The Cardinals lead the National League in runs scored even after losing their best hitter (Albert Pujols) to free agency and getting barely any offense from another one of last year's major contributors (Lance Berkman). Here are the latest Cardinals-related notes…
- The trade of Tyler Greene and the promotion of Ryan Jackson serve as reminders that Cardinals have had trouble developing shortstops, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. While Cardinals officials and scouts consider Jackson a strong defender, he wasn’t expected to pass former first rounders Greene and Pete Kozma on the team’s depth chart. Rafael Furcal is under contract for 2013, but he has lingering back issues.
- Derrick Goold, Rick Hummel, Jeff Gordon and Larry Borowsky weigh in on Kyle Lohse's next contract at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lohse hits free agency this coming offseason and should sign for at least three years at $10MM-plus per season, the writers suggest.
- Mark Buehrle’s name comes up in the Post-Dispatch discussion, and there are some similarities between Buehrle and Lohse, but I don’t expect Lohse to obtain a $56MM contract, like Buehrle did. That said, I think Lohse could match Ted Lilly's three-year, $33MM contract from two offseasons ago. Lohse has said he’s open to midseason extension talks, so he may not even reach the open market.
- The Cardinals announced that they purchased Jackson's contract from Triple-A.
