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Gordo's column today is titled "Cards' organization stacked with pitching solutions". You can read it here:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports ... enDocument

While I am generally optimistic, I think Gordo may be overstating the case, especially when he states that the "Cards FINALLY have developed a self-renewing talent base of pitching." While I agree that is some depth at all levels in the minors, I am not sure how much help there would in 2007 if we had to replace #2 - 5 (Carp cannot be replaced) for an extended timeframe. Perhaps Keisler, Jimenez, or Ginter could make a go of it, but I don't think right now, in 2007, our starting pitching is as deep as Gordo suggests.

I think 2008 will be different, as Garcia, Parisi, Boggs, Cate, Hearne accumulate another year at higher levels of competition, while Hawksworth and Narveson get another year to rebuild arm strength. Still, is there any reason to think that Lambert, McCormick and Pomeranz will amount to much?

The organization pitching depth is clearly improved over recent years, but it's still concentrated in A and AA rather than AAA. I think we'll know a lot more about our pitching talent come next fall.

I guess in one sense it's better, as they are doing a much better job of developing bullpen arms to prevent dumping loads of cash on easily-replaceable but more expensive bullpen guys.

But let's not forget that in 2000, they had Ankiel and Bud Smith. I don't think there are two guys in the organization now with the cieling that those two had.

Now, that isn't to say that there aren't two guys that can surpass what they ultimately did. Just pointing out that there have been other times where they had a lot of talent there to work with.

RC21 wrote:I guess in one sense it's better, as they are doing a much better job of developing bullpen arms to prevent dumping loads of cash on easily-replaceable but more expensive bullpen guys.

But let's not forget that in 2000, they had Ankiel and Bud Smith. I don't think there are two guys in the organization now with the cieling that those two had.

Now, that isn't to say that there aren't two guys that can surpass what they ultimately did. Just pointing out that there have been other times where they had a lot of talent there to work with.

I think Garcia's as good if not better than Smith. If his velocity has really increased, he could be a top of the rotation guy.

longhornbaseball wrote:

RC21 wrote:I guess in one sense it's better, as they are doing a much better job of developing bullpen arms to prevent dumping loads of cash on easily-replaceable but more expensive bullpen guys.

But let's not forget that in 2000, they had Ankiel and Bud Smith. I don't think there are two guys in the organization now with the cieling that those two had.

Now, that isn't to say that there aren't two guys that can surpass what they ultimately did. Just pointing out that there have been other times where they had a lot of talent there to work with.

I think Garcia's as good if not better than Smith. If his velocity has really increased, he could be a top of the rotation guy.

Could be, but bear in mind that in 2000, Bud Smith was named the best minor league pitcher in the game by BA.

I think the quantity is certainly an upgrade. Some may have middle reliever ceilings. But if 1/3 perform as expected, I think we're covered for pitching injuries this season (add in Mulder as well).

I believe the point to be true, we can cover for a Looper, Kinney, Springer, Hancock injury without going outside the organization (or even really blinking an eye).

Having a bulk of replacement value players is good. I agree that we have that. If one of the main guys (i.e. Carp, Wainwright, Wells) go down we may be in trouble (as is every other team).

Good point. That was a sick year. Garcia will start at the same level this year but he's a few months older than Smith was.