My guess is that the following players would be in the mix for a package deal:

St. Louis Roster–Matt Carpenter, Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly
Matt Carpenter honestly can be a starting third baseman in the league. He’s solid defensively, has great plate discipline, and has exhibited decent power. Despite Lance Lynn’s season, he’s going to be fighting for his rotation spot this spring with Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, and Kelly, while Kelly is probably the most expendable of the pitching staff.

Farm System, Position Players–Matt Adams, Greg Garcia, Starlin Rodriquez
Adams is as close as ready for the majors as you can get, but he’s blocked by Allen Craig. Before his injury, he hit .329 with a .986 OPS and 18 HRs in 67 games in Memphis, and he’s mashed at every level. In any prospect package, he’d be a centerpiece. The Cardinals’ other farm system strength is second basemen. Rodriquez is a 2B who’s been overshadowed a bit by Kolten Wong–he finished the year at Palm Beach (A+) hitting .300 with an .815 OPS in 489 plate appearances at age 22. Garcia is a middle infielder who hit about the same as Wong at Springfield (slightly lower BA, higher OPS); Garcia played short this season, but most see him as a second baseman, where he had played primarily in the St. Louis system before this year.

Farm System, Pitchers–take your pick: Tyler Lyons, Michael Wacha, John Gast, Tyrell Jenkins, Kevin Seigrist, Richard Castillo
The thing with Miller/Rosenthal/Martinez in the system is that other pitching prospects have been somewhat forgotten. Lyons and Gast are solid lefthanders who seem to be on the Joe Kelly track in AAA; Wacha is last year’s first round pick who burned through the system as a reliever (to ease his innings load after a long college season) and seems to be on the fastrack; Jenkins is their fourth ace-level prospect, but the riskiest; Seigrist is a No. 2 starter who has been hindered a bit by injury; and Castillo is pretty underrated.

On Adams v. Craig–Actually, Craig was only one year older than Adams when he turned professional. Craig was 24 when he hit .322 with .921 OPS and 26 HR in 126 games in Memphis, only 1 year older than Adams, who played only 67 games in Memphis in his first AAA season. While Adams has far more HR power, Craig always was the better hitter with a stronger plate approach.

I think Adams will hit as well as Craig, but he doesn’t have the track record (of course, neither did Craig a year ago)…so Craig’s value is far greater than Adam’s is right now…but that is mostly because he’s just a little safer than Adams, even though Adams has been as good as Craig in the minors while 2 years younger.

Cabera is a very good shortstop at a good age who hits well for his position, but I’d hesitate in giving up an elite pitching prospect for him, especially with Westbrook and Carpenter most likely gone after this coming season and Garcia being a big question mark health-wise. I’d offer a package of players/prospects, which would at least include Matt Adams.

1. You have two CF–Jay/Taveras (the latter of whom has not played above AA and is still working on his fundamentals in the field) and Hamilton.

2. Craig is not ever playing 2B. He’s played 2B a grand total of 11 times over his *professional* career, certainly not enough to be “qualified” to play there. First base is actually his best defensive position.

3. Beltran has never played 1B in his 15 seasons and 1835 games.

Why in the world would you move a first baseman/outfielder (Craig) to a position he’s rarely played to make room for an outfielder (Beltran) who has never played first base so you can go out and get…an outfielder?

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinals-bullpen-is-up-to-speed/article_d11b9d5d-bc7c-597e-bcd9-2d20c3e639bb.html

The Indians aren’t going to give Cabrera away that’s for sure. It’ll cost the Cards at least one of their arms and more, I’m sure other teams will be banging on The Tribe’s door as well which will only drive up the price.

It’s going to be fun to watch it unfold regardless.

Do I look forward to having Wong at 2B? Of course. But Tavares have perennial MVP candidate talent….there is a reason he gets all the buzz…and is near the top of most prospect lists while Wong is way down if he’s on there at all.

Hot Stove in full effect.

The Indians have let the other major league teams know that they have 4 big league players ready for sale:

BATCH A

Astrubal Cabrara
Justin Masterson
Shin-Soo Choo
Chris Perez

They basically get 2-1/2 for one, so expect the Indians to get 10, maybe 11, players back. Check back in 3-4 years for the 4 guys that pan out and will be made available for a new batch of young players to develop for the other major league teams.

The Indians production line is on a 2 year cycle, so check back in late Autumn, 2014 on the status of:

BATCH B

Jason Kipnis
Michael Brantley
Vinnie Pestano
Carlos Santana

Lonnie Chisenhall and long shots like Cody Allen will be made available in the current 4 year cycle commencing in Autumn, 2016, when the successful graduates from the current class they’re assembling (through trading the 4 above listed players – Batch will be available for more prospects – at least half of which will wash out almost immediately as Shapiro and Antonetti have no clue how to evaluate young talent (and a 12 year track record to prove it).

For those of you putting packages available for graduates in Batch A, you should know that Mark and Chris favor 2 types of players when making trades:

1. Injured players with high-ceilings.

They are especially attracted to pitchers that are either sore armed or have on-going shoulder problems, and

2. Left-handed hitting position players that have no power or speed but walk a lot.

Lots of strikeouts and/or the inability to hit with RISP are a plus.

I like the notion of the Cards being proactive and addressing SS asap, there’s no sense waiting on an injured/declining Furcal or handing the reigns to a youngster they don’t trust ala the ill fated Tyler Greene 2B experiment last year.

I like that best.