the outfiled situation

[Senior skittles]

What is the cardinals outfield situation for the upcoming years??? Sadly the only sure player is encarncion and the rest is a blurr. Im a huge edmonds fan but his future is unclear. I mean when colby Rasmus is ready i figure him to take over in center but i could be another two years or so. And left field is confusing too. I mean if bigbie is sucsefull or rodriguez or whoever they may stay. But I think thier left fielder of the future is not on the team yet. Who knos but I see the outfield of the near future as LF Bigbe CF Rasmus RF uhhh I hate to say it but encarnacion....

what do u guys think??

[tonjes]

i understand your concern, but i think you're worrying about something that isn't that big of a deal. edmonds turns 35 in july, but i see him signing some sort of extension (probably 2 years) sometime during the season. sure, his productivity will continue to trail off, but that's ok. he'll be re-signed for less money, and if history tells us anything, probably below his market value.

that gives us bigbie/rodriguez, edmonds, and encarnacion for the next couple years. not an excellent outfield, but it's still a good one. as long as we have albert pujols as the centerpiece of the organization, we can put groucho, harpo, and chico marx out there and still score enough runs to get 90 wins.

also, don't count out the possibility of a trade. i still see us trading away jason marquis or adam wainright (or perhaps both together) to a team in desperate need of pitching (cincy or new york mets). if carlos beltran starts off slow again, and the mets are willing to pick up part of his contract... well, not very likely, but one can only dream...

[Senior skittles]

Wow I would not mind beltran in a cardinals jersey......

[wogdoggy]

guys dont underestimat so taguchi or j rod.the guys are real gamers.rod is a gifted hitter and toguchi adds speed and is a good table setter as well.

[fbeshowtime]

I personally think a 2008 outfield of Nick Stavinoha, Cody Haerther and Coby Rasmus sounds potentially AWESOME and CHEAP... which obviously is ideal when you have to pay Pujols, Rolen, Molina, Carpenter and hopefully Mulder.

[tonjes]

Nick Stavinoha, Cody Haerther

i've heard of colby rasmus, but not these guys. where did they come from, how old are they, and what types of players are they? you seem pretty high on them.

[TRIPxCORE]

So sorry Red Birds but your team had a terrible offseason and the future looks pretty bleak from where I am standing. The Cards will still be decent but this year my Cubbies are taking the Central!

[cardinalfaninNY]

So sorry Red Birds but your team had a terrible offseason and the future looks pretty bleak from where I am standing. The Cards will still be decent but this year my Cubbies are taking the Central!

Yeah Right! How many healthy starting pitchers do the Cardinals have? 5. How many healthy starting pitchers do the Cubbies? Depends on who is in the Intensive Care Unit. If it's not Prior, then its Kerry Wood. The Cubs will NOT win the NL Central until they have healthy, reliable starters beyond Zambrano, and Rusch.:radio

[tonjes]

So sorry Red Birds but your team had a terrible offseason and the future looks pretty bleak from where I am standing. The Cards will still be decent but this year my Cubbies are taking the Central!

cardinal fans,

don't listen to this joker. you have nothing to worry about. your team has probably won the division before the season has even started! sorry i couldn't put up more of a fight. i wish i would have made things a little interesting.

your's truly,
mark prior's shoulder

[fbeshowtime]

Well Cody Haether... he is 23... playing in memphis this year... is a top 10 prospect.... and well here was his line hast year:

BA .318 OBP .380 Slugging .584 and he had I think 20ish homeruns....

He is considered to be just now blossoming. Very good defensive player. Can get on base, runs well and shows pretty good power... could be a 25+ homerun guy every year if he keeps coming along like he did late last year. The one thing for sure is that he can get one base... he has a .316 career batting average in the minors and he has a good eye. Not going to be a superstar, but I think he definitely could be an above average starting outfielder for many years.


As for Nick Stanivoha..... Lets just put it this way... we drafted him last year in the 7th round and he is in Double A ball this Spring already! All he did last year was bat .344 with an OBP of .398, slug .564 and hit 14 homeruns in 65 games. His only downside is that he will turn 24 in May. He was drafted because he played 4 years at LSU and could probably produce right away... well the scouts were right. Just like Haether he doesn't really have star potential, but does look like he could be an above average outfielder for years.

If you put two .300 hitting 25 home run outfielders beside Colby Rasmus in the outfield and you have the makings of a very productive lineup.... assuming Albert and Rolen are still around, we should only get better offensively.

*Also as a side note the Cardinals drafted another player last year in the 3rd round by the name of Daryl Jones who has a very high ceiling if he can put it all together. And let's not forget Albert's cousin Will Pujols who we drafted last year. Apparently he is even more raw than Jones but has plenty of skill. Needless to say our system has plenty of talent in the outfield. We do have fewer sure-fire prospects the a lot of teams, but between Haether and those 4 drafted last year, we have a good blend of high celing guys and proven college players who will compete and try and move up to St. Louis in the next 2-3 years. It should be fun.

[godzilla]

outfield

the outfield this year wud look like this

RF-Encarnacion
CF-Edmonds
LF-Taguchi/Bigbie/J.rod taking turns so it wud be bout 50-55 games for them

and we shall be able to see the WS ring next october

[tonjes]

Well Cody Haether... he is 23... playing in memphis this year... is a top 10 prospect.... and well here was his line hast year:

BA .318 OBP .380 Slugging .584 and he had I think 20ish homeruns....

He is considered to be just now blossoming. Very good defensive player. Can get on base, runs well and shows pretty good power... could be a 25+ homerun guy every year if he keeps coming along like he did late last year. The one thing for sure is that he can get one base... he has a .316 career batting average in the minors and he has a good eye. Not going to be a superstar, but I think he definitely could be an above average starting outfielder for many years.


As for Nick Stanivoha..... Lets just put it this way... we drafted him last year in the 7th round and he is in Double A ball this Spring already! All he did last year was bat .344 with an OBP of .398, slug .564 and hit 14 homeruns in 65 games. His only downside is that he will turn 24 in May. He was drafted because he played 4 years at LSU and could probably produce right away... well the scouts were right. Just like Haether he doesn't really have star potential, but does look like he could be an above average outfielder for years.

If you put two .300 hitting 25 home run outfielders beside Colby Rasmus in the outfield and you have the makings of a very productive lineup.... assuming Albert and Rolen are still around, we should only get better offensively.

*Also as a side note the Cardinals drafted another player last year in the 3rd round by the name of Daryl Jones who has a very high ceiling if he can put it all together. And let's not forget Albert's cousin Will Pujols who we drafted last year. Apparently he is even more raw than Jones but has plenty of skill. Needless to say our system has plenty of talent in the outfield. We do have fewer sure-fire prospects the a lot of teams, but between Haether and those 4 drafted last year, we have a good blend of high celing guys and proven college players who will compete and try and move up to St. Louis in the next 2-3 years. It should be fun.

excellent rundown, fbeshowtime... thanks!

[Designated Fielder]

I am more worried about second base than the outfield. Who is the 2nd baseman? I was actually a Junior Spivey advocate, but now I am not for sure.

Secondbase is a position that we have changed every year it seems like since Tommy Herr. Do we have anybody in the farm system that can play secondbase?

[Sberl]

I agree with Designated fielder, I'm really worried about 2nd baseman...last year I was doubtful about Grudz, but he did a wonderful job. We let him go and I think that was not a good move...now there's Spivey, I watched some spring training game and he wasn't brilliant. I hope he will be better from monday!

[Solair Wright]

I think Spivey could be released by Tony La Russa, and I don't think Luna will be with us on Opening Day, because he can't field. I'm getting really worried about Spivey too, bad offense, bad defense, around .150 batting average, low OBP, and I think Aaron Miles may be our second baseman. nearly 20 K's doesn't really make things better...and the thing about Spring Training is that you could win all your games, but lose 100 games. You could do below .500 and still win a pennant or World Series.

How does a trade sound: Spivey for a second base prospect?