Pitching, Anyone?

While there's not a whole lot to take out of this weekend, at least the offense seems to be improved.  Not necessarily to the levels of Philadelphia, though, which may haunt us in October.  Quick recap:

Friday (8-1 win)
Hero: Matt Holliday.  Let's get the guy on the board straight off.  Just making the extra effort to play in the game after the deal was impressive enough, but four for five with a run and an RBI and a stolen base?  That's filling up the box score.

Goat: It's a tough call, because nobody had a real bad night.  I guess I'll go with Brendan Ryan, since he left four men on, though he did have a hit in his four at bats.

Notes: Nice to see the bats really working.  Rick Ankiel went three for four, Julio Lugo made his debut with a triple and a homer, and things were all well and good in Cardinal Nation.

Saturday (14-6 loss)
Hero: Rick Ankiel.  Whatever has gotten into Rick, I hope it sticks.  Not only did he go three for five with, at the time, the tiebreaking home run, he made a couple of spectacular catches, including one that robbed Jayson Werth of a home run.  He was the star of the game until the bottom of the sixth.

Goat: Jason Motte.  He and Josh Kinney proved that the bullpen is best in small doses.  With Kyle Lohse struggling through the first and not being able to go past four innings, the bullpen got overexposed in a big way.  Motte has got to figure out how to keep the gopher balls to a minimum.  Was there much surprise when Shane Victorino followed up Jimmy Rollins's grand slam with a homer of his own?

Notes: You know when Tony LaRussa saw Lohse have to leave early, he was wanting his 13th pitcher back. Especially when he knew who was supposed to start on Sunday.

Sunday (9-2 loss)
Hero: Mark DeRosa.  Two for four with a HR.  The new guys were all right this weekend.

Goat: Todd Wellemeyer.  As if the combination of him and Philly's lineup and ballpark weren't obviously explosive.  I'm really surprised he hung around and kept the team in the game as long as he did.

Notes: The Cubs take over first place.  This is not a good thing.

The Cardinals proved that they still are a little off of the level that the Phillies are at.  Of course, it could have been a different series if Chris Carpenter or Adam Wainwright had pitched, but it's not like the Cards faced Cole Hamels, either.  The upcoming series with the Dodgers at home will be another true test.

The farm system took another hit this weekend as Jess Todd was sent to Cleveland to finish the Mark DeRosa deal.  I indicated at the time that I had concerns about who was going to complete the trade and those worries were justified, apparently.  Todd's absence was sorely noted this weekend as the bullpen started imploding.  It does explain why Todd hadn't been promoted since the deal even with his stellar AAA season.  The Razorback in me really hates to see him go as well!

Needless to say, a farm system that had started rebuilding itself, positioning itself as a top 10 system, has been devastated in the past few weeks.  It's really gotten Future Redbirds a little glum, to no surprise.

With the Cardinals apparently in win-now mode, there is no reason or justification for letting Todd Wellemeyer have another start.  I'm not real convinced you can put him in the bullpen either.  I'd like to see some small move for a real fifth starter, but as much as the farm system has already given up, I can't believe there are too many more bullets there.  You don't need a fifth starter in the postseason, but as tight as the NL Central is, you sure may need a tolerable one to get there.

Blake Hawksworth made a quick return to the majors.  While I know he allowed a long ball as well yesterday, I don't think you'd have found many people that wouldn't have rather seen him start than Wellemeyer.  Apparently TLR has stated that Wellemeyer will get the ball for the first game in the Houston series.  I sincerely hope that's just a smokescreen.  You can't afford to hand a game to a team that, as of right now, is just a game or so behind you in the standings and could easily be ahead of you by time you meet.

Is it about time to say Albert is slumping again?  While he's still getting his hits here and there, he's not gone yard since the 17th.  We all know he reads this blog, so we'll see if he can stoke the fire tonight.

I was starting to wonder if this Holliday trade had cut Colby Rasmus out of the picture.  Some people wouldn't put it past Tony to play Ankiel ahead of Rasmus, even if it wasn't justified.  So I was at least partly relieved to hear that there was an injury issue involved instead.  Rasmus is doing better, but with Ankiel's reviving bat, it could become a tough call on who to play.  Rasmus should still get the majority of the time.

You have to figure the Cardinals are done dealing, really, unless they can get something for Troy Glaus.  With Holliday in left and him still not able to throw across the diamond, it's a tough situation for him.  He might be a nice bat off of the bench, especially if he replaces Joe Thurston, but could he stay sharp just getting pinch hitting appearances on a semi-regular basis?

You also have to guess, with Lugo around, we won't be seeing much more of Khalil Greene.  Though Brian Barden is still up, I believe, so I guess those two could swap spots.  Right now, though, the roster calculus is pretty set, especially if the team expands back to 13 pitchers.

Cardinals take on the first-place Dodgers in Busch starting tonight.  Four game set, the first on ESPN.  Chris Carpenter gets back on the mound facing Randy Wolf.  Carp's had good numbers against Los Angeles, holding them as a whole under .200.  Of course, Manny Ramirez has been able to solve Carpenter somewhat, tagging him for two home runs.

Wolf, on the other hand, hasn't been quite as stingy with the Cardinals.  While Pujols has never gone yard against him, he does own a .357 average against the starter.  Holliday has done OK against him as well, including a home run.

The Cards really have to make some hay at home.  They can't let the Cubs start to pull away, because if they get ahead and then get healthy, they may be uncatchable.  And that's an untenable position to be in.