Dear Jerry Dipoto: Please study the Cardinals bullpen

[Sciosciapath]

Wow. Quality arm after quality arm.

Is there a factory in St. Louis where pitchers throw 99mph with plus offspeed pitches?

Embarrassment of riches.

They pull out Carlos Martinez, Trevor Rosenthal, Shelby Miller.

We pull out Kevin Jepsen and Joe Blanton.

[YouthofToday]

Rosenthal was a 21st rounder in the 2009 draft. Anybody know why he lasted that long?

Martinez was originally signed out of the D.R. By the Red Sox. They voided the deal after discovering an injury. Signed with the Cards after that.

Edited October 19, 2013 by YouthofToday

[bloodbrother]

So basically you want the Halos to draft/scout better then.

 

Cards are the model franchise in MLB right now and it's not even close. Stacked major league roster with a top 3 farm system. Most of their talent is homegrown and I'm not even sure they have a bad contract on their hands

 

Embarrassment of riches is an understatement. Seems every year they have unknown/unheralded prospects of theirs come out of nowhere and turn into all-star caliber players. Matt Carpenter this year(Matt Adams as well), Allen Craig last year

 

Looking at their roster and their farm, they only seem to have one weakness and that's SS, which they could fix very easily with the amount of trade chips they have

[CardsFanVegas]

I think what the Cards have done best is how they have drafted and developed their pitchers. 

 

Cards are a homegrown team.  That's what it comes down to.  3 of the guys on the team were brought on in free agency.  The rest were drafted and a few were brought in via trade.

 

Miller is a starter, just hasn't been starting in the playoffs likely because of the amount of innings on his arm for his first full MLB season.

 

Martinez, most think he will be a starter.  He started the year off in AA Springfield.  

 

Rosenthal wants to start, but the FO sees him as the closer of the future and there are already so many options the team has for starters.  He's closing now only because Edward Mujica started to falter and Jason Motte has been out with an injury.

 

SS and CF are obvious weaknesses.    But you can have a few weak spots on your roster and still win 97 games and go to the World Series. 

 

Arte has said he sees the Cardinals as a model organization, so perhaps he has learned that long expensive contracts to aging players is not how you want to develop a team.   

 

Granted, Cardinals wanted to keep Albert and reportedly offered him 210/10.   Had he taken that, Cards likely would not have gotten to extend Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Allen Craig, and probably not have drafted Michael Wacha.   So while I still have mad respect for him and what he's done, and will follow his career as a fan.. I'm glad the Halos took him

[Angelsjunky]

It must feel good being a Cardinals fan.

[ten ocho recon scout]

I think it was scotty mwah that said earlier a deal was discussed to send aybar over at the deadline. Not sure who it was for, but, I'm hoping it was their scoutinf department.

[bloodbrother]

Thought the speculation was that the Halos wanted Wacha or Carlos Martinez somehow and the Cards smartly weren't going for it. Don't know how much validity there was to the talks, but if there is any truth to it, can't fault the Halos for asking for that and can't fault St. Louis for balking at it

[Hoops McCann]

Rosenthal was a 21st rounder in the 2009 draft. Anybody know why he lasted that long?

Martinez was originally signed out of the D.R. By the Red Sox. They voided the deal after discovering an injury. Signed with the Cards after that.

 

He was a 21st rounder as he was playing at a small junior college and was originally a short stop.  Funny thing was, he had some heat on his pitches and the next thing you know, he was turned into a pitcher.

 

Actually, he has a few other very good pitches besides the 99mph 4-seamer although he doesnt often use those.  He has excellent control and was originally slated to be a starter. And, Motte, who also throws 98+mph was hurt this season and I assume will take over the closing duties next season when he's back.  I would like to see if that is at all possible as he would be much more valuable as a starter, however, the Cards are pretty stacked with starters:

 

Wainwright

Wacha

Miller

Lynn

Kelly

Garcia (who had shoulder surgery but is a quality pitchers as well)

 

This doesnt include who I think could be as good as Wacha or Miller and that is Carlos Martinez.  He's been groomed as a starter and in AA and AAA was a starter.  He's the set-up guy now, but I am sure he will be a starter down the road.

 

That's a lot of quality arms, but given the issues the team has at SS and CF (assuming Oscar Taveras cant play CF), I would assume a few of those could be moved in the right deal.