Cardinals 2012 offseason plan

I have officially anointed myslef as the GM of the cardinals for a day. Here are my ideas of fixing this team for next season. My overall philosophy is to build the team on pitching and defense. The starting pitching free agent class is very weak in my opinion, so my team will definitely be able to field.

Here are my ideas:

1) Get rid of la russa.

This is no surprise to anyone who knows me, but its long overdue for his departure. Forget the name Tony La Russa for a minute. If any other manager had the performance that La Russa has had the last 5 years (1 playoff appearance which was a sweep), every cardinals fan would be calling for that manager to be fired (and rightfully so).

2) Do Not Sign Albert Pujols

This is probably the most controversial part of the post, but I just don't see the point of committing $28-30 million a year to one player when you're not the Yankees or Red Sox. As I will try demonstrate later, you can sign 2 or 3 good players for that kind of many and have a much better team.

The St. Louis Cardinals have won 9 out of their 10 championships without these two men. I think the cardinals will somehow survive without them.

3) Buy out Chris Carpenter. Renegotiate a contract.

I would exercise the $1 million dollar buyout on Chris Carpenter's contract and renegotiate a new contract. Carpenter's Cy Young days are clearly over. He is not worth the $15 million that the cardinals would have to pay him if they pick up his option. I would try to sign him to a 1-2 year contract at about $5 million a year plus incentives. Worst case scenario I would sign him to a 1 year 10 million dollar contract.

4) Buy out Rafael Furcal. Renegotiate a contract.

My philosophy is to build your team on pitching and defense. Furcal's offense hasn't been very good this year but he is very good defensively. So I think its worth taking a risk on him for a 4-5 mil a year contract.

5)Sign Ryan Ludwick

With La Russa gone in my plan, Ludwick should be able to fit right in back with the cardinals. He the best defensive right fielder available. Also, I believe he still has the ability to hit like he did with the cardinals.

6) Resign Berkman. Put him at First.

I would try to sign Berkman for about 10 million a year for 2-3 years. He will fill the void at first base with Pujols gone.

7) Sign Omar Infante

Infante is a huge defensive upgrade over the schumaker/theriot duo and has a .275 career batting average.

8) Sign Heath Bell
Since we can't really upgrade our starting pitching this off season due to a weak free agent class, we need to try to shorten the game with a very strong bullpen. Bell is one of the best closers in the game. The trio of Bell, Motte, and Salas would be exciting to see and make it much easier on our rotation. I would not be afraid to sign Bell to a 3 year, 8-10 mil a year contract.

9) Resign Jackson. Westbrook gets mop up duty.

Again, the starting pitching free agent class isn't very good. So, we are basically adding by subtracting from the rotation. The westbrook trade/signing has been a disaster. the team is not going eat 8 million dollars, so I've put him in the bullpen as an innings eater when the team has a comfy 10 run lead.

10) Trade Kyle McClellan
Because I didn't have room for him on my roster. Plus, I think hes overrated as a pitcher anyway.

Because I'm lazy, I haven't run through the number on all of this but I think it would work. In my plan, your taking away pujols's contract, saving money on Carpenter, and Infante and Ludwick wouldn't really cost that much.

The starting pitching hasn't really improved much outside of Wainwright, but by strengthening the bullpen, I think it will really help out the pitching staff. It will be a lot better if loshe, jackson, and garcia only have to go a max of six innings.

So is this reasonable?

Jay -CF
Furcal - SS
Holliday- LF
Berkman- RF
Freese - 3B
Ludwick - RF
Infante - 2B
Molina - C
Wainwright - SP

Bench:
Schumaker
Craig
Laird
Descalso
Patterson

Rotation:

Wainwright
Carpenter
Garcia
Loshe
Jackson

Bullpen:
Mclellan
Westbrook
Dotel
Rzepczynski
Salas
Motte
Bell

possible roster for blues next year

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Andy McDonald ($4.700m) / David Backes ($4.500m) / Brad Boyes ($4.000m)
Alexander Steen ($3.362m) / David Perron ($2.150m) / Jay McClement ($1.450m)
Philip McRae ($0.854m) / TJ OShie ($3.000m) / patrik berglund ($2.000m)
Brad Winchester ($1.300m) / Vladamir Sobokta ($1.500m) / Matt Dagostini ($1.200m)

DEFENSEMEN
Barrett Jackman ($3.625m) / Alex Pietrangelo ($3.166m)
Erik Johnson ($2.600m) / Carlo Colaiacovo ($2.125m)
Ian Cole ($1.300m) / Roman Polak ($3.000m)
Eric Brewer ($2.500m)

GOALTENDERS
Jaroslav Halak ($3.750m) /Ben Bishop ($1.000m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $59,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $53,083,332; BONUSES: $2,775,000
CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $6,316,668