St. Louis Cardinals

Contributor: Eric Seidman, mvn.com/mlb-stats

2007 Record: 78-84

2007 Summary: The Cardinals followed up their 2006 world series title by finishing under .500 for just the second time in the last ten years. The season got off to a disappointing start as Chris Carpenter was lost after just one start for the entire year and the disappointments took off from there. Injuries and age caught up with Jim Edmonds, injuries, age, and a feud with Tony La Russa slowed down Scott Rolen, and superhero Albert Pujols found himself in the midst of a "down year." Sure, a line of .327/.429/.568 w/32 HR and 103 RBI, is tremendous for anyone else but not for what we expect from Pujols.

Adam Wainwright emerged as a potential premiere starting pitcher which greatly aided the rotation featuring arguably the two worst NL starters in 2007 - Kip Wells and Anthony Reyes. They combined for a 9-31 W-L record and, based on the amount of well-pitched games, were even worse than that.

Jason Isringhausen had a tremendous year as the closer which went largely unheralded because he did not post Bobby Thigpen-saves numbers. Despite that, he appeared in just about every savable Cardinals game and only blew two of them.

Oh, and Rick Ankiel looks pretty good. Let's hope he doesn't get the "ipps" with his swing.

2008 Key Additions: Troy Glaus, Cesar Izturis, Matt Clement, Kyle Lohse. Jason LaRue is an addition though I would not necessarily say he was key, and Kip Wells is addition by subtraction.

2008 Key Losses: Rolen and Eckstein are in Toronto, Edmonds is in San Diego.

2008 Starting Lineup:
1. Barton
2. Ankiel
3. Pujols
4. Glaus
5. Ludwick
6. Molina
7. Izturis
8. PITCHER
9. Miles

2008 Starting Rotation: Wainwright, Lohse, Clement, Looper, Thompson/Wellemeyer

2008 Closer: Jason Isringhausen

2008 MVP: No matter what anyone else says in terms of picking someone obscure who needs to step up, Albert Pujols needs to have a monster year similar to his 2001-2006 for this team to have any hope whatsoever.

The Cardinals will be successful if: Wainwright can build upon his 2007 success, Ankiel can prove he is not a fluke, and Pujols regains his form. They've quietly upgraded or stayed the same at each position through their moves and Lohse/Clement will perform far superior to Wells/Reyes.

2008 Season Prediction: The Cardinals will get off to a hot start and be largely ignored due to the media's obsession with the Cubs and Brewers. When the All-Star break rolls around and people begin to recognize them as potential division winners the likes of Lohse, Clement, and Looper will begin to struggle. Carpenter will return and re-injure himself within three starts. Despite all of this they will still win 80-86 games, which, in their division, could be good enough to win.