Adam Wainwright's Injury Shuffles The Cards

The Cardinals already had a rough start to the season with not getting a deal done with Albert Pujols. As spring training began and the hope was in the air like every other team in Major League Baseball that this would be their year came to a crashing halt.  Adam Wainwright hurt his elbow and is undergoing Tommy John surgery putting him out for the remainder of the season. If the Cardinals were a college freshman, they would already have two underages before the school year started.



Wainwright has been straight filthy with having over 15 wins in the last two seasons. He ended up being a Cy Young runner-up in the last two years.Wainwright's ERA has been dangerously low with being well under three in the last two years, and just a touch over three in 2008. If you look at some his advanced statistics, they are just bananas.  Wainwright's K/9 was over eight in the last two years.  He barely walks anyone having under three walks per nine innings. HR/9 in 2010 was under one. Not meaning to add on to the Cards fans who are slicing their wrists reading this, opponents batted under .250 in the last three years.

Even though Cris Carpenter is considered the ace of this staff, statistically Wainwright is the true ace. He is more valuable then Carpenter by a longshot. I know as Brewer fan, I hated seeing Wainwright on the pitching matchups when we faced the Cards. Carpenter worried me but the Crew had success against him, not so much with Wainwright.  He has the combination of a powerful fastball with a knee-buckling curveball..

While Wainwright is irreplaceable, I refuse to count out a Tony La Russa ball team. He is a good manager who knows how to get results. I assume they will get Joe Blanton or Scott Kazmir to assist their pitching staff because right now, there is no one worthy of that five spot. Both of those guys will help but they are no Adam Wainwright

-Charlie.

Freezing Out Pujols Makes Sense

There are certain situations where you have to digest everything before coming up with a true explanation on what is actually happening. I had a whole argument built for Albert Pujols, but then decided against it after further review.  I am definitely in the minority, and this will probably not be an 'i told you so' moment for about six years.

Albert Pujols is supposedly 31.  I cannot say I am positive on that because it's been said by multiple people that they do not have a real age on Albert.  He is asking for 10 years 300 million dollar contract.  This means that the tail end of his contract, Pujols will be in his late thrities where we have seen recently production fall off a cliff. Hmm wonder why? If you need examples look at Jim Thome, Vladamir Guerrero, and Manny Ramirez. I truly believe that the Cardinals have five, maybe six good years left in Pujols and management knows that.



They believe that Pujols will not have a typical machine-like year, and his decline is starting. Pujols has reached his peak, and is not coming back.  Doug Gottlieb of ESPN Radio made a valid point about the New York Yankees never extending a player before his contract was up.  If the Yankees did the same thing with Derek Jeter as the Cardinals tried with Pujols, and the Twins did with Joe Mauer, they would have severely overpaid him.  Instead, Jeter had a down year and still got less than he would have coming off a World Series win. Mauer had a down year last season with only three home runs and spent a month on the disable list. Mauer might have got the same amount of money due to his defense, but who knows.  Pujols had a good year like usual but why not gamble a bit?I really try to stay away from cross sports analogies, but it reminds of the Packers with Brett Favre. It's a tad different because it was over retirement, but management took the same stance. Management decided they are not going to give in to their state icon's demands.

General Manager John Mozelik and Vice President Jeff Luhnow both have an icy relationship with Pujols, people forget that.Will Leitch, a diehard Cards fan saw this coming. He acknowledges the strong relationship between La Russa and Pujols plus the bitterness towards management. Both were miffed that former General Manger, now Cincinnati GM Walt Jockety got canned. It would not shock me in the slightest if La Russa retires after this season and Albert knows that he will have no hand in selecting the next manager. In a sense when La Russa goes, the old guard officially changes and who knows if Pujols wants to be around when that comes to fruition.

Let's think hypothetically here... In October, Mozelik and Luhnow decide to offer 7 years 135 million dollars, a little over 19 million a year. Pujols likely will not take this deal and take his talents elsewhere. But here's a  scary thought. The Milwaukee Brewers have a first basemen available in Prince Fielder, who is only 27. The Cards could get him for the value they wanted to pay Pujols or maybe a little less. Additionally, they can get a talented player with the extra money left over instead of selling the farm with one player who is past the age of 30.  

I agree that come October if Pujols has an MVP-type year then his stock will still be at an all-time high therefore the gamble didn't work. But if he shows any signs of a fading, people will be scared to give him that Godfather offer.  People have gotten too smart in baseball to allow something like that to happen. With an improving NL Central, this is the last thing the Cardinals want to start their season.

-Charlie.

Potential Pujols' Free Agency Leads To NL Central What If's

There isn't many things that Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs fans can agree on.  Whenever the I-94 rivalry is on, both fan bases are rowdy and are obnoxious at the other team's stadium. But one thing that we can both hope and pray to our respective gods- Bob Uecker and Harry Carey, is that Albert Pujols leaves for free agency.

With the exorbitant amount of football going on this weekend, people might not have heard Pujols tell the Cardinals that if they do not get a deal done before Spring Training then he will test the free agency market.  There is a possibility that this could happen because the Cardinals have a ton of money invested in Matt Holiday, Chris Carpenter, Jake Westbrook, and Kyle Lohse.  I think they have enough to give Pujols what he wants because the city, arguably the biggest baseball city in America wouldn't forgive the management if they got rid of Pujols.  This would go down as one of the bigger FU move in the history of sports if they let go of Albert even at his older age. But this raises two interesting things for the Cubs and Brewers.



For Chicago, if Pujols gets to test the market, shouldn't the Cubs throw the pie in the sky type offer to him. His loyalty to the Cards in his career is unmatched by a lot of athletes, but as we learned with Brett Favre and others, they love revenge and money talks.  The Cubs do have Carlos Pena for a year, but I assume they will want Prince Fielder or Pujols in the 2011 offseason.  I am curious to hear from my Chicago readers/writers, if there would be any resentment.  My assumed answer: No, it's Albert f------ Pujols bro.  

Today, Fielder signed a one-year deal for 15.5 million dollar deal and it appears he will probably test the market in the upcoming year. If Pujols is out there, he is the second banana. Prince will make less money than Albert, and he will not be welcomed by the fans with ringing praise. Instead it will be 'well we could have had Pujols, but I guess I will settle for Fielder.'  I think Prince is a sneaky MVP pick this season because he will come up big in a contract year, but in no way is he better than Pujols.  Who knows if Pujols is out there, maybe Prince decides his best option is staying here in Milwaukee even though I know that's wishful thinking.

When a team is under a deadline, there are multiple scenarios that could happen.  1.) They overspend and screw their franchise for the years to come (could happen but it's Pujols, the man's a robot)  2.) Management decides to play hard ball with him, and believes he will come around by the beginning of the season (horrible idea).  3.) They come to a mutual agreement like the Joe Mauer situation, which this reminds me of it a lot.

Obviously as a Brewer fan, I hope nothing gets done and the Cards are in a chaotic panic the entire year. But I doubt it will happen, the Cardinals are smarter than that, right?

-Charlie.

Tony...What Were You Thinking?

9th inning. Two Outs. Down by a run. Bases loaded. Home field advantage for the World Series hanging in the balance.

Sounds like a pretty good spot to use Albert Pujols right?

Tony La Russa evidently didn't think so, as he elected to let Aaron Rowand take his second at bat with the game on the line. While home field advantage in the World Series doesn't matter much to La Russa and the Cardinals, I am sure fans of the Mets, Brewers, and Padres were sitting at home pulling their hair out over Tony's choice not to have Pujols hit. So was there a method to his madness? According to La Russa, he was trying to protect his team in case the game went into extra innings:

"Once we lost [Miguel] Cabrera and [Freddy] Sanchez, he was the guy we were going to use to protect ourselves in case we kept playing because of Albert's versatility," La Russa said. "I think we had the right guy at bat."

I'm sorry, but that excuse just does not hold water. By that logic, LaRussa would have never inserted Pujols into the lineup unless another player experienced a freak injury in extra innings. LaRussa misses the point of course, that you have to get to extra innings before you can begin strategizing for them.

The bigger problem for La Russa though, is that it is not only fans of National League contenders that are upset with his choice. His star player is as well. After the game, Pujols had the following to say on La Russa's choice to use every other position player except himself:

"It's the All-Star Game. He can do what he wants," Pujols said Tuesday night. "He does whatever he wants. If I wasn't expecting to play, I wouldn't have come up here."

If La Russa was determined to save one player for extra innings, why did he pick his own star player to tick off? And if it was La Russa's strategy all along to save Pujols, shouldn't he have at least given Albert a heads up? A tiff between the manager and the star of the team is certainly not what the struggling Cardinals need right now. The truly odd part of all of this is that La Russa created the situation entirely by himself. No matter how much he attempts to rationalize his choice, La Russa made a bone headed move strategically both in regards to the All Star game and his relationship with Pujols.

The Conquering Hero: Ian Snell vs. Cardinals Tonight

Sometimes...you start to like a player. You don't know why, there doesn't seem to be any rational reason, but you just DO. And you know what? I am not going to deny it anymore. I like Ian Snell. I don't like the Pirates at all, but there is just something about Snell that sends me running to the box score everytime he pitches. Maybe it is his swagger. Maybe it is because he is from Delaware. Or maybe, just maybe, it is because this 25 year old flame thrower has the feel of a future star, and by proxy I feel as if I am in on the ground floor of something big. Like Emo in the Early 90's instead of the Late 90's. Or a first gen iPod instead of a nano. It just feels good to be in on the beggining. So here is your invitation to come along for the ride. Say hello to Ian Snell, your new Conquering Hero!!!

The Conquering Hero, Season to Date:
W-L: 4-2
ERA: 2.76
WHIP: 1.21
QS%: .78
K/9: 7.67
Tonight: Snell faces off against the Deposed Champion St. Louis Cardinals and Kip Wells. Wells has had a rough season, going 1-8 with and ERA over 6. Better yet for Snell though: Wells is a former Pirate, and no good conquering hero would let a deserter go unpunished. Also, Snell has a 1.29 ERA in two starts against the Cardinals this season.