Tony LaRussa has been great for the St. Louis Cardinals.  Last season he worked magic with an 83-78 team that he won the World Series with!  Over his 11 year career as manager of the Cardinals, LaRussa has a record of 977-803 (.549).  LaRussa now has been a manager in the majors for 28 years and he has compiled a record of 2,297-1,986 (.536).  He has won 11 Division Titles is his career, won 2 World Series (1989, 2006) and he has a post season record of 59-48 (.551).

With Adam Wainright and Braden Looper going into the starting rotation the Cardinals have a lot of quality innings to make up.  Plus they need Jason Isringhausen to stay healthy all season long and that will take a lot of prayers from Cardinals fans.   34 year old righty Jason Isringhausen had his worst season in quite a while last year.  He was 4-8 with 33 saves, a 3.55 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP in 59 games for the Cardinals in 2006.  Batters only hit .222 (righties .187) against Izzy last season but he walked 38 batters and allowed 10 homers in only 58.1 innings last season and that’s not good.  He did whiff 52 batters which shows that he still has good stuff.  I just don’t see Isringhausen making it all the way through the 2007 season with his bad hip.

25 year old righty Brad Thompson pitched a lot in low pressure situations last season but that’s likely to change in 2007.  He was 1-2 with 3 holds, a 3.34 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP in 43 games (1 start) for the Cardinals in 2006.   Look for Thompson to be able to handle the pressure and do a good job for the Cards in 2007.

38 year old righty Russ Springer was signed away from the enemy Houston Astros.  He was 1-1 with 9 holds, a 3.47 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP in 72 games for the Houston Astros in 2006.  He held batters to a .211 batting average (righties .187) and he only walked 16 batters in 59.2 innings.  Springer did have problems with the longball as he gave up 10 homers and that’s too many.  Don’t look for Springer to have another good season as he’s been a poor pitcher for too long.

Soon to be 29 year old righty Josh Hancock is coming off of his first full season in the majors.  He was 3-3 with 5 holds, 1 save, a 4.09 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP in 62 games for the Cards last season.  Hancock held batters to a .241 batting average so he is improving as a pitcher.  Look for the Cardinals to again use Hancock early in games this season.

Soon to be 37 year old lefty Ricardo Rincon will be back in 2007.  Rincon missed almost all of 2006 with an injured elbow.  He only pitched in 5 games and was 0-0 with 2 holds, a 10.80 ERA and a 3.00 WHIP.  Left-handed batters only went 1 for 9 (.111 avg) against Rincon last season and that’s what he’s here for.  He has appeared in 557 games in his career and only has pitched 439.2 innings which tells you that he really is a lefty specialist.

25 year old lefty Tyler Johnson had an up and down rookie season.  He was 2-4 with 11 holds, a 4.95 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP in 56 games for the Cardinals in 2006.  Batters hit .244 against him (lefties .221) and he whiffed 37 batters in 36.1 innings which show you what kind of stuff he has.  But, he walked 23 batters and gave up 5 homers and he will have to improve in both of those areas if he wants to excel as a relief pitcher in the majors.

Ryan Franklin will be the long man in the Cardinals bullpen and he’s an ex-starter so he should be able to give the Cardinals a lot of innings if they need him to.

31 year old lefty Randy Flores had an awful season in 2006 for the Cardinals.  He was 1-1 with 18 holds, a 5.62 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP in 65 games for the Cardinals in 2006.  Batters hit .290 against him last season (righties .329) and he walked 22 batters in only 41.2 innings which is way too many.  Flores should thank God every morning that he throws the baseball with his left arm or he would have to get a real job.  Don’t expect much out of him in 2007.

The Cardinals rotation will have a younger look but they will have more talented arms throwing the ball than they did last year.  Soon to be 32 year old righty Chris Carpenter is back as the ace of the staff.  He was 15-8 with a 3.09 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in 32 starts for the Cardinals in 2006.  Opposing batters only hit .235 against him last season and he only walked 43 batters in 221.2 innings and those were the reasons he was so successful last season.  In Carpenter’s three seasons with the Cardinals he is 51-18 with a 3.10 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP in 93 starts.  Look for Carpenter to have another outstanding season with 15-20 victories with an ERA of around 3.00 in 2007.

Soon to be 30 year old righty Kip Wells has always been a bad luck pitcher either do to injury or playing on a bad baseball team.  Last year he was only 2-5 with a 6.50 ERA and a 1.85 WHIP in only 9 starts for the Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates.  Look for Wells to benefit much the same way that Jeff Suppan did with his move to the winning environment in St. Louis.  If Wells stays healthy look for him to win 12-15 games with an ERA of 4.25-4.60 in 2007.

25 year old righty Anthony Reyes had his coming out party in the World Series when he dominated the Detroit Tigers.  Look for him to bring the same stuff he did in the World Series much more often in 2007 than he did in 2006.  He was only 5-8 with a 5.06 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP in 17 starts for the Cardinals in 2006.  He had big problems with the longball as he gave up 17 homers in only 85.1 innings last year.  Look for Reyes to keep the ball down this season and emerge as the Cardinals second best starter in 2007.  Look for Reyes to win 13-18 games with a sub-4.00 ERA in 2007.

25 year old righty Adam Wainwright was awesome in the bullpen for the Cardinals last season but he’s always been a starter in the minor leagues and he will return to that role as long as Jason Isringhausen stays healthy this season.  Wainwright was 2-1 with 3 saves, a 3.12 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP in 61 games last season (all in relief).  Wainwright didn’t give up a run in 9 post season appearances (9.2 innings) and saved 4 games including the final out that made the Cardinals World Champions.  Look for Wainwright to win 12-15 games with an ERA of 3.50-4.00 in 2007.

32 year old righty Braden Looper will be the #5 starter for the Cardinals despite not starting a game since 1997 in the minors.  Looper was 9-3 with 15 holds and a 3.56 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in 69 relief appearances.  Looper has never thrown over 86 innings in a season over his 9 year major league career.  Looper has decent stuff but it’s hard to imagine him throwing over 5 innings per game.  The bullpen will be needed a lot on days when he pitches.

33 year old righty Ryan Franklin will probably be the first in line if the Cards need a starter during the season.  It’s very likely that he will pitch in a lot of the games that Looper starts.  Franklin was 6-7 with a 4.54 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP in 66 relief appearances.  Franklin has been a starter most of his career so look for him to pitch a lot of innings for the Cardinals this season.

25 year old lefty Chris Narveson has missed a lot of time the last couple of seasons and that has set him back, but he’s looking healthy now and could get a chance to start at some point in the season for the Cardinals.  He was 0-0 with a 4.82 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 5 games (9.1 innings) for the Cards last season.  He had a good year in the minors in 2006 as he was 8-5 with a 2.69 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP in 18 starts.

24 year old righty Blake Hawksworth is looking close to ready for the Cardinals as well.  He started 27 games in A+AA ball last year and he was 11-4 with a 2.92 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP.  Look for him to start the year in AAA and to be ready to help the Cards out in the 2nd half of the season if they need him.

29 year old lefty Mark Mulder had his worst season in the majors in 2006 as he was 6-7 with a 7.14 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP in 17 starts.  Batters hit .327 against him last season and whacked 19 homers in only 93.1 innings for the Cardinals in 2006.  He will miss the first half of 2007 as he’s recovering from major surgery.  He will likely help the team in the 2nd half as he pitched much of last season while he was injured.

31 year old Juan Encarnacion got benched in the World Series last season but he’s a very consistent player during the regular season and deserves his starting job back.  Encarnacion played in 153 games last season and he hit .278 with 74 runs scored, 19 homers, 79 RBIs and a .760 OPS.  Encarnacion played in 125 games in RF last season and he made 4 errors while showing below average range.  He does still have a very strong throwing arm from the outfield.  Look for Encarnacion to hit around .270 with 15-18 homers and knock in 70-80 runs in 2007.

32 year old Preston Wilson will push Encarnacion for his starting job in Spring Training.  He played in 135 games last season for the Astros & Cardinals and he hit .263 with 58 runs scored, 17 homers, 72 RBIs, 12 stolen bases and a .730 OPS.  Wilson made 1 error in 24 games in RF but he showed below average range.  Wilson still has good power and he did take Encarnacion’s job away last October, so I wouldn’t be shocked if he could do it again.

So Taguchi played 7 error-less games in RF for the Cardinals last season, but he’ll likely be needed more in CF and LF in 2007.

36 year old lefty swinging Jim Edmonds is back for another season.  He was very injury prone last season as he only played in 110 games.  Edmonds hit .257 last season with 52 runs scored, 19 homers, 70 RBIs and a .822 OPS.  Maybe the Cardinals should rest Edmonds against lefties this season as he only hit .156 in 96 at bats against them last season.  Edmonds still played well in centerfield as he played 99 games there last season and he made 3 errors while retaining his outstanding range.  Edmonds has another 20+ homer, great defensive season in him as long as he can stay healthy.

So Taguchi played in 59 games in CF for the Cardinals last season.  He made 5 errors while showing poor range in CF.  If he played better defense he might get to platoon with Edmonds as he hit .280 against lefty pitching.

The Cardinals also brought back Preston Wilson who could still play CF if they needed him to.  He played 7 games there last season and he made an error while showing below average range.