Five players from the Cardinals.

Ughh, following up the Giants with an equally boring team, the Cards. At least they have been able to provide some excellent Razzball choices! And if you were wondering, yes, that’s Brian Barton in the picture, because I love his dreads.

Rick Ankiel A great story, for sure (although the HGH revelation took a little out of the heart warming goodness), but I’m a little jealous that a person could be born with not only great talent to pitch a baseball, but also with the ability to hit in the major leagues. Honestly, how is that fair? Anyway, I’m not very optimistic on his chances for success this year. He rarely takes a walk, has a horrible BB/K ratio, and a sub-80% contact rate. He obviously has good power, but is it worth an OBP that could very well be below .300? I’d truly be surprised if he ended up with a full season’s worth of ABs. And I still wonder what kind of pitching career he could have had if he hadn’t developed Steve Blass Syndrome.

Kyle Lohse I can’t believe I’m going to be recommending him, but the new Cards’ ballpark has really reduced HRs and as a flyball pitcher, Lohse could really benefit. The odd thing about him is he’s always had pretty good stuff, but it just hasn’t translated into an above average K rate, and he’s always been quite hittable, allowing BABIPs consistently over .300. He’s obviously not someone to draft in a mixed league, but he could produce some value in an NL-Only league and I doubt he’ll cost much.

Anthony Reyes God knows what the Cardinals have against this guy. Seriously, for a non-contending team, you’d rather fill your rotation with a Todd Wellemeyer and a Brad Thompson? Why? Reyes was a once top prospect, and his skills have declined for 4 straight years. But all the jerking around can’t possibly be helping. He’s shown the ability to post K/9 ratios over 7, with good control, and the only negative being that he’s an extreme flyball pitcher. But as mentioned in the Lohse blurb, the park will help him in that respect. Just give him a full season already and leave him alone, or trade the poor guy!

Brian Barton With only an injured (surprise, surprise) Juan Gonzalez to beat out, it looks like Barton will make the Cards out of ST. A Rule 5 pick from the Indians, he posted an excellent .416 OBP in AA last year and stole 20 bases in 389 ABs, but that came with 9 caught stealings. He has only mediocre power, and might not ever be a regular, but IF he got 550 ABs, he could go 10-20 or so with an average that shouldn’t hurt you. Could make a nice pickup in NL-Only leagues if forced into a full-time role due to the plethora of crappy players ahead of him or when injuries strike.

Adam Wainwright Man, I struggled to find a 5th player, so I apologize to choosing someone everyone is so familiar with. I have seen a lot of hype around him using the dreaded sleeper tag, and many predictions expecting low-3 ERAs. However, what I find interesting is that his ADP actually has him being drafted later than I had him ranked in my various draft leagues, and I thought I was projecting the least from him this year! So just like McGowan, the hype and his ADP don’t exactly match up. Anyway, people point to his 2nd half ERA as the reason for a big 2008, but looking deeper, it was because of an unsustainable high 70’s strand rate, and only a 4% HR/F rate, which obviously won’t happen again. He did improve his skills in the 2nd half, but that just took them from poor in the 1st half to slightly above average. He should be able to continue increasing his K/9, and will probably get his walk rate down to 3 or a little below, to go along with a nice GB% of 48 the last 2 years. However, the K/9 just isn’t high enough to make up for only an average walk rate, so I expect an ERA closer to 4 this year, rather than the low to mid-3’s.

Questions, comments, criticisms, praise, expert league invitations? Email me at FBGeneralsMike@gmail.com.