I cannot fathom the
Cardinals winning 72 games and responding by bringing back
Trot Nixon and bringing in
Rocky Biddle, so rather than make a pale attempt at doing that, let's instead look at how they got to this point.
2004:
92 wins, third place. 30 home run seasons from
puljos (
the best in mlb),
Edmonds,
Rolen, and Reggie Sanders. Held back by a replacement-level season from fifth starter Jeff Suppan and a weak back end of the bullpen, not to mention the scrumptious "hitting" (.216 avg./.275 obp./.293
slg.) of
Mike Matheny.
Upgraded a middling rotation at the trade deadline by sending reliever Ray King and a non-prospect outfielder to
Tampa Bay for Doug Waechter, who was oh-and-five with an ERA over six before a brief sojourn to AAA righted his ship in early June. He was lights-out all the way up to the deadline, posting a 6-2 won-lost record over that span with an ERA of
1.64.
The pratfalls of sample size. Waechter was pretty good down the stretch, posting a 6-3 mark over 75 innings for the
Redbirds, with an ERA right around three, somewhere right in between the two extremes of his first four months. But it wasn't quite enough, as his new club fell but a single game short of the wild card. Too bad, as best of the rest champ
Houston won the WORLD SERIES.
2005:
Matt Morris (15-10, 2.73 ERA in 242 IP in '04) leaves for the
Tejanos, who give him eighty-plus million shekels. Todd "Career Year in 2004" Ritchie gets roughly half that from the
Regal Ones. Good move letting the latter go; another data point for the DIPS theory. Same thing can't be said about the former, particularly when the club spent about the same amount on Todd "Colorado had nothing to do with my career-high 2004 OPS" Hollandsworth and big trade acquisition
Brad Radke as they could have on
Morris. Maybe it was just an excuse to get the brilliant name of So Taguchi, swapped for
Radke, into the newspapers.
But it didn't help the ballclub, for sure. Predictably enough,
Morris had another wonderful year in
Texas, while
Radke gave the
Cards nothing spectacular, surrendering an incredible
294 hits in 230 innings. Waechter resumed the bouts with his control that had plagued him in early '04, and without help from pitching guru Isaac Prevot this time, he struggled to the
mediocrity of a 4.62 ERA. Young
Adam Wainwright bloomed in his second year in the bigs, as did Rhett Parrott to a lesser extent, but veteran Woody Williams' arm gave out on him, yet just like the
Dodgers and
Hideo Nomo or the
B.J.'s and
Pat Hentgen, the team stuck by him, all the way to the bitter end. That end was an unsightly 6.46 ERA, and as it turned out, also the end of his career.
Down south in
Tampa,
Ray King, the loot for Waechter a year earlier, continued his fine pitching with a 3.22 ERA in 81 innings. Another fine year later, he's got the Proven Closer (TM) tag after pushing his schedule back an inning and accruing 22 saves. Meanwhile, the
Cards have shuffled through such luminaries as Ryan Bukvich and
Brandon Duckworth trying to find a reliable set-up man for
Jason Isringhausen.
But for all that...the drop from 10th to 25th in run prevention, the team ERA of 4.65, the mess of a bullpen, and the big ticket bust that was Todd Hollandsworth's middle-of-the-pack production in left for the low, low cost of $6 million, the
Cardinals still won 89 games. Again, most of it was behind an MVP season from
puljos and big years from
Edmonds and
Rolen once again. Can't discount
Edgar Renteria's second straight season with a .300 average and 50 steals, either. It's only too bad that
Houston managed one more win for the second straight year, and of course the
Cubs ran away with the division. For the second year in a row, a fine albeit flawed squad was relegated to third place. Third place, the perfect ending for a fatalist.
2006:
Here's where things went south. Ed Renteria left for
Colorado, replaced by
Alex Gonzalez.
Which one? Doesn't matter; only their mothers could tell them apart. Surprisingly,
Gonzo performed capably, posting a career-high .746 OPS.
Marlon Anderson was more than adequate at second base for the second straight year, and the
puljos-
Rolen-
Edmonds troika continued to mash. New corner outfielders
Jose Guillen and
Trot Nixon stepped in capably after the perpetually disappointing Hollandsworth was dealt to
Houston and Roger Cedeno and Reggie Sanders jumped ship to greener pastures. Even the bullpen was improved, with free agent signings
Mike Stanton and
Justin Speier providing a capable bridge for
Jason Isringhausen for the first time in three years. Middle of the year acquisition
Jay Kershner, picked up for Rhett Parrott (
"Polly Want a Cracker?") only added to the team's veritable strength in the 'pen.
But
Isringhausen was ordinary rather than extraordinary, and the rotation continued to be filled with temps like
Radke,
Wil Alvarez, and
John Halama.
Adam Wainwright took a huge step back instead of turning into an ace, posting a
5.66 ERA over 168 innings and handing out gopher balls at a staggering rate. The only gem for the future diamonds of
Saint Louis was curveball artist
Ben Hendrickson, who blossomed after three years in the high minors and made 30 solid starts, overcoming the
mediocrity of a 113 to 77 strikeout-to-walk rate by allowing just 13 home runs in 173 innings and posting a 4.06 ERA, second best of all the
Redbird starters. That lack of pitching caught up to the club last season, and coupled with the slightest step back from the take-'n'-rake offense, that's how the
Cardinals ended up eighteen below .500.
NOW:
Ben Hendrickson's the staff ace this year. Doesn't that tell you all you need to know? Sure, there are some positive signs that this organization isn't completely falling apart. For one,
Mike Matheny's finally out of the starting lineup after three straight years with a sub-.290
on-base percentage. But young
Yady Molina probably won't be much better. Mr. Edmonds is gone to the
Mets, but the lineup doesn't look too bad in his absence.
Jimmy Anderson and
Eric Milton are the new mercenaries brought in to fill out the rotation. That's fighting fire with...arrowheads. Or rocks. On the bright side, the
Saint Louis contingent won't have to fret over missing the playoffs by a single game for the third time. They'll have had a hell of a lucky year if they finish a single game out -- of third place.