½	-105	-125
Baltimore Orioles	73½	-125	-105
Kansas City Royals	71½	-115	-115
San Diego Padres	71½	-115	-115
Toronto Blue Jays	71½	-115	-115
Washington Nationals	70½	-115	-115
Pittsburgh Pirates	69½	-115	-115

Perhaps it is not surprising, but the largest deviations have occurred with the New York teams. If you believe the Yankees will win 94 or fewer games, you can earn $110 on your $100 bet. On the other hand, if you think 95 or more victories will be the result in the Bronx, you have to lay down $140 just for a chance to collect $100. The poor Mets, starting at an incredibly optimistic over/under of 89 wins, have trended in the opposite direction with the smart money on them doing more poorly.

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The Cardinal Nation Blog: FOXSports.com’s Blog of the Day again!

February 25, 2010 Brian Walton

McGwire story and association with Yardbarker leads to repeat national exposure for St. Louis Cardinals-oriented blog.

FOX-2-25-10-CardinalNation For the second time in just two months, The Cardinal Nation Blog has been selected as FOXSports.com’s Blog of the Day, achieved through this site’s association with Yardbarker. What caught their attention this time was my unique spin on the Jay McGwire book non-story, “Mark, Jay and Dad”.

If you’re one of the many first-time visitors here and consider yourself a St. Louis Cardinals fan, please look around, register and join the discussion. I think you will enjoy the fresh new articles and daily commentary.

The link to my McGwire article is featured on FOXSports.com’s main MLB page just under Ken Rosenthal at the lower left under the heading “Blog of the Day” and “The McGwire brother book drama”, but there’s no need to go there, since the link will take you right back here…

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The Cardinals organization roster matrix: Pre-camp update

February 24, 2010 Brian Walton

The St. Louis Cardinals full system rosters are refreshed to reflect spring training camps, both major and minor league.

Welcome to first-time readers arriving here due to the first of my weekly Cardinals Minor League Notebook columns in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. With the start of major league spring training camp and minor leaguers reporting in less than two weeks, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary.

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 285 players under contract from top to bottom. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Its major scope in this update is to highlight those invited to each of the two spring training camps. The rosters upon which the players are listed generally reflect where they concluded last season or the type of contract they signed and frankly mean very little at this stage.

The 38 players on the 40-man roster, who received automatic invites to major league camp, are called out in bold. They have been joined at spring training by 19 non-roster invitees, denoted in italics.

147 more players will arrive in minor league camp starting on March 8. Starting from the top of the matrix, those players include all those not in bold or italics down through Batavia. All of the 2009 Johnson City players with the exception of two, John Durham and Kleininger Teran, have also been invited.

The final group of minor league camp invitees consists of eight designated players from the 2009 Gulf Coast League team and one from last season’s Dominican Summer League squad. These JC, GCL and DSL players are broken out separately below. (Players noted on the suspended or restricted lists are excluded until reinstated.)

In a look ahead, the two Johnson City players, the remainder of the 2009 GCL roster and a good helping of the older players from the Dominican Summer League and Venezuelan Summer League will join the spring camp leftovers in extended spring training, starting in early April. Along with this June’s draftees, these players will staff the 2010 Batavia, Johnson City and GCL clubs.

You may note that I separated the pitchers on the short-season rosters between 2009 draftees and returning pitchers. At this point, starting and relieving roles at the lower levels can and will change. There will also certainly be some positional adjustments coming.

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 285 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles now updated for 2010 at The Cardinal Nation / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

For example, this is the link to the 2010 roster page for Memphis. Click on an individual player’s name to be taken to his profile page. Here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

This will be the version of the roster matrix I will be updating the rest of the spring, so now that you’ve found this page once, remember one of three ways to get back here. Bookmark the page, type “Roster Matrix” in the dark blue search box at the upper right or use the dropdown menu at the top of the page: “Players/Staff” > “Depth Charts/Roster Matrix”.

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009 July 2009-February 2010

Transactions

2/26: Signed IF Felipe Lopez. Signed 14 DSL players: C Fernando Baez, 2B Starlin Rodriguez, SS Rafael Medina, SS Junior Agustin, SS Daniel Barbuena, OF Amauris Capellan, OF Ronald Castillo, OF Eduardo Celestino, RHPs Ariel Gonzalez, Jean Carlos De La Cruz, Victor De Leon, Hansel De Los Santos, Eduardo Hiraldo and Arturo Toribio. Signed seven VSL players: C Jose Gomez, OF Jose Martinez (noted as Jo Martinez2 below), OF Jhohan Acevedo, RHPs Alberth Almeida, Silfredo Garcia, Anderson Gerdel and Geudy Guerra. New total 307.

3/17: C Paul Vazquez retired. OF Kaiser Inojosa released. New total 305.

3/18: Rule 5 pick LHP Ben Jukich returned to CIN after clearing outright waivers. New total 304.

3/23: Seven released. Ps Justin Fiske, Andres Rosales, Jonathan Gonzalez, Reynier Gonzalez and Marco Gonzalez, 1B Matt Arburr and C Blake Murphy. New total 297.

3/26: Ten released. Ps Brad Furnish, Tyler Lavigne, Randy Santos, Adam Veres, Santo Maertz, Charlie Zink, Pedro Rodriguez and Yoffri Martinez, OFs Travis Mitchell and Edwin Gomez. New total 287.

3/31: SS Julio Lugo traded to Baltimore Orioles. New total 286. 40-man at 37.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 03/31/10)

St. Louis (25)	40-man (37)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	Kinney	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny	Boggs						Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Craig
McClellan	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
	T Miller (L)						Mather
	Reyes (L)



Memphis (24)	9 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
O Perez	Parise	Anderson	Hamilton	Descalso	Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane	Salas	Pagnozzi		Gotay		Howard	Cazana
	Scherer						Shorey
Ottavino	Rundles (L)						Robinson
Ja Garcia (L)	Meyer (L)
R Hill	Norrick (L)
Walters




Springfield (30)	7 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn	Freeman (L)	S Hill	A Brown	Jo Garcia	Kozma	Folli	Jones
Hearne	Sanchez	T Cruz			Jo Martinez1		Henley
Gorgen	Samuel	Derba			Sedbrook		Ant. DeJesus
Dickson							Rapoport
Kulik (L)	Fick						Luna
Additon (L)	Dew
	King
	Summers
	Daley, Jr.
	Mura
	Mulligan






Palm Beach (22)	1 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Broderick	Buursma	Cutler	Rivera	Marmol		M Carpenter	Chambers
Ri Castillo	Eager		C Smith	A Castellanos			Pham
Nieto	Bradford		Morales				Swauger
	Reifer
Diapoules	Garceau
G Brown (L)
Kopp
Bittle




Quad Cities (25+1)	2 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
S Miller	D Carpenter	Stock	Scruggs		Stidham	Curtis	Parejo
Fornataro	Delgado	Espinoza			Bolivar	Racobaldo	Ingram
Schneider	Pichardo						R Rodriguez
Thomas	McCully						Bogany
Cardenas (L)	M Tapia
Zawacki	Frevert
	McGregor

	Rondon
M Harris (mil)


Batavia (23+1)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Calhoun (L)	Blazek	L DeLaCruz	Adams		Jackson	N Vasquez	Swinson
Corrigan	Hooker	Castro	Ahmady (susp)		Goodwin
Ju Edwards (L)
Kelly	Mayes						Jo Edwards
	Siegrist (L)						Conley
Moss							Shepherd
Squatrito
J Smith
Simpson
Terry


Johnson City (29)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Johnson	A Ferrara (L)	Tartamella	J Rodriguez	L Mateo	Y Castillo		Beatty
Heim (L)	North	A Perez			Obregon		R Smith
Kington	Notti				R Ruiz		Lara
Lawler	Russell				Alvarez		R Rosario
Butler	Rada						Hage
Novak
Daugherty (L)	Ang. De Jesus
M Thompson


Extended spring
Durham (L)						Teran


GCL (19+1)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M DeLaCruz (L)	Calero		D Medina		Mambell		Babrick
	Avendano						Bighames (susp)
	A Castillo						Rivero
	Munoz
	Orozco
	Pasen


Regular spring
H Hernamdez (L)		A Garcia	Washington		Valera	R DeLaCruz	V Hill
Rosenthal		Moscatel


DSL (46+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	Concepcion	J Castillo	Pimentel	W Perez	G Hernandez		Beras
Santana	L Mata	L Perez	V Ferreira	J Lopez	R Medina		Encarnacion
Jimenez	Rudecindo	Baez		S Rodriguez	Barbuena		J Pena
Uribe (L)	Urena				Agustin		R Reyes
Pinard	D Rodriguez (L)						Sandoval
Herrera (L)	Mercedes (L)						Taveras
S Lopez	P Pena (L)						Capellan
	Paulino						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez	Segundo (susp)						Celestino
JC DeLaCruz	B Martinez
DeLeon	Estalis
DeLosSantos	L Polanco
E Hiraldo
A Toribio


Regular spring
		Alcala

VSL (39+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Colorado (L)	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez	Vivas	O Medina	H Garcia	Argenal
Bier	Cueto	Viloria		Vargas		R Garcia	Martines
Corpas	Guzman	Velazco				H Martina	Fonseca
Nieves	Jh Polanco	Montero					Inojoza
Oraa	Ulacio	J Gomez					A Castellano
	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Almeida	Solarte						Acevedo
S Garcia	Weffer (L)
Gerdel	Montanez
Guerra	De Aguas (L)
	Echeverria (L)
	Villanueva (susp L)

Codes
(i): injured – on the disabled list
(t): temporary inactive list
(susp): suspended list
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
italics: non-roster spring training camp invitee
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive (i+t+susp) players

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A St. Louis Cardinals Twitter directory

February 22, 2010 Brian Walton

One man’s view of those to consider following on Twitter for St. Louis Cardinals-major and minor league-related information.

Having been later than some to join the Twitter game, I recently shared my first-month thoughts about the hot social networking tool, both pros and cons. Now, I am going to take the next step to call out the identities of those I recommend St. Louis Cardinals fans who participate in Twitter should consider following.

As spring training officially begins, the amount of information being tweeted and re-tweeted is increasing considerably. Unfortunately, also growing is the level of noise.

Beyond being told what music is in their iPods and what they had for breakfast, perhaps my biggest pet peeve when following a baseball-related tweeter is the “yes-men” who re-tweet everything the beat reporters say, as if everyone who might possibly be interested doesn’t already follow the original source. (This is worse if you decide to monitor the team-related hashtags. See below.)

Filtering out the inevitable noise can best be attempted by carefully selecting those who you follow on Twitter and occasionally weeding out those who don’t give you what you want. That simple thought led me to adopt an idea I saw a Mets blogger undertake recently – to summarize the various team-oriented individuals pumping good stuff out into the Twitterverse.

Across all my personal interest levels, I have carefully selected 150 I currently follow, but will identify here the subset of 30 or so I think are most relevant to the masses of Cardinals fans. Some make sense for major league news only while others are obviously minor league-focused.

I probably won’t remember everyone and apologize in advance if I inadvertently left you or your favorite information provider off the list. If there are some notables you like that I have forgotten, please feel free to call them out below.

I won’t add explanation unless I think it is necessary to clarify the source. I am also not going to comment much on who tweets what outside of baseball as you can decide for yourself what interests you beyond Cardinals news and what does not, but all that follow offer ample Cardinals-related content.

Remember, if you decide after the fact that following someone isn’t working out, you can easily and immediately unfollow them. I did it with Jose Canseco most recently when he went off on a profane tirade. It was clearly the right decision for both of us.

To go to the Twitter home page of any of these to check out their recent tweets and perhaps follow them, you can either click on their names below or simply enter “twitter.com/xxxxxx” in your browser, where xxxxxx is any name listed. (Note that the capitals do not matter, but the underlines _ clearly do, such as with my account, B_Walton. Anywhere you see what appears to be a space in the linked names below, an underline _ is actually there.)

Post-Dispatch: stl_cardinals, JoeStrauss, dgoold, miklasz

Globe-Democrat: STLGlobeSPORTS, BJRains, RobRains

MLB.com: stlcardinals, MatthewHLeach

AP: rbfallstromAP

Rightsholder broadcast media: Fox_Sports_MW, JohnMarecek (KTRS radio), CardsNationShow (Channel 5)

The Cardinal Nation: ScoutStLouisMLB, B_Walton, Dustin_Mattison, jrocke217 (Josh Jones), stkerrick

A few of the Cardinals players partake, but I would imagine they are learning that its two-way operation can become a challenge. The latter two often use Twitter to share religious-themed messages.

Players: mattholliday7, MattPagnozzi, BlakeHawksworth

Cardinals team: MLBSTLCardinals (official team account), TonyLaRussa, jluhnow

Minor league affiliates: memphisredbirds, Sgf_Cardinals, RDSLetsPlay (Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, FL) QCRiverBandits

Blogs: C70, thebirdos, Future_Redbirds, PitchersHit8th, Fungoes

Of course, there are literally hundreds of national writers and sites that also tweet occasionally about the Cardinals, but my focus here has been the handful of team-oriented ones with which I suggest you consider when getting started.

Cardinals-related hashtags

Hashtags are keywords included in tweets, identified by a hash sign (#) preceding them. The advantage for the reader is to be able to search on and/or regularly follow a topic area based on its hashtag, rather than by individual tweeters.

The most important hashtag that is regularly used is #stlcards. Its major downside is the volume of unwashed masses participating. Think of it as sort of the Twitter version of the Cards Talk message board, so be prepared to sort through considerably more chaff than wheat. Another problem is mounds of repetition as well-meaning twitter neophytes re-tweet comments from beat writers who everyone already follow – sometimes a day or two later.

Another is #hpgf – short for “hyperventilating prospect geek fraternity.” The acronym was first coined by the Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss to poke at what he considers to be an overzealous subset of Cardinals minor league watchers. The #hpgf hashtag caught on with some as a quick way to summarize “Cardinals minor league prospect information” into just five characters, saving more of the 140-character maximum per tweet for content. Others only use it in a derogatory manner, however, so I have moved to #stlminors.

A final thought

Like anything else, Twitter can become a huge time burner or less politely, a major time waster. My recommendation is to start slowly with sources you think you know you want to follow and gradually work your way into it. If you have to step away from Twitter for a few hours or days, let the tweets go that appeared while you were gone. There will soon be plenty more where they came from.

Good luck and good tweeting, Cardinals fans!

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Philly driver guilty in death of Cardinals fan

February 17, 2010 Brian Walton

The drunken driver who killed a St. Louis Cardinals fan and seriously injured another in Philadelphia last summer accepts a pair of guilty pleas.

In an update on a horrible story from last summer, the man accused of running over two St. Louis Cardinals fans with his speeding car outside Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park last July pleaded guilty on Tuesday to vehicular homicide and vehicular aggravated assault while intoxicated.

Citizens Bank Park (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Now 20-year-old South Philadelphia resident Joseph Genovese Jr. ran a red light on Broad Street outside an afternoon Phillies-Cardinals game last July 10, striking St. Louis schoolteachers Cindy Grassi and Sandra Wacker.

Following two days on life support, Grassi, 53, died from her injuries while Wacker, then 36, was seriously injured. She suffered a traumatic brain injury, bruised lung and a broken leg which required her to spend months in recovery, first in Philadelphia, then back home in St. Louis. Doctors had to remove a part of Wacker’s skull to allow for swelling of the brain and when that piece of her skull was put back in place four months later, 69 staples were required.

The friends, who met as teachers at Mark Twain Elementary School in Brentwood, Mo., had traveled to a different ballpark each summer to watch the Cardinals play. Grassi had retired in 2007, while Wacker has now returned to teaching fourth grade.

Citizens Bank Park is relatively new, having opened in 2004, with wide boulevards and good sightlines in all directions. Yet nothing could protect the two teachers from Genovese’s speeding automobile. Prior to the accident, the man had bragged on his MySpace page of driving 120 mph on a drag-racing strip near the ballpark. After his arrest, his mugshot was featured on his MySpace page.

Genovese faces a sentence of up to 13 1/2 to 27 years in prison and will learn his fate on April 13.

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Defending Cardinals Nation to the Cardinal Nation

February 13, 2010 Brian Walton

A St. Louis Cardinals promotional program new to some has them strangely angry.

This is the time of the year when the well of story ideas becomes driest, just before players report to spring training and actual news on the field of play becomes available to report and discuss.

I guess I am guilty of the same, writing about such a storyline here. Yet in a way, I feel the need to defend those who do not defend themselves and those of us who happen to like the term “Cardinal Nation” in whatever derivative used.

The other day, Alvin Reid of the Globe-Democrat launched off into a long editorial, expressing his disgust with the St. Louis Cardinals organization’s promotional offering to provide perks to fans for a fee. Apparently, Reid just discovered the existence of “Cardinals Nation”, a program which has been in place for several years now and is a duplicate of ones in a number of other major league cities.

I was prepared to let it pass until I read a second reaction piece, even stronger than the first. Reid’s column spawned a profanity-laced rant from AT Hooks at insidestl.com, in which he declared “’Cardinal Nation’ is Dead”. I guess some think swearing is a necessary part of being considered edgy. Putting that aside, why Hooks feels he can make this declaration on behalf of everyone based on an ongoing and relatively minor team promotion is beyond me.

In terms of full disclosure, I once actually signed up for “Cardinals Nation” a few years back simply to get MLB Gameday Audio at a reduced rate. It gave me what I wanted from it. Others might like the special ticket offers. Whatever.

Whether or not people choose to pay their money for the program is certainly up to them, but the thought of somehow trying to tie this to one’s fandom level is a pretty ridiculous concept, even when there is apparently nothing else to write about.

Both Reid and Hooks were sloppy in their use of the terminology, confusing the variations on the words “Cardinals Nation”. Given this blog’s name and its parent are turns of the phrase (for the record, with the latter’s URL and site active long before the Cardinals introduced their offering), as a public service I thought I should clarify some of its uses.

“Cardinals Nation”: A promotional program offered by the St. Louis Cardinals for $19.95 per season. (logo above)

“Wings of Hope – Cardinal Nation”: A Sunday in-season television program on KSDK Channel 5. (Why Hooks chose that completely unrelated graphic for his diatribe totally escapes me.)

“The Cardinal Nation”: The main site at Scout.com.

“The Cardinal Nation Blog”: Right here. It’s our name and we’re sticking to it!

“Cardinal Nation”: A generic term to characterize the team’s fan base shared by all.

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Random newspaper-related thoughts

February 12, 2010 Brian Walton

A series of somewhat-related, somewhat non-related newspaper-oriented items in the news.

Today, I will note some newspaper-related thoughts that have been banging around inside my head, of course inspired by things I’ve read and heard recently.

New York Times reportedly going to subscription model

Last month, New York Magazine ran a very interesting article about the internal debates within the New York Times that has apparently culminated in the paper moving to some type of subscription model for their online edition in the near future.

As advertising revenues plummet, newspapers are feeling more and more pressure to identify new sources of revenue. Whether or not a subscription model is the solution remains a very open question.

Post-Dispatch parent shows profit again

That led me to recent reports regarding Lee Enterprises, parent of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and publisher of 53 daily newspapers in 23 states. Last month, Lee announced its second consecutive quarterly profit, certainly good news on the heels of some tough times for the Davenport, Iowa concern.

Still, there was a double digit revenue decline. Profit was possible due to cutting costs faster than ad revenue shrunk. Lee eliminated 1,000 jobs in its fiscal 2009 on a base of 8,200. Their ad revenue dropped 16.4 percent from the same quarter a year earlier.

After reportedly outsourcing printing and delivery operations, Lee wants to cut expenses even deeper.

“Acrimonious” negotiations for new union contract

Since at least last May, Lee has been negotiating with the St. Louis Newspaper Guild on a new three-year contract. A key tenet of Lee’s ongoing position, as reported by the Guild, is what amounts to a 23% wage cut over three years – 15% in the first year, 5% in the second year and 5% in the third.

Last week, the Guild noted the involvement of a federal mediator and reported Lee “has turned more acrimonious in its negotiations with the Guild.”

There was speculation the matter could come to a head in a matter of weeks.

Post-Dispatch Cardinals coverage defended

Next up is P-D baseball writer Derrick Goold, who appeared with Mike Claiborne on KTRS 550 Radio Hot Stove Show on Wednesday. Goold was there to promote his new book, “100 Things Cardinal Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die,” now on sale at retailers such as Amazon.com.

During their chat, Claiborne suggested that the Post-Dispatch’s investment in Cardinals coverage – “three writers and two columnists – is unusually high these days.” Goold doesn’t see it that way.

“I think it is reasonable to put those kinds of resources behind a team like the Cardinals,” Goold replied. “What the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald put into the Red Sox is very similar, or the Chicago Tribune puts into covering the Chicago Cubs…

“I think you see that in towns where they have franchises that are part of baseball royalty…”

Goold went on to note the “insatiable” demand Cardinals fans have for news about their favorite club. That opportunity inevitably leads to competition…

Newspaper wars

Though this is not baseball-related, it seemed worth noting. As the story of the sale of the Rams evolved over recent weeks, the Post-Dispatch and Globe-Democrat seemed to be taking swipes at each other over who was in the bidding and who wasn’t. It came to a head in a dispute between the two papers over who broke the story of the sale to Illinois businessman Shahid Khan and how.

Blogging for spring bucks

That leads me to my sixth and final item. Baseball writer Mark Zuckerman was among those fired when the Washington Times recently discontinued their sports section. Limited to blogging to reach his Washington Nationals-focused audience, Zuckerman recently ran a fund drive with readers that netted him $5,300 in less than two weeks to cover his trip to spring training.

In return, Zuckerman offered his sponsors special content and the opportunity to suggest questions to players and officials. He modeled his idea on a similar approach charted by a laid-off former newspaperman from Cincinnati.

In closing

My first thought was that Zuckerman lives much better in spring training than I do, but the far more important point is that his readers obviously like what he does enough to let their wallets do their talking. Impressive.

Taking this post full circle, the Zuckerman plan seems to offer readers the opportunity to pay for exactly what they want to read, rather than an entire entity like the New York Times.

One thing for sure – there will be continued evolution in how we receive our news. It should be fascinating to watch and be a part of.

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Cardinals Winter Warm-Up autograph prices reflect economy

January 11, 2010 Brian Walton

Autograph prices at the St. Louis Cardinals fan event, Winter Warm-Up, demonstrate an appreciation of the down economy.

As every year at this time, I received my package with the autograph details for the St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm-Up to be held next weekend. That provides me the opportunity to look at those rising and falling in the eyes of whoever in the Cardinals hierarchy sets what they believe to be the market prices for autographs.

While the prices demanded for signatures of course do not reflect true player value, they do indicate fan value in a way. Of course, all proceeds go to charity, Cardinals Care, so the needy are the true winners.

What is different this year is that there are fewer individuals signing for a donation and lower prices for the ones that are signing. In addition, more free autographs will be provided than before. This is a wise move by the Cardinals, better reflecting the current economic environment.

Autograph tickets are on sale online from January 9 through January 13, with any remaining tickets available at the event. Albert Pujols, the highest-priced autograph at $175, was handled via a special lottery.

The pre-imposed limit of autograph tickets per player per person is three, same as in the past except that for a few players, the previous limit was two. Last year, they were Rick Ankiel, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. That restriction went away this year, as did Ankiel.

Joining Pujols at the top of the pecking order is newly-signed Matt Holliday at $100. In a sign of the economy, there is only one price increase from last year and it is understandable, new Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog.

Top dogs	2010	2009	2008	Commentary
Albert Pujols	$175	$175	$175	Held prices flat despite winning every award in sight.
Matt Holliday	$100			Debuts high as expected.

Second tier
Yadier Molina	$75	$100	$90	Drops back down under the $100 barrier.
Chris Carpenter	$50	$60	$75	Second year in a row for a price decrease. Bargain!
Adam Wainwright	$50	$60	$80	Another surprise drop in price. Just needed a few more votes.

Middle of the pack
Ryan Ludwick	$30	$40	$10	Should have an interesting case in arbitration, too.
Tony La Russa	$30	$30	$30	Biggest signature was on a new contract for 2010.
Colby Rasmus	$25	$30	$30	Looks like one of the real bargains of the day.
Skip Schumaker	$25	$30	$5	Hopefully, he will get thanks for his position change.

Bargains
Kyle Lohse	$15	$25		He still has his $41 million coming at least.
Brendan Ryan	$15	$15	$10	Last year, he was just a reserve. Now a starter and still $15.
Ryan Franklin	$10	$10	$10	Career season didn’t raise his asking price.
Kyle McClellan	$5	$10		Relievers don’t get enough respect.
Jason Motte	$5	$10		I wonder how fast he signs? Has he developed a 2nd signature yet?
Trever Miller	$5	$5		Steadiest member of the 2009 pen back for another year.
Josh Kinney	Free	$5	$5	Still working on his comeback.

Autograph prices are lower this year than last for 11 current players and two ex-Cardinals. In addition, the number of current and former players signing for free has been expanded from 47 to 54, while the total number of fee signers is down from 34 in 2009 to 24 this year.

# of signers	2010	2009
Current fee	15	26
Hall of Famers	2	4
Retired fee	5	4
Free	54	47

There are several notable Cardinals missing from the WWU autograph rolls, all for unknown reasons except one, the hitting coach.

Missing in action	2010	2009	2008	Commentary
Jason LaRue		$5		Reserve catcher and his ‘stache missing from 2010 rolls.
Brad Penny				Newest Cardinal needs to meet fans. Only has one-year contract.
Dennys Reyes				Would he sign in Spanish?
Julio Lugo				Would the Boston Red Sox pay for his autograph signings, too?
Mark McGwire				He’d be extremely popular, but I hear he has some open issues.

The ranks of the Hall of Famers signing have dropped noticeably with regulars Bob Gibson and Lou Brock being the most obvious absences.

Hall of Famers	2010	2009	2008	Commentary
Red Schoendienst	$75	$75	$60	Get it while you still can. A true great.
Whitey Herzog	$60	$40	$50	Hall election reverses declining trend in autograph price.

Where did they go?
Bob Gibson		$125		Auctioned off baseball memorabilia in 2009.
Bruce Sutter		$100		Retired number was questionable decision by Cards.
Lou Brock		$100		Always very popular. Also sold memorabilia in 2009.

Among the past Cardinals heroes signing for a small fee include fan favorite Mike Matheny. John Tudor dropped off the list.

I remember you!	2010	2009	Commentary
Ray Lankford	$10		Didn’t receive any Hall of Fame votes.
Vince Coleman	$10		Will he steal your money like so many bases?
Mike Matheny	$10		Should be a very popular autograph.
Bernard Gilkey	$5	$15	Can’t beat the price.
Jack Clark	$5	$10	Fox Sports Midwest broadcaster drops fee.

Not appearing in 2010
John Tudor		$10	Probably still cranky.

The article would not be complete without noting these ten former Cardinals who signed in past years. Best of luck, guys.

The departed	2009	2008	Commentary
Rick Ankiel	$60	$55	Leaves St.Louis after 13 years
Troy Glaus	$40		Did signing aggravate that supposedly-OK shoulder?
Chris Duncan	$20	$40	Autograph price was already in decline.
Khalil Greene	$20		Just signed contract with Texas.
Todd Wellemeyer	$15		Still looking for work.
Joel Pineiro	$10	$20	Trying to find multi-year security.
Chris Perez	$10		Dealt to Cleveland for Mark DeRosa.
Brian Barton	$5		Gone and forgotten.
Adam Kennedy	$5		Was a WWU no-show and on his way out the door.
Brad Thompson	$5	$10	Released and signed with Royals.

Not to be forgotten are a major batch of current and former Cardinals who will be signing for free. There are some nice names in here, so don’t think you have to drop big money to snare good autographs. For example, Jaime Garcia won’t be free next year, I bet.

Mitchell Boggs	Daniel Descalso	Jaime Garcia	Mark Hamilton	Daryl Jones
Josh Kinney	Lance Lynn	Tyler Norrick	Matt Pagnozzi	Matt Scherer
Nick Stavinoha	George Altman	Andy Benes	Scott Cooper	Danny Cox
Mike Crudale	Ken Dayley	Jim Donohue	Curt Ford	Rich Hacker
Rick Horton	Charlie James	Tom Lawless	Joe Magrane	T.J. Matthews
Ed Mickelson	Pat Perry	Jerry Reuss	Ted Savage	Todd Worrell
Allen Craig	David Freese	Tyler Greene	Blake Hawksworth
Pete Kozma	Joe Mather	Adam Ottavino	Shane Robinson
P.J. Walters	Alan Benes	Glenn Brummer	John Costello
Boots Day	Chuck Diering	Neil Fiala	David Green
Ron Hunt	Mike Jorgensen	Mark Little	Greg Mathews
Jose Oquendo	Jay Randolph	Kerry Robinson	Scott Terry

The 14th Annual Winter Warm-Up, a three-day event, will take place on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend; Saturday, Sunday and Monday, January 16-18, 2010.

For full WWU information, including signing schedules and ticket prices, follow this link.

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The Cardinal Nation Blog top stories of 2009 #10: Kennedy’s final season Skip-ped

January 10, 2010 Brian Walton

After the St. Louis Cardinals ate the final year of Adam Kennedy’s contract, they turned second base over to neophyte Skip Schumaker – and it worked!

Skip Schumaker and Adam Kennedy (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) This story has its origins way back in 1997. That June, the St. Louis Cardinals drafted a pair of players who would be in and out of their picture for the next 13 years. Prior to the selection of left-handed pitcher Rick Ankiel in the second round, the Cardinals made second baseman Adam Kennedy their first pick, 20^th overall.

The system’s 1999 Minor League Player of the Year made his major league debut that August. He didn’t remain long however, as he was shipped off to the Anaheim Angels along with Kent Bottenfield for Jim Edmonds during the next spring training.

Six years later, Kennedy came home, signing a three-year contract with the Cardinals worth $10 million. It didn’t work out well for either party.

He batted .219 his first season back, which prematurely ended with knee surgery. Kennedy’s 2008 included a request to be traded over concern that he lacked a defined role on the team. He saw time at first base and made his career debut in right field in addition to second base.

Despite the problems, it seemed that Kennedy would remain wearing Cardinals number seven for the final season of his contract in 2009. Then, on February 9, just days before spring training, St. Louis surprisingly gave Kennedy his release. The club remained on the hook for the $4 million due the second baseman for the season.

A seemingly-crazy idea that manager Tony La Russa hatched and general manager John Mozeliak first floated in the press in late January suddenly became the Cardinals’ “Plan A” for the second base position in 2009.

Outfielder Skip Schumaker would move to second base despite having only a bit of college experience at shortstop almost a decade earlier. It was a Cardinals year-to-year move last successfully pulled off by Red Schoendienst over 60 years prior, in 1945-46. Even experienced Cardinals infield coaches had questions over the likelihood of the experiment’s success.

To his immense benefit, once he got past the surprise, Schumaker totally immersed himself in learning his new position on the fly. I remember a particularly difficult spring training contest when he could have packed it in after a couple of tough errors. Instead, Skip persevered, taking extra fielding practice every day led by devoted coaches Jose Oquendo and Joe Pettini. Skip held the job to start the season and never looked back, seemingly improving his defense all season long.

Almost as impressively, Schumaker maintained his level of offensive performance through it all, batting .300 for the third consecutive season. In fact, his .306 average was seventh among National League leadoff hitters. In an example of how Skip gets the most out of his abilities, he led the entire NL in groundball-to-flyball ratio for the second straight year at 4.01-to-1. Schumaker, a student of former Cardinals slugger and new hitting coach Mark McGwire, is again working out with McGwire this winter in California, joined by keystone partner Brendan Ryan.

Though he made the opening day roster in four consecutive springs starting in 2006, 2008 was Schumaker’s first full season as a major leaguer. As such, he just became arbitration-eligible for the first time. Skip could remain under club control for three more seasons before being eligible for free agency. Kennedy, a free agent, is on his way to his third organization since leaving St. Louis less than a year ago.

No matter what the future holds, Schumaker’s amazing, defying-the-odds transformation deserves to be one of the Cardinals top 10 stories of 2009.

Link to The Cardinal Nation Blog’s top 20 stories of the year countdown

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The Cardinal Nation Blog named FOXSports.com’s Blog of the Day

January 8, 2010 Brian Walton

McGwire story and association with Yardbarker leads to national exposure for Cardinals-oriented blog.

I am pleased to announce that The Cardinal Nation Blog is FOXSports.com’s Blog of the Day, achieved through this site’s association with Yardbarker. What caught their attention was my unique spin on the Mark McGwire pinch-hitting story, “La Russa dreams of activating McGwire (honest)”.

If you’re one of the many first-time visitors here and consider yourself a St. Louis Cardinals fan, please check this site out, register and join the discussion. I think you will enjoy the articles and commentary, with new, thought-provoking content posted 365 days a year.

The link to my McGwire article is featured on FOXSports.com’s main MLB page just under Ken Rosenthal at the lower left under the heading “Blog of the Day”.

Regulars on this site may have noticed recent evidence of my decision to join the Yardbarker network. This broader exposure is a prime reason why. Thanks to all for reading!

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Cardinals minor league defense below average

December 28, 2009 Brian Walton

Using unearned runs to measure fielding prowess, Cardinals minor leaguers don’t measure up to par.

By Ian Walton

During The Cardinal Nation’s top 40 Cardinals prospects countdown for 2010, I have been troubled by what I perceive to be a recurring theme. A number of the Cardinals minor league batters don’t seem particularly well-suited to the more challenging defensive positions, leaving the organization with a glut of hitters and limited places to play them.

Steven Hill (Brian Walton photo) As likely the case in many organizations, players are challenged to master the most difficult positions possible, but the Cardinals seem to be doing it more often and less successfully than others. As such, the current Cardinals system appears to be deploying more than its share of “natural” first basemen at third base and the corner outfield positions, corner outfielders in centerfield, second basemen at shortstop, and any player whatsoever at catcher.

In an attempt to test this theory, I needed a way to assess defensive metrics across the Cardinals system relative to their peers. Unfortunately, there isn’t much minor league fielding data out there for the taking, but MiLB does provide team-by-team run and earned run tallies. This allows us to evaluate unearned runs against the league average.

I certainly won’t claim that team unearned runs are the ideal measurement of fielding prowess, but they do provide one valid basis for comparison. I’m going to use the term “uERA” to represent a club’s unearned run average – the number of unearned runs allowed every nine innings. The following table compares the uERA of the Cardinals’ affiliates at each level of play to the rest of their league:

Table: 2009 Unearned Run Data

Team	League	League uERA	Team uERA	Rank
St. Louis	MLB	0.35	0.34	15 of 30
Memphis	Pacific Coast League (Triple A)	0.49	0.54	12 of 16
Springfield	Texas League (Double A)	0.67	0.66	4 of 8
Palm Beach	Florida State League (Class A Advanced)	0.69	0.78	11 of 12
Quad Cities	Midwest League (Class A)	0.71	0.86	10 of 14
Batavia	New York-Penn League (Class A Short Season)	0.85	0.84	9 of 14
Johnson City	Appalachian League (Rookie)	0.91	1.14	10 of 10
GCL Cardinals	Gulf Coast League	0.97	1.22	14 of 16
VSL Cardinals	Venezuelan Summer League	1.17	1.08	8 of 33
DSL Cardinals	Dominican Summer League	1.43	1.22	3 of 7

I find it particularly interesting that in 2009, every level of play in the US had a lower uERA than the one below it, reflecting expected defensive improvement as players gain experience. The Single A Midwest League yielded twice as many unearned runs per game as the major leagues and the Gulf Coast League gave up just shy of three times as many as MLB.

Of the US-based teams, only Springfield and Batavia (along with the major league Cardinals) managed league-average marks, while the other five affiliates allowed significantly more unearned runs than their league competitors. The Venezuelan and Dominican Cardinals both yielded far fewer unearned runs than league average, though one could only expect a relative handful of those players to even advance to play in the United States.

Although the upper levels of the Cardinals minor league system did skew younger than their competition this past season, there has to be some real concern over whether the organization will be able to supply enough major league-quality defenders in the years to come, the way that they have in recent seasons with Yadier Molina, Brendan Ryan, and Colby Rasmus.

While the current batch of Cardinals prospects may project to be adequate corner infielders and outfielders, there may be an especially noticeable dearth of quality prospects up the middle with standout offensive and defensive skills. The value of these types of players in St. Louis is even higher when paired with the Dave Duncan ground ball-oriented pitching focus.

With Albert Pujols hopefully slated to man first base for many seasons into the future and no designated hitter available in the National League, the Cardinals need to focus on acquiring and developing prospects who can field at an appropriate level to support their pitching philosophy. Offensive prowess alone is not enough.

Busch Stadium debt may hurt players more than taxpayers

December 27, 2009 Brian Walton

Some major league clubs have advantageous leases that offer flexibility but shackle their communities. Others carry stadium-related debt.

A typical approach by those who believe they can personally motivate St. Louis Cardinals ownership into increasing their player payroll is to reverse-engineer estimates for revenue, expense and profit, thinking they can do a better job than financial experts like Forbes.

Busch Stadium III One area the critics almost always overlook is the debt assumed in the construction of the new Busch Stadium. In a recent presentation to faculty and business students at Webster University, Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III showed this debt represents between 13 and 15 percent of the club’s annual expense.

Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. has been even more specific, noting their borrowing of $300 million of the $365 million required to build the ballpark requires them to pay more than $20 million annually in principal and interest.

That is $20 million not available for other purposes, including paying players, which is the largest single expenditure for the organization, representing about half their annual spending, according to DeWitt III.

The purpose of bringing this up is not to show pity for the DeWitts and their partners, shrewd businessmen all. Let’s face it. Had they been able to convince the taxpayers of St. Louis to fully finance the stadium, one can assume they would have been more than delighted to accept the handout.

That is precisely the train wreck that has hit a number of other cities, including in National League Central rival Cincinnati. In a Sunday article, The New York Times paints a sobering picture of numerous municipalities, scared of losing their teams, having funded shiny new facilities only to later realize their basic revenue assumptions to repay the debt incurred are unattainable.

After tax increases foisted upon local citizens didn’t prove to be enough and the MLB Reds and especially the NFL Bengals unwilling to alter their “sweetheart” lease terms, Hamilton County, Ohio is left with no choice but to cut basic services to taxpayers and deplete a bond reserve fund. This takes money away from necessities such as schools with no plan for paying it back.

Similar problems were cited with publicly-funded sports venues in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Columbus and Glendale, Arizona. Back-end loaded interest payments are identified as a common problem, the risks ignored at the time the original commitments were sold by wide-eyed officials to the citizenry.

Trying to squeeze more out of the Cardinals for his prize free agent Matt Holliday, spinmaster extraordinare Scott Boras recently took his personal struggle of the rich versus the richer to the people, many of whom are hard-working taxpayers and ticket-buyers alike.

The agent drew a parallel between the Cardinals and the Phillies, the latter having a payroll about 30 percent higher than St. Louis despite the two franchises being similarly valued, according to Forbes. Boras apparently neglected to mention that Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park was state-funded.

One can only hope the self-deputized St. Louis payroll police understand and appreciate the bullet taxpayers avoided by ensuring the owners of the Cardinals were kept on the hook to pay the vast majority of the freight for their baseball palace – just as it should be.

Folks must also realize there is no free lunch. Someone has to cover the expense. It is only common sense that having debt service when a number of other clubs do not may mean the Cardinals have less in their coffers to pay players as a result.

That shouldn’t keep fans from expecting to see a competitive team on the field, but it seems the organization deserves some leeway in how the end is accomplished.

Specifically, if the Cardinals do not overpay for Holliday and he is lost to another organization, some will expect them to quickly re-allocate every dollar to other free agents, whether mediocrities or not.

Instead, if the club decides to stash some additional cash for signing the four extra players in the early part of the June 2010 draft awarded as compensation for the losses of free agents Holliday, Mark DeRosa and Joel Pineiro, some vocal critics will not accept it.

If the organization chooses to hold back money to acquire veteran players in-season to help the 2010 club down the stretch (“dry powder” revisited), there will be those who will not believe it until they see it, despite the club having done just that in 2009.

They will instead chalk up the actions of the winter to greedy owners who had no intention of re-signing Holliday, but craftily used Boras’ delay to purposely let all the good alternatives land elsewhere before doing nothing. These same owners continue to be vilified despite bringing Cardinals fans nine winning seasons and seven playoff teams during the just-completed decade.

So it goes in the annual winter of second-guessing.

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Elias Ranking the St. Louis Cardinals roster

December 15, 2009 Brian Walton

Relative value of players is very active hot stove topic on pretty much any message board you might check, especially this time of year.

Though the Elias Rankings are primarily used to determine compensation for free agents, they can also offer an interesting comparison point for all players, free agent or not. The rankings are the official system agreed-to by both ownership and the players’ union.

The secret formulas combine the most recent two years of selected statistics, including batting average, home runs and RBI for hitters and innings-pitched, ERA, saves and strikeouts for pitchers. Players are lumped into one of five positional groupings – first basemen/outfielders/designated hitters, catchers, second basemen/shortstops/third basemen, starting pitchers and relievers.

Type A players are among the top 20 percent of all players in their league in their positional grouping. A team that loses a Type A free agent after offering that player arbitration receives a draft pick from the signing club plus a compensatory pick.

Type B players are among 21 percent to 40 percent in their grouping. A club that loses a Type B free agent to another team after offering arbitration receives a sandwich pick between rounds of the next June’s draft.

The final 60 percent of the players are denoted below as “NC” for no compensation.

How to read the table: For example, Skip Schumaker scored 69.394. I don’t know why he remains with the first basemen and outfielders a year after moving to second base, but that is where he is. Among those first basemen and outfielders, Skip’s score places him 27^th. Because the top 20 percent works out to 26 players, Schumaker just missed being a Type A and instead is the highest-ranked Type B. Along with Ryan Ludwick, he is eligible for the arbitration process to set his 2010 salary if he cannot come to terms with the Cardinals first.

NL 2008-2009	Pos group	Grp rank	Score	Type	Rank w/in type	Status
Albert Pujols	1B/OF	1	97.037	A	1
Matt Holliday	1B/OF	2	95.96	A	2	FA
Ryan Ludwick	1B/OF	11	83.838	A	11	arb
Skip Schumaker	1B/OF	27	69.394	B	1	arb
Rick Ankiel	1B/OF	66	52.727	NC	16	FA
Colby Rasmus	1B/OF	89t	34.747	NC	49t

Yadier Molina	C	6	76.122	A	6
Jason LaRue	C	32	24.082	NC	18	FA*

Mark DeRosa	2B/SS/3B	19	70.33	B	2	FA
Troy Glaus	2B/SS/3B	23t	67.033	B	6t	FA
Brendan Ryan	2B/SS/3B	39	56	NC	5
Khalil Greene	2B/SS/3B	57t	39.429	NC	23t	FA
Joe Thurston	2B/SS/3B	81	13.462	NC	47	FA#

Adam Wainwright	SP	3	93.492	A	3
Kyle Lohse	SP	27	70	B	6
Joel Pineiro	SP	28	67.302	B	7	FA
Chris Carpenter	SP	31	65.873	B	10
Todd Wellemeyer	SP	47	56.349	NC	5	FA
John Smoltz	SP	83	25.476	NC	41	FA
Mitchell Boggs	SP	91t	20.397	NC	49t

Trever Miller	RP	24t	74.628	A	24t
Ryan Franklin	RP	27	73.455	A	27
Dennys Reyes	RP	35	67.277	B	4
Kyle McClellan	RP	36	66.419	B	5
Jason Motte	RP	77	51.588	NC	15
Blake Hawksworth	RP	85	46.167	NC	23
Brad Thompson	RP	89	45.481	NC	27	rlsd

* re-signed with St. Louis
# minor league free agent

Other ranking factoids:

Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday really are the big two.
Ludwick stands 11^th among all NL first basemen and outfielders.
Despite an injury plagued 2009 for Kyle Lohse and the standout year for Joel Pineiro, the former is still ranked higher.
Because Chris Carpenter missed almost one entire season of the two, Pineiro ranks ahead of him.
At least according to the formula, Trever Miller ranks ahead of Ryan Franklin.

There is some interest in revisiting the Elias Rankings for the next collective bargaining agreement between the players union and ownership, but for at least two more years, these will remain the rules of the road.

Happy Birthday to TheCardinalNationblog.com!

December 12, 2009 Brian Walton

It was one year ago today, December 12, 2008, when I published my first post on this then-brand new blog. In fact, I made five of them that day*, both to get the new site populated and because I had a lot to say beyond what the inherent space limitations on the main site allows. In addition, a blog is really a more personal vehicle than a news-first site like TheCardinalNation.com, something that greatly appeals to me.

I am certainly proud of both of my endeavors.

When I took over full-time operation of the main site this past summer, I wondered if there would still be time to blog daily as well. So far, the answer is “yes”, though the time commitment to do it right has been considerable. It is obviously a major part of my day, and I hope yours, too.

One year into returning to blogging (I began doing it years ago before it was popular), here is what this little blog alone has experienced in terms of my content and your comments:

511 posts (1.4 per day)
7,038 comments (19 per day)
Well over a quarter of a million views

The roster matrix, which I am continuing to maintain in the off-season, has been the most frequently accessed resource. It is a graphical representation of the entire Cardinals system by level.

I exceeded my one-per-day target for new postings and didn’t do it by having to resort to empty, one-line placeholders. In every one of my posts, I try to offer something of substance about which to think – and of course, discuss.

All of you have made this blog work by joining in some solid baseball discussion, whether specifically about the subject of my post or perhaps regarding whatever Cardinals-related subjects were on your mind that day.

I thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to come here and especially to those who participate. For the majority who read, but don’t post, please consider joining in the discussions.

Here is hoping year two of TheCardinalNationblog.com is even more successful for all of us.

Brian Walton

* For the record, these were my first five posts here:

“Tony La Russa still loves Colby Rasmus”
“Will Friday be Flores’ last day with St. Louis?”
“Message from Classy Cody Haerther”
“Cards to reuse uniforms in minors”
“WBC: See Pujols an extra time this spring”

Cardinals spring training ticket prices this decade

December 10, 2009 Brian Walton

Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, FL (Brian Walton photo) In previous posts, I reviewed the St. Louis Cardinals spring training attendance this decade and summarized their ownership/lease situation in their Jupiter, Florida home, Roger Dean Stadium. A request followed to look at spring training ticket prices, which I accepted.

The following tables denote the yearly prices this decade for Cardinals spring tickets. There are five levels of seating, listed from lowest to highest prices, left to right. Further right is the yearly percentage change for the most-expensive level, Field Box seats. On the far right is the aggregate increase from 2000 to 2009.

Cardinals spring training ticket prices – weekdays – 2000 through 2009

Weekdays	Standing	Lawn/Berm	Bleacher	Loge Box	Field Box	FB% incr	10yr incr
2009	$8	$15	$15	$25	$27	13%	59%
2008	$5	$10	$10	$22	$24	0%
2007	$5	$10	$10	$22	$24	9%
2006	$5	$8	$8	$20	$22	5%
2005	$5	$7	$7	$19	$21	0%
2004	$5	$7	$7	$19	$21	5%
2003	$5	$7	$7	$18	$20	11%
2002	$5	$7	$6	$16	$18	0%
2001	$5	$7	$6	$16	$18	6%
2000	$5	$6	$6	$15	$17

As you can see, the largest yearly increase was enacted from 2008 to 2009. Over the ten years, Field Box ticket prices escalated 59 percent – from $17 to $27.

That is not the entire story, however. In 2004, a surcharge was added to weekend and premium games. These prices follow, with a five-year bump of 29 percent from $22 in 2004 to $31 in 2009.

Cardinals spring training ticket prices – weekends/premium dates – 2004 through 2009

Weekend/premium	Standing	Lawn/Berm	Bleacher	Loge Box	Field Box	FB% incr	5yr incr
2009	$10	$18	$18	$29	$31	24%	29%
2008	$5	$11	$11	$23	$25	0%
2007	$5	$11	$11	$23	$25	9%
2006	$5	$8	$8	$21	$23	5%
2005	$5	$7	$7	$20	$22	0%
2004	$5	$7	$7	$20	$22

Trying to anticipate the next question, I then took a shot at comparing to regular season ticket prices. This is an inexact effort with surprisingly less data available to me than for spring training. For example, there are a multitude of different ticket prices. For comparison to the spring numbers above, I selected first base/third base field boxes.

There are also complications. Starting in 2000, the Cardinals began to charge more for the same seat depending on the time of year. Generally, there was an increased charge during the summer months. That is denoted below as “higher dates”.

Cardinals regular season 1B/3B Field Box ticket prices – regular dates – 2000 through 2009 (partial data)

Regular dates	1B/3B Field Box	Higher dates	FB% incr	10yr incr	ST/RS
2009	$60			100%	45%
2008
2007
2006
2005	$60/$63	5/23-9/11	22%		35%
2004	$49/$52	5/1-9/5	14%		43%
2003	$43/$45	5/16-8/28	16%		47%
2002	$37/$38	5/31-9/7	0%		49%
2001	$37/$38	5/28-9/6	23%		49%
2000	$30/$31	5/26-9/4			57%

Note: The years 2006-2008 are blank, as Field Box tickets were apparently not sold on an individual basis during those seasons.

While there was a 100 percent increase in Field Box ticket prices from 2000 to today, it all occurred in the old Busch Stadium with 2009’s $60 identical to the 2005 level.

Wait! There’s more!

Beginning with the 2005 season, the Cardinals added an $8 per ticket charge to certain “premium games” such as when the Cubs came to town. That meant the same seat carried four different list price tags depending on the time of year and opponent.

Here are the other two prices.

Cardinals regular season 1B/3B Field Box ticket prices – premium dates – 2005 through 2009 (partial data)

Premium dates	1B/3B Field Box	Higher dates	FB% incr	4yr incr	ST/RS
2009	$70			3%	44%
2008
2007
2006
2005	$68/$71	5/23-9/11			32%

To keep this discussion on topic, I call your attention to the far right of the two preceding tables. The “ST/RS” columns denote the relationship between the prices of spring training Field Box seats (ST) and regular season Field Box tickets (RS) in a given year.

Whether we are considering regular or premium dates, the relationship seems to be about 45 percent. In other words, a spring field box ticket costs about 45 percent of a regular season one.

Final note: For the 2010 regular season, it appears that all Friday-Sunday games are premium games with the additional surcharge for Opening Day and all Cubs games.

2010 Cardinals major and minor league schedules

December 3, 2009 Brian Walton

Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, FL (Brian Walton photo)

The title pretty much says it all – links to 2010 schedules for the St. Louis Cardinals and their top minor league affiliates.

Spent some time today working on a preliminary view of my spring travel plans, which include Florida and the first part of the 2010 major and minor league seasons.

In case some of you are equally industrious, I thought I would share the most important schedule links, which include the two top short-season clubs.

St. Louis Cardinals spring schedule

St. Louis Cardinals regular season schedule

Memphis Redbirds

Springfield Cardinals

Palm Beach Cardinals

Quad Cities River Bandits

Batavia Muckdogs

Johnson City Cardinals

Spying on Cardinals reader’s queries: November 29

November 29, 2009 Brian Walton

Sometimes when news is a bit quiet, I take a look at the site stats and see how new readers are arriving at the blog and what they have on their minds. Not knowing if they found their answers, I am listing 20 of the search arguments that have led visitors to TheCardinalNationblog.com in the last few days along with a short reply to each.

“did ozzie smith play with the cardinals”

Uh, yes he did. For 15 seasons, from 1982 through 1996, the Wizard of Oz was St. Louis’ shortstop. Ozzie was an all-star in 14 of those years and was a member of two world championship teams. He recently reaffirmed his desire to get into coaching/managing but due to a long-standing feud with Tony La Russa, is staying away from the Cardinals.

“2009 rule 5 draft”

The event is coming up on December 7 at Baseball’s Winter Meetings in Indianapolis. On Saturday, I listed the Cardinals players I believe are eligible to be selected.

“2009 nl cy young award voting”

The controversial results put San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum in first place, ahead of Cardinals Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, despite the latter having the most first-place votes. It was the only time since 1998 that the pitcher with the most first-place ballots did not win. You can see each voter’s ballot here.

“mike matheny’s brother”

This one beats me, as I don’t recall ever writing about the subject. In fact, I have no idea whether the former Cardinals catcher even has any siblings. My guess is that this was a wayward search “related” to jazz musician Pat Metheny, whose brother is named Mike.

“will holliday sign with the cardinals”

That is the $100 million question this winter, isn’t it?

“cardinals offer holiday 6 years”

Not yet, at least as far as we know. But if you put the last two items together, you get in the right ballpark, I suspect…

“holliday arbitration”

This Tuesday, December 1 is the deadline for MLB clubs to offer arbitration to eligible players. The players have until the 7^th to decide whether or not to accept. Among my predictions was the easiest one of all – that the Cardinals will offer Matt Holliday and he will not accept. That would give the organization two picks should Holliday sign elsewhere. TheCardinalNation.com subscribers can read all my predictions here.

“lance lynn in 2010 offseason mlb trade”

This is an interesting one. I wonder if someone has some inside information! Coming off a strong 2009, Lynn seems destined to land among my top five Cardinals prospects this winter.

“braulio hiraldo”

The 21-year-old was placed on the reserve list of the Dominican Summer League Cardinals for the 2009 season and did not play. The right-handed hitter has a career line of .232/.324/.320. The Cardinals’ 2006 signing played in the DSL (2006) and Gulf Coast League (2007-08) in his three prior professional seasons.

“jamie pogue st louis cardinals”

The Canadian catcher signed with the Cardinals in 2000 and reached as high as Double-A New Haven three years later. He then returned to independent ball, playing through 2008.

“cardinals minor league managers”

I have written periodically about the top managers in the Cardinals minor league system over the years and still have three or four additional articles to run this winter when news is slow.

“cardinals lease with jupiter”

The Cardinals’ Florida home since 1998 is Jupiter’s Roger Dean Stadium, owned by Palm Beach County. The facility is operated by Jupiter Stadium Ltd., a partnership between the Cardinals and the Florida Marlins, the other tenant. The Cardinals will be there for a long time as their current lease runs through 2027. That is both good and bad, as I recently wrote about their difficulty in finding someone to play.

“rcwarrior1 colby”

Yep, he’s probably around here somewhere…

“mike marshall pitcher arms”

The former Cy Young Award winner is a controversial pitching coach, working outside of organized ball using a unique training regimen. The Cardinals signed a Marshall disciple, left-hander Joe Williams, and gave him a brief Double-A trial this past summer. I published an open letter from Marshall earlier this year.

“cardinals number 63”

In 2007, Brendan Ryan and Andy Cavazos wore the number briefly as did Chris Perez when he first came up in 2008. Over time, many players were assigned number 63 in spring training only to either be sent down or given a lower number if they made the team. Now-free agent lefty Ian Ostlund wore 63 during 2009 spring camp.

“jim riggleman”

The former Cardinals minor league field coordinator recently had the “interim” tag removed and will remain as the manager of the Washington Nationals in 2010.

“attendance for spring training 2009 cardinals”

The Cardinals averaged 5,652 fans per game and totaled 101,740 in home attendance during spring 2009. Details on their spring attendance history here.

“st. louis cardinals basic fan demographics”

The above article on spring training also offers a general, non-team specific cross-section of information about those who attend spring training.

“vsl matrix”

I am keeping the Cardinals roster matrix updated with all signed players across the entire system listed. You can always find it via the search box at the upper right or via the dropdowns at the top (“Players/Staff” > “Depth Charts/Roster Matrix”).

“’back slippage’ jesus”

I honestly have no idea 1) why someone entered this search and 2) why that brought them here…

A scouting market correction taking hold?

November 27, 2009 Brian Walton

The old Moneyball arguments of scouts versus stats reached the headlines again this past week as the Cardinal Nation lamented the National League Cy Young Award results. A pair of voters used sabermetric evidence in their reasoning for leaving Chris Carpenter off their ballots.

That led to a backlash of comments from watchers all over the internet about voting for the top awards.

Sharp Twitter retorts ranged from the sarcastic to the direct.

Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz: “I wouldn’t know how to vote for something as intellectually challenging as MVP. I would just let FanGraphs decide.”
Tony La Russa: “Great for Albert. Respect Tim, but Adam & Chris earned CY. Computer data best when aid to personal observation & analysis.”

Another line of considerable media attention in recent weeks has surrounded the game plan of Alex Anthopoulos, the new general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. The 32-year-old was hired after the dismissal of J.P. Ricciardi in October.

Scouts (Brian Walton photo) Ricciardi, hired in 2001, then part of the “new wave” of numbers-driven GMs, began firing scouts in 2002. According to the Toronto Sun, he cut the ranks from 61 in 2002 to the 27 on board when Anthopoulos took over.

“The Jays used to be the gold standard for scouting,” Anthopoulos recalled to the Toronto Star.

The former scout has a plan to zig when others are zagging in an attempt to return Toronto to its past glory. Anthopoulos will more than double the number of professional and amateur scouts to a total of 68 full- and part-timers by 2010 while increasing pay and bettering working conditions, building loyalty.

This seems a smart plan to try to find an edge, especially crucial when competing in a division that includes the deepest-pocketed clubs in MLB, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

The Jays will be increasing the number of area scouts from 14 to 25, adding five regional cross-checkers where there were none plus three national cross-checkers. Their pro scouting department will expand from 10 to 21.

Sporting News notes, “By comparison, the Dodgers—considered a scouting powerhouse—list 16 area scouts, five cross-checkers and eight pro scouts in their media guide.”

The Cardinals show 13 area scouts, three crosscheckers and an assistant director of scouting on the amateur side along with eight local scouts, presumably part-timers. On the professional side, they list ten individuals with another dozen in the international department. The rough total appears to be about four dozen.

Of course quality is at least as important as quantity. In addition to offering more competitive wages, Anthopoulos is restructuring scouting assignments to minimize travel and increase number of games seen as well as devising new ways to provide his valuable scouts more time off.

“There’s a reason scouts have been with eight, nine, 10 teams. I don’t think there’s a lot of loyalty,” he told Sporting News. “If we can have less turnover by treating them well, paying them well and giving them better quality of life, people will be dying to come work here.”

The increase in investment doesn’t mean the Jays plan to scout differently. They want to do more of it more productively.

“We’re not going to change the way we evaluate,” Anthopoulos said. “But the way we go about covering teams and tackling the amateur market, we can make more efficient.”

The Jays clearly plan to spend more money on the men who find players, not necessarily on the players themselves.

“I don’t think it comes down to signing bonuses,” the GM told the Star. “It comes down to evaluation.”

Toronto’s decidedly old-school initiatives will certainly be worth watching to see if they bear fruit.

St. Louis Cardinals lose one owner

November 19, 2009 Brian Walton

Chicagoan Nick Kladis, a member of the St. Louis Cardinals ownership group, passed away on Monday.

With MLB owners meeting in Chicago, Bud Selig and his exclusive club had a special dinner Wednesday evening to welcome the new buyers of the Cubs, the Ricketts family. Not every wealthy person from Omaha, Nebraska is apparently riding Warren Buffett’s coattails as this clan made their money from TD Ameritrade.

As one ownership group came into MLB, the Cardinals lost one of their 14-member group. Chicagoan Nick Kladis had a dinner appointment with Cardinals Chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. on Tuesday night but did not show. The 81-year-old had passed away on Monday, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune.

Kladis was a former basketball star at Loyola who later made his fortune in the retail food industry. He was a former shareholder and board member of the Chicago White Sox in the Bill Veeck era and is a member of the Loyola and Chicagoland Sports Halls of Fame.

At this point, there is no word as to what will happen to Kladis’ ownership stake in the Cardinals. The list of investors in the club had already dropped from 15 with the recent sale of Lee Enterprises’ 2.7 percent share.

Late last year, the cash-strapped parent company of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa, sold their ownership stake in Cardinals, apparently to the majority ownership group led by DeWitt Jr. The media company had assumed their share of the club via their 2005 purchase of Pulitzer Inc, then-owner of the newspaper.

Following are the investors in the Cardinals. Snippets about their backgrounds come from a 2005 article from the St. Louis Business Journal and other sources:

DeWitt Jr. – Co-chairman of the investment firm Reynolds, DeWitt & Co. Broad investments include oil, fast food, banking, insurance, broadcasting, cable and bottling companies. Appointed to Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). Former member of the ownership groups of the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles.

Donna DeWitt Lambert – DeWitt’s sister. Former director of Mississippi Valley Bancshares, holding company of Southwest Bank.

Stephen F. Brauer – U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, 2001-2003 and Chairman and chief executive of Hunter Engineering Co. of St. Louis.

Michael E. Pulitzer – Former chairman of Pulitzer Inc., owner of media properties including the Post-Dispatch, which were acquired by Lee Enterprises in 2005.

Mrs. Richard H. Sutphin – Widow of an executive with the Reynolds, DeWitt Securities Co. subsidiary.

Frederick O. Hanser (Vice Chairman) – Attorney with Armstrong Teasdale LLP. Childhood friend of DeWitt Jr.

G. Watts Humphrey, Jr. – Board member and investor in Churchill Downs Inc. Pittsburgh resident owns investment firm G.W.H. Holdings Inc.

Michael McDonnell – Heads privately held Rock Island Corp., a holding company for hardware and building products distributors and is from Memphis.

Dudley S. Taft – From Cincinnati. Former head of Taft Broadcasting Co., sold in 1987 for $1.5 billion.

Andrew N. Baur (Secretary/Treasurer) – Chairman of Southwest Bank of St. Louis. Childhood friend of DeWitt Jr.

Nick D. Kladis – see above

David C. Pratt – Founder of United Industries Inc. of St. Louis. Sold 90 percent of the firm in 1999 to Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Co. for $620 million.

Mercer Reynolds – DeWitt’s longtime friend and investment partner. U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein (2001-2003) with past ties to Bush-Cheney campaign finance committees.

John K. Wallace, Jr. – Owned charcoal manufacturer Imperial Products Corp., which he sold in 1991. Owned a diversified holding company called The Regency Group in Clayton.

Other founding owners Robert Castellini and brothers W. Joseph Williams Jr. and Thomas Williams sold their stake in the Cardinals back to the other investors when the three purchased controlling interest in the Cincinnati Reds prior to the 2006 season. Castellini’s share in the Cardinals was reportedly around ten percent.

First-hand news and commentary on the St. Louis Cardinals™ and minor league system for over 25 years