St. Louis Cardinals:

Mashing through the NL Central

The St. Louis Cardinals have a long storied history in the heartland of the US. The franchise has won 15 pennants and has nine World Series victories. One of the most memorable Cardinals moments came in game five of the 1985 NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Wizard of Oz, Ozzie Smith came up to bat in the bottom of the ninth against pitcher Tom Niedenfuer and, from the left side of the plate, hit a home run to end the game. The most amazing part of this was that Smith had never hit a round tripper from the left side for his entire career (3,009 AB) and his first couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Last season the Cardinals pushed for a postseason birth, but fell three games short of the division champion Chicago Cubs.
In the off-season the Cardinals looked to get that player that would push them over the hump and into the playoffs. They picked up free agents Jeff Suppan and Reggie Sanders. Management also traded oft-injured J.D. Drew and utility man Eli Marrero to the Atlanta Braves for pitchers Jason Marquis and Ray King. With these moves they filled the needs of a reliable right fielder and starting pitching.

The Cardinals are one of the scarier lineups in the league for opposing pitchers. In the 1-2 spots are second baseman Tony Womack and left fielder Ray Lankford. In the 3-4-5 spots are NL MVP runner up Albert Pujols, all star center fielder Jim Edmonds and slugging third baseman Scott Rolen. The trio accounted for 110 of the Cardinals home runs last season. Behind them are short stop Edgar Renteria, Sanders, and veteran catcher Mike Matheny. In 2003, the Cardinals were 2nd in runs scored and 3rd in home runs in the NL.

The Cardinals pitching staff hasn’t been the catalyst they have hoped it would be. Last season the team finished 11th in ERA and 13th in hits allowed in the NL. The team made a few moves to help out the staff. The starting rotation consists of Matt Morris (11-8, 3.76 ERA), Woody Williams (18-9, 3.87 ERA), Jason Marquis (0-0, 5.53 ERA), Jeff Suppan (10-7, 3.57 ERA), and Chris Carpenter (4-5, 5.28 ERA). The bullpen will be manned by LHP Steve Kline, LHP Ray King, RHP Julian Tavarez, and right hander closer Jason Isringhausen. Isringhausen has converted 63 of 73 save opportunities since joining the team in 2002.

Busch Stadium plays host to all of the St. Louis Cardinals home games. This 50,000 seat stadium has been the Cardinals home field since May 12, 1966 and has had 5 World Series played in it. The Cardinals averaged 35,930 fans every game giving them the 7th highest home attendance in the major league. Sadly this will be the last season Busch Stadium will host Cardinals games. Next year the Cards will move into their new state of the art stadium which remains to be unnamed. Busch Stadium was ranked 18th out of 30 by a Page 2 column on espn.com.

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