They may not know how to pronounce 'Louis', but they're not half good!

Conor C-ez :

The Cardinals will have a tough job recreating the same level of pitching that they've come to expect in recent seasons. Chris Carpenter coming off the back of another MVP type season will be the number one guyonce again for this rotation and he will have to become a calming influence around the club house to several young pitcher with limited experience. Kip
Wells, a young pitcher who has never quite lived up to his potential due to injuries has come on board from Pittsburgh via Texas between which he made 8 starts last season. Wells hasn't been fully healthy since 2003, but the one year contract seems to be a good deal for both parties. Adam Wainwright (alas no relation to my favourite singer!) will make the step to the rotation from the bull pen this season after a successful season in 2006, while Anthony Reyes will hope to improve on a mediocre (5-8/5.08 ERA) campaign. Brad Thompson who has spent most of his major league career sitting in the bull pen will also hope to challenge for a starters role come Spring. The resigning of Mark Mulder late in the FA quagmire could prove to be very important as is adds depth an experience to what is essentially a very young staff.

Offensively the Cards are well equipped. They have the best player in baseball at first base. Pujols, should he stay healthy all season could start so simply scare people in a way that only the words 'Barry Bonds' have before. Adam Kennedy will be an exciting new double play partner for World Series MVP David Eckstein, although one problem this combo presents is their lack of power. Scott Rolen is perhaps surprisingly back at third base having not spoken to manager Tony LaRussa through the entire off season. This follows their play-off bust up which led to Rolen being benched for not declaring an injury. It will be interesting to see how the situation between the two plays itself out.

Roaming the outfield will once again be perennial gold glover and all round pro Jim Edmonds, one of the most likeable guys in the Majors. Chris Duncan had a great season last time around in left field, but it will be interesting to see how he adapts, as the league adapts to him. The Cards
seem to be really up on his potential and he could become a significant contributor to the HR tally for this team. Juan Encarnacion remains one of those guys who is just solid if not spectacular. You know what you're going to get from him season after season and that can either please the fans or exasperate them. I wouldn't be surprised to see him shifted before the trade
deadline.

A far as back ups go, St Louis have some of the best about. So Taguchi is one of the most solid fourth outfielders in the league and only for his lack of pop would probably be an everyday player. Preston Wilson is also a useful man in the wings.

The bullpen is probably the most unstable part of this team with the possibility of Wainwright and Brad Thompson moving to the rotation, and the uncertainty surrounding Jason Isringhausen and just how healthy he will be. Izzy should resume the closer's role if he's healthy. Aside from those guys, Braden Looper is one of the few on staff who performed reasonably last
season. Ricardo Rincon could be a useful component coming off the back of an injury plagued season, but just how strong this pen is remains to be seen.

In summary, overall this team has good depth, but it really doesn't have the pitching to repeat a World Series victory, or even to repeat an NL Central clinching season. If Pujols goes down again this season it's difficult to see where the offence is going to come from. Rolen may not last the season if his spat with LaRussa continues, and while they have great depth, they
may struggle.


Pete J thinks :

OK, we'll bash one thing on the head and that's to say that any team that has Albert Pujols in it will score runs. He is a phenomenon as a hitter and truly mesmerising to watch. Add to that the ever estute David Eckstein at the top of the order and you have enough grit to grind out runs in the close games.

Really the whole offence is just built to score enough runs to be a tough team to beat and the addition of the under-rated Adam Kennedy should make them a tough team to shut out even if they won't blow too many teams away with the ageing an inconsistant Rolen and Edmonds.

Defensively they always put out a solid side and Edmonds still manages to do a great job whilst posing for cameras.

The real questions are with the pitching and how it all stacks up. Fortunately they have one of the best pitching coaches in Dave Duncan to sort it out.

The pen will only be as good as the guy at the end of it and I really am not sure if Izzy will rebound or not. I am tempted to think that niggling injuries were what stopped him really being effective last year and his track record shows is so good that last year could have been just a blip but elbow problems for a guy who relies on a curveball could be a problem.

The safest bet would be to keep Wainwright in the role that he excelled in last year (mainly because I'm not sure his repertoire is varied enough to be a starter), what they want to do is not allow Looper to be the closer and keep him in the set-up role alongside the outstanding Ricardo Rincon and one way or another this pen will be good but it could be a rocky road early on as things settle into place.

Every time we go into the season I keep thinking that this has to be the year that Chris Carpenter has another elbow injury and misses a couple of months like he used to every year in Toronto. Of course if he's there all year then he'll be Cy nominated and carry the rotation and the team into playoff contention but the real problem is the state of the guys behind him. Yes Kip Wells has had injuries which has slowed him down but its only slowed him down from putting up the average numbers that he's always put up on the few occasions he has been healthy and Mark Mulder really hasn't been what the Cards expected when they signed him a couple years back (what is it with starters who leave Oakland?).

The guy to watch will be Anthony Reyes who really looked like he was figuring out what he needed to do to be successful in the Majors towards the end of last year and that culminated with a tremendous performance in the World Series. As he gets stronger he will be more consistant and will be a big producer for this team.

In summary, this team and the irritating Tony La Russa will have to work hard but everything is there for another NL Central crown and who knows what come the playoffs. Their pitching might not be overwhelming but it doesn't have an obvious weakness (unless Izzy is done and Wainwright proves himself a valuable starter which I doubt) and they have some guy named Albert once again gunning for 200 RBI. Still the team everyone needs to stack up to in the NL if they want to go the distance.

Conor C decides :

La Russa? quirky, not irritating
Dave Duncan ? genius
Eckstein? so annoying I want to punch him
Albert? Pujols ('nuff said!)
Cards? Very good