1) Pujols
2) LaPorta

1) Felix
2) Morrow (technically in the minors now)

1) Albert Pujols has to be the selection of anyone in the majors. He has had an amazing career and is still only 28!! Its scary how good he will be when its all done. I think we may be witnessing one of the best players EVER!

2) Colby Rasmus, and yes I am a homer. He just excites me to no end and not only cause I am a Cardinals fan, but because of what he definitely could be.

1) Chad Billingsley, may not seem like a home run pick, but look at his stats. This kid will be something special.

2) Max Scherzer (technically in minors right now), also not a trendy pick, but his stuff is filthy!!

for even mentioning Tulo as a foundational player. The guy has a career .703 OPS away from Coors.

My picks:

1) El Hombre es mas macho. No real decision here.
2) I think Colby Rasmus has “earned” this pick.

1) Sabbathia as I love lefty starters
2) Price – see above

Position players:
1) Pujols (the elbow’s only a concern when throwing, and 1Bs don’t have to throw hard)
2) Longoria (Talent to burn!)

Pitchers:
1) Halladay (How much would we hear about this guy if he played for somebody besides the Jays?)
2) Lincecum

Admittedly, I subscribe to the “Ain’t No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect” philosophy… too many things can go wrong from the draft to The Show! However, drafting and developing pitchers is becoming the key to maintaining success; costs too much to sign free agents, and a certain number of those will fail… (See Zito, Barry…)

Position Players

1.) Albert – This man is the greatest player I have ever witnessed, could challenge Stan the Man for thye Cardinals greatest all-time player.

2.) Brett Wallace – Seeing what he has done offensively since being drafted, you have to put him here. While I do believe Rasmus will be the better all-around player, The Walrus has a bat that I thing would be pretty good in the majors right now.

Pitchers

1.) Tim Lincecum – He will be around for several years, potentially one of the best pitchers in the league.

2.) David Price – you have to pick him, he has the potential to be as good as any lefty in the game.

As far as position players go, I thought about putting Amaury Marti, but if you start a team with him, no other team would want to play against you. The team would be disbanded like the conneticut 9 year old team with the pitcher, it is known as the Cazana rule.

that’s all you’d really need

Hitters
1. Pujols (not picking Pujols is just searching to be contrarian)
2. Wieters (the Walrus picks are among the most homerific in history, Wieters has outhit him over the course of a full year——-as a catcher)

Pitchers
1. Felix (put him in front of a bad defense and not a plane crash and we’d be talking about his unreal season)
2. Neftali Feliz (100 mph 20 year old doing well at AA)

Glad azru mentioned him because I’m really interested in this SS. Has anyone seen him in person? 30 errors, but I read his defense is very pretty, even by Venezuelan standards. Sickels likes him & rates him #3 in Ranger org. No power, but he’s only 19. May steal 50 this year. He’s playing AA for Frisco.

1. Pujols (duh)
2. Rasmus (if and only if he truly is our very own sizemore)

1. Lincecum (filthiest stuff EVER—at least to the untrained eye)
2. Price (sure why not)

pujols, wallace, rasmus, ankiel, ludwick, molina, kozma, (add random 2B here)
carp, wainwright, garcia, todd, (add random 5th starter here)

Assuming (and, admittedly this is a HUGE, improbabilistic assumption) that these guys fulfill their highest projected potential, and we still have ank and luddy in a couple of years, i get giddy thinking of watching this team, essentially entirely homegrown (’cept carp, but whatever) win a world series.

My list is this:

*Albert Pujols: ‘Nuf said…But if not, his lifetime OPS is 1.047, he’s hit 30 homers every year, and has a career EQA of .344. We may be witnessing the career of the best right-handed hitter that ever lived, and I don’t think that’s a stretch to say.

*Grady Sizemore: I was really tempted to tab Jay Bruce or Colby Von Rasmut, but at the end of the day Sizemore isn’t THAT much older than either and is pretty M-F-ing good himself. The guy plays a daggum fine center field, he gets on base, and he has quite a bit of pop, especially considering his position. Plus, he seems like a good guy from what I’ve heard. How can you go wrong there?

*Tim Lincecum: He’s the best pitcher in the NL right now, or at least damn close to it. Here’s the scary part: he could still get better. His command of his deuce and his changeup could still get better, and when that happens…oh dear. Some choice numbers this year: 2.43 era, 210 k in 185.1 innings, FIP of 2.72…All from a guy in his first full year in the majors.

*David Price: This dude has some really electric stuff, and he’s a southpaw. My favorite number showing how kickass this guy is: his last year at Vandy he pitched 133 innings and K’ed 194. Obviously it’s a big m-f-ing jump from the SEC to MLB, but still…His minor league numbers have him at a K per inning over about 100 of them at three levels, he doesn’t walk too many guys, he’s big, he’s mean on the mound, and did I mention he’s got devastating stuff?

Anywho, I think that’s a good starting place for a team.

1. Auto-reply says Pujols of course but I think there is a very, very strong case for both Hanley Ramirez and hissssss…. Ryan Braun. Both are 24 and will hit for a decade – Albert closer to half a decade and are cost controlled. Albert is an elite defender and a clubhouse godfather. Braun doesn’t play a premium position and doesn’t play strong defense. Hanley doesn’t play stron defense either but can be moved to the OF and has speed. So just to be different I’ll say Hanley Ramirez.

2. Rasmus. I think Cameron Maybin, Wieters and LaPorta are all intriguing but Colby has tools and plate discipline which puts him over the top – add to that he plays a premium position. Admittedly this limits the options with Hanley Ramirez but it wouldn’t be a terrible problem to have.

1. Lincecum. He’s only 24 and is going to win the Cy. Sabathia is only 28 and may have a better frame plus the lefty factor. But Lincecum is just phenomenal. Funny how Lincecum is in the midst of such greatness when so many questioned his mechanics and size, while Mark Prior is in the midst of such turmoil and was a cant miss guy. Crazy. Of course that could change tomorrow with one injury.

2. David Price. Lincecum and Price would be devastating.

But on the whole, my choices are pretty similar to the rest of yours.

Position players:
1) Pujols. He will go down as one of the greatest ever, and he’s still only 28!
2) Longoria. Great defense, great bat, a good head on his shoulders.

Pitchers:
1) Lincecum. Dammmmmn! He just eats hitters alive. It’s amazing to think of how good he is, already.
2) King Felix. The expectations are enormous and I can’t shake the feeling that he needs to get out of Seattle but he has ridiculous talent. I don’t know how much y’all see of him but living out here in the PNW we see him a lot-his stuff, when he’s on, is almost unhittable. And he’s still, what, 22? Egad.

but when I see Evan Longoria’s name, I keep thinking of Eva Longoria…

Looks like Joe Blanton is presently winning the battle of the ex-A’s.

Izturis, ss
Stavinoha, lf
Pujols, 1b
Ludwick, rf
Glaus, 3b
Molina, c
Mather, cf
Lohse, p
Lopez, 2b

I like the backloaded lineup with Mather hitting 7th.

that would require a 40 man move. Can’t wait to see who comes up in september.

For positional players:

1) I have to go with Albert Pujols. I considered Longoria, I considered David Wright, I considered someone like Hanley Ramirez, I considered Chase Utley very, very intently. However, as much as I would like to take Utley for the kind of offense he puts up at a premium defensive position, the fact remains that Albert is the most transcendent hitter in the game right now. He plays the best first base in the majors also, increasing his value further. Is the elbow a concern? Yes, but I think the weight of performance overcomes any sort of injury worries we may have.

2) Now this one’s tough. I am indeed a farm junkie, so I’m required to take a minor leaguer here. I looked at a whole slew of candidates, and came down to basically the same two players that Az did: Rasmus and Wieters. Both offer tremendous offensive upside to go along with solid defensive contributions. Rasmus projects to have gold glove defense in center, and Wieters, while he may not have quite that same level of defensive game, plays a position at which I think defense is highly overrated anyway. In the end, I ended up valuing Rasmus’ game changing ability on both sides of the ball ever so slightly over Wieters’ contributions. I’ll take Colby by a hair.

Pitchers:

1) I really like Halladay here, and I considered many other candidates as well. I looked at Brandon Webb of the Diamondbacks, Johan Santana, King Felix, CC Sabathia, and Edinson Volquez. In the end, though, it came down to two pitchers: Tim Lincecum and Dan Haren. Both have tremendous stuff and outstanding deliveries. Personally, though, I think that Dan Haren may have the lowest risk mechanics in all of baseball to go along with his stuff, and I think he may age a little better than Lincecum, largely due to Haren’s larger frame. I think Haren is very similar to Halladay, actually, and a couple of years younger to boot. We’re looking to start a team here, and I want the guy I think is going to be the best bet over the long haul to produce year in, year out. I think Haren offers the best combination of results and reliability, stuff and stamina, dominance and durability. He’s my guy.

2) I think Price may be the single easiest choice on this list. Most of the truly great pitching prospects we’ve seen in the last couple of years have now graduated to the big leagues, leaving the future cupboard a little thin at the moment. I did consider Porcello, but Price is much closer, and lefthanded on top of it. There were a couple of other pitchers I looked at, but really, none of the other pitching prospects in the game really compare to Price at the moment. he has the ceiling of a #1, and he’s a far safer bet than most of the other guys I could pull out and point to as having huge potential. Price it is.

So, that’s Pujols, Rasmus, Haren, and Price.

Sad that the 2009 Cardinals should have had three of those players on the team.

since righties hit lefties better and lefties hit righties better, and most batters in the MLB are right-handed, why are lefty pitchers considered more valuable?

then I’m going with

Albert
Rasmus (not a homer pick, just the best position prospect)

Lincecum (that ones easy!)
Price

ain’t gonna make it easy on us. 3-0 Classies after an inning.