4th go-round; Sox facing 'very, very good team'.

Byline: Bill Ballou

BOSTON -- When they finally sign contracts, no doubt Robinson Cano and Jacoby Ellsbury will prove this winter that fiscal insanity remains the business model of baseball.

Hardly anybody will remember that the teams who played in the 2013 World Series both got there by doing some addition by subtraction.

The Red Sox ditched Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto last year, while the Cardinals let Albert Pujols walk after the 2011 season. Boston's payroll of about $145 million ranked sixth in baseball this year, while St. Louis' payroll of about $116 million ranked 11th.

You might be able to make a down payment on the pennant, but you still can't buy it.

"They are the epitome of what organizations aspire to as far as player development,'' said John Farrell of the Cardinals roster that includes 17 homegrown players.

The Red Sox have 10 -- not as many as St. Louis, but more than either the Rays or Tigers had.

The Cardinals invented the farm system when Branch Rickey ran the team in the 1920s and building from within has been their philosophy ever since. This is the fourth time the Red Sox will have seen it close up.

It is one of the most frequent World Series matchups through the years. Only seven pairs of teams have met as many as four times in the World Series, and four of those matchups include the Yankees. The Tigers and Cubs have also played four times as have the Giants and Athletics.

The Yankees and Dodgers have met 11 times, the Yankees and Giants seven times, the Yankees and Cardinals five times and the Yanks and Braves 4 times.

In the Cardinals-Red Sox rivalry, St. Louis won in seven games in 1946 and 1967, then Boston swept the Cardinals in 2004. Even though St. Louis has won two of the three previous World Series, the Red Sox have actually won more games, 10-8.

That includes a healthy 6-3 advantage at Fenway Park, and Boston has the extra home game in this series.

As the Red Sox worked out at Fenway on Monday, Farrell announced his starter for Wednesday night's Game One, and it was Jon Lester. Otherwise, he reserved the right to wait on announcing any other roster changes. If there are any, they'll be minor.

Because of the annual illogic of inter-league scheduling, the Red Sox and Cardinals are unique in that they have played each other more often in the World Series than in the regular season. Boston and St. Louis have not played in any manner since June 22, 2008, when the Sox won a 5-3 game...