Over the past few days, the inevitable Albert Pujols-centric advertising campaign for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was rolled out. The opening advertisements are billboards around Orange County featuring a photograph of Pujols from the back in that near-perfect follow-through. One of the billboards reads "Big A" and another reads "Now Playing." With the Angels' haloed "A" in each, they are nothing more than your standard professional sports franchise billboards. However, there is a third billboard that reads "El Hombre" that has caused Cardinals fans to stand up and take notice.

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In the NLDS, David Freese hit .278/.278/.556/.833 with 5 RBI. Freese smacked a double and home run off veteran Roy Oswalt in the do-or-die Game 4 at Busch Stadium. In the NLCS, Freese picked up where he left off, posting the high-popping line of .545/.600/1.091/1.691 with 3 homers, 3 doubles, and 9 RBI. The Iceman cooled off so to speak in the World Series with a somewhat more human line of .348/.464/.696/1.160.

Understandably, Freese was the MVP of both the NLCS and World Series. His good postseason fortunes have made him a national figure, appearing on late-night talk shows, awards shows, and an ill-fated sitcom. Despite his dynamic postseason play, should St. Louis Cardinals fans expect production on the field in 2012 on par with his stature off it?

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The St. Louis Cardinals signed free agent right-handed relief pitcher Scott Linebrink to a minor-league contract today that also comes with an invitation to Spring Training. Upon learning of the signing, I brought up Linebrink's Fangraphs page to se what type of pitcher the Cardinals were inviting to big-league camp in Jupiter. What immediately jumped out to me about Linebrink is just how similar his numbers are to those of Kyle McClellan.

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Jaime Garcia burst onto the scene in 2010 with an excellent rookie season that saw him finish third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting. Garcia posted a 2.77 ERA (which was good for a 69 ERA-) with two-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio. In his first season post-Tommy John surgery, the Cardinals wisely shut the southpaw down once the club had fallen out of contention during the home stretch of September. This decision limited Garcia to 163.1 IP for the season. Impressively, Garcia accrued 3.1 fWAR over those innings. Despite a BABIP that was very close to the MLB average for a starting pitcher in 2010, there was good reason to believe that his ERA would rise in 2011.

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via www.thegrio.com

Earlier, we looked at the five best St. Louis Cardinals by rWAR from 1959 through 1988. This the follow-up to that post, which covers the time period from 1989 through 2011. This list is inspired by David Schoenfield's post on the ESPN Sweet Spot blog which looked at the five best position players by WAR. Unlike Schoenfield, I have included pitchers and ranked the five best Cardinals by rWAR.

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via www.throughthefencebaseball.com

A little while back, Dave Schonefield wrote a terrific post on ESPN's Sweet Spot blog, "Five Best Players in Baseball: A History." Using cumulative WAR for five-year periods, Schoenfield listed the five top players in Major League Baseball. The post inspired me to do something similar for the St. Louis Cardinals. Using Schoenfield's formatting, I began in 1959 (the eve of the El Birdos era, in a way) and worked forward to the present day.

If one is ranking the best Cardinals, one must include Bob Gibson. It's non-negotiable. However, Schoenfield's list included no pitchers, a fact that hardly seemed equitable to me. I began to wonder why this was. Was it because Fangraphs does not have pitcher WAR prior to 1974? Was it simply an exercise in position player valuation? Does Schoenfield have a problem an intermingling of pitchers and position players ranked by WAR? So, I used Baseball-Reference's WAR (rWAR) rather than Fangraphs WAR (fWAR) because Fangraphs lacks WAR prior to 1974. (Posts on WAR in general and the difference between rWAR and fWAR can be found here.)

This post was a fun trip down memory lane that produced some interesting results. I thought it would prove a fun late-winter read. But, it ballooned in size. Because of it's length, I cut it in half. The first half, which is below (and still rather long), covers 1959 through 1988. I decided it best to divide it after the conclusion of the Whiteyball era. The second half, covering the years 1989 through 2011 will be posted later.

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In a recent article posted on stltoday.com, Post-Dispatch writer Joe Strauss addressed the St. Louis Cardinals' intangibles entering the 2012 season against the backdrop of the 2011 and 2010 teams. Employing the verbage of "vibe," "chemistry," and "mix" to describe this indefinable quality so often found in winning teams by the sportswriters who cover them, Strauss offers a lengthy analysis with many quotes from players as well as general manager John Mozeliak. Strauss's thoroughness makes the article well worth reading as it contains many interesting and thought-provoking statements.

The article revisits a theme of the 2010 season and its aftermath regarding that incarnation of the Cardinals, that the group lacked that much-desired team trait of chemistry. As the club battled the Reds that summer, Mozeliak famously stated that he was looking for "a straw to stir the drink" that would transform the Cardinals into a tasty cocktail of success. If Pedro Feliz was that straw, his clubhouse cocktail mixing would seem to be about on par with his hitting. As Strauss notes in the article, that Cardinals team was in first place at the non-waiver trade deadline but finished the season 5.0 games back of the division champion Reds.

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Grantland has posted an article by Bill James that it describes as "[a] totally, utterly, insanely completist list from the godfather of baseball stats" of the 100 best pitchers' duels of 2011. James attempts to objectively list the top-pitched games by starting pitchers during 2011. In doing so, he lays out the following guiding criteria:

What are the elements of a great pitchers' duel? A pitchers' duel is a low-scoring game, obviously; a 1-0 game is the champion of its list. The term "pitchers' duel" implies that the starting pitchers pitch well, as opposed to staggering through five innings un-scored upon and handing it off to the bullpen. We think of a pitchers' duel more highly if it involves pitchers of stature. A 1-0 game is more memorable if it is Sabathia against Verlander than if it is Marco Estrada against Kevin Correia. Which, by the way, actually happened last year; Marco Estrada and Kevin Correia matched up on August 13 at Miller Park, and the result was a 1-0 game. Go figure. There's a woman involved somewhere.

Anyway, a great pitchers' duel implies that there is something at stake beyond fifth place, although you don't want to place too much emphasis on that criterion, or you wind up warbling on about Jack Morris in 1991, long after anybody cares.

I agree by and large with the elements James lays out. But, like other Cardinals fans, I respectfully disagree with Grantland regarding the completeness of the list, which only seems to include regular season pitchers' duels. By limiting the list in such a way, James has left off the top pitching duel of the 2011 calendar year: Halladay vs. Carpenter in Game 5 of the NLDS.

Applying the four criteria James uses, let's evaluate Game 5 of the NLDS between the Phillies and Cardinals.

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That former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop David Eckstein is officially retiring from the game of baseball, as reported by Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, should come as little surprise. After his 1.9-fWAR season in 2010 with the Padres, Eckstein did not receive a contract for the 2011 season. [UPDATE: Although, Jon Heyman tweets that Eckstein turned down a contract offer from the Mariners for 2011.] The 37-year-old is hanging up his cleats after ten big-league seasons "even though there were teams willing to bring him into camp" this year, according to Cafardo.

Eckstein is listed at five feet, seven inches tall. I mention this because there is a rule that any newspaper article or blog post about Eckstein must include his relatively short height. His short stature led combined with his style of play led to sportswriters casting him as an underdog who got more out of his talent than other, more-talented players. And it was this narrative that led to a backlash against the player, a backlash that was led by Fire Joe Morgan.

It is not Eckstein's fault that he became the poster boy for intangibles such as heart, hustle, grit, and baseball smarts. It is not the player's fault that questions from the media caused smart baseball men like Joe Maddon to say things like "Even if he goes 0-for-4 and makes three errors, he helps you." No, it is not Eckstein's fault that baseball people and sportswriters discuss him with backhanded compliments that downplay his skill and play up his intangibles.

Eckstein may have had the greatest combination of intangibles in baseball history. Unfortunately, we'll never know because they're intangibles. The singular focus and resultant battle over his indefinable characteristics unfairly marginalized the reality that Eckstein was a pretty valuable ballplayer in the tangible sense, especially for the Cardinals.

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On the bus ride from Reagan International to Walter Reed today, St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak reached a deal with the representation of free agent pitcher Kyle McClellan. By reaching an agreement, the sides avoided an arbitration hearing and also set the pay rate for a replacement-level pitcher whose season was cut short by a case of the dead arm. The salary amount was not disclosed by the Cardinals or McClellan. Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that McClellan will received $2.5 million plus incentives for games started (that we hope he never receives).

Despite coming off a sub-replacement -0.4 Fangraphs WAR performance in 2011, the righty will likely receive an increase in pay from the $1.375 million he received last year. McClellan will also likely receive a spot in the St. Louis bullpen over a cheaper and better pitcher. Like Miguel Batista last season, McClellan will bump one of Jason Motte, Fernando Salas, Lance Lynn, Eduardo Sanchez, or Mitchell Boggs off the 25-man roster and onto the Memphis Redbirds.

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Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP) is a stat measuring that which its name suggests. It is a stat narrower in focus than good ole batting average (BA). Whereas BA measures the rate at which a player hits safely minus walks and hit-by-pitches, BABIP measures a player's average on those balls put in the field of play, excluding home runs. It is a stat that helps put a player's numbers into context; namely, it helps to determine just how sustainable a player's production has been.

One can get an idea of how lucky a hitter has been by glancing at his BABIP. Typically, the average BABIP is around .300; in 2011, it was .295 for all of Major League Baseball. One should not stop there in evaluating a player's BABIP. The next step is to look at the player's batted-ball profile. Quality of contact has an effect on BABIP. The harder a ball is struck, the more likely it will result in a hit. A batter will have a higher BABIP on line drives (LD) than on grounders (GB) than on fly balls (FB).

According to Fangraphs, in 2011, Major League hitters posted the following BABIP by batted-ball type:

It is possible to get an idea of how lucky or unlucky a player's numbers were in a given year by comparing his BABIP and batted-ball profile to that of Major League Baseball as a whole. Today I thought we might utilize some of the work being done over at The Hardball Times on expected BABIP (xBABIP) and how it relates to BA, on-base percentage (OBP), slugging percentage (SLG), and on-base plus slugging (OPS) to see which Cardinals were lucky and which were unlucky on balls in play in 2011 and how that luck affected their production.

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DanUp's morning open thread got me to thinking about why on earth the Cardinals signed free agent catcher Koyie Hill to a minor-league contract this week. Hill has spent parts of eight seasons in the big leagues, always in the role of back-up catcher. He made his Major League debut in 2003 with the Dodgers, getting three plate appearances in three games. In 2004 and 2005 combined, Hill tallied 139 PAs in 47 games as the Diamondbacks' back-up catcher. He spent 2008 as a catcher for AAA Columbus in the Yankees system. In 2009, Hill started in AAA Iowa before being called up to the non-I Cubs. In 2008, he split time between Des Moines and Chicago. From 2009 through 2011, he served as the Cubs' back-up catcher. In all this time, Hill hasn't hit a lick:

If Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan were still around, I'd understand this signing a lot better. No-hit veteran back-up catchers were a mainstay of rosters throughout the La Russa/Duncan era. But, this is a new era of unbridled Mozeliakism. In fact, the general manager himself has stated that the back-up catcher decision will be settled via a good ol' fashioned Spring Training competition between Tony Cruz and Brian Anderson. Both Cruz and Anderson are already on the 40-man roster. The winner of the back-up catcher derby will graduate to the 25-man roster and the loser will likely be the primary catcher in AAA Memphis and Catcher No. 3 on the big-league depth chart. So, again, why Koyie Hill?

I've come to the conclusion that Koyie Hill is the 2012 Memphis Redbirds' Crash Davis.

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In the build up to and the aftermath of the Hall-of-Fame election each year, a passionate discussion is held regarding the candidacies of various players. Much ink has been spilt over the candidacies of those players on the ballot this year. DanUp wrote a great post on the former Cardinals on the ballot as well as the future candidacies of former Cardinals. That post has links to some of his other writings on a subject dear to his and many of our hearts: the Hall-of-Fame candidacy of Jim Edmonds.

A few years back, former Minnesota Twins center fielder, Kirby Puckett was inducted into the Hall of Fame. This was before I paid much attention to the annual BBWAA ballot. I was happy with Puckett's induction. I knew him to be a decent center fielder whose career numbers and defense paled in comparison to the Cardinals' own Edmonds. I thought Puckett's induction meant Edmonds was a sure-thing Hall-of-Famer.

On defense, Puckett was a poor center fielder. His career Total Zone for center field is -12. For some reason--likely his hitting--Puckett won six Gold Glove awards over the course of his career. Compare Puckett to Edmonds. Edmonds deservedly won eight Gold Gloves. I write "deservedly" because his career Total Zone in center is 83.

Here is a chart comparing the two players' offensive statistics.

While Puckett had the higher batting average and, relatedly, more total career hits, Edmonds is by far the superior offensive player. Edmonds walked twice as many times, scored more runs, hit 186 more homers, had an OBP 16 points higher, and slugged at a far higher rate--Edmonds's career ISO was .243 to Puckett's .159. Edmonds's OPS was better relative to his peers than Puckett's was, as well. Edmonds posted a career wOBA of .383 while Puckett's career wOBA is .365.

Both Puckett and Edmonds played center field, a position that is woefully underrepresented in the Hall of Fame. Edmonds played the position better defensively and was a better offensive player in his career than Puckett. I've never been a big fan of the argument that, "If Player X is a Hall-of-Famer, then Player Y is should be, too," but Puckett's induction should cause voters to give Jim Edmonds serious consideration.

The 2004 season was one of the greatest in the storied history of the St. Louis Cardinals franchise. After a disappointing 2003 season, the Cardinals took off like a rocket ship and soared into the stratosphere with 105 wins. The MV3 received top billing that magical season and has deservedly established itself amongst the legends of Cardinals lore. Scott Rolen posted 9.2 fWAR that season; Pujols, 8.4; and Edmonds, 8.2. The trio's collective 25.8 fWAR was equal to the 2004 Red Sox hitters fWAR and better than the cumulative fWAR posted by 19 MLB teams.

With that gaudy offense, it's no wonder that the 2004 Cardinals' pitching staff has faded into the background as time has passed. This is a shame because the that staff was perhaps the finest of the Dave Duncan era. Last week we looked at a fundamental principle of Duncanism, throwing first-pitch strikes. The 2004 staff threw first-pitch strikes at a 59% clip, which ranked eighth in Major League Baseball. That staff was a collection of pitching democrats, as well, leading the big leagues in ground ball percentage at 48.2%. While their 4.17 FIP was good (tying for eighth in MLB), the group's ERA was the lowest in baseball at 3.74. The performance of the 2004 Cardinals pitchers was neither starting rotation nor bullpen heavy; it was a solid combination of the two.

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Dave Duncan's democratic pitching philosophy is well-known to the St. Louis Cardinals faithful. The first principle applies to the first pitch: throw it for a strike. Every other aspect of Duncanism flows from this foundational principle.

In his critique of Buzz Bissinger's Three Nights In August, Josh Levin notes:

Dave Duncan uses mathematical evidence to convince his starters of the importance of throwing a first-pitch strike.

It is an statistical-based rationale that Duncan has used to win over his pitchers since his days with the Chicago White Sox. As Richard Dotson remembers:

One strategy Dotson immediately employed was to recall strategies used by former Sox pitching coach Dave Duncan, now with St. Louis. The Bristol club started the season 2-12 and in one game the pitching staff walked 15 and threw roughly 300 pitches.

"I remember Dave Duncan talking about first-pitch strikes when we were with the White Sox," Dotson said. "When we got ahead of the hitters they were hitting. 170. When we got behind them they were hitting .700. It was a pretty easy example to show them the importance of getting a first-pitch strike."

Under the tutelage of Duncan and Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright also adopted this founding principle. Wainwright shared not only this first principle but also others with Sports Illustrated for its preview of the 2007 season:

Wainwright, 25, was a starter in the minors but pitched in relief with the Cardinals last season as a rookie, assuming the closer's role in September and saving four postseason games. To transition back, Wainwright sought the guidance of ace Chris Carpenter and pitching coach Dave Duncan. "They're telling me to throw first-pitch strikes to get first-pitch outs," says Wainwright, whose tendency to try for strikeouts--even as a starter--was ballooning his pitch count. "[You want to] get them to put the ball in play and trust your defense."

It all seems simplistic. Getting ahead in the count is preached at every level of organized baseball, from the volunteer Little League coaches to high school ball. Because of this, it seems that every major-league team preaches this philosophy. Indeed the majority of first pitches thrown are for strikes. This got me to wondering whether Duncan's Cardinals are typically better as a group when it comes to tossing a first-pitch strike.

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Last week the St. Louis Cardinals reportedly agreed to a two-year deal with free agent outfielder Carlos Beltran that will be worth approximately $26 million. A proven veteran coming off one of the best offensive seasons of his career, Beltran was available on a relatively short deal of two years at a fair price largely because of the recent history he has with knee troubles and corrective surgery. To put the risk Beltran's health poses in the proper context, I thought we might take a look at the nature of Beltran's right knee injury and the surgical procedure he underwent to repair it.

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Drew Silva of NBC Sports' Hardball Talk and Rotoworld.com gave us an intriguing tweet yesterday:

Matheny told the @ITDMorningAfter he's been gathering info from the "sabermetricians upstairs." It truly is a new era.

Audio from Tuesday's ITD Morning After can be found here. Feel free to use the morning open thread to discuss sabermetricians upstairs as opposed to in their mothers' basements, Matheny's handsomeness, Carlos Beltran, or whatever you like.

"Thank goodness we still have Holliday."

So read the text message I received from a good friend and fellow Cardinals fan. Over a thirty-minute span I received several that formed what was essentially a stream-of-consciousness rationalization of Pujols leaving and assessment of the club's 2012 chances (as they stood at that moment, prior to any free agent signings). The sentiment in the above-quoted final text was somewhat surprising coming from him.

Like many St. Louis baseball diehards, my friend spit invective in the same medium when Matt Holliday dropped a fly ball at Chavez Ravine during the 2009 NLDS--a drop that started a Dodgers rally which was extended on three occasions by closer Ryan Franklin before allowing the coup de gråce off the bat of the .232-hitting Mark Loretta. Loney reaching on Holliday's error was not even a top five play in the game in terms of WPA. The walk to Casey Blake, Ronnie Belliard single, passed ball allowed by Yadier Molina with Russell Martin batting, walk to Martin, and Loretta single seem to have never happened in the collective consciousness of the Cardinals fandom; all that remains is the Holliday error.

That ninth-inning error also seems to have wiped clean any memory of Holliday's second-inning homer that put the Redbirds up 1-0 and provided the difference in what was a 2-1 game entering that fateful final frame. The amnesia induced by Holliday's dropped fliner also erased any remembrance of Chris Carpenter laboring through a mere five innings in Game 1 and posting a line that included nine hits allowed, four walks issued, and four earned runs allowed. Forgotten as well is the fact that the Cardinals as a lineup only managed to plate three of the 16 runners they put on base in that opening game of the NLDS. As for Game 3, well, that's best left in the amnesiatic haze of never was.

That Holliday's drop in left field of that game still dogs him this day is unfortunate. Since coming to the Cardinals via trade in 2009, Holliday has been an integral part of two postseason teams and a World Series champion. Whether one goes by more traditional stats or new advanced metrics, all Holliday has done as a Cardinal is hit and produce runs at a truly elite level. In addition to his numbers, Holliday is one of the grittiest players I've seen play the game and is a clubhouse leader.

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The St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to terms with free agent outfielder Carlos Beltran, according to ace Post-Dispatch reporter Derrick Goold. The contract is reportedly for two years but the dollar amount has not been reported for a total value of approximately $26 million, according to Tim Brown of Yahoo! and confirmed by Goold. Matthew Leach of stlcardinals.com notes that this is the largest contract given to a player not a product of the Cardinals organization since Jason Isringhausen in the 2001-2002 Hot Stove.

Beltran will likely fill in for the injured Allen Craig in right field for the start of the season. Upon Craig's return, it seems likely that Beltran will see more action as a center fielder. It will be interesting to see how general manager John Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny characterize how the club plans to deploy Beltran in the field. The addition of Beltran makes the Cardinals lineup all the deeper just as it likely weakens the defense. Even so, if healthy, Beltran will be a valuable contributor to the Cardinals.

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In the last week, the St. Louis Cardinals have been linked to free agent outfielders Carlos Beltran, Coco Crisp, and Cody Ross. Given the Cardinals' current roster situation, each player has his pluses and minuses as a potential signing. We must ask ourselves several questions in evaluating the course the Cardinals should take. I thought we might do this before RB publishes his main post for the Christmas holiday.

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The Cardinals' efforts to sign a free agent outfielder seem to be coming to head. Over the weekend, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported that the club did "extensive background work" on free agent outfielder Carlos Beltran and that Beltran was currently deciding between multiple offers of two and three years in length. In that report, Rosenthal also broke the news that the Redbirds have "expressed interest" in free agents Cody Ross and Coco Crisp.

Steve Henson of Yahoo! tweets tonight that the Cardinals are "in discussions" with Crisp to play center field and bat at the top of the order with Jon Jay shifting to right field while Craig rehabs from the knee surgery he underwent earlier this offseason.

**UPDATE**

Ace Post-Dispatch reporter Derrick Goold has contacted Crisp's agent who refused to characterize discussions, indicated that multiple teams are interested, and that a decision likely wouldn't be imminent. Goold further elaborates that some teams are checking in on Crisp "as an alternative to other outfielders" and included the Cardinals in this group.

Your goal shouldn't be to buy players. Your goal should be to buy wins.

-- Peter Brand, "Moneyball"

In the movie adaptation of Michael Lewis's book Moneyball this quote is the beautifully concise explanation of the sabermetric approach to baseball. Nowadays folks running ball clubs are still trying to buy wins with runs being the coin of the realm. Since the 2002 season that was the subject of the book and film, Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) has largely been displaced by Wins Above Replacement (WAR) as the all-encompassing stat of choice.

One of the more understandable negative reactions to WAR is the use of "win" in its name. Wins are typically tallied in the standings and belong to a team so there is a natural inclination to equate a player's individual WAR to the team's win total on the field. For several reasons, including that WAR is a context-neutral stat, fans can't do this. That being said, while a player's Win Above Replacement does not equal a team win, there is a strong correlation between a team's collective WAR total and its won/lost record. As Dave Cameron writes for Fangraphs:

WAR isn’t perfect. But given the known limitations and the variations in how contextual situations impact final record, it does an awfully impressive job of projecting wins and losses.

This makes sense. After all, the better the player the higher his WAR total and the better the players on a team the higher its win total.

One of the best uses for WAR, in my opinion, is in evaluating the salaries given to ball players. Players with higher production and therefore higher WAR totals are able to receive higher salaries on the free agent market. A linear relationship has been shown to exist between player performance as represented by the WAR stat and player salary. This relationship is shown on the Fangraphs player pages where a player's salary can be found along with his value based on his WAR production. Heading into the post-2011 Hot Stove, 1.0 WAR worth of production from a player on the free agent market was worth approximately $4.5 million. This is the prism through which I have viewed free agent signings such as Rafael Furcal. But it is also a prism that can be used when looking at a club's overall roster construction.

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FOX's Ken Rosenthal tweets that the St. Louis Cardinals are nearing a deal with free agent left-handed relief pitcher J.C. Romero. Romero spent parts of the 2011 season in three organizations. He began the year with the Phillies but was released by the National League East champions. Romero was then picked up by the Yankees but never made it past AAA in their organization. After being cut loose by New York the Rockies signed him. He threw 8.1 innings for Colorado at the big league level. In many ways, Romero is similar to fellow Lefty One-Out Guy (LOOGY) Trever Miller, who the Cardinals traded to the Blue Jays as a part of the Rasmus trade last summer.

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Free agent utility infielder Nick Punto has opted to sign with the Boston Red Sox, according to Jon Heyman (now of CBS Sports). Punto signed with the Cardinals as a free agent last offseason on a one-year contract for $750,000. Injuries cut down on Punto's playing time as a Cardinal and an injury to his throwing arm restricted him to playing only second base. Punto is known primarily as a plus glove man at three infield positions. In additional to bringing sterling defensive play to the Cardinals last season, Punto also had his best offensive season by posting a line of .278/.388/.421 for a .350 wOBA. His combination of defense and offense led him to a 1.8-WAR season in 2011. Punto is also known as "The Shredder" for ripping dress shirts and jerseys off of his teammates (and even Jim Hayes of Fox Sports Midwest, if I'm not mistaken). Unlike Skip Schumaker, Punto's excellent defense at three positions and great batting eye made him a valuable utility man. He will be missed in St. Louis.

Earlier today Brian Stull tweeted that the St. Louis Cardinals were working on an agreement to bring back Skip Schumaker. This bad news was made worse later in the day when crack St. Louis Post-Dispatch scribe Derrick Goold reported on his must-read Birdland blog that not only were the Cardinals and Schumaker close to reaching an agreement but that the agreement was of two years in length. There is no reason for the Cardinals to repeat the mistake of the last two-year contract to which they foolishly signed Schumaker.

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My earliest St. Louis Cardinals memory isn't a game I attended or watched on television. It's a singular moment in the history of the franchise and baseball that took place decades before I was born and was preserved for posterity on vinyl. That moment is Stan Musial's 3,000th hit at Wrigley Field on May 13, 1958, a moment I experienced as those who lived it--via the radio call. My grandpa had an LP of the radio calls of great moments in Cardinals history and this was the first great moment he played for me on my grandparents' record player.

I have the 1959 Topps "Baseball Thrills" card with "MUSIAL RAPS OUT 3,000th HIT" across its bottom, from a time when baseball cards were art, paintings of players and moments. While not as gorgeous as a '52 Bowman (what is?), I've always loved it--probably because of the nostalgia of listening to the radio call on LP with my grandpa as a child. The back of the card tells the story of a Wrigley Field that "was alive with excitement" on that day, how "the fans moaned when the starting lineups were announced and Stan's name was absent," how Musial pinch hit to a "fine ovation," but that initial fan reaction "paled in comparison with the cheers that rang through the stands a moment later when Musial connected for a double and had his 3,000th hit."

I have another baseball card, this one from the '62 Topps set. It's a picture of Stan Musial and across the card's bottom it reads, "MUSIAL PLAYS 21ST SEASON." Still in the painting stage of baseball cards but very close to the transition of genuine photographs, the card is presented as tryptic with three stages of Musial's signature swing.

I got these cards from my dad; they were a part of the baseball collection of his childhood and they were merged with my collection. With my first Baseball Encyclopedia, a gift from my parents for Christmas in '87, these cards combined with those of Boyer, Gibson and Brock to form the foundation of my knowledge and love of the St. Louis Cardinals, the prism through which I viewed Ozzie Smith as he played his way into the Hall of Fame, a retired number, and a red jacket.

I wanted this all for Albert Pujols: 3,000 hits, 500 home runs, 600 home runs, 700 home runs, the Hall of Fame, the retired number, and--most importantly--a red jacket.

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As Albert Pujols was introduced to as a Los Angeles Angel of Anaheim in California, the Cardinals completed the first step in their offseason Plan B, agreeing to a contract with free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal. Derrick Goold reports in the Post-Dispatch that the deal is for two years and $14 million. The Cardinals traded for Furcal at last season's non-waiver deadline and he was instant upgrade over Ryan Theriot. Primarily batting leadoff, Furcal posted a .323 wOBA (.255/.316/.418/105 wRC+) over 50 games as a Cardinal. His range and arm were an upgrade in the field but Furcal made 10 errors in 422.1 innings at shortstop. Perhaps most importantly Furcal was the creator of the "Happy Flight" mantra of the Cardinals' improbable World Series championship run.

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On the Post-Dispatch's website today, Derrick Goold takes a look at the St. Louis Cardinals' Plan B now that Pujols has chosen to sign with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Goold spoke with general manager John Mozeliak for the article, which touches on the club's "immediate needs but also unexpected long-term elasticity." It is an article full of juicy little tidbits and well worth a read.

In the article Mozeliak expresses a preference for using free agency to address the Cardinals' needs. Specifically, according to Goold, the Cardinals have "explored the market" for free agent outfielder Carlos Beltran as an option in center field, "engaged in conversations" with free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal, and has interest in bringing back Nick "The Shredder" Punto as a veteran bench player and potential Tyler Greene insurance policy at shortstop (presumably if it fails to sign Furcal). Also on Mozeliak's radar are lefty-handed relievers Mike Gonzalez and J.C. Romero.

The $110 million payroll projection from Bill DeWitt, Jr. remains in place even without Pujols. It will be interesting to see how much of it is filled by signing free agents not yet on the roster. Since we are quickly approaching 1,500 comments in the morning thread, I thought we could continue our Post-Pujols Plan B discussions here.

It's still true. Albert Pujols is leaving the St. Louis Cardinals. The three-time MVP has agreed to terms with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. According to Yahoo's Tim Borwn, he will make between $250 and $260 million over the duration of the ten-year contract.