Cardinals Get Deeper

Lopez's addition is a welcome one.  Not that he should be a starter, though he'll probably get enough at-bats to feel like he's one.  More the fact that he makes a very strong team that much deeper, which was one of the Cardinals' major issues before the signing.

Before Lopez signed, St. Louis had quality answers for every position on the field (depending on what you believe David Freese will do) but they weren't necessarily that strong on those off-days for the players or if anyone got hurt.  With Lopez being able to play outfield, third, second, and short, he can spell a lot of people.  The Cardinals aren't necessarily caught short if Freese doesn't pan out, either, something that had to be in the back of John Mozeliak's mind when he made the move.

Does this push them past Philadelphia as the top team in the NL?  It very well might.  You have solid to All-Star caliber players at every position except first, where you have otherworldly.  You have a strong pitching staff (though with a little more ifs depending on Brad Penny and Kyle Lohse).  You have a solid bullpen (again, with a bit of an if with Ryan Franklin, though he's not nearly the if Brad Lidge is).  And now there's something to the bench.

I know there have been rumors that he's a clubhouse problem, but being that the Cards have seen him firsthand, if he was a troublemaker, they wouldn't have brought him back.  This organization really does seem to value character and cohesiveness.  Besides, you have to take it as a positive sign that Lopez continues to reiterate how much he really wanted to return to St. Louis.

Pressed for time today, but I want to drop a few things that are in my mailbox.

Of course, you have to be keeping up with the United Cardinal Bloggers roundtable.  The order of the questions are over here, and you can follow the links to read the transcripts.

Speaking of the UCB, there's a new member in town.  Be sure to check out Intangiball.  It's very well-written and I look forward to Justin's continued contributions.

Anthony at Quest for Championship #3 (not a Baseball Bloggers Alliance blog, but we may see if we can rectify that) visited Cardinal camp recently.  If you want to see how an opposing fan views Redbird spring training, read his post here.

MLB is going to have an Honorary Bat Girl for every team on Mother's Day.  You can follow this link and submit your story or the story of someone you know that has dealt with breast cancer.  A celebrity panel will judge the submissions and make the selections.  Everyone remembers the pink bats and everything for Mother's Day, and this goes along with that.

Over at Sports Hot Corner, they are selecting a Cardinal blogger of the week.  (I believe I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago when they honored me with the title.)  This week, it's fellow UCBer Cards Cove, so check that out.

Finally, I was the guest on Pro Rumors's weekly podcast last night.  You can watch and listen as I talk about the BBA and the Cardinals with hopefully some degree of accuracy over at their site.

Not sure if I'll get up a Playing Pepper today or not, but will try to do here in a bit.  Enjoy your Monday!