I like the guy in focus. Though I’m not sure he’s the favorite. I’m afraid we might be disappointed by a split vote and Tim Lincecum.

To play third base. I think he’s great really. Need I say more?

Matt Holliday – its not my money

Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Mariano Rivera – we’ll take ‘em

Chone Figgins – how many months would it take Mike Shannon to get that right?

Troy Glaus – why not for a low cost?

Erik Bedard – he’s getting older and ready for some Duncan magic

The Cardinals need 1 great power hitter (Holliday) or 2 high avg/obp hitters and a Closer, a real closer, your take John?

Well the Cardinals got Julio Lugo, Matt Holliday went on a winning spree in August and limped through September and into the postseason. They lost to a Dodger team they easily beat during the regular season and if they could have hit the ball they could have been in the NLCS fairly easily. Unsurprisingly to me, Ryan Franklin blew the one chance at a win they did have against the Dodgers. Brian Fuentes who the Cardinals (tried?) to get over the winter (last winter) didn’t fare much better for the Angels against the Yankees. But Tony LaRussa is back, Mark McGwire is ‘back’ as the hitting coach and maybe stlcards.net is back!

CARDS WIN

The Cardinals have a 3 game lead over the Brewers now so if they lose the rest of the games this weekend the worst they will be is tied for first. I’d rather they win the rest of the games in the series. Every team aside from the Pirates is inside of 5 games and some will falter but the way the Cardinals will win the division is by playing the best baseball. Two more wins before the traditional halfway point will give them 50 for the year and put them 9 games over .500. Every other division leader is at least 10 games over. Ryan Ludwick has been HUGE this past week and has been the reason the Cardinals won most of the games they did. Things could have gone a different way yesterday after the 3 run homer by Lee but when Ludwick came up in the 6th with the bases loaded he singled in the 5th and 6th runs and the Cardinals bullpen (who you would’ve like to see used less in the first game of a 4 game series) kept the door shut in the later innings. Albert’s 32nd Home Run didn’t hurt either.

Today is Mitchell Boggs aka Brad Thompson vs Ted Lilly. Lilly is 6-3 lifetime with a 3.06 ERA against the Cards, this season his ERA stands at 3.32. The Cubs have a .311 avg against Thompson in just 16.1 innings. I think offense will be the key to this game. Watch out, Lilly is a lefty!

Don’t worry folks, Mark DeRosa is in the process of fixing all of the team’s problems. He’s going to take Brad Thompson’s spot in the rotation next time around — and Todd Wellemeyer’s.

It’s Mark DeRosa. Joe Thurston can officially have worn out his welcome. Now for that starting pitching, Joe Thurston, Brian Barden and Troy Glaus will get traded for Jake Peavy!!! WooHoo! DeRosa will have to perform well and help the Cardinals get into the playoffs. Perez has 30K in 23 2/3 IP this year and could make us regret this move for years. I guess Jason Motte couldn’t even fool an AL team. It seems like Tony didn’t trust Perez at times and this might be another example of ‘Dear Indians, we have a very talented hard throwing pitcher we want to get rid of.’ Only time will tell. I won’t miss Joe Thurston. I will miss Chris Perez, perhaps his refusal to grow a gaudy red goatee finally did him in.

The Cardinals couldn’t get it done last night vs Joe Nathan in the 9th despite Pujols coming up. But of the four Cardinal batters to come up in the inning, Colby Rasmus was the one who got a hit off of Joe Nathan, and it was a double. Way to go kid.

CARDS WIN

Cards scored 11 runs last night -Wellemeyer pitches tonight. The Cardinals are 1 game out of first place, 2 games ahead of Cincinnati.

CARDS WIN

All our troubles are over. Haha, ok I’m kidding – but can you believe we’re only 1.5 games out after all this messy baseball? The Cardinals can go for the series win TODAY at 12 ET. Todd Wellemeyer will be pitching though. Let’s see what happens today and then go from there.