As has already been posted, the Pirates may be interested in shipping Morris as well as Wilson to the Cardinals in trade. Is this something you would applaude or groan about?

Personally, while it's not the #1/#2 pitcher most of us would like to have added to the roster, I'd welcome the addition of Morris back to the Cards as long as the cost in trade doesn't go beyond a selection from the aforementioned trio of Reyes/Johnson/Thompson. It still looks like the guy will give you 200 innings of high 4ERA ball and carries only a couple of years. All other issues aside, do you welcome him back?

Since 2004, Patterson's strike-outs have gone 168, 118, 94 and 65. Honestly, his OBP is still nothing to write home about being .320, .254, .314 and .304 - but probably have to keep in mind that his last season in Chicago (2005) was aberrant. His average went .266, .215, .276 and .269 and while not hitting for much power (SLG .452, .348, .443 and .386), the guy would make a good lead-off man who can steal lots of bases (32, 15, 45 and 37 and hasn't been caught more than 9 times in any season). By the way, he hit lefties .310 last year.

His defense is very good as well - hasn't had more than 5 errors in a season and carries a career fielding percentage of .987. Considering he played for an arbitrated $4.3 million one-year contract last year, it looks as though he would be a cheap option (he wanted $4.6 million, but the Orioles only wanted to give him $4 million).

I don't suggest any other moves for the team to accommodate a player like Patterson nor do I suggest any length of contract. I simply think he's a free agent outfielder which is young, approaching his prime and has been improving each season - yet still would cost little. As such, I wonder what other people think about this guy as a player for the Cardinals. What impacts would it have on the team and do you think he'd be successful? If not, why? I'm not married to the idea of this player, but am curious about him.

When looking at the shape of our team in St. Louis, I can't help but wonder what may be on the way, in the future, to help the club. Certainly, there's been some call-ups this year which have been nice. However, I wondered what our farm looked like position-by-position.

All in all, we're not stocked well in the areas of need (except second base), but we have some trade chips available - just not enough. Not to mention, trading any of them only makes the farm that much weaker. Anyway, here's what I found and my thoughts on them:

1B sure seems like a log jam. At Memphis, Tagg Bozied, Rico Washington and Joe Mather have contributed. Tagg's spent the most time there, collecting 264 ABs. While his .258 average isn't very hot, his .843 OPS and .343 OBP are respectable. Rico sure seems to be producing better results. In 168 ABs, he's got a .315 average with .374 OBP and .909 OPS. He's only struck out 24 times for crying out loud. Joe Mather was a call-up from Springfield it seems and has 63ABs at Memphis and only a .206 average. Looks like he needs to go back to Springfield where he was hitting .303 with a .994 OPS. I realize Mike Ferris is there also, as is call-up Mark Hamilton, but Hamilton hasn't been working out at AA ball, so perhaps Mather and Ferris should remain in Springfield until there's room cleared out above. Also, since Brandon Buckman is the only other 1B at Palm Beach, it makes sense. Honestly, if Ferris doesn't improve at AA soon, Buckman could leap-frog both of those guys in to Springfield. Overall, the farm looks good at 1B.

2B also seems to be in good shape. Edgar Gonzalez and his .298/.363/.801 line looks excellent and so does call-up Mike McCoy - .288/.394/.803. Additionally, Jarrett Hoffpauir has recently joined in the log jam and so far is .471/.526/1.291 (however, that's just over 17 ABs - pretty small sample size). With St. Louis' troubles at 2B, I sure wish there was a way to clear room for the future. With Juan Lucena being the only 2B at Springfield (and struggling there I might add) and the guys lower in the farm not putting up great numbers, there's no immediate need to clear room.

Certainly no log jam at 3B. Travis Hansen is the only one at Memphis and he's struggling - .219/.247/.549. Juan Richardson is the only one at Springfield, but he's doing all right - .275/.351/.813. The guy strikes out 27% of the time though, so it's not like he's ready to join Travis just yet. However, since Allen Craig has been tearing up High A ball in Palm Beach, maybe some help is on the way. Allen has a great line through 316 ABs this year - .320/.370/.911 with 17 HRs and 7 SBs. Other than his performance, there's not much to get excited about down on the farm. This position is a tough one to stockpile talent at, but you'd hope Travis would be performing better as well as having more than 6 players at the position between Low A and AAA.

Brendan Ryan is seeing some time with the parent club, but was mediocre at Memphis. Seems to be a good defender as he has 6 errors through 64 games, but his offense was lacking - .266/.315/.663. Springfield has had 2 guys playing short this year, but none of them have been performing well. Tyler Greene has a .244 average and 13 errors and call-up Jose Martinez has gotten off to a .190 start. Since Ryan's offensive line is the best across all 10 short stops in our farm, there's just not a lot to get excited about for the future.

Our catchers also appear to be struggling this year. At Memphis, call-up Matt Pagnozzi leads in BA with .213 (albeit in 47 ABs). I have to wonder when they're going to make room for Bryan Anderson who's the gem of our farm at this position. So far this year, his line looks like this - .320/.375/.808. He only has 5 errors in 62 games and sure seems to be ready for advancement. Since Molina is probably going no where, I'm guessing the only way we'll see Anderson play in the big league is with another team. However, it's nice to have a guy playing so well when we could use a good trading chip. Outside of that, Danilo Sanchez came up to take Pagnozzi's place in AA and seems to be trying to find his way. In his brief time, he has .161/.308/.598 to compare to his .270/.403/.879 with Palm Beach, but with 7 BBs and only 1 SO, he's sure to improve as he gets more experience.

For the outfield, Skip and Ludwick have been serving time in St. Louis, but Ankiel, Stavinoha and J-Rod have also been performing well. Ankiel and Stavinoha need better plate discipline and J-Rod's .266 batting average should be better, but all are good prospects (although, can you really call J-Rod and Ankiel "prospects" at their age?). Lots of quality in AA as well - Rasmus has put up .256/.353/.861 and has 16 HRs. Jon Jay was .344/.355/.879 at Palm Beach before putting up a .235/.333/.706 line at Springfield. He hasn't had an error yet this year, but then again, fellow call-up Sean Danielson's only had 1 this year. He's also had a great year at the plate, putting up .355/.375/.762 in Palm Beach and .295/.362/.763 in Springfield (234 ABs). Neither of these guys are power hitters, but they are quality hitters who can find the gaps and still get extra bases. This is the problem, to me though - Rasmus is really the only power prospect at Springfield. There's also nothing to get too excited about in A-ball. We really should have more appealing players in our farm for the outfield positions.

Just out of curiosity, I checked the day/night splits for the Cardinals offense so far this season. While only 12 games (and 2/3 of them night games) have been played, thought I still might find something. Perhaps???

In 8 night games, the offense is batting a miserable .208. What's worse is the typical starting 8 for those games comprised an even worse .186 batting average. Additionally, look at the frequency in which they strike out - 17% of the AB's!!! Even Hombre has 5 K's to 4 BB's during night games.

In the 4 day games, the offense is batting a nice .317. Gets even better when looking at the typical starting 8 for those games - .333 batting average. Looking at the strikeouts, well... there are only 2 for the entire offense and they belong to Eckstein and Kennedy respectively. This goes along with the 16 walks generated.

With 5 of the next 6 games scheduled for mid-day, perhaps we'll see plenty of offense generated, but since we're looking at a small sample size, perhaps it will continue to be coincidence???

Jocketty appears to be in a decent position for someone with so many needs in the rotation and outfield. I say this because the bullpen is overloaded and this could be a source from which to make some decent deals. With relievers getting insane contracts, making a trade for some of that talent could bring in the necessary talent where we have needs.

Starting Rotation:
Chris Carpenter
Anthony Reyes
Jeff Weaver (believe he resigns)
Miguel Batista (splash free-agent signing)
J. Jennings (possible trade with CO from bullpen)
...possibly Narveson or even Woody Williams

Bullpen:
Ricardo Rincon (unless he's traded, but after injury, probably not)
Randy Flores
Tyler Johnson (either he or Flores will be traded)
Josh Hancock
Izzy
Braden Looper
Brad Thompson
Adam Wainwright
...but loaded with other talent which could make some of the above expendable - Kinney, Keisler and even Cate could step in

Starting Lineup:
C - Yadi Molina
1B - Albert Pujols
2B - Adam Kennedy (seems like destiny)
3B - Scott Rolen
SS - David Eckstein
LF - Chris Duncan (but seems like he will either be traded or platoon/reserve)
CF - Jim Edmonds
RF - Juan Encarnacion (could be traded for loss deemed acceptable)
...the questions are, will Dave Roberts be available once we get done finding the starting pitching we want first? Same with David Dellucci. Is Luis Gonzalez a foregone conclusion?

Bench:
Aaron Miles
Scott Spiezio
John Rodriguez
Skip Schumaker
A. Marti??? ...what about Rick Ankiel. This guy continues to stick around. Seems like he has to be penciled in every Spring whether we like it or not.

The bullpen is heavy and could help us with trading. Encarnacion's contract doesn't look as difficult to unload in trade, especially if combined with some bullpen player, when viewing the contracts being awarded now. Especially the existence of so many left-handed relievers, there will be teams interested and willing to give a bit more to fill a dire need.

We know we'll have Chris Carpenter in the rotation for next year. The question appears more about who will join him. Personally, I would like to have Anthony Reyes and Adam Wainwright both join the rotation. However, I also would like to have 2 very good pitchers brought in to round out the rotation. Honestly, none of the others on our 2006 staff meet this standard. Suppan isn't bad as a 4 or 5, but I'd like to expect that level of performance from Reyes and Wainwright and if we get better, then so be it. My #2 and #3 starters need to be better than Suppan - and much better than Marquis, Mulder and Weaver.

Having some bias towards a little youth, I found 5 pitchers who are potential free agents which could be attractive.

Tony Aramas Jr. will be 29 years old next year and has a 1.73 K/BB ratio this year and for his career. The only problem may be that he is not a ground ball pitcher. If his injuries are behind him, he could be a #3 - although he barely made this list.

Mark Buehrle will be 28 years old and if the Black Sox choose to let him go to St. Louis, then it could work out well. He has a 2.53 career K/BB ratio (but is only 2.07 this year) and gets more ground balls than fly outs (not by a lot though). Problem is he gives up some home runs - more than my ideal #2 or #3.

Ted Lilly will be 31 years old next year and has a 2.07 K/BB ratio (down to 1.87 this year), but hardly ever gets a ground out and gives up plenty of home runs.

Gil Meche will be 28 years old next year and only has a 1.56 K/BB ratio for his career, but does have a 1.82 ratio this year. The guy doesn't give up many home runs, but has the same amount of ground outs as fly outs.

Jason Schmidt will be 34 years old next year and is higher than what I was looking for, but.... has a stellar K/BB ratio at 2.26 career and 2.35 this year - gives up very few home runs, but does have more fly outs than ground balls.

I don't put as much emphasis on the ground out/fly out ratio, but know LaDunc have convinced Jocketty to search for those kinds of pitchers. Might as well be somewhat realistic, huh? As such, I'd almost rather have Schmidt and Meche, but the price on those will be high. Perhaps some kind of trade will be required - what we'd have to give up to get a decent #2 or #3 pitcher is alarming though.

Since this season is providing more frustration than enjoyment, I'm starting to move in to the off-season mode where I enjoy contemplating the moves our team could/should make in order to make the next season more enjoyable. I thought I'd take 20 or 30 minutes and address each position with my view of needs/free agency and promotions from the farm.

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