As I sit here waiting for my afternoon coffee to brew, I am watching a game on MLBN between the Braves and Mets. I would rather watch the Cardinals, of course, but I have always liked Atlanta and I like the mini-rivalry the Mets and Cardinals have, since they ended our run in the 2000 NLCS and we got revenge in '06. A couple things about today's game jump out at me.

First, the starter for the Braves is Tommy Hanson, the pitcher ranked by BA the #4 prospect in baseball. I would love to have Hanson on the Cardinals, he mixes speeds and has a sharp curveball, good change, but I think the Braves are smart to have gotten help and start him out in the minors. His control isn't quite there and a month or three against weaker competition should do him good. The way Jake Peavy has pitched in the WBC(small sample size, but he appeared to have some dead arm issues), I'm sure the Braves are glad they held on to this guy.

Second, the starting third baseman and cleanup hitter for the Mets is Fernando Tatis. And as I write this, he just belted a two-run homer that got over the left field fence in a hurry. With the outfiled in New York as wide open as it is, it looks like he is going to continue his resurgence and play nearly every day. Now, I wasn't a very mature Cardinal fan in 2000, but I never understood why we gave up Tatis, who, after being acquired for Royce Clayton and Todd Stottlemeyer in '98, played 300 games at third base for the Cardinals, hit .282/.389/.519 for a .906 OPS, 58 HR and 197 RBI as a 24-25 year-old (and let us not forget the oft-trivia'd two grand slams in an inning), was shipped off for Steve Kline and Dustin Hermanson. He never amounted to much afterward, but I can't help but wonder...

The topic of this post, though, was inspired by a conversation going on between the announcers today regarding Chipper Jones and his unreliability. Jones, they say, is a good player but you never know when he's going to be on the field. Jones has been in the press lately over his negative comments toward the WBC, in which he got injured, something he does frequently. Because of injuries, Jones has averaged just 510 plate appearances over the last four years, but in those 2043 PA he's OPS'd over 1.000 consistently. You take any replacement-level third baseman and give him 200 PA and you've still got a darned good 3B platoon over the course of the season. I would rather have Chipper Jones on my team than any other 3B save Wright, ARod, or Longoria.

C- Yadier Molina/Bryan Anderson. Anderson is currently one of the best catching prospects in baseball, but Yadier Molina and his cannon for an arm seem entrenched at the position in the bigs. Neither are part-timers, so one will likely be moved if Anderson can stay at catcher.

1B- Albert Pujols.

2B- Jarrett Hoffpauir. Hoffpauir is having a breakout year for the Cardinals and the only thing standing in his way of the everyday 2B job is Adam Kennedy's contract. Should be a good OBP guy even if his 5'9" frame can't hit the ball with as much authority as he has in the minors.

3B- Scott Rolen. Final year of his current contract, it will be hard not to play him everyday whether or not his decline continues. If he should miss time with injuries, though, backup plans include Allen Craig and perhaps Tyler Greene.

SS- Jose Martinez. Very underrated prospect is having a nice season with Double-A Springfield. Pete Kozma probably won't be due until 2011, if he progresses anything like Rasmus has(Rasmus was drafted at a similar age), but if he does reach the bigs quickly he has a much higher ceiling than Martinez.

LF- Chris Duncan. Could be an annual 40-homer threat by this time, but should at least be a middle of the order hitter with average defense.

CF- Colby Rasmus. No brainer.

RF- Rick Ankiel. What he's already done is enough to make for a good story, but I'm still skeptical. He's got huge power and a great arm but very raw at the plate. It remains to be seen if his talent is enough to survive a 4:1 K/BB. Jeff Francoeur comes to mind...

Rotation:
Chris Carpenter
Adam Wainwright
Anthony Reyes
Adam Ottavino
Jaime Garcia
Also in the mix are Tyler Herron, Clay Mortenson and P.J. Walters. Mark McCormick is a dark horse, easily has the best stuff in the system but needs to get healthy and find some control.  

Bullpen:
Chris Perez(closer)
Tyler Johnson
Josh Kinney
McCormick
Kenny Maiques
Luke Gregerson
Others with a shot: Jason Motte, Matt Scherer, Mark Worrell, Kyle McClellan, Nick Webber, Eddie Degerman, Brad Furnish...

Second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir is having a monster season. After hitting .345/.420/.527 with 7 HR in 203 AB for Springfield, he was promoted to Memphis where he's hit .330/.414/.482 with 3 HR in 112 AB. Even more impressive, on the year he's walked 42 times compared to just 29 strikeouts.
Call me crazy, but I liken him to Dustin Pedroia. He doesn't quite have the range and defensive prowess of the Red Sox second baseman, but he makes plays. Also, Dustin is a year ahead in his development after they were taken in the same draft(2004; 2nd/6th), with Hoffpauir being a month older and still in the minors. But they're both short, stocky guys who still hit the ball pretty hard and have great plate discipline.