The Cards won two out of three games in that series as well before dropping two of three to the Phillies in Philadelphia.  Another series win in Pittsburgh kept the illusion going, but then the wheels fell off.  A sweep at home against Houston.  Losing two of three to the Reds.  Things seemed to get back on track when the team swept a short two-game series against Washington and split another short series against Florida before winning a series with a walk-off rally against Los Angeles of Anaheim.  Yet the sporadic nature of the team continued as they lost a series to the Padres.
Things looked better as the calendar approached and then moved into June.  Series wins against the Cubs, Reds and Brewers seemed to have the club moving in the right direction as they took off for a West Coast swing.  However, the trip was a disaster as they were swept by the Dodgers and lost two of three to the Diamondbacks, including a painful walk-off loss Sunday.
So while the results, for the most part, have seemed positive, what has the team trailing in the standings?  As Joe Morgan might put it, they’ve been consistently inconsistent.

Adam Wainwright Photo by Icon SMI

The reason the Cardinals have won so many games and have not been buried deeper in the division can really be summed up in one word: pitching.  Pitching was not expected to be a problem for St. Louis, not with two of the top three finishers in the 2009 NL Cy Young race on the staff.  Adam Wainwright has continued his career growth, posting a 2.30 ERA while winning eight games so far this season, including his first career shutout.  He’s moved himself into the elite of the National League when the past two years are combined.  Chris Carpenter hasn’t been quite as dominant has he has been in the past, as he’s already given up more home runs than he did all of last season and has had trouble at times commanding his fastball.  That said, he has still put up a line of 7-1 with a 2.66 ERA in 14 games, nothing to complain about.

The surprise of the staff has been rookie Jaime Garcia.  When spring training began, Garcia was ticketed to Memphis due to the fact that he was recently coming off Tommy John surgery, and the fifth starter competition was supposed to be between free agent signing Rich Hill and converted reliever Kyle McClellan.  However, Garcia took command of the competition and, by the end of the spring, Hill was in Memphis and McClellan was back in the bullpen.  While he doesn’t go as deep into games as some would like and can have command issues, the results speak for themselves.  Garcia’s posted a 1.47 ERA and a 6-2 record in 12 starts, keeping him among the league leaders in ERA.
With starting pitching like this, the Cardinals should be running away with things, you’d think.  However, there are a couple of reasons why they haven’t been.  For the first, we don’t have to move out of the pitching realm to discuss Brad Penny and Kyle Lohse.
Lohse never got on track this season.  He would occasionally have a strong outing, but then the next time out would be shelled.  He put up a 1-4, 5.89 mark before being placed on the disabled list with forearm issues.  After consulting with a specialist, he was found to have some inflammation and would require a surgery not done before on a major league pitcher.  The estimate was 6-8 weeks that he would be sidelined, but most everyone expects that he will be out longer than that, with his return this season in severe jeopardy.
Brad Penny was a different problem.  Actually, Penny wasn’t the problem, his absence is.  Signed as a free agent to a one-year deal after salvaging some of his 2009 season in San Francisco, Penny came out of the gate hot, with a 1.56 ERA at the end of April.  He started to slump a bit in May, which was not unexpected, and he was apparently hiding an oblique injury.  Finally, in a game against the Angels in mid-May, he gave up four runs early, then hit a grand slam to put the Cards ahead.  However, that seems to have been the final straw for the oblique and Penny went on the disabled list a few days later, where he still remains.

With those two veterans out of the rotation, St. Louis has had to turn to some of its young talent, talent that might not be quite ready for prime time.  PJ Walters got the first call up and had an outstanding first start in San Diego, then got pummeled by Cincinnati and quickly fell out of favor with the Cardinal mindtrust.  He pitched four mainly ineffective innings in relief against the Dodgers and then was returned to Memphis.
Adam Ottavino was brought up when Lohse went to the disabled list.  Ottavino had a rough first outing, then shined against the Cubs before winding up with a no-decision.  His next outing was against the Diamondbacks, who hit three home runs off of him in less than four innings, forcing another setback.
Dave Duncan made the comment before Walters’ demotion that he, Ottavino and Blake Hawksworth, who has been pitching in the bullpen but has been a starter in the past and was pressed into that service against the Dodgers, were not pitchers that should be in a championship-level rotation.  While he didn’t rule out that they had potential and would improve, Duncan’s comments did seem to indicate that they weren’t ready now.  This forced, or allowed depending on your point of view, the Cardinals to make their most head-scratching move yet.
Jeff Suppan was released from the Milwaukee Brewers after posting three consecutive declining years, including this year’s ERA that approached 8.  Barely had he cleared waivers, however, than the rumor mill started talking about the Cardinals picking him up.  While dismissed as some as just nostalgia talking, it turns out that the old saying of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” is actually accurate.  Believing that they know what Suppan needs to adjust to be effective, the Cardinals have a deal in place with him, though as of this writing it has not been finalized.
While the signing of Suppan might indicate that, if he’s the answer, that problem is a doozy, the back end of the rotation isn’t the only thing that has been an issue for the Cardinals.  The other side of the game has caused its own problems as well.

Albert Pujols Photo by Icon SMI

While not the biggest problems necessarily, the discussion of the Cardinal offense usually begins with Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday, and the discussion of the offensive problems can begin there as well.  Pujols is still an amazing athlete and baseball player, but currently is in, for him, a fairly noticeable slump.  The major symptom for Pujols has been strikeouts.  So far this season he has struck out 34 times.  Three times in his career he has struck out less than 60 times for the entire season, including just 52 in 2004.  He is also hitting right at the .300 level, the lowest level ever in his career.  He still has power, as his 14 home runs show, but recently went nine games without an RBI.  The most telling fact might be that Arizona pitched to him this weekend with two outs and runners on second and third.  While he did make them pay with a two-run double, the mere fact that he wasn’t given four wide ones was noteworthy.

Whether it’s the pressure of the big contract he signed in the offseason or a traditionally slow start, Holliday hasn’t quite lived up to the advance billing or the expectations he generated last year during his torrid run with St. Louis.  Holliday’s average is currently sitting at .285, though it has been over the .300 mark.  What is more surprising is that he has only six home runs in 232 at bats.  For comparison, Ryan Ludwick has three more at-bats and four more home runs. Holliday has also had trouble capitalizing on walks to Pujols, at one time hitting around .150 or less in those situations.
Even Tony La Russa has been concerned with the slumps, so much so that, for a few games, he flipped the two, taking Pujols out of his sacrosanct third slot and trying Holliday there.  The team won most of the games in that configuration, but the offense wasn’t noticeably better so TLR put things back to rights.   Per Twitter, however, Monday’s game against the Mariners (at the time of this writing) will feature Holliday batting in the second slot ahead of Pujols, which should be intriguing.
As for the rest of the offense, Ludwick and Colby Rasmus have been as expected or more so.  Rasmus was in a bit of a slump before getting his eyes checked and his contacts adjusted.  After that, he was on fire, winning NL Player of the Week honors by hitting .500 over the span.  Ludwick, as noted, has 10 home runs and more at-bats than anyone on the team.
David Freese has also been a revelation at third base.  Freese was thought to be just a filler prospect when he was acquired for Jim Edmonds after the 2007 season.  However, he quickly showed that GM John Mozeliak had a keen eye, tearing up Memphis in 2009.  Installed as the starting third baseman in St. Louis this year, he has responded with a .308 average and 32 RBI, though he has managed only four home runs.
The real drag on the offense, though, has come in the middle infield.  After a couple of years of hitting .300, Skip Schumaker has slumped to a .237 average and has been moved out of his leadoff slot into the seventh or eighth spot in the order.  That is nothing compared to the tailspin Brendan Ryan has been in.  Expected to hit around .260, Ryan has languished under .200 for most of the season before a recent hot streak finally got him over that mark.  The Cardinals should be thankful that they were able to sign Felipe Lopez during the spring, as he has mitigated some of this by putting up a .260 average with three home runs.
The most debated topic in Cardinal Nation may be the decision making and moves made by Mozeliak in the last month or so (Many would also say that the not-so-invisible hand of La Russa is behind most of these as well). The front office made a surprising move at the end of spring, shipping off veteran Julio Lugo and keeping three rookies/almost rookies on the bench–outfielders Allan Craig, Joe Mather and Nick Stavinoha.  Even after Craig and Mather stumbled, they were sent down for Jon Jay, another rookie.  Jay seemed to fit in well in the bench role, posting an overall average of .302 with a home run.
However, almost unnoticed was the signing of Aaron Miles to a minor league contract after his release from Cincinnati.  Most thought it was a sentimental gesture, a way to have some depth in the system, but no one thought he’d see the big leagues.  They underestimated the power of a veteran.  Miles had a fairly reputable turn in the minors and was called up to the big leagues on June 1, with Mather being sent back to Memphis.
This was followed up days later by the signing of Randy Winn, who had been designated for assignment by the Yankees.  Winn was immediately put on the roster at the expense of Jay, meaning that the “baby bench” was now basically the “AARP bench,” as only Stavinoha remains from the beginning of the year as of now.  When these moves are coupled with the Suppan signing, there is a lot of unrest in Cardinal Nation.
This is not where the Cardinals expected to be when the season began.  However, there’s still plenty of time for them to get there.

Related posts:

1. Reflecting On The Cardinals Off Season
2. For The Cardinals, It Was A Stuttering September
3. The Cardinals Are Picking Up Steam

Photo by Icon SMI

The major move of the Cardinal offseason was, of course, the signing of Matt Holliday to a long-term deal.  With Holliday in the fold hitting behind Albert Pujols, it was thought that the offense would be well on its way to becoming a juggernaut.  Up and down the lineup, there were very few holes and not many times when a player would step to the plate in a RBI situation and you didn’t feel confident that the player could come through (Not that he would, that he could).  In 2009, when players like Joe Thurston, Chris Duncan, Rick Ankiel and others received many at-bats, that feeling was noticably absent.

When you look at the 2010 Cardinal lineup, however, it starts off good and gets stronger.  David Freese is the eighth place hitter, and he’s generally expected to be able to smash 15-20 home runs.  Skip Schumaker and Brendan Ryan at the top of the lineup give some speed (in the most general sense) and hopefully runners for Albert Pujols to drive in.

So, how did the offense look against the Reds in the opening series?

For the first two games, everything was exactly as expected.  In the opener, Albert Pujols showed that the spring training back trouble he’d had was completely gone and that the elbow surgery he had after last season wasn’t affecting him in the slightest.  Pujols took the second pitch he saw out of the yard, hit another home run later in the game, and wound up four for five with ten total bases.

Photo by Icon SMI

The rest of the lineup helped as well.  Colby Rasmus, who was a consensus pick before the season started to have a breakout year, started off right with a home run among his two hits.  Yadier Molina, whose oblique strain near the end of spring training once looked like it might land him on the disabled list, instead played on Opening Day and smacked a grand slam in the ninth to help put the game away.  Matt Holliday chipped in a hit and the Cards scored 11.

The Cardinals had another balanced attack in the second game, scoring six runs on Freese’s two hits, Holliday’s double, and Rasmus’s four times on base.  The team ran into a buzzsaw that was Bronson Arroyo for the third game, but their offensive numbers for the series were still good.  The team has smacked five home runs, drawn 12 walks, and has a team OPS of .751, which dropped from .882 after facing Arroyo.

The offense has performed in the early going as many expected.  What about the starting rotation?

Even though they had rough springs, Cardinal fans still trusted in the two-headed ace that is Chram Carpwright.  Neither of them did anything this week to destroy that trust.  Chris Carpenter threw six innings, allowing a couple of home runs but otherwise dominating a solid Reds lineup.  Adam Wainwright did him one better, allowing only two runs (on an Orlando Cabrera home run off a tough inside pitch) in seven innings.  The status quo was being maintained.

What Cardinal Nation really was curious about was the biggest offseason acquisition on the pitching side of things.  Brad Penny came in on a one-year deal as a dream of Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan, who have apparently been watching Penny since he broke into the big leagues.  Penny spent last year recovering from injury and his Boston numbers showed it, though he was much stronger when he was traded to San Francisco.  So which Penny was St. Louis getting?

If his first start is any indication, the good Penny made it to the Gateway City, providing a chance for some stellar pitching runs this year.  Penny allowed just one run in seven innings, pounding the ball to get 13 groundouts but still keeping enough oomph to record four strikeouts.  Penny worked quickly and looked very sharp on the mound.  While Penny won’t be that good every time out, if he can continue to put above-average starts in behind Carpenter and Wainwright, there won’t be many losing streaks for the Cards this season.

Two of the other questions for this rotation have still yet to be addressed at the time of this writing, as Kyle Lohse and Jaime Garcia went in the Milwaukee series starting Friday.  Lohse had a strong 2008, leading the club to extend his contract before he reached free agency.  Last year, however, everything went wrong for him, as it seemed every start something strange happened, whether it was being hit by a comebacker or hurting himself on the bases.  The coup de grace was being hit in the forearm while batting against the Kansas City Royals.  That caused his arm to be dead, sent him to the DL after a while, and he never seemed to really get over that.  If Lohse can even split the difference between the last two seasons, he’ll be a very strong fourth starter.

There was quite a competition for the fifth starter slot in the spring, and the result was a surprise to most everyone in the organization.  Kyle McClellan, the reliever who for the second year made a run at being a starter, and Rich Hill, the former Cub that was signed to a minor league deal during the offseason, were expected to spend the spring battling to see who got the job.  Hill showed flashes of his old form, but was still too inconsistent with his command.  McClellan pitched well and normally would be starting this weekend in Milwaukee.

Normally, but not this year.  That’s because Garcia came into spring on a mission.  Garcia, a top prospect in the organization, had surgery late in ‘08 and came back around August of last year, pitching very well for Memphis down the stretch and into the AAA playoffs.  Many that followed the Cardinals (including yours truly) expected Garcia to take the last spot in the rotation, but the team was worried that he still wasn’t completely recovered from the surgery.  Garcia then came into camp and posted a sub-2 ERA.  Between that, the fact that he’d be the only left-hander in the rotation, and the bullpen needed some shoring up (more on that later), the decision was made to keep Garcia, send Hill down, and move McClellan back to the pen.  How that chain reaction will play out remains to be seen, starting Saturday on Fox.

Lineup, rotation, that means it’s time to start talking about the bullpen.  Many thought that, if this team was going to be brought down, there’s a good chance this would be where it would happen.  So far, that’s right on the money as well.

Obviously, in the first couple of games, the bullpen couldn’t do a whole lot.  Chris Carpenter left with a 6-2 lead Opening Day, which should have been very comfortable.  However, the Reds had chopped it to 6-4 before a five-run ninth for the ‘Birds.  Even after that, Ryan Franklin came into the game and gave up two runs.  Runs that didn’t matter, of course, and it wasn’t a save situation, but it didn’t leave a great taste in anyone’s mouth.

Game two was closer, with Wainwright leaving after seven, up 6-2 as well.  McClellan came in and promptly allowed a run in the eighth before Dennys Reyes got the final out. Franklin came on in the ninth and, in the box score, had a scoreless inning with just one hit.  However, the last two batters were robbed by strong catches from Ryan Ludwick.  If either of those drops, that inning has a whole different complexion.

The most egregious fault, though, came in the third game.  Penny went seven, leaving a 1-1 tie for the bullpenners.  Mitchell Boggs walked the tightrope with a hit and a walk, but pitched a scoreless eighth.  Trever Miller got his lefty out in the ninth, then Tony La Russa waved in Jason Motte.

Many have thought that Motte would be a great closer type, but what holds him back is that he apparently just has one pitch.  It’s a blazing fastball, but it’s one pitch.  Motte threw six such pitches to Jorge Cantu.  The sixth one was a souvenir, winning the game for the Reds and unleashing a torrent of criticism toward Motte.

The Cardinals have a chance to be very, very good this year.  The lineup is solid and established, with little tinkering needing to be done in regards to shifting lineups, platooning players, etc.  The rotation could be dominant, headed up by two Cy candidates.  How far the Cardinals go will likely depend on those guys that get the last outs, and the focus of the season should be on the pen for a long time to come.

Related posts:

1. How Did We (St. Louis Cardinals) Get Here?
2. Cardinals Are Not Dormant During Winter
3. The Cardinals Flip Flop in May

While for a lot of teams, the offseason is a quiet time, a time for

It would have been hard to believe after the final out of the NLDS that anything would overshadow the pursuit of Matt Holliday during the winter. After all, St. Louis had mortgaged their future, to some extent, to bring him into the fold. Holliday promised to be one of the top free agents on the market and one that would draw a lot of attention from around baseball.

However, the Holliday pursuit was moved to the back burner with the November announcement that Mark McGwire would be returning to baseball as the Cardinals’ hitting coach. McGwire, who had been out of baseball since the end of the 2001 season and had kept a low profile since his disastrous 2005 testimony before Congress, was not present at the announcement of his hiring, but the team promised he would be available to the press at some time.

That time was January, as McGwire met the media and admitted what had long been suspected, that he used steroids during his playing career, including his record-setting 1998 campaign. McGwire made the rounds with his apology and admittance, but his stance that steroids didn’t help him hit home runs undercut any good will that had been generated by his coming forth.  An incomprehensible press conference at the team’s Winter Warm-Up, where the press was herded into a crowded hallway and only allowed a few minutes with McGwire, didn’t help in the war of public relations either.

The Holliday situation came to a head before McGwire’s admission.  Just as reports had the Cards setting a firm deadline and preparing to walk away, the two sides came together and hammered out a seven-year, $120 million contract.  While the total numbers weren’t exactly in the range where Scott Boras expected them to be, it still is the most expensive contract ever handed out by St. Louis.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

That distinction is expected to last until the Cardinals come to terms with first baseman Albert Pujols.  This offseason, there was a lot of talk about extending Pujols’s deal, which expires (after a team option) at the end of the ’11 season.  Pujols has said that he won’t have negotiations during the season, leaving the team a short window to do anything before the ’10 season kicks off.

While the team has expressed strong interest in getting the job done, Pujols’s comments have been at least interpreted in various ways.  While he has said that he’s prepared to become a free agent, he’s also said that he’d consider a discount to stay.  He’s indicated there is no rush to get him signed, preferring the team focus on their pursuit of Holliday.  Now that he’s in the fold, that focus has changed.

The contract status of Pujols will be one of the major topics during the coming season.  He may not want to discuss it, but the rest of us will.

The Cardinals also worked on their pitching staff during the winter, signing Brad Penny to a one-year deal and bringing in former Cub Rich Hill as a non-roster invitee to spring training. As it stands now, this is the look of the Cardinals going into the spring (at least from this writer’s viewpoint).

2B Skip Schumaker
SS Brendan Ryan
1B Albert Pujols
LF Matt Holliday
RF Ryan Ludwick
CF Colby Rasmus
C Yadier Molina
3B David Freese

Bench: C Jason LaRue, INF Julio Lugo, rest TBD

SP Chris Carpenter
SP Adam Wainwright
SP Kyle Lohse
SP Brad Penny
SP Rich Hill/Jaime Garcia/Mitchell Boggs

RP Kyle McClellan
RP Blake Hawksworth
RP Ben Jakish (Rule V from Reds)
RP Jason Motte
RP Dennys Reyes
RP Trever Miller

CP Ryan Franklin

The bench will likely be a focus of GM John Mozeliak’s in the days leading up to and even into spring training.  However, the Cardinals have a strong core for 2010.

Related posts:

1. Reflecting On The Cardinals Off Season
2. The Holliday Season
3. The Cardinals 2009 Postseason And Some Notes on 2010

So far, the Cardinals’ hot stove season can basically be summed up into two words.

Matt Holliday.

Everything the Cardinals have or haven’t done since the end of the World Series has been directly or indirectly tied to their pursuit of the outfielder. Their talks with Scott Boras were the focus of their winter meetings in Indianapolis.  The organization did not make an official offer while in Indy, preferring to return home and digest the information before making their first bid.  However, that’s all anyone wanted to talk about, at least in relation to St. Louis.

John Mozeliak has made a point of saying they aren’t going to let the negotiations drag out.  When it was made known on Friday that they had made their offer to Holliday and his agent, Mozeliak indicated he thought he’d hear back from that camp over the weekend and might know by the middle of this week whether they needed to move on.

As of this writing late Monday night, however, no word has been released on the response of Holliday and Boras to the offer of the Cardinals.  Rumor has it that it was an eight-year contract worth between $14 million and $16 million per year.  While Boras was said to be unimpressed, this is also the agent that apparently was floating a 10 year, $220 million idea for Holliday’s services.  If Boras can get that for Holliday in any market, much less an economically depressed one as this, I’m going to see what he can get me for full-time blogging services.  Because obviously he’s a miracle worker.

Up-to-the-minute, though, St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Joe Strauss is indicating on his Twitter feed that there is movement on the Holliday front, and likely positive movement at that.  It will be interesting to see how things pan out in the next few days, but I think there is a strong possibility Holliday remains in St. Louis and for less money than some had thought, mainly because the market for his services never seems to have panned out.  The Dodgers and the Mets both seemed to be more focused on Jason Bay, leaving Holliday with few places to go.

If Holliday does resign, it gives the Cardinals a potent lineup, with him and Albert Pujols in the middle, followed by Ryan Ludwick and Yadier Molina.  Skip Schumaker will lead off most nights, Colby Rasmus should continue to develop as a power bat, and most every spot in the diamond will be filled, with the notable exception of third base.

At the moment, the Cardinals are looking to have rookie (though he got a cup of coffee last year) David Freese man the hot corner. Freese has demonstrated solid power in the minors and would have had a better shot last year if he hadn’t been coming off an ankle injury sustained in a car crash.  However, Freese was picked up for DWI Sunday night, leaving his position in the grand scheme of things a little unclear, though if Holliday does sign, Freese likely stays the front runner for monetary reasons.

St. Louis did make a notable move while in Indy, signing free agent pitcher Brad Penny to a one-year, incentive-laden deal.  Dave Duncan is very excited to work with Penny, whom he doesn’t believe has ever really hit his full potential.  If he is able to get Penny to be better than before, he’ll be a dominant #3 starter, with Kyle Lohse likely moving to the #4 spot and becoming the best #4 man in the league.

If these reports are true and Holliday is on his way back to St. Louis, the Cardinals will likely be considered one of the favorites for the NL pennant next year.  We’ll just have to wait and see if this Holliday will be the most wonderful time of the year, or if the Cardinals will instead be having a blue Christmas.

Related posts:

1. Reflecting On The Cardinals Off Season
2. Cardinals Are Not Dormant During Winter
3. A Starry July in St. Louis

It’s been famously noted that the postseason is a crapshoot.  While there is definitely some truth to that statement, for the St. Louis Cardinals the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers brought both old and new reasons for a hasty exit from October.

Image via Wikipedia

There’s no doubt that the unexpected occurred in this series.  After the Cardinals struck first for a run in the top of the first in Game 1, they handed the ball to Chris Carpenter.  Some nights, one run for Carp would hold up for nine innings.  In this game, it didn’t survive two batters.

If that had been the extent of it, the Cardinals were still in the ballgame.  However, Carpenter didn’t have the stuff that put him in the discussion for the Cy Young Award.  If your ace is allowing five runs, it makes it much harder to win.  The Dodgers tried to help, as the Cardinal offense continued to put runners on, but it was a situation of “bending but not breaking.”

The lack of situational hitting was a weakness all season long for the Cardinals, save for occasional breakout games here and there.  So the fact that they were only able to get one run out of a bases-loaded, no-out situation (and that only because Ryan Ludwick flared one just past an outstretched Ronnie Belliard) was not surprising, nor the fact that the three runs they scored in Game 1 was their high water mark for the series.

The Cardinals one real chance to extend October past the minimum came in Game 2.  Again, the Cardinal offense was unable to do much, fashioning just two runs off of Clayton Kershaw and the other Dodger hurlers.  That was almost enough, though.  It should have been enough.  Adam Wainwright pitched an impressive eight innings and left with a two run lead.

It wasn’t a complete surprise, however, that Ryan Franklin blew that lead.  Franklin had struggled down the stretch, a period of time that almost exactly corresponded to when he signed an extension with the team.  Franklin got the first two outs and, in fairness, should have gotten out number three.  However, the unexpected reared its head once again.

A fly ball to Matt Holliday, a routine fly that should have ended the game with the Cardinals on top, was lost in the white towels and lights of Dodger Stadium.  Holliday had no idea where the ball was until it hit him in his midsection. Costly, to be sure, but if Franklin would have gotten any of the next four batters, the Cardinals would have at least had another at-bat.  As it was, the gates were opened and the Dodgers stole Game 2.

Normally, you’d have seen the Cardinals come back to Busch Stadium and at least make a stand in Game 3, since their playoff lives were on the line.  Sadly, though, for whatever reason, they never made a serious charge in that game, getting down 1-0 before they even came to the plate.  That 1-0 lead consistently grew until it reached its 5-0 final and, with it, the end of the season for St. Louis.

Usually, the beginning of the offseason is fairly quiet for St. Louis.  Tony LaRussa takes time to determine whether he’ll be back, they look at signing the backup catcher, fairly routine things.  This year, there was a little more of a spark to get the hot stove going.

LaRussa spent some time pondering his return, as he was a technical as well as practical free agent from the club.  While it wasn’t surprising that the introspection and checking with players led to his return—there was little chance a competitor like LaRussa would go out on that sour note of an NLDS—who he brought back with him was.

Hal McRae had been the hitting coach for the Cardinals the past five seasons.  It was becoming obvious, though, that a change was needed in that slot.  The offense underperformed, was rarely able to get a key hit, and just couldn’t seem to click even with the additions of Matt Holliday and Mark DeRosa.  So the fact that McRae was let go didn’t surprise many observers.

However, bringing in former Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire to take his slot did send people buzzing and eyebrows raising. McGwire, whose past history has been fully discussed and is not a mystery to any casual baseball fan, had been living a hermit-like existence in California since his retirement in 2001 and most especially since his Congressional testimony in 2005.  While LaRussa had wanted Big Mac to return to spring training as an instructor the past few years, he had always been rebuffed.  However, McGwire was amendable to this level of responsibility.

McGwire has not yet made any comments to the press, though the Cardinals expect that he will talk to the media in the next week or so.  There are two paths the red-headed slugger can take—continued stonewalling or a frank discussion, including an honest answer to whatever he may have done.  Time will tell which path is chosen, but either way will make a significant impact on the 2010 season.

Related posts:

1. Reflecting On The Cardinals Off Season
2. Cardinals Are Not Dormant During Winter
3. The Cardinals Are Picking Up Steam

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

For the most part, you won’t hear much complaining about the pitching staff in September.  Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright helped cement their Cy Young candidacies, though both of them had at least one game that was uncharacteristically bad for them.  They were also occasionally undone by an offensive attack that took the night off.  Wainwright especially lost two chances to advance his win total to 19 before attaining that mark in the clinching game on September 26.  Notably, it took 130 pitches and eight innings before he turned things over to the bullpen.

Related posts:

1. The Cardinals Are Picking Up Steam
2. The Cardinals, On The Run and the Number 6
3. The Cardinals Flip Flop in May

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

And then Boston again handed St. Louis a piece of their puzzle.  After trading Lugo to the Birds for Chris Duncan, now released, the Red Sox designated John Smoltz for assignment.  After he cleared (and, more importantly, left Boston on the hook for his salary), the Cards swooped in and signed him to cover both roles.  Smoltz will pick up a couple of starts, then eventually slide into the bullpen for the end of the season and the postseason.  Yet another hole had been filled.

Related posts:

1. The Cardinals 2009 Postseason And Some Notes on 2010
2. For The Cardinals, It Was A Stuttering September
3. The Cardinals, On The Run and the Number 6

We will be raffling off 9 MLB team keychains. There will be links below to the WholesaleKeychain.com page of the 9 teams (these links will open up in a new tab or page) selected for this raffle.

There will be at least 1 team representing all 6 divisions! I looked up the Baseball Reflections.com demographics to find the cities that have the most Baseball Reflections readership, per the AW Stats (our site stats counter).

The winners will have their choice of keychains from that team’s page and if it is an engravable keychain, WholesaleKeychain.com will engrave 3 lines up to 11 characters per line for you, too!

So, without further ado, here are the teams:

AL

East:

Boston Red Sox

New York Yankees

Central:

Cleveland Indians

West:

Texas Rangers

NL

East:

New York Mets

Central:

Chicago Cubs

St. Louis Cardinals

West:

LA Dodgers

SF Giants

Here’s how this will work: For each dollar donated to Baseball Reflections between Sunday, 8/9/09 and Sunday, 8/23/09 you will receive a virtual raffle ticket to win 1 of the 9 MLB keychains listed in the promotion above! Please specify which team keychain you are buying a raffle ticket for in the notes section on the screen you make your donation from.

You can make donations for this raffle by clicking on this button below:

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at peter@baseballreflections.com.

But, if you don’t want to wait to buy a MLB keychain (others, too), please check out WholesaleKeychain.com and use the promotion code: breflections for 10% off your purchase now through the end of August!

Related posts:

1. A WholesaleKeychains.com Giveaway c/o Baseball Reflections
2. Reminder: Keychain Raffle Has Only 8 Days Left!
3. Baseball Reflection’s MLB Keychain Raffle

We will be raffling off 9 MLB team keychains. There will be links below to the WholesaleKeychain.com page of the 9 teams (these links will open up in a new tab or page) selected for this raffle.

There will be at least 1 team representing all 6 divisions! I looked up the Baseball Reflections.com demographics to find the cities that have the most Baseball Reflections readership, per the AW Stats (our site stats counter).

The winners will have their choice of keychains from that team’s page and if it is an engravable keychain, WholesaleKeychain.com will engrave 3 lines up to 11 characters per line for you, too!

So, without further ado, here are the teams:

AL

East:

Boston Red Sox

New York Yankees

Central:

Cleveland Indians

West:

Texas Rangers

NL

East:

New York Mets

Central:

Chicago Cubs

St. Louis Cardinals

West:

LA Dodgers

SF Giants

Here’s how this will work: For each dollar donated to Baseball Reflections between Sunday, 8/9/09 and Sunday, 8/23/09 you will receive a virtual raffle ticket to win 1 of the 9 MLB keychains listed in the promotion above! Please specify which team keychain you are buying a raffle ticket for in the notes section on the screen you make your donation from.

You can make donations for this raffle by clicking on this button below:

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at peter@baseballreflections.com.

But, if you don’t want to wait to buy a MLB keychain (others, too), please check out WholesaleKeychain.com and use the promotion code: breflections for 10% off your purchase now through the end of August!

Related posts:

1. A WholesaleKeychains.com Giveaway c/o Baseball Reflections
2. Reminder: Keychain Raffle Has Only 8 Days Left!
3. Reminder: MLB Keychain Raffle

The early part of the month was dominated, in Cardinal talk, by the MLB All-Star Game, which was held in Busch Stadium on July 14.  All the hype, all the hoopla, all the surrounding events cast their shadow on a team that came into the break in first place in the NL Central, 2.5 games ahead of their nearest competitor.  St. Louis won 8 of their 12 games before the break and looked to be riding high, even as the offense continued to sputter.

John Mozeliak was maneuvering behind the scenes, however, and on July 22, after a day of swirling comments and controversy, he swapped Chris Duncan and either a player to be named later or cash to the Boston Red Sox for Julio Lugo.  The controversy came when it was reported early that day at Viva El Birdos, one of the top Cardinal blogs, that the deal had been nixed due to threats from Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan.  Chris Duncan was then demoted to Memphis, a move some saw as a compromise between the GM and field manager, before the trade was completed.  While official sources have continued to deny that LaRussa and Duncan played any role in the delay of the trade, indicating instead it was due to haggling out financial issues, Dave Duncan has come out and publically indicated his displeasure.

Image via Wikipedia

All of that was quickly left behind, though, two days later, when Mozeliak sent three prospects, including Brett Wallace, the crown jewel of the farm system, to Oakland for Matt Holliday and cash.  Holliday had been coveted by LaRussa and Cardinal management for a long while, as they were continually linked to him in the winter when Colorado was shopping him.  Fans bewailed the cost involved in this deal, especially with no extension as part of the agreement, but agreed that the boost in offense would be a welcome sight.

Lugo and Holliday, coupled with the return of June trade acquisition Mark DeRosa from the disabled list, have given the Cards the offense that they have been searching for since a promising April decended into a scuffling May and June, with the pitching staff the only reason the Cards were afloat.  From Friday, July 24, when all of them showed up in the same lineup, through Wednesday, July 29, the offense has put up 32 runs against top teams Philadelphia and Los Angeles.  They have already rallied from a 3-run deficit, something they had only done three times prior to these moves.  While the offense has tapered off some since then, scoring only 7 runs in a weekend set against the Astros, it awaits only the stirring of Albert Pujols, mired in one of his rare slumps, to get going again.

If the offense is what will push the Cardinals, who now sit just a half-game ahead of the Cubs for the NL Central lead as they reach their first off day in August, into October, it is likely to be the pitching that keeps them there.  Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright have continued to be the aces people expected out of them and Joel Pineiro continues to not be what people expected out of him.  Kyle Lohse returned from the disabled list and has shown some rust, but also the ability to stay in games.  Four of the five rotation slots usually give the Cardinals a good chance to win, especially with the revamped hitting attack.

Then there is Todd Wellemeyer.  Wellemeyer continued to struggle in July, with one good game early followed by numerous starts where he gave up as many runs as innings pitched.  With the changes in the offense, the Cardinals could not keep conceding every fifth game and so, earlier this week, the word came that Mitchell Boggs will replace Wellemeyer in the rotation for a while, with Wellemeyer moving on to the bullpen.

The Cardinals have proven that they are in “win now” mode and have put together a team that has a good chance of doing that.  The All-Star Summer just might turn into a Red October.

Related posts:

1. How Did We (St. Louis Cardinals) Get Here?
2. The Cardinals Are Picking Up Steam
3. The Pendulum Continues To Swing in St. Louis