With the free agents and possible trades of the 2009 offseason show me, not what you hope but what you believe, will be the Cardinal's outcome. Here's mine.
2B- Shu
SS-Ryan
1st- Pujols
RF- Ludwick
CF- Colby
LF- DeRosa
C- Yadi
3B- Freese
P

Carp
Waino
Lohse
Smoltz
Boggs/Garcia

Miller
McClellan
Reyes
Boggs/Garcia
Hawksworth
Motte
Franklin

Lugo
Stavi
Tyler Greene
Pagnozzi
Mather

Love to hear your comments and own thoughts/ideas.

That doesn't look like it would be a very productive lineup. Also, I'm not sure that's how I'd make out the lineup card if those were the players I had to work with.

The pitching staff looks pretty decent.

No Craig on the roster?

forgot about craig. and jay. replace green and mather with them.

You basically just replaced Matt Holliday with David Freese and called it a day. I don't think we'll see the $20 million payroll cut that your roster would require.

If we get lucky that lineup wins 80.

You didn't really do anything other than resign Derosa and Smoltz. Where's the money going that was being paid to Kennedy, Glaus, Ankiel, Holliday, Pineiro, etc?

How about a little creativity? Ok, maybe we don't sign Holliday so how about signing Rich Harden and Adrian Beltre on one year deals? Make Freese outplay Beltre if he wants to earn that job. Yes, Beltre had a poor season but he hit 25+ HR's the prior 3 years and that's playing half his games at Safeco.

Harden would probably be the 3rd starter in that rotation and pushes Smoltz to 5th which allows him to skip some starts here and there if needed.

Even with signing those two the team would lower payroll so maybe on top of that we bring in Fernando Rodney or JJ Putz to add some insurance in the bullpen if we get the September version of Ryan Franklin next year.

SIGN WILLY MO PENA!!!

Sign Ludwick to a 2 year deal paying $5 million in 2009 and $7 million in 2010. Extend Schumaker for $1.5 million to avoid arbitration. Sign Smoltz for 1 year at $5 million, and LaRue for 1 year at the same $950k he got last season. Extend Holliday for 7 years, $120 million with the first year salary at $16 million. And extend DeRosa for 1 year at $4 million with an option for the same amount and small buyout. Sign Ben Sheets for $1 million and loads of incentives based on games started and quality starts...throw on an option year for something around $8 million or a $1m buyout. Call up David Freese, Allen Craig, Jaime Garcia, and Tyler Greene.

2B-Schumaker (1.5m)
3B-DeRosa (4m)
1B-Pujols (13m)
LF-Holliday (16m)
CF-Rasmus (400k)
RF-Ludwick (5m)
C-Molina (4.25m)
SS-Ryan (450k)
P-Pitcher

Bench-
UT-Freese (400k), Craig (400k)
SS-Lugo (X)
C-LaRue (950k)
IF-Greene (400k)

SP-
Carpenter (12.5m)
Wainwright (4.65m)
Lohse (8.88m)
Smoltz (5m)
Sheets (1m)

CP-Franklin (3.25m)
RH-McClellan (500k), Hawksworth (400k), Motte (400k)
LH-Miller (2m), Reyes (2m)
Swing-Garcia (400k)

$87.73 million payroll leaving a ton of space on the budget to go after whatever needs arise in season.

I like your idea here.
I hope they do it, or at least something close to that.
Strong lineup, strong pitching.
That team, I believe, would make it back to the playoffs.
Hopefully they would then win at least 1 game.
On Ludwick is that to be '10 and '11 on his new contract, I'm assuming.

Oops. Yeah I meant 2010 and 2011 for Ludwick.

I really hope we sign Ben Sheets for an incentive based contract. He's a guy worth taking a flier on. Worst case scenario we're throwing away an extra million or so dollars while we watch Garcia battle with Hawksworth and Boggs for that 5th spot in the rotation. Best case scenario the Cardinals have 3 Aces in Carp, Sheets, and AW, each good for 18+ wins. If Sheets is healthy...or at least 75% as good as he sued to be...along with Dave Duncan in a pitcher's park...

I think something along these lines for the offense and bench is probably Mo's Plan A. Unfortunately I think the level of talent that separates Plan A from Plan B is considerable.

Yeah, I agree on Sheets, he would be one of the best that they have taken an incentive based chance on yet. I'd like to see them do that. I haven't heard them mention their thoughts on pitching at all though.

I love that lineup and team. If we got all that done, that would be the perfect offseason I think. We keep our same lineup, and throw in some wild cards in Sheets and Garcia. And if Boggs and Garcia both pitch well, it could allow us to move Smoltz to the closers role if needed.

Also, we have to pay the league minimum salary for Lugo. I know Boston is paying his salary but we stll have to pay the league minimum if we have him on the team. Weird rule for salary reasons, but only bumps payroll up to a little over $88 million.

Love the team, now make it happen front office.

I like your team however i feel as if we won't get DeRosa and Holliday. I think it will be 1 or the other. Let me explain, They have said that would like to give David Freese every opportunity to win the starting 3B job. DeRosa has stated that he would like to play everyday and be an infielder if he can. If we sign Holliday that will use up more than 50% of our available money and we Have him in LF and Freese at 3B with Allen Craig the potential backup to both spots and a good pinch hitter. If we sign DeRosa then we will have more of a two position platoon at 3B and LF with 3players. If they hit successful they could all recieve 400 ab's and possibly reach 20 homers each. The potential is there for that. The Holliday deal would cost about 10mil per more than the DeRosa deal. I think the possibility of the DeRosa signing is more likely, its cheaper, we still have good talent at the positions and TLR likes creating competition.
Lineup w/Holliday
2B Skip
3B Freese
1B Pujols
LF Holliday
RF Ludwick
C Molina
CF Rasmus
SS Ryan

Lineup w/ DeRosa
2B Skip
3B Freese/DeRosa
1B Pujols
RF Ludwick
LF DeRosa/Craig
C Molina
CF Rasmus
SS Ryan

As far as the Bench. Well I already mentioned OF Craig. The backup C spot should come from within either Matt Pagnozzi or Bryan Anderson. I believe Anderson will win that job, he can hit. With a strong showing in the AFL and in ST he should win the job and working with Molina everyday will help him defensively. IF Lugo is a given. The other utility IF will either be SS Tyler Greene or 2B/3B Joe Thurston. I believe Greene has the edge there, with a strong ST he should ice it and with a great ST he might push Ryan for the starting spot at short. The last spot needs to be an OF who can backup Rasmus. They have candidates from within like Jon Jay of Joe Mather(if he learns how to hit again he seems to have lost it) or they can spend just a lil money on a guy like Scott Podsednik.
Bench
C Anderson
IF Lugo
IF Greene
OF Craig
OF Podsednik

Any way those are my thoughts. I will post my Pitchers separately.

As far as the Pitching Staff, I see two holes in the rotation and the bullpen should pretty much stay intact. We need 2 starters for 2010, They have stated that 1 will come from within. 1 of Lhp Jamie Garcia, or righties Hawksworth, Boggs or McClellan. Personally I leave Blake and Kyle right where they are to keep that bullpen strong. Boggs and Garcia battle it out one gets the 5th spot and the other the long man/spot starter. I think Garcia will win, he has great stuff. That makes WW, Carp, Lohse and Garcia as the rotation. Piniero had a good year, but I expect him to be paid well more than he is worth as we are just coming out of his contract that paid him more than he was worth and he probably wants a raise. I like the Idea of Ben Sheets and you might get him for 1mil w/ incentives but I think it might take a lil more, still if he could bounce back to what he once was we would be tough. I however would like to see us go after Erik Bedard. He is coming off surgery and might be had for about 6mil for 2010 to prove himself again with a 2011 option for closer to 10 mil. He has always been an ace pitcher on bad teams. If he could come here where we already have 2 aces, he could fly under the radar and just go out and win games. I just want to add that John Smoltz has had a remarkable career and see you in the HOF, but he can no longer start for a team that wants to win a WS, he just doesn't have it anymore. He might be able to get a few more seasons in a bullpen somewhere, maybe here would be good.
Rotation
Rhp Wainwright
Rhp Carpenter
Lhp Bedard
Rhp Lohse
Lhp Garcia

Bullpen
Rhp Boggs
Lhp Miller
Rhp Hawksworth
Rhp McClellan
Lhp Reyes
Rhp Motte
Closer Rhp Franklin

With arbitration raises it will push us to about 70 mil and 6mil to Bedard and 6mil to DeRosa that puts us around 82 mil may be up to 84 depending on how those deals are. They would be plenty flexible at midseason to take on a big contract if they needed to, to secure the division. if We sign Holliday and not Derosa then it pushes the payroll up to about 95 mil. We would not be near as flexible if we had a big injury or something. I like Holliday for years, but it appears to me that he is a spoiled brat, and is money hungry and won't give his best effort to win and thats what we are all about in Cardinal Nation. I say Bedard and DeRosa along with Podsednik to complete this team with flexibility to make a move at the trading deadline if we need it.

There are my thoughts on the 2010 Cardinals.

Had Lugo been released we would've had to pay it, as with Kennedy. But Lugo was not released. Lugo was traded with the condition that Boston would pay the entire salary. This winter we have a choice to either send Boston the PTBNL or pay Lugo the league minimum. So for right now, he is free.

What Mo says about Freese in October is moot. GM's say a lot of things before the pieces fall into place. Having DeRo, Doc, and Freese, on the roster doesn't create a 3 player platoon in 2 positions. If we sign Holliday he is the everyday LF...obviously. I would expect to see DeRo starting the majority of the games at 3B...moving over to 2B with Freese at 3B vs. LHP. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having 3 guys on your roster (DeRosa, Freese, Craig) that can be used in a utility capacity. In fact, it would be fantastic.

Seems like the best we could do to me.

Thanks for the clarification, I thought I read somewhere that we had to pay for it no matter what. Funny baseball rules.

Actually you are a little off. Lugo was released and was traded before his waiver deadline. Boston retained control of him just long enough to trade him. Had we just claimed immediately after he was released than his contract would have been ours. This is why so many players are put on waivers that never get claimed or if they do the retaining team always takes them off.

we aren't going to resign holliday people.

ss-Ryan
cf-Colby
1b-Puj
RF-lud
Lf-dero Possibly mike cameron or Marylon Byrd or xavier Nady
3b-freese
c-yadi
2nd-shu

Rotation
1.carp
2.Waino
3.Lohse
4.this is the biggest ? Smoltz/Davis/Garland dont see them getting sheets/harden/bedard
5.Garcia/Boggs

Bullpen same although they might take a flyer on a late inning reliever.

Bench
Tyler Green
Mather
craig
Larue

Other Possible additions Adrian Beltre.