Cardinals Still In It, Who Would Have Known?

Hey all!  My apologies for the absence, it’s been a bad month. But anyway with that being said let’s talk some baseball!

Currently the Cards are 7.5 games out of the NL Central Lead, and 4.5 games back of the NL wildcard leading Milwaukee Brewers. At the beginning of the year, the Cardinals were predicted to finish in the basement of their division, yet today due to some surprising performances (see Ryan Ludwick, Todd Wellemeyer, Braden Looper) they are very much still in it coming into a very important stretch. With series coming up against the Pirates and Reds, it’s very possible that the Cards will be able to make up some serious ground on Chicago and Milwaukee. 

The Cardinals were the only of the three NL Central contenders to not make a blockbuster trade to bring in an extra arm. The Cubs got Rich Harden and the Brewers got CC Sabathia. The Cardinals have traditionally not overpaid at the deadline. I believe they did so because they did not want to hurt their chances for 2009 by dealing Colby Rasmus of any other prospects. They are not a World Series team this year, it is more realistic that this team will compete next year and make some sort of splash in the free agent market over the summer. With the Mark Mulder experiment all but over, expect the Cards to go after left handed pitching and bullpen help.

 On another note, Adam Wainwright is set to make his last rehab appearance, but whether he will start or relieve when he comes back to the Cardinals has yet to be seen. The bullpen has been nothing short of lousy recently, so I would say the best place for him right now is the bullpen for a few reasons. The first is that he can return faster. The second is that he is a clutch performer and has been lights out in the past out of the bullpen and has shown this on the biggest stage. The third is that he can take pressure off rookie Chris Perez by either taking over the closers role, or setting the table for him.

The Cards play tonight at 7:10pm against the Reds. These are the pitching matchups for the weekend:

Tonight: Brad Thompson vs Bronson Arroyo

Tomorrow: Joel Pineiro vs. Aaron Harang

Sunday: Kyle Lohse vs. Edinson Volquez

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