This article is part of our MLB Observations series.
After taking a hiatus from the All-Time baseball drafts due to the NFL Draft, we resumed hostilities for Sunday's SiriusXM show, but tackling one of the all-time historic MLB franchises, the St. Louis Cardinals. Who better to join Todd and I than Brian Walton, the purveyor of thecardinalnation.com and a long-time competitor in Tout Wars and XFL? As is custom for our Sunday shows, we gave Brian the first pick, and he went the obvious route with Stan Musial. I gave Todd the second pick (I really need to stop doing that), and he went with the next obvious choice - Bob Gibson. While both Rogers Hornsby and Albert Pujols come close in career WAR with the Cards, Gibson towers over all the other Cardinals pitchers - more than double over the next hurler. We went a long time before the next pitcher in this draft.
As always, the rules are pretty loose with these drafts. It's not a fantasy draft - you aren't required to get saves, stolen bases, etc ... it's just a matter of assessing greatness. You get whatever production that player had with the Cardinals, not his entire career - which means that you don't want to grab a lot of some all-time great players that finished their careers in St. Louis, like John Smoltz (it's true - look it up!), Larry Walker, Will Clark and Lance Berkman. There were a few close calls with short-term Cards - Matt Holliday and Bruce Sutter made the cut, but Orlando Cepeda (three years, including one MVP season) and Jack Clark did not.
We'll list the overall draft, and then break it down by team next.
| Rd | Team | Player |
| 1 | Walton | Stan Musial |
| 1 | Zola | Bob Gibson |
| 1 | Erickson | Rogers Hornsby |
| 2 | Erickson | Albert Pujols |
| 2 | Zola | Ken Boyer |
| 2 | Walton | Ozzie Smith |
| 3 | Walton | Ted Simmons |
| 3 | Zola | Enos Slaughter |
| 3 | Erickson | Dizzy Dean |
| 4 | Erickson | Lou Brock |
| 4 | Zola | Yadier Molina |
| 4 | Walton | Red Schoendienst |
| 5 | Walton | Jim Edmonds |
| 5 | Zola | Chris Carpenter |
| 5 | Erickson | Curt Flood |
| 6 | Erickson | Adam Wainwright |
| 6 | Zola | Ray Lankford |
| 6 | Walton | Jim Bottomley |
| 7 | Walton | Jesse Haines |
| 7 | Zola | Bruce Sutter |
| 7 | Erickson | Steve Carlton |
| 8 | Erickson | Keith Hernandez |
| 8 | Zola | John Tudor |
| 8 | Walton | Scott Rolen |
| 9 | Walton | Joe Medwick |
| 9 | Zola | Matt Holliday |
| 9 | Erickson | Willie McGee |
| 10 | Erickson | Lee Smith |
| 10 | Zola | Todd Worrell |
| 10 | Walton | Johnny Mize |
| 11 | Walton | Bob Forsch |
| 11 | Zola | Marty Marion |
| 11 | Erickson | Matt Carpenter |
| 12 | Erickson | Jason Isringhausen |
| 12 | Zola | Mordecai Brown |
| 12 | Walton | Max Lanier |
| 13 | Walton | Mort Cooper |
| 13 | Zola | Garry Templeton |
| 13 | Erickson | Harry Brecheen |
| 14 | Erickson | Tim McCarver |
| 14 | Zola | Mark McGwire |
| 14 | Walton | Bob Caruthers |
| 15 | Walton | Trevor Rosenthal |
| 15 | Zola | Frankie Frisch |
| 15 | Erickson | Edgar Renteria |
Rosters by Team:
| Walton | Zola | Erickson | |
| C | Ted Simmons | Yadier Molina | Tim McCarver |
| 1B | Jim Bottomley | Mark McGwire | Albert Pujols |
| 2B | Red Schoendienst | Frankie Frisch | Rogers Hornsby |
| 3B | Scott Rolen | Ken Boyer | Matt Carpenter |
| SS | Ozzie Smith | Marty Marion | Edgar Renteria |
| OF1 | Stan Musial | Enos Slaughter | Lou Brock |
| OF2 | Jim Edmonds | Ray Lankford | Curt Flood |
| OF3 | Joe Medwick | Matt Holliday | Willie McGee |
| UT | Johnny Mize | Garry Templeton | Keith Hernandez |
| P1 | Jesse Haines | Bob Gibson | Dizzy Dean |
| P2 | Bob Forsch | Chris Carpenter | Adam Wainwright |
| P3 | Max Lanier | Bruce Sutter | Steve Carlton |
| P4 | Mort Cooper | John Tudor | Lee Smith |
| P5 | Bob Caruthers | Mordecai Brown | Jason Isringhausen |
| P6 | Trevor Rosenthal | Todd Worrell | Harry Brecheen |
This was an interesting draft in terms of positional scarcity. There were big gaps at shortstop (Ozzie Smith), third base (Ken Boyer) and even first base (Pujols) between the top player and the rest. Once again, you could have stocked an entire pitching staff of dead-ball era aces, who put up monster Pitcher WAR numbers. While all three of us sampled that era, none of us exclusively went that route.
Look over the rosters. Who "won" this draft? Who did we miss out on and who should we have not taken? Let us know in the comments!
