I promise this isn’t a knee-jerk reaction to the 20-2 thrashing last night, but it’s time for the front office to take an honest look at where the Cards stand this year. Just a few weeks ago things were looking really good with the offense rolling behing sluggers Pujols, Ankiel, and Ludwick and the solid rotation, headed by Wainwright and the surprising Todd Wellemeyer, expecting the additions of Mark Mulder and Chris Carpenter around the All Star break. All the Cardinals had to do, it seemed, was hang in there and stay close to the Cubs until everyone got healthy and make a huge second-half push. Plans…mice and men…you know the drill. Things have fallen apart with Wainwright heading to the DL, Wellemeyer getting rocked in his first start back from the DL, Carpenter suffering a setback in his rehab, and Mulder getting ready to call it a career. As if that wasn’t enough, surprising sluggers Ankiel and Ludwick have come down to earth a little (although Ludwick seems to be getting out of his slump) and Pujols making a DL trip of his own. While he is supposed to be out 3 weeks, he is already talking about trying to get back early. Music to the fans’ ears or a possible catastrophic injury-in-waiting? Time will tell. Look, I hate to come out with this doomsday mentality, I just think the front office has to take a realistic look at the team’s chances and do what is best for the organization as a whole. I’m afraid the Cards are too willing to turn into the Giants of a few years ago, holding on to hope that their one superstar will slug them into contention no matter how many hacks they surround him with. The Cards set themselves up to make a run this year, but if that is not going to happen it may be time to sell off a few veteran pieces to build for the (hopefully near) future. A guy like Kyle Lohse should be able to fetch a prospect or 2 with the solid season he’s having and his respectable contract. Joel Pineiro might look like a solid addition to a contender after a few more outings to show he is healthy. Colby Rasmus has struggled in AAA this year but is still highly regarded within the organization and the Cards do have a glut of outfield talent. Trading Chris Duncan doesn’t make any sense right now, and I would like to see the Cards keep Ankiel around both for his abilities and for what he symbolizes as far as overcoming the odds. Skip Shumaker is a leadoff hitter hitting .305 with a .372 OBP. He has speed and is a good defender capable of playing center in the bigs. Is that someone who might be attractive to another team? What about Ryan Ludwick? I know he has been the hitting hero this year, but the Cards have to look at what the chances are he’ll keep this up over the course of the season, let alone the rest of his career. The term sell high comes to mind with him. I’d be willing to part with any member of the bullpen not named Chris Perez, I’m sure someone is going to need bullpen help for the stretch run. Also, LaRussa seems pretty high on Brendan Ryan. Maybe it’s time to give him a full-time job and see what we can get for the 2 headed 2nd base monster (they’ve actually played better than I expected this year…which might be even more reason to move them) or cross our fingers that someone is looking for a defense-first shortstop who hits 9th in an NL lineup and unload Izturis. Last (and forgive me this blasphemous talk) we come to Yadier Molina. The guy is a Gold Glove waiting to happen every year, but this year he has shown the ability to hit a little, too, batting .299. He signed an extension this off-season, so there is no rush to move him but if the Cards were to go into complete rebuild mode, he is a guy that could fetch some top-notch talent. Regardless of his situation, they are going to have to decide what to do with Bryan Anderson at some point. While he is not in the same zip code as Molina defensively, Anderson is solid enough to be a big league backstop and all he does is hit. He hit .388 with 2 home runs in 19 games for AA Springfield before getting called up to AAA and hitting .326. He doesn’t show a lot of power but neither does Joe Mauer, and that seems to be working out ok in Minnesota. Even as I’m writing this I realize that Molina is not the kind of guy you move, especially at his age, but they need to come up with a plan for Anderson and if someone were to blow them away with an offer for Yadier, it might make sense. I think they should at least float his name around a little to see what the market is. Then again, maybe this is one big knee-jerk reaction. Hopefully Wainwright’s finger issue isn’t that bad and he’ll be back and dealing in no time and Wellemeyer’s sudden issue with only being able to throw balls and batting practice pitches was just a little rust and he goes back to his early-season form, and Pujols’ injury isn’t as severe as feared and he comes back in 2 weeks rested and vengeful and Chris Carpenter comes back messiah-style to lead the Cards past the Cubs in August and into the World Series where they meet the suddenly-resurgent Detroit Tigers, who narrowly avoided the tag as the biggest disappointment in baseball history by getting their act together in mid-June. And maybe someone in the Cards’ organization will read this, like my ideas, and offer me a front office job. And maybe I’ll bump into Chris Nolan on the way home from work and he’ll invite me to a secret advanced screening of the Dark Knight (which would make having to work on Saturday morning totally worth it) tonight. And maybe Erin Andrews will be at the screening tonight and she’ll be so impressed by pedestrian baseball knowledge that she’ll decide to take a chance on a broke law student. Sorry, that got a little over-the-top sarcastic; I really do hope everything turns out ok because the Cards ARE set up to make a run at the World Series this year, but when things turn sour they can go downhill fast and I just don’t want to see them digging themselves too deep a hole.
