For Cardinals fans, the magic of October will linger throughout the winter. They'll go to Spring Training, or Opening Day, and hear their club introduced as world champions. The sweetness will remain for months.
For the club's braintrust, however, it's already back to reality. Organizational meetings began Monday as the Cards look ahead to building a fourth straight National League Central winner and a second straight World Series champion. General manager Walt Jocketty, manager Tony La Russa and their associates had about 54 hours to relax before pondering the tough decisions that face them.
"The clubs that were eliminated at the end of the season, those 22 clubs, they're immediately working on next year," La Russa said Sunday. "And then as you get into the playoffs, you have the four that go first, and then the two. So here it is, the 30th.
"But I think we have an advantage in that we have a club that's been together. We know who our first baseman is, and so forth and so on. So it's not like we're starting from scratch. But the keys like [Jeff] Suppan and [Jeff] Weaver, [we have to figure out]."
Those starting pitchers present by far the most vexing computation for the Cardinals. Four men who made at least 15 starts for the 2006 Cards are eligible for free agency: Weaver, Suppan, Mark Mulder and Jason Marquis. The sting is soothed somewhat by Anthony Reyes' promise, and the possibility of moving closer Adam Wainwright to the rotation.
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Cards looking forward to next season
Cards looking forward to next season
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