The idea of the Cardinals going after Barry Bonds has been batted around lately and, according to Tony LaRussa, Bonds has been a target of his for the last two. When I go back to my review of the club’s off-season moves, I will touch on the Card’s lack of depth at the outfield position, but I have to say that I feel this is a horrible idea. If Bonds is going to play, he needs to go to an AL club where he could DH, because I can’t see him playing in the field on even a semi-regular basis. On top of that, he would be taking playing time away from Chris Duncan, one of the promising young sluggers on the team and, perhaps more importantly, pitching coach Dave Duncan’s son. The Cardinals are going to rely on Dave Duncan working some kind of magic with the rotation more than anything this season, and the last thing they need is to have him upset that his son has lost his job to Bonds. I hate to say a true professional like Duncan would let his work suffer because of personal feelings, but LaRussa said that he polled his coaches and a few were against going after Bonds. I guarantee Duncan was one of those against. The last thing they would want is any type of strained working relatinship between these two. Beyond this, St. Louis simply does not need Bonds in a Cardinals uniform right now. Mark McGwire was the face of the steroids controversy for so long, and that devastated the pride of every Cardinals fan out there. As Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens emerge as the new faces of the steroid culture, the last thing St. Louis fans would want to see is one of them taking the field in that eerily familiar #25 uniform.
