The Cardinal Way Part 2: Ascension

[royals19]

INTRODUCTION

"The Unholy Alliance"

While the St. Louis Cardinals basked in the the afterglow of their World Series victory, something sinister was aloof. While the baseball world seemed to be at peace, its outpost in the remote town of Milwaukee was not. The Brewers entered September with a clear edge in the division and, by all accounts, seemed destined for postseason gold. Then something happened; they suffered a Red Sox esque collapse and won a grand total of 4 games.

At the end of the season, the quaint people of Wisconsin were rioting, the papers calling for heads to roll and rumor has it the players were lobbying for change. Still, owner Mike Attanasio stood firm and did not yield to the demands of the masses.

One cold day in November, things changed forever. Attanasio was ordered to sell the Brewers following the release of "obscene" images to TMZ that gave both baseball and the Brewers a black eye. The Brewers were ruined... Baseball in Milwaukee was done.

Almost.

From the smoldering ashes, the most potent front office in baseball rose. After an early retirement as Commissioner, Bud Selig was appointed owner of his beloved Milwaukee Brewers once again to save baseball in Wisconsin. The collapse of the Brewers wasn't a concern... the ramifications of a baseball team going under was. Millions lost in revenue...T.V. ratings go down... America's pastime rides into the sunset.

But not on Bud's watch. He gutted the Brewers front office and brought in the best and brightest. He stole John Mozeliak from the Cardinals and ordered him to assemble the greatest baseball team since the "Big Red Machine" to dethrone the Cardinals.

Something didn't add up though. Teams as good as the Brewers don't win just 4 games in September for no apparent reason, a good guy like Mark Attanasio doesn't just become the poster boy from TMZ overnight, Bud Selig shouldn't have ridden his popularity back into an ownership job and John Mozeliak shouldn't have just left the Cardinals the day after winning the World Series.

Further complicating the plot was this ongoing dialouge between Mozeliak and Selig during the past season. Could this have been a plot? Was it a signal of a power struggle? Had the Bureaucracy of Baseball failed?

I don't know... They don't know...Nobody knows. All the baseball world knows is that
Nothing Was The Same.

[royals19]

As the defending World Series champions, the Cardinals shouldn't have to worry about replacing their general manager. They should've been focused on upgrading center field and fixing shortstop. Nevermind that. What was done was done, they would have to replace John Mozeliak.

Despite the loss of Mozeliak, the Cardinals still posessed some great minds like Assistant GM Mike Girsch and head of player development Gary LaRocque. Finding a new GM wasn't as easy as it sounds when you've got some of baseball's best and brightest to choose from.

The Cardinals needed a leader. They needed someone who was good with metrics but was still able to stay in touch with their scout instincts. Most importantly, they needed someone to carry on the "Cardinal Way."

******

11/1/13

The big wigs of the Cardinals front office sat in the board room awaiting Bill DeWitt's decision on who would lead the Cardinals Organization. As the old money in the room puffed on cigars and studied Bill DeWitt's face, they figured it was as good as done that he'd bestow the honorable title of "Cardinals' GM" to one of Mozeliak's trustworthy aides.

But they were wrong.

"I want him." DeWitt declared as he pointed across the table to a young man drawing a picture on his legal pad.

Everyone stopped and looked. The members of the board glared at the young man, the other GM candidates stared blankly at him.

Suddenly the man looked up and counter-studied all of those studying him. Before finally replying in his southern drawl.

"Whatchall want?"

[royals19]

Hey guys... glad to be back. I went off the grid for about a month so I could take in this year's Royals squad, play a little NBA 2K14 and get rested up for what will probably be another long season with the Cardinals. With OSFM not even a week old and the fact that I'm already sick of watching the Royals, I've decided that now is as good as any to christen a new year of "The Cardinal Way."

With Part 1 getting pretty lengthy, I'll just go ahead and summarize what happened last season in case you don't want to read a true classic.

Our Story So Far (updated 5/5/2014)

After the disastrous 2012 season in Boston, Scouting Director and Player Development guru Willie Singleton went in search of a new job. Following a somewhat awkward interview with John Mozeliak, Willie landed with the Cardinals as a Scouting Director.

While Willie got accustomed to the Cardinals organization, John Mozeliak engaged in some shady backwater discussions with an unknown figure that ultimately resulted in him leaving the Cardinals Organization at the end of the year.

On the field, the Cardinals were a mixed bag. Jon Jay showed star-like potential but was inconsistent, Daniel Descalso hit about .300, Carlos Beltran was hurt quite a bit and never really seemed to get going.

It was a great year for the Cardinals player development system as they saw Kolten Wong and Michael Wacha see success at the big league level. Absent from that list is top prospect Oscar Taveras who hit about .340 with nearly 40 home runs and over 100 RBIs in AAA without a callup.

The Cardinals started out slow and hobbled into the All Star Break. Once the Cardinals got rolling in the weeks immediately following, they went on a tear and absolutely dominated the National League and somehow got into the playoffs as the Central Division Champions.

Behind deadline acquisition J.J. Hardy and rookie Michael Wacha, the St. Louis Cardinals defied expectations and ultimately won the World Series.

And that's where we'll pick up here in season 2...

To catch up on last season, go to the following link:

The Cardinal Way- Crops, Clydesdales and Championships

[AC]

[royals19]

Haha... nice...

With John Mozeliak leaving us hanging basically, new General Manager Willie Singleton was forced to undergo some on the job training. Ain't nothing like sending a brand spankin' new GM to the Winter Meetings without any experience right? Regardless, we were expecting our agenda to get done this offseason.

Heading into the Winter Meetings, we had some items that we absolutely had to address.

Quote:

Center Field The Bullpen Shortstop

Last season, these were arguably our biggest weaknesses. Jon Jay was extremely inconsistent in CF, the bullpen was awful outside of Edward Mujica and as a result of the switch across games, J.J. Hardy finds himself playing not for the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals but back with the Orioles as part of some sort of bad dream sequence.

So ahem, when Willie reached the Winter Meetings, here's the free agent crop he had to work with.



Hmmm.... almost a week into the offseason and no offers to any one? Somethings fishy here... we'll get to that in a minute.

First off, the first player we noticed on the board was Jacoby Ellsbury. Obviously being the top Center Fielder he's going to be on the list for us but he wasn't our number one choice. He's a player that we've had a ton of interest in in the past and we nearly traded for him last season at the deadline before opting to go with J.J. Hardy.

Our plan was to do our due diligence on Ellsbury and then move on and explore trade options because there was no way Ellsbury was going to take anything less than a 6 year $100M+ deal and offering up long term deals isn't something we're necessarily keen on.

More than anything though, we needed to look at the bullpen and fix it. I was hoping there was going to be a gem out there that we could throw a couple stacks at...


...And I couldn't have been more wrong. You'll see that we decided to throw a little money towards J.P. Howell to try and get that left handed specialist that we really lacked last season. While I'm thinking about it, last season, we were loaded with left handed arms but the only problem was that they couldn't actually get left handed hitters out at a good clip.

Willie Singleton therefore decided to throw a 3 year deal at Howell worth 20 million before deciding that a deal of such magnitude was a little too cool for Howell's parade and settled on a 2 year deal worth about 8 millionish.

All that was left to do was sit back and watch the market blow up before going on the prowl for our Shortstop and Center Fielder.

[royals19]

Two or three days into the Winter Meetings the news was the same on the market:

Quote:

No News

Willie sat there in his room and chuckled. "Where do 29 other teams run off to?"

Apparently, Willie hadn't gotten the memo, you see a new import was all the craze at the Winter Meetings this season. While Willie Singleton dipped his toe in the Free Agent water by offering Howell a deal, all the other teams were throwing millions and perhaps billions of dollars at the most valuable player to come out of Japan in years.

No.... Not Yu Darvish... We're talking better... 'betterer.'



We're talking Masahiro Tanaka. A 25 year old ace with cool octane from the right side alongside a wipeout split piece that'll fool even the most seasoned MLB players. You know him right? Best thing since sliced bread? Best pitcher oversees? Supposed to get Mike Trout money?

... Alright, this isn't going anywhere so I'll just go ahead and cut to the chase.

Where the hell do we send Tanaka? Sure we could send him to New York and just be typical and call it good. But talents like this don't hit the market every year...




Masahiro Tanaka Sweepstakes
Rules and Stipulations

These types of things get really outta hand really fast if you don't do them right so I've decided to come up with a few stipulations that any potential bidder must meet.

Rule #1- Teams must be in need of a starting pitcher

Quote:

Indians Mariners Rangers Phillies Brewers Yankees Angels Astros

Rule #2- Teams must be able to offer a 20 million dollar contract and have at least 30 million in the bank.

Quote:

Indians Mariners Phillies Brewers New York

So following that final stipulation here's the teams left:

Indians- He would be that superstar that Cleveland desperately needs to compete and draw fans.

Mariners- Joining King Felix would make Seattle the clear favorite in the west.

Phillies- The Phillies need Tanaka the most so that they can save the remnants of their empire.

Brewers- John Mozeliak would love to have Tanaka to lead his solid starting staff and to stir our grits.

New York- Pretty cool how this worked out with New York among the finalists


I'll leave this open for a few days so that everyone can have their say in where he goes. I was thinking Milwaukee would be interesting because we'd be going against him all the time and he be a good part of the rivalry but I could also see Philly as a close second.

[KBLover]

Mariners gets my vote. They seem to love Japanese players there - I remember when Ichiro was there - big deal and was almost like a bridge between NPB and MLB.

I could see Seattle bringing Tanaka and reviving that Ichiro-type mania all over again, could be the shot in the arm that franchise needs, and, like you said, a potential two-headed dragon at the top of the rotation in that park...nasty.

[k_mac]

My vote's for Cleveland, because.. well, why not? Lol, those fans need something to be excited about. It'll make the AL Central pretty interesting.