Cards could be insane if they miss out on Molina

BY David Villavicencio

Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Hopefully Bill DeWitt, John Mozeliak and St. Louis Cardinals have heard this quote before or they might be destined for a padded room in their future. 


It is no secret by now that the Cardinals botched their negotiations with prized free agent and superstar Albert Pujols. They low-balled him far too long and ultimately made him feel disrespected.


By the time they came up with an offer that Pujols would have deemed acceptable, the star had set his sights elsewhere and decided to join the Angels. 


Reports later surfaced that Pujols was put off by how the Cardinals treated him in their negotiations prior to Spring Training last year. He felt disrespected and had all but decided to go elsewhere when his contract expired at the end of the 2011 season.


Sure, Pujols is older and the contract he signed with the Angels will ultimately have more bad years than good ones. It was tough to hand someone such a franchise-restricting contract, even if he is the greatest player that franchise has had in decades and the best player in baseball at the moment. 


The Cardinals may have ultimately lucked out by not re-signing Pujols but it was clear the way they handled themselves in the negotiations played a huge factor in losing their biggest star.


Fast forward to present day and you will find the Cardinals in the midst of another negotiation with a soon-to-be free agent. 

Yadier Molina is set to hit the open market at the end of the season and the four-time All-Star catcher is sure to have plenty of potential suitors should he become available to the other 29 big league teams.


Who wouldn't be interested in a player that is regarded as the best defensive catcher in the game. Molina completely shuts down the opponent's running game with his cat-like reflexes and rocket arm. A four-time Gold Glove recipient, Molina is also known to call an excellent game and respected by his teammates as a leader in the clubhouse.


But those are just his defensive accolades. Molina can hit too.


The 29-year-old has come a long way offensively. When he first came up, Molina was an offensive liability. But hard work and development have turned him into one of the better hitting catchers in baseball. He has hit over .300 twice and over .290 in three of the past four seasons. 

Molina homers to win 2006 NLCS

Molina has shown steady improvement offensively and is coming off his best season at the plate. In 2011, Molina hit .305 with 32 doubles, 14 home runs and 65 runs-batted-in. All four of those numbers are career-highs.


Yadi is also a "clutch" hitter. I hate to use that term but Molina does seem to rise to the occasion. He is a career .309 hitter in the postseason and played a key role in both the 2006 and 2011 postseasons that ended in Cardinals championships. 


Clearly, Molina has a lot going for him as a potential free agent and that also gives him a lot of leverage in negotiations. He has already said he would not give the Cardinals a hometown discount and really has no need to do so. 

He will be likely be the best free agent catcher available in free agency unless the Braves shock the world and decide to decline Brian McCann's option for the 2013 season. Other notable free agent backstops include Ryan Doumit, Russell Martin, Miguel Montero, Mike Napoli, A.J. Pierzynski and Yorvit Torrealba. Joining McCann in the group with pending options are Rod Barajas, Henry Blanco, Chris Iannetta, Miguel Olivo and Carlos Ruiz.


That is a lot of catching options that could be available at the end of the year. The Cardinals might look at that list and say, "We will be alright with any of those guys." But think logically and the list doesn't look as appealing to them.

Atlanta is probably going to pick up McCann's $12 million option or extend him. 

The Diamondbacks will surely want to bring back Montero. He would be 29 on Opening Day 2013 and can really hit. That seems like a no-brainer. 

The Rangers will likely want to bring Napoli back after the huge year he had in 2011. If he can repeat his offensive success, he will be very expensive in free agency. However, the likelihood of that is slim as Napoli never hit better than .273 before posting a .320 average last season. Even if he does hit again, he does not compare to Molina defensively and would cost as much, if not more, than Molina.


The rest of the group is not very exciting. 

Barajas, Blanco, Olivo, Pierzynski, Ruiz and Torrealba will all be 34 or older on Opening Day 2013. For most of those guys, their best days are clearly behind them.

Doumit cannot defend the catcher position full-time and has had a slew of injuries and inconsistent performance. 

Iannetta has never lived up to his promise and might be destined for reserve duty if he doesn't pick it up offensively soon.


Martin, like Molina, will be 30 on Opening Day 2013. He is a clear downgrade from Yadi, both offensively and defensively, and would not be the greatest consolation prize should the Redbirds end up with him as Molina's replacement. Also, it seems unlikely that he will hit free agency as he is in discussions with the Yankees about a three-year extension.


What our very brief look at the other free agent catchers proves is that the Cardinals will likely end up with a major downgrade behind the plate if they cannot come to terms with Molina. 


Add to that the fact that they do not have any everyday catchers close to the big leagues (no disrespect to Tony Cruz, Bryan Anderson and Koyie Hill) and you find that St. Louis really needs to get a deal with Molina done.


But you might be asking yourselves about other potential free agents the Cardinals will need to replace.


Beyond Molina, the Cardinals have just four players set to be come free agents at the end of the year.


Lance Berkman will be a free agent at the end of the year but he may be easily replaced. The Cards already have Allen Craig in the fold. Prospect Matt Adams is expected to be ready by 2013. Mark Hamilton, who has had success in the minors but has not hit much in two big league callups is also waiting for a chance. 

The Cardinals also have a pair of talented third baseman in the minors in Zack Cox and Matt Carpenter. If either proves ready for the big leagues, the Cards could consider shifting David Freese across the diamond and fill the void that way. 


Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook are both set to become free agents at the end of the year and that might be addition by subtraction. While Lohse and Westbrook are serviceable, bottom of the rotation arms, they will combine to make over $20 million in 2012. That is a lot of money to pay for your fourth and fifth starters. 

Combine that with the likelihood that top prospect Shelby Miller will be more than ready for the big leagues by 2013 and you have already replaced one starter with someone who many expect to be much better and still have about $19.5 million unspent.


Add in Lance Lynn, Carlos Martinez, Jordan Swagerty and Brandon Dickson and you have plenty of good, young talent to fill the other spot and still have $19 million to spend on Molina and the rest of your roster.


The final free agent in J.C. Romero and he is highly replaceable. It seems like every year, lefty specialists are wearing a different uniform so finding a new one would not be difficult. Internal options are available as well with prospect John Gast ready and waiting for an opportunity. Gast could also factor in as a starter if the Cardinals wanted to use him that way.


So it seems obvious that the Cardinals will have money at their disposal to re-sign Molina. It also seems like they will be able to upgrade internally to replace their departing free agents. 

Will Molina be wearing a different cap a year from now too?

Now it's just a matter of how they choose to handle the negotiations with Molina. Will they toy with these negotiations like they did with Pujols or be aggressive and try to get a deal done? Could a low-ball offer ultimately push Molina away from St. Louis like it did with Albert? 


No one knows for sure but it is clear that they had one type of outcome already with their dillydallying negotiations. Do they think things will end differently this time?


I guess it's a matter of sanity.

Cardinals beat the odds to become champions

BY David Villavicencio 

Boy, was I wrong.

After Game 5, I wrote that the series was essentially over. The Rangers had a 3-2 lead heading into Game 6. The Cardinals would have to win two straight games to come away as champions and Texas had not lost consecutive games since August.

Texas seemed to have all the momentum and luck on their side but the Cardinals kept fighting. Their resilience paid off as the Cardinals’ improbable postseason run culminated in a 6-2 Game 7 win over the Rangers to give the club its 11^th championship in franchise history.

Last night’s game was the clincher but getting there seemed almost impossible.

The Cardinals and Rangers were tied at 4 heading to the seventh inning of Game 6. St. Louis had mustered just three hits to that point but still managed to stay in the game.

Then Texas got hot.

The Rangers opened the top of the seventh with back-to-back homers from Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz. Ultimately, Texas would score three runs in the seventh and the feeling everywhere was that the Rangers would win their first championship.

But the Cardinals had other plans.

Down to their final strike on two separate occasions in Game 6, the Cardinals delivered a key hit to even the score and stay alive.

”Sometimes when opportunity is in your presence, you certainly can’t let it get away because sometimes it takes a while before it comes back,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “If there’s one thing that happened in this World Series that I’ll look back on is being so close, just having one pitch to be made and one out to be gotten, and it could have been a different story.”

For as much as I tore into Cardinals manager Tony La Russa after Game 5, I have to give him credit for instilling this resilient attitude in his team.

”It was overwhelming,” La Russa said. “We were on the edge game after game after game. You might lose one, but as it got closer, elimination games, the character on this club is off the charts. And we are more talented I think than some people realize, especially as we got healthy. But you play with that urgency, it’s a little scary at times and it takes a lot out of you, but it’s really fun to compete that way.”

Plenty of clubs would have given up after making three errors and putting themselves in a hole but the Cardinals persevered and it paid off. World Series MVP David Freese clubbed an 11^th inning walk off homer to even the series at 3 and force a decisive Game 7.

Freese's bat was too much for Texas

The 28-year-old St. Louis native was the Cardinals postseason hero. Freese set a record with 21 RBI in a single postseason. His two-strike, two-run triple in the ninth inning of Game 6 gave the Cardinals life. His solo homer to lead off the 11^th might have been the dagger that killed the Rangers.

”We all know we lost the Series yesterday,” Beltre said of Game 6. “We shouldn’t have let it slip away. We came back today to try to win it, but the momentum just took them and they won it. It’s not a nice feeling.”

Heading into last night’s game, the Cardinals seemed destined to win the series. Their Game 6 heroics made a Rangers victory in Game 7 almost unfathomable.

But Texas showed their ability to spoil the fairytale ending when their potent lineup scored two runs in the first inning before a stunned Busch Stadium crowd.

But that would be the last of the Rangers’ postseason magic as Freese’s hot bat came through again, tying the game with a two-run double in the first.

Carpenter has never lost a World Series start

Texas starter Matt Harrison would last just four innings, allowing three runs, while Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter settled in to pitch six strong innings and earn his ninth career postseason win.

La Russa, whose mismanagement of the bullpen in Game 5 made headlines, was masterful with his relievers on Friday. Arthur Rhodes, Octavio Dotel, Lance Lynn and Jason Motte were brilliant, holding the Rangers hitless over the final three innings to seal the win.

The Cardinals did what few thought they could.

The doubts started in Spring Training when Adam Wainwright tore up his elbow. The 2010 NL Cy Young runner-up would need Tommy John surgery and miss the entire season. Immediately, the Cardinals went from pre-season contender to afterthought.

“[Losing Wainwright] was a bad hit in Spring Training, and Tony was great,” Cardinals owner Bill Dewitt, Jr. said. “He said it’s not fair, but we’re not going to give up. This is a good club and we’ve got a shot. We’ll just do everything we can to win with what we’ve got.”

It got worse once the season started as All-Star closer Ryan Franklin imploded. The typically effective veteran reliever was blowing save after save. Franklin lost his closer role in April and eventually his job.

Then there was Albert Pujols’ uncharacteristic start to the season. The best player in the game hit just .245 in the first month of the season and dealt with injuries throughout the year. In June, he broke his left wrist on a tag play at first and appeared to be looking at a long stay on the Disabled List. But The Machine missed just two weeks when most players would have missed six.

Finally, the Cardinals faced an uphill battle to even make the postseason. On August 24, the team was 10½ games behind the NL Wild Card leading Braves. They had just been swept by the Dodgers and the season seemed lost but the Cardinals continued to fight and pulled off a minor miracle.

St. Louis went 23-9 the rest of the way and snuck into the postseason when the Braves completed their catastrophic collapse with a 4-3 loss to the Phillies on the final day of the regular season.

”We had a 5 percent chance (to reach the playoffs) with 35 games left in the season,” Pujols said. “We knew we had to play great. The first five months of the season were pretty bad. But it doesn’t matter. We’re world champions.”

The Cardinals would face a loaded Phillies team in the first round and were considered major underdogs. Philadelphia sported a starting rotation filled with aces while the Cardinals were running on fumes. But St. Louis silenced the doubters and advanced to the NLCS thanks to a complete game shutout from Carpenter in a decisive Game 5.

Next came the division rival Brewers. The two teams went 9-9 against one another in the regular season but a lot of experts had the Brew Crew ticketed for their first trip to the World Series since 1982. But Freese and his teammates mashed their way past the Brewers and into the World Series after six games.

The final obstacle was the Rangers. They matched up well with the Cardinals. Both teams had potent offenses and suspect pitching staffs. Many expected a series that tilted towards the offense but the teams combined to score just eight runs over the first two games.

Pujols hit just .240 for the series but came up big in Game 3

The slugfest finally came in Game 3 as Albert Pujols joined Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players to homer three times in a World Series game. The Cardinals’s 16-7 victory gave them a 2-1 series lead and a chance to clinch their championship in Game 5.

But Rangers’ lefty Derek Holland made sure the Cards wouldn’t be able to celebrate their championship on his team’s field. The 25-year-old was nearly flawless as he silenced the Cardinals bats in Game 4. Holland allowed just two hits over 8 1/3 shutout innings to help Texas even the series at 2.

Then came the disaster that was Game 5. The Cardinals seemed to fall apart in what many had pegged as a crucial game. Mike Napoli, who was the Rangers’ version of Freese this postseason, delivered a game-winning two-run double in the eighth that put his team one victory away from their goal.

Rain forced Game 6 to be pushed back a day and the postponement benefitted the Cardinals a bit. Not only did it force the Rangers to keep their champagne on ice a little bit longer, but it slowed some of the momentum Texas had heading into Game 6 and made Carpenter available on three days rest should the Redbirds force a Game 7.

We all know what happened after that as Freese, Lance Berkman, Allen Craig, Pujols, Carpenter and the rest of the Cardinals did the improbable. They overcame their biggest obstacle, beating Texas on consecutive nights to become world champions. 

La Russa outthinks himself as Cardinals drop Game 5

BY David Villavicencio 

Tony La Russa has won a World Series in each league. He has the second-most victories in managerial history, won Manager of the Year four times and is considered by many to be a baseball genius.

He also just cost the Cardinals their 11^th World Series title in franchise history.

Sure, the Cardinals stranded 12 runners on Monday night.

Yes, they did fail to get a big hit in multiple key situations.

Of course, the Rangers deserve some credit for executing in big moments.

But I am putting this disastrous loss squarely on the shoulders of the man making the decisions in the Cardinals dugout.

I am sure many of you reading this are saying, “Anyone can second-guess and look smart.” This is not second-guessing. I can’t prove it but I was predicting all these failures as he was making the moves, some of them even before he actually called for them.

Where do I begin?

How about the disgusting collapse in the eighth?

La Russa pulls starter Chris Carpenter to open the inning in favor of Octavio Dotel. The game is tied at 2 and La Russa is going to one of his better relievers.

Nothing wrong with that.

Carpenter pitched seven solid innings and deserved a better fate but his offense could not come up with the big hit to extend their lead. Dotel is devastating against right-handed hitters and the Rangers had Michael Young, Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz due up in the eighth.

The move makes all the sense in the world.

Young shocks everyone by opening the inning with a double off Dotel. Yes, he is a good player but it was still a surprise as righties have hit just .154 against Dotel on the year.

Next up is Beltre, the man who crushed the game-tying homer off Carpenter in the sixth. Dotel strikes him out on three pitches. One out, man on second.

Now is where Tony and I begin to disagree.

Cruz is up with the go-ahead run on second. Tony decides to intentionally walk Cruz, who struck out 116 times this season.

Never mind that Dotel absolutely kills right-handed hitters. Don’t worry that he felt Dotel was clearly capable of retiring Beltre just minutes before.

Clearly, Cruz needs to be walked to set up the double play and bring up lefty David Murphy. After all, La Russa has lefty specialist Marc Rzepczynski ready to go in the bullpen.

La Russa, who is all about the match-ups, was throwing away his best match-up for a situation that could have led Rangers manager Ron Washington to go to his bench. Wash could have brought in right-handed hitting Craig Gentry to face the lefty, thus rendering La Russa’s lefty-lefty pitching change useless.

But Washington sticks with Murphy and the Rangers catch a break as he hits a ball off Rzepczynski that leaves the bases loaded for Mike Napoli.

TLR doing his favorite sign, "New pitcher, please"

Now the master of specialization and king of pitching changes decided to ignore playing the matchups he so dearly adores and sticks with Rzepczynski against the lefty-killing Napoli.

Are you baffled yet? I know I am!

Of course, Napoli rips a two-run double that ultimately leads to the Rangers 4-2 victory. But La Russa’s managerial blunders are not done yet. Not by a long shot.

Rzepczynski strikes out lefty Mitch Moreland to record the second out. Is anyone sensing a pattern here? The lefty specialist is retiring left-handed hitters while right-handers are crushing balls into the gaps. Never mind that though. Must be beneath a genius like La Russa to see it.

Back to the action!

La Russa goes back to his bullpen as right-handed hitting second baseman Ian Kinsler heads to the plate with two outs and a runner on second. Tony signals for hard-throwing rookie Lance Lynn to enter the game from the bullpen to face the dangerous Kinsler.

Some may have gone to Jason Motte in that spot but La Russa went with Lynn. No big deal. Maybe he was saving Motte in case the Cardinals tied it in the ninth? Maybe he felt Lynn could handle Kinsler and pitch the ninth as well in case the Cardinals made up the deficit but did not surpass it.

Apparently La Russa went with door number 3 and here is where my blood pressure starts rising again. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina stands up and calls for an intentional walk. Few things drive me crazy more than changing pitchers and immediately issuing an intentional walk.

Why not have the departing pitcher walk the guy so the new pitcher can come in and hopefully pound the strike zone? Guess decisions like that are left to the geniuses like La Russa. I can’t possibly be competent enough to see the benefits of having the new guy walk the hitter instead of the old guy. But I digress.

So Kinsler is walked and Elvis Andrus is coming up. Lynn is on the mound with a force out set up and a ground ball hitter at the plate.

The kid is a talented rookie pitching in a big spot and the Cardinals… wait a minute, what? Why is La Russa walking out to the mound? Must be going out to give some words of encouragement to the kid as he is set to pitch to the most important batter of his career.

Did he just ask for the ball? Holy crap, he’s pulling him! Tony La Russa just brought in a pitcher to issue an intentional walk and he is removing him from the game in favor of someone else!

My disgust has now multiplied exponentially and I am doing everything in my power to not go nuts in front of the family members and guest watching the game with me at my house.

Jason Motte came in and struck out Andrus to end the inning but that is not the point. How can anyone justify the move La Russa made?

He claims it was “too loud” and the bullpen heard “Lynn” instead of “Motte” over the phone because clearly those two names sound so similar. I think Tony just loves to change pitchers and he couldn’t help himself. Why use three pitchers to complete an inning when you can use four!

But La Russa’s managerial mishaps did not end there. Sure, he made plenty of questionable decisions throughout the game. I just outlined what felt like 40 of them in the eighth inning alone but things continued in the top of the ninth.

The Cardinals caught a break when Rangers closer Neftali Feliz hit Allen Craig with a 1-2 breaking ball. That brought the tying run to the plate in Albert Pujols. This is the same player who crushed three homers two nights ago and is widely considered the best in the game. There is no one better for the Cardinals to have up than Albert.

Pujols works a full count and Tony gets that itch inside him that drives him to needlessly tinker.

On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Pujols fouls off a pitch to stay alive but something interesting happened. Craig, who had been thrown out by about 87 feet earlier in the game, was on the move. I immediately turned to my dad and said something like “why would he be running? That run is meaningless.”

It was probably to avoid the double play but this is Albert Pujols at the plate. Almost everything he hits is a rocket that would be tough to field unless it is hit right at someone. I think you take your chances that Albert finds a hole somewhere as your defense of a potential double play instead of starting a runner who is not the swiftest but that’s just my opinion.

Here comes pitch number seven of the at-bat. Again Pujols fouls it off and again Craig was running. Now I am really starting to get angry at this ridiculous decision by La Russa and say something about how that move is going to cost them.

Sure enough, Pujols swings through the next pitch and Craig is gunned down by about 17 football fields at second. That, my friends, is your World Series.

The momentum swung completely back in the Rangers’ favor as the biggest threat was eliminated and they were two outs away from a 3-2 series lead.

Matt Holliday worked a walk to give the Cardinals a glimmer of hope but Feliz squashed it quickly as he struck out Lance Berkman on five pitches to seal the victory.

The Cardinals head back to St. Louis to play Game 6 on Tuesday. If they should manage to win that game, they will play in a decisive Game 7 the next night. Anything can happen in a Game 7 but I am telling you what will happen if it gets to that point.

The Rangers will win.

How do I know this?

Because they have not lost consecutive games since they lost three in a row from August 23-25. I also know this because the Cardinals are scheduled to start Kyle Lohse in that game and he hasn’t been able to get anybody out lately.

But mostly, I know the Rangers will win because La Russa will continue to do everything he can to show off how brilliant he is. He will double-switch and play the matchups with his bullpen but only when he feels like it. He will continue to trot out automatic outs like Nick Punto when his team needs to score runs against a team that can outslug anyone. And lastly, he will find a way to snatch the 11^th World Series title in franchise history away from the Cardinals and instead hand the Rangers their first ever World Championship.

Thanks, Tony.

Potential Marlins playing in World Series

BY David Villavicencio 

Shortly after the World Series starts tonight, Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols will step into the batter’s box in the bottom of the first inning to face Rangers ace C.J. Wilson.

Rangers fans will be hoping for an out while Cardinals fans will be looking for a big hit. But what will Marlins fans be looking at? Possibly future teammates.

The Marlins are expected to be major players in free agency this off-season and Pujols and Wilson figure to be two of their main targets.

Could Pujols be a Miami Marlin?

Baseball sources have told me the Marlins are very interested in the 31-year-old Pujols and will be heavily involved in the bidding for his services.

The Marlins currently have Gaby Sanchez at first base. Sanchez is coming off an All-Star season and played hurt for most of the year. He will likely continue to improve as he heads into his third full season in the big leagues.

Even with a solid player like Sanchez on the roster, it’s hard to blame the Marlins for being interested in a player like Pujols. The all-everything slugger is the best player in baseball today and instantly vaults their team into relevancy.

Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria wants to make a big splash as his team moves into their new ballpark next season and no splash would be bigger than the one created by luring a gargantuan free agent like Pujols.

Wilson could strengthen rotation

Wilson is not as big a name as Pujols but he will be the best free agent pitcher not named C.C. Sabathia this winter. The fact that he is left-handed makes him even more appealing to the right-hander heavy Marlins.

While Wilson is not a true ace, he has earned consecutive All-Star selections and would be an excellent number two starter behind Josh Johnson.  

Signing Wilson will not be easy or cheap. The pitching market is barren and Wilson is expected to garner a lot of attention when he hits free agency in a few weeks. The Marlins figure to be one of the teams showing interest.