The Cardinals have been successful for various reasons but a lot of them stem from the General Managing of Walt Jocketty. The Cards have long been in the middle of the pack when it comes to payroll. By having decent drafts (such names as Pujols, Polanco, Drew, Duncan, Molina....) they've been able to get just enough talent in their farm system to make the big trades just when they are needed. Walt usually does his best work around the trading deadline or right around spring training. Furthermore, the Cards usually stay away from the expensive free agents which allows them to take on salary come trading time in the middle of the season.
Take into account these moves that Jocketty has done:
The Big Mac deal. Mac not only brought back baseball from the dead, but he injected new life into a franchise that had been struggling ever since they lost the WS in '87. Jocketty got him for Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews, and Blake Stein; all of whom went on to do nothing in their careers. Mac then signed for a discount with STL and this act would later lead to Edmonds taking a discount himself to sign a big contract with the Cardinals
The Edmonds deal. Thanks to Mac the Cardinals were ready in 2000 to take it to the next level. After having 75 wins the Cardinals went on to win 95 and make it to the NLCS where they got beat by the Mets. Edmonds was aquired via trade from Anaheim for one year wonder Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy (who is now a Cardinal again). Kennedy performed decently in Anaheim but the Cardinals clearly won that trade by a wide margin. Edmonds, who was considered to be second to Griffey, went on to become the best Center fielder of the first half of the 2000's. His addition to the Cardinals franchise was HUGE.
Darryl Kile, Chris Carpenter, Woody Williams and Jeff Suppan have been great additions to the pitching staff by Jocketty. Duncan was able to really improve Williams and Suppan who were also aided by the excellent defense that the Cardinals have had throughout the 2000's.
Other great additions by Jocketty have been Scott Rolen (via trade. Cardinals got the best of this deal by a wide margin again), Mike Matheny, Larry Walker, David Eckstein, Edgar Renteria, Wainwright, Fernando Vina, Will Clark (for the half season until he retired he put up HUGE numbers), and even Fernando Tatis who had a big big big season (or two) for the Cardinals and then was traded away after which he did absolutely nothing.
I'm missing a lot of things that Jocketty has done over the years but you get the general picture of how the Cards have been successful. Timely trades, SMART free agent signings and money spending (avoiding the big name overhyped, over expensive pitchers that NEVER pan out. And only giving a maximum of a 3 year contract to any pitcher outside of Carpenter), decent drafts (which allow for big league players and necessary trade bait), and the occasional finding of the diamond in the rough (Suppan, Pujols - 13th round of the draft! -, Weaver, Eckstein, Williams, Carpenter, etc).
All of these methods are why the Cardinals were so successful 2000-2006. Follow them and your team will eventually do pretty well. Where teams usually fail is the smart spending of money. You don't need a lot of money to be succesful in this game. Excessive payroll waste is the prime reason for a team being a failure (among other reasons of course)....Sorry for rambling!
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