Mike Quade hired to manage the Cubs

[unbekannt]

If you have seen any of my previous baseball posts about this situation, you will discover that I think that the Cardinals will sign Pujols. However, with the money that a mid-market team like the Cardinals are going to spend on Pujols, Holliday, et al, the margin of error for the team to remain competitive for a division title, or wild card spot will significantly diminish. The team can only raise ticket prices so much in this economy. Also, look at the ages of the Cardinals' starting pitching.

BTW, on my last post, I was trying to have a little fun with AmcKillip in a Cubs vs Cardinals manner. He is a good guy and a big baseball fan.

I'm not trolling your previous posts to determine your baseball views. The Cards aren't truly a mid-market team. On the surface, they certainly appear to be a mid-market team as St. Louis is not a large city. The Cards, however, draw from an unbelievable large area around St. Louis. Just think about the division in Peoria (maybe 50-50, 60-40), and Peoria is 3 hours away. As you go toward STL, the Cards are huge. They are also the main pro-team in STL by a large margin. They essentially draw from the entire southern 1/2 of IL, most of MO, a good amount of TN and KY. They really aren't a mid-market team in the likes of Seattle, MIL, CIN, etc.

The Cards can definitely afford to resign Pujols. Ticket prices have been significantly higher with the new stadium and attendance hasn't suffered. Worst-case scenario involves trading him for top prospects. Their starting pitching has been inconsistent. Starting pitching is typically unpredictable year to year.

[DUBrave5]

Mike Quade hopes to retain staff

That is the headline on this article on ESPN Chicago

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=5706735

Hmm yes lets bring back the staff that produced one of the worst Cubs teams that I have seen in a long time. Makes sense. Glad we hired him as our manager.

Side note: If by some miracle we do win, I'll eat my words later so feel free to drag this up on me, but I feel safe to say that that won't happen.

[Beninator]

I'm not trolling your previous posts to determine your baseball views. The Cards aren't truly a mid-market team. On the surface, they certainly appear to be a mid-market team as St. Louis is not a large city. The Cards, however, draw from an unbelievable large area around St. Louis. Just think about the division in Peoria (maybe 50-50, 60-40), and Peoria is 3 hours away. As you go toward STL, the Cards are huge. They are also the main pro-team in STL by a large margin. They essentially draw from the entire southern 1/2 of IL, most of MO, a good amount of TN and KY. They really aren't a mid-market team in the likes of Seattle, MIL, CIN, etc.

The Cards can definitely afford to resign Pujols. Ticket prices have been significantly higher with the new stadium and attendance hasn't suffered. Worst-case scenario involves trading him for top prospects. Their starting pitching has been inconsistent. Starting pitching is typically unpredictable year to year.

But the Cardinals are a mid-market to above average mid-market team especially when it comes to payroll which has been my main contention on this thread.

I'll provide a couple of links to further illustrate my points.

From MLB Fanhouse:

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/09/10/the-starting-rotation-st-louis-friction/

"• Since 2003, St. Louis' team payroll has not been below $83.2 million or above $94.2 million.

Get the picture? The Cardinals are an upper mid-market team based on payroll. They have a handful of vital stars who are going to deserve contract extensions, and another who is already signed long-term to an enormous deal. Even if they let Carpenter go after 2012, when he will be 37, they could have $50-$60 million a year tied up in three players -- Holliday, Pujols and Wainwright.

Whether they keep all three or not -- but especially if they do -- the Cardinals need every quality, cost-controlled player they can find to fill out the rest of their squad, something that already seems to be a challenge when you scroll up and down a roster that currently counts Skip Schumaker (.678 OPS), Brendan Ryan (.563 OPS) and Pedro Feliz (.528 OPS) as regulars."

From MLB.com:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100804&content_id=13008072&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Under the current system, the big-city franchises can field a competitive team year in and year out. The mid-market teams, such as the Cardinals, Astros, Blue Jays, Braves and Giants, can win year after year, but they don't have much margin for error. A bad trade or a rash of injuries can do them in. The big boys can overcome these obstacles by spending more money. There will always be teams that reach the end of July with a big payroll and scant hopes. And they will be looking to cut payroll.

[doug shank's crossover]

I don't like this. I think they lost a lot of fans with how they played this year and bringing back a member of that coaching staff, no matter how well he did that last part of the year when the season no longer mattered, isn't going to bring those fans back. On top of it, I will not be surprised to see the Cubs organization lose Ryno to another coaching spot somewhere which will be very disappointing to most Cubs fans.

Maybe I should be happy about this though because maybe now I'll move up more than 42 spots on the Cubs season ticket waiting list.

Winning brings fans back...nothing else. And, the September games where "the season no longer mattered" isn't accurate. Many of the teams they beat were still in divisional or wild card contention, playing their best players not Sept. call-ups.

[amckillip]

BTW, on my last post, I was trying to have a little fun with AmcKillip in a Cubs vs Cardinals manner. He is a good guy and a big baseball fan.

I am only going to reply to this part of your post... I agree.

[BuAlum03]

The cards are a mid-market team, which makes their history of success all the more impressive. Chicago is significantly larger than St. Louis, and outside of the south side, half of Illinois, almost all of Iowa, and most of Indiana root for the Cubs. Not to mention the fact that in my own youth most games were on WGN, creating cubs fans across the whole country.

And maybe you should "troll" his previous posts before interjecting a rude comment in what is clearly friendly banter. You might not come off as so self-righteous.

I'm not trolling your previous posts to determine your baseball views. The Cards aren't truly a mid-market team. On the surface, they certainly appear to be a mid-market team as St. Louis is not a large city. The Cards, however, draw from an unbelievable large area around St. Louis. Just think about the division in Peoria (maybe 50-50, 60-40), and Peoria is 3 hours away. As you go toward STL, the Cards are huge. They are also the main pro-team in STL by a large margin. They essentially draw from the entire southern 1/2 of IL, most of MO, a good amount of TN and KY. They really aren't a mid-market team in the likes of Seattle, MIL, CIN, etc.

The Cards can definitely afford to resign Pujols. Ticket prices have been significantly higher with the new stadium and attendance hasn't suffered. Worst-case scenario involves trading him for top prospects. Their starting pitching has been inconsistent. Starting pitching is typically unpredictable year to year.