9 Cardinals will be involved with the Peoria Saguaros, writes Derrick Goold.  The persons in question:

AA Coach Pop Warner - has led the AA Cardinals to 73-63 (2007) and 73-60 (2008) records.

High-A LHP Tyler Norrick - 24 years old - Only played in 6 games, starting them all, over two classes (High-A 5 starts and AAA 1 start) this season.  Total of 22 1/3 IP, 20 H, 15 ER, 2 HR, 30 K, and 17 BB.

High-A C Steven Hill - 23 years old - 69 games between rookie ball, High-A ball, and AA ball.  266 ab, 77 hits, 43 runs, 17 homers, 46 rbi, 11 doubles, 3 triples, 14 bb, 73 K, 0 sb attempts.

AA LHP - Justin Fiske - 23 years old - 38 games played, 8 games started, 8 games finished, 1 save (between A ball, High-A ball, and AA ball).  73 IP, 72 hits, 30 ER, 5 HR, 90 K, 34 BB.

AA LHP - Brad Furnish - 23 years old - 28 games played, 23 games started (between High-A ball and AA ball).  131 IP, 119 hits, 67 ER, 14 HR, 86 K, 61 BB.

AA RHP - Adam Ottovino - 22 years old - 23 games started (all at AA).  108 1/3 IP, 129 hits, 66 ER, 15 HR, 92 K, 51 BB.

AA 3B - Brett Wallace - 21 years old - 47 games played (between A and AA), 176 ab, 60 hits, 37 runs, 8 hr, 33 rbi, 11 doubles, 1 triple, 17 BB, 34 K, 0 sb attempts.

AAA SS - Tyler Greene - 24 years old - 120 games (between AA and AAA).  462 ab, 120 hits, 76 runs, 16 hr, 46 rbi, 22 doubles, 4 triples, 28 BB, 128 K, 18 for 24 SB.

AAA OF - Shane Robinson - 23 years old - 98 games (between AA and AAA).  363 ab, 112 hits, 54 runs, 5 hr, 41 rbi, 21 doubles, 3 triples, 21 BB, 56 K, 15 for 22 SB.

Looks like Wallace will not be coming to St. Louis.  I, for one, am fine with that.  Josh Phelps can probably do the same in September and not cost a  year of eligibility, or start the arbitration clock early, or anything.

Another notes, Gordon Beckham, the highly touted shortstop out of U. of Georgia, will be starting next to Brett Wallace.  Could be a fun team to watch...if it were on television.

When the Cardinals traded Anthony Reyes it got me thinking about another high profile RHP who didn't seem to do to well under LaDunc - Todd Van Poppel.  

I'm curious (and can't find any anecdotal evidence one way or another) as to what was the problem with Todd Van Poppel and why he didn't live up to the hype.  Was there any of the "pitch to contact" philosophical differences?  Was his stuff not as good as advertised?  How did he get along with Duncan?  

Does anyone recall this?  Is Duncan ever blamed for his poor results? I recall the hype and lack of success, but too young to remember and can't find (alas before the days of instant blogification) the reasons why.

As a separate question - Can anyone think of starting pitchers who have been developed in the organization and had great success as pitchers under Duncan (either in Oak or STL)?  The only one that comes to mind for me is Matt Morris (Wagonmaker's on his way, even though he wasn't drafted by the Cardinals).  Duncan's greatest successes that I can think of seem to be 'Duncan specials' (Suppan, Bottenfield, Welch, Stewart, Carpenter, Lohse, etc,) and didn't come up through the system. 

1st fan post, please be kind :-) 

I thought some of you might appreciate this recent article from "Natural History" magazine.  (article #2 in the directory)..............."Battered Expectations - Do Baseballs Obey the Laws of Physics?"

Good food for thought and discussion.  I'm not a physics guy naturally but the author presents some interesting points on two fronts - among others

1) What a batter must do to be able to hit a MLB pitch

2) Are some pitches not moving but just optical illusions?

Enjoy

(someone might need to help me with the hyperlink thing) [Fixed-Valatan]

Hello fellow veb-er's, over the past two series versus atlanta i keep thinking over and over again, how do we get kelly johnson in a cardinal uniform? i became even more impressed with his at bat against springer on saturday, he seems to me to be the kind of guy tony would like so how about this...

Cards acquire- Kelly Johnson

Braves acquire- Mitchell Boggs, AK no 7, allen craig

This way we can slary dump on Kennedy, trade a commodity in Boggs for atlanta, and get a blocked prospect out of the system in craig

How does that sound?

We are 2nd in the NL in slugging to the cubs

the cardinals are 2nd in OBP also

we're 4th in runs per game

we are second in OPS

We are 12th in slugging against us however

Although we are tied for 2nd in left on base percentage

our BA/RSP is very close to Pittsburgh for highest in the league

team RZR is at .847

The team appears to be pretty competitive for the stretch. Sure we are not perfect, but hey, the Cubs just lost, so who know.

in the comments of yesterday's main thread, LB made an important statement here, which i'll excerpt:

a factor i completely overlooked in the main post is the high opportunity cost that attends any long-term deal that’s handed out to a pitcher. when you lock in a mediocrity (or worse) with a long-term guaranteed deal, it costs another, potentially better player a chance to come in and upgrade your organization.

he goes on to say that opportunity costs go both ways, which is definitely true. i replied in that thread trying to flesh out that point, but i think that it might get missed by a lot of people since i posted it late at night towards the bottom of the thread. but here's what i said with a few improvements:

herein lies the problem with citing opportunity costs: you never know in which direction those might point, because none of us have perfect information ahead of time. the entire point of using the concept of opportunity costs as a decision-making tool assumes that actors act rationally, and actors can only act rationally if they have complete (or near complete) information about the outcomes of the alternatives in front of them. those assumptions don’t hold here.

as examples: nearly everyone here (including me) decried the Looper signing at the time, and yet we got one above-average relief season out of him and are in the middle of getting two roughly average starting seasons, all well below the established market value for those levels of production. nearly everyone here hated the Wellemeyer signing last year (including me) because he was gonna take a spot away from a younger player who had more room to develop. then everybody hated his movement from the bullpen to the rotation for the same reason (even more: he was replacing Kid Reyes). Welly and Loop have been pretty huge successes for us, given the cost and the performance of the players they replaced. Encarnacion (even before his unfortunate injury) and Kennedy have not been. Piniero, in my view, is in the middle.

several years ago, the Cards decided not to sign Burnett because he wanted a fifth year added on to the contract. some here supported that decision and some opposed it. in retrospect, given the contracts to pitchers like Suppan, Batista, and Silva, the Cards should've either included the 5th year or bumped up their offered Average Annual Value of the contract by offering more money over 4 years. but it was impossible to know at the time: Burnett had a history of injuries and inconsistent performance. if we'd had Burnett for the past three years, we might've been better able to absorb the injuries to Carp, Mulder, and Wainwright over the past two years. then again, maybe Waino never would've made it into the rotation. maybe Reyes and/or Wainwright would've been traded for somebody else.

all of these are opportunity costs of a selected action. some of them might've worked out. some of them might not have. the point is, you never know beforehand, so simply citing “opportunity costs” without qualification — or even definition — doesn’t really mean anything.

so if we hadn’t signed Welly and Looper (or if we would've signed Suppan, Batista, Silva, or Burnett) we would’ve suffered the opportunity cost of losing (or gaining) the marginal benefit of their production over their replacements. in some cases, that would have been a net gain. in some cases, it would have been a net loss. both the positive and negative gains are examples of opportunity costs, but that fact alone doesn’t tell us anything about whether or not we should sign FAs in the future, or simply promote from within.

the point is, as LB mentioned but didn't really elaborate, opportunity costs run in both directions. we’re dealing with imperfect information here and can’t predict future performances with certainty, so simply citing “opportunity cost” as the sole or primary reason not to sign a FA (or as a reason *to* sign one) is nothing more than a rationale for a previously determined preference. there's a word for that: "bias". it would be just as (in)valid to say that playing an unproven prospect rather than signing an established vet entails an opportunity cost, albeit in the opposite direction, and that would be a bias as well.

the concept of opportunity costs is powerful in its simplicity, but we need to understand what it really means. many on this board -- including me at times -- are biased in favor of player development over signing players with established levels of mediocre performance. sometimes those decisions are correct; sometimes they aren’t. but the concept of opportunity costs is value-free; it doesn’t automatically swing in either direction. opportunity costs should be part of an argument when discussing roster management decisions, and should be used in the context of predicting player performance (and, hopefully, measuring that projected performance in context of the marginal monetary costs). otherwise, it doesn't really help us, and can in fact cloud our judgment.

anyways, yeah. we all have biases, but let’s be careful not to let them sway our judgments too much. especially when we’re tossing out "scientific" theorems in support of our ideas.

I overheard somewhere that Tony was going to be doing an autograph signing and missed when and where. Just wondering if anyone else had heard anything on the radio about it.

Also, does anyone know how to find out where current and former Cardinals make appearances for signings? My son loves to meet ballplayer (like we all did at one time), but I havent a clue as to how to come about this info. All help will be great.

DIE CUBS  DIE

HI everyone, Rays fan here.  The Rays I'm sure will be trying to acquire a big right-handed bat that can play RF this offseason.  There has been some debate among Rays fans as to who they could/should go after. 

Personally, I'm intrigued by Joe Mather, though I don't know that much about him other than his numbers and that the Cardinals have a deep outfield at the moment.  Any information you could give about his defense or how he was regarded as a prospect would be greatly appreciated.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3545338

Baseball Umpires and Owners have reached a deal to allow instant replay for boundary calls (fair/foul, homer/not homer)  I would assume all calls from now on will be fair/no homer to allow the play to unfold and then get overturned similar to the fumble rules in the NFL.

What is your take on this?  I can see this is a good thing and a bad thing.  As long as it is limited to close plays and not used consistently for balls and strikes I don't see it as a bad thing at all.

EDIT:  More information about it http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=3546044

This column has the actual implementation that is going to happen.  There will be a War Room that has all the video feeds available from both teams for the game.  That room will feed them to the Umpire reviewing the feed.  Replays can only be called by an Umpire, and only for Home Run call disputes, NOT for a ball landing on the foul line.  At least 1 Umpire will remain on the field at all times.

Supposedly we will have a bunch of cap room in this coming offseason $25-40 Million. According to many, the biggest weakness on the team is the offensively challenged middle infield. Our current (much maligned) middle infield looks like Izturis SS, Kennedy 2b, Miles 2b/SS, Lopez SS/2b(?).

Coming into next year, with the almost-certain departure of Izturis (neither Miles nor Lopez are under contract for next year), it's  Brendan Ryan slotted for full-time at short, unless it's Miles (shriek), with Kennedy at 2b.

On the farm there are the well respected SS prospects, Pete Kozma (Quad cities/Palm Beach) and Jose Martinez (Springfield) who are both far away from ready. Also, there are several 2b's who don't really project as better than what we've got.

These are the MI's who've got free agency coming up (from Cot's Baseball Contracts).

2B

Jamey Carroll * CLE

Ray Durham MIL

Mark Ellis OAK

Marcus Giles COL

Mark Grudzielanek KC

Orlando Hudson ARZ

Jeff Kent LAD

Felipe Lopez WAS/STL

Pablo Ozuna LAD

Nick Punto MIN

Jose Valentin NYM

Jose Vidro * SEA

SS

Orlando Cabrera CWS

Alex Cintron CWS

Alex Cora BOS

Craig Counsell * MIL

Adam Everett MIN

Rafael Furcal LAD

Cesar Izturis STL

Ramon Martinez LAD

Edgar Renteria * DET

Juan Uribe CWS

* denotes an option for 2009.

Not a particularly inspiring list. Honestly, I like Adam Everett because he will be dirt cheap which will allow us to pursue offense somewhere else or spend money on pitching (AJ I love you!).

Also, there has been a lot of talk about trading for a MI with some offense (usually centered around Dan Uggla (vomit)), and the three that appear most likely to be on the block this offseason are JJ Hardy, Jimmy Rollins, and  Dan Uggla (ughhh).

All three of these players are quantum leaps ahead of our current MI in terms of offense. None of them are better at their positions on defense (though only Uggla figures to be a significant downgrade).

JJ Hardy, various reports have said that the Brewers would be willing to trade Hardy if they feel Alcides Escobar is ready next year. The main problem with this trade is, what can the Cardinals offer for Hardy? The primary weakness of the Brewers is their relief, and it's not a strong suit for us either. I think our most likely point would be Mike Cameron's departure from center field, and Hardy would probably cost us Colby and another player.

Jimmy Rollins. This is mostly conjectural, but superstars in Philly have often gotten on the bad side of the fanbase, never to be forgiven (Bobby Abreu, Scott Rolen) and only booed mercilessly until their trades. Rollins, with one gaffe after another, looks to be in the inescapable Philly doghouse. Philadelphia's starting pitching could use a boost, and without Rollins the left side of their infield will be pretty shabby. Not sure exactly what this trade would entail, however (let's hear some ideas!). Also, Rollins is an aging player who could be entering his decline phase (hitting 260-ish this year, yikes!).

Dan Uggla (seriously, Dan Uggla?). I loathe the idea of Dan Uggla on the Cardinals. He's the all-HR's no-brains player that demands gigantic contracts (Andruw Jones style) and remains utterly unpredictable on offense and defense. Also, he's at the defensively less difficult position. No consistency, no glove, I'd rather have Khalil Greene. At any rate, the Marlins are always willing to make a deal, although this one as well as the others would have to come after the season ends. Talk has been bandied about him costing Colby and a(maybe even two) very good pitching prospect(s), and the Marlins are reputed to be looking for a CF and are always after pitchers. However, I imagine Uggla could be had for a Skip Schumaker/Anderson package because of their needs at CF and catcher.

Speaking of Khalil Greene, I'm going to profile a trade for him because of his recent struggles (okay, recent apocalyptic loss of all discernable ability). Greene could possibly be had for cheap because god only knows what he will do next season! A high-pop low-everything else Dan Uggla type hitter who actually plays decent defense and can run bases. Could resurrect himself in STL where his power that was swallowed up in San Diego could break out. Isn't SD in need of a catcher?

To end it, I'd just like to say that the MI market is a bit crazy right now. I doubt we will even have a shot at FA's like Cabrera or Furcal, while the trades  are probably going to be costly. I think our best bet is either a cheap FA SS or two, along with an exploration of the trade market that leaves us open for a shot at some of the good FA pitchers (please please Burnett for the love of god!).

Alright, that's all I've got for now. Let me know what you guys think or if you know of any other possible trades or FA targets.