What a complete change of fortune for the St. Louis Cardinals this
year. They went from being the NL shoe-in for the World Series to
being the laughing stock of the early post-season. Now with Tony
LaRussa's and Dave Duncan's futures in StL questionable at best, the
huge ordeal surrounding Matt Holliday's options with the club, and an
underpaid/underpraised Albert Pujols SURELY considering a departure to
a more sizable market-city, the question left to ask is "where do we
go from here?" If we keep our fixtures in place (Larussa/Duncan,
Pujols, Carpenter, Wainwright) and perhaps lose Holliday (in order to
keep those fixtures), we will be right where we started at the
beginning of this year, with a slightly older starting rotation - for
better or for worse. And if we continue to do that year after year,
then we succumb to a vicious cycle that has served as the fine line
of separation between contenders and pretenders. We HAVE to have
another bat behind Pujols. It legitimized us as an offensive team and
also as a force to be reckoned with in the National League. The thing
is, we don't have room for Holliday's contract, especially if we offer
more money to The Machine.. Which begs the original question of the
post. Unfortunately for you, Mr. Solo Dolo does not have the answer.
But I do have ideas... and they will surface sooner than later. But
let's see how a couple things play out in this '09 season first. Oh,
did I even mention the turmoil at the closer position? Yikes.
GO CUBS
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