That Matt Holliday, Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, and Jhonny Peralta are getting older is not new. That is how time works. Also not a new concept for the Cardinals is a sens of their core. The concept of a core player has been a malleable one over the years. Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, Yadier Molina have been called core players, but so has Jon Jay. That is not a knock on Jon Jay, but a core player is not always synonymous with best player. It often is, but it is not necessarily the case, and so it is with the Cardinals this year. They have an aging core, but those players are not necessarily the best the Cardinals have to offer. Back in 2011, after the Cardinals lost out on Albert Pujols, Derrick Goold wrote on the concept of a Cardinals' coreplayer as the team searched for players to step up in place of the departing Pujols. He noted the concept's ability to change depending on the situation: Manager Tony La Russa would not throw the term "core" around lightly. To him, the "core" was the tight nucleus of players that the team and the clubhouse orbited around and was held together by La Russa. Some days, La Russa would use the word "core" to describe the players invited to join his leadership counsel. Other times, La Russa would use "core" to describe players who received preferential treatment â whether that meant days off, spot in the lineup, or, say, the ability to call hit-and-runs from the batter's box. Just saying. At times, the "core" that La Russa referred to also included players who had the benefit of a multi-year contract. When the term core has been discussed this season, I think we would put the following five players in that core: Yadier Molina Matt Holliday Adam Wainwright Jhonny Peralta Matt Carpenter That list is where the concept of the aging core comes from. Those five players have been very important to the Cardinals success, and heading into this season, all five are on the wrong side of 30 as Carpenter turned 30 in November. However, it is less clear that people are talking about Carpenter in the "aging" sense given he just came off a five-win season and projects very well going into this year. Focusing in on those first four players, we see decline, we see aging, but we also do not see much in the way of expected production. The impetus for this post was a Grant Brisbee piece where he ranks all teams in one of four quadrants that I would sum up as follows: win now and later, win now and not later, lose now and win later, lose now and later. The Cardinals were put into that second quadrant, implying that the team's window is closing. - See more at: http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2016/2/...ing-core?_ga=1.226354142.518840680.1383366243
