With the recent acquisition of Troy Glaus, the Cardinals appear to be mostly set for 2008. The results aren't good. Offensively (and defensively), St. Louis can only hope for a .500 caliber season of baseball, one in which playoff hopes exist only due to a weak division, and one in which only the emergence of young players (and Albert Pujols) makes it worth watching at all.
Assuming La Russa and company go with 13 position players out of Spring Training (a safe bet, as Tony loves having ample amount of pitchers in his bullpen so as to extend the length of every game tenfold), here is how it should break down, assuming no additional worthwhile talent is added between now and then. The following is, of course, purely subjective.
C Yadier Molina
1B Albert Pujols
2B Adam Kennedy
SS Cesar Izturis
3B Troy Glaus
LF Chris Duncan
CF Brian Barton
RF Rick Ankiel
C Jason LaRue
IF Aaron Miles
IF Brendan Ryan
IF/OF Scott Spiezio
OF Ryan Ludwick
Notable players left off the list include Skip Schumaker (terrible, should never find himself on any major league roster), Juan Encarnacion (blind), Josh Phelps (won't make team), D'Angelo Jimenez (a long shot, despite a better career OBP than Adam Kennedy by 22 points as well as a slight OPS+ advantage), and Brian Barden (oh, I said notable players).
There's absolutely a solid chance that Schumaker will make the roster over Barton, but that's ludicrous, as Barton has ability, most importantly patience and speed. Schumaker has neither, nor does he possess any baseball related skills at all. He can Skip his way right to hell. With the thirteen players locked in place, and the bench set, I will now proceed to throw out a batting order I would consider to be the most acceptable.
1 - Brian Barton (R)
2 - Chris Duncan (L)
3 - Albert Pujols (R)
4 - Troy Glaus (R)
5 - Rick Ankiel (L)
6 - Yadier Molina (R)
7 - Adam Kennedy (L)
8 - Cesar Izturis (S)
Let me make one thing clear: this is a terrible lineup. I'm not going to sit here and suggest I think anyone is going to be impressed by that disgrace. It's just that I don't see how it could be assembled any better. The only players with any ability to get on base are Duncan, Pujols, and Glaus, and they need to bat 2-3-4 just for power purposes, thus Barton wins the lead off slot by default because he has at least the potential to draw a walk and get on base ahead of the few players on the team who will have any real chance at driving in runs.
Still, any lineup where Molina hits sixth is in no way a legitimate one. There's no way to make excuses for this embarrassing collection of baseball players, but come Opening Day, I'm fairly confident that the lineup La Russa pencils in will somehow be worse.
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I think you're underestimating our offense. It certainly could use work, but it's not terrible like you say. Pujols, Glaus, Duncan, and Ankiel are at least as good as the top 4 hitters on any team in the league (although the American League is a different story), and Molina proved last year that he can provide decent offense for his position. The other 3 positions do have their problems offensively, but hopefully Kennedy can return to form, and Izturis will at least provide better defense than Eckstein did last year. Overall, it's still a pretty good offense, not great, but still good.
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