5 Ways the Cardinals Can Stay in the Division Hunt While Albert Pujols Heals
With certainty, a key component of a championship-caliber team is how other players/coaches adjust when an important starting player goes down with an injury. In the St. Louis Cardinals title run in 2006, closer Jason Isringhausen missed the last month of the regular season and the entire playoffs with a serious left hip injury. Adam Wainwright filled in admirably.
More recently, in another sport, the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title without one of their best players, Caron Butler, who suffered a knee injury midway through the season.
Now, the Cardinals face the prospect of dealing without slugger Albert Pujols, likely until August, with a broken left forearm suffered Sunday in a collision with Kansas City’s Wilson Betemit.
With the Milwaukee Brewers providing plenty of pressure to take the lead in the National League Central, manager Tony La Russa faces yet another injury on a team that could be the best in his 16 seasons in St. Louis.
La Russa has already kept the Cardinals in first place despite the season-ending loss of 20-game winner Adam Wainwright back in spring training.
Also, star leftfielder Matt Holliday has missed 25 games due to a pair of injuries—he missed time early in the season with an appendectomy and later spent time on the D.L. with a left quad injury.
And third baseman David Freese has missed significant time with a fractured bone in his left hand.
Despite the unprecedented string of shots to the gut, the Cardinals have remained at or around first place, and that fortitude will serve the team well in July when it must fight without its top soldier.
But unlike other teams, the Cardinals have a number of options at its avail to cope and remain in the hunt until the three-time MVP returns, hopefully in early August.
A Fighter's Mentality
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The Cardinals have already manned up and overcome the losses of key players to both its pitching staff and lineup.
Regularly playing without its full complement of starting position players, the Cardinals rank No. 1 in batting average (.272) and second in runs scored (348, behind Cincinnati’s 352).
Lance Berkman, whom the Cards signed in the offseason to a one-year, $8 million deal, has proven he was worth the gamble, despite a history of knee problems.
The 35-year-old leads the team in homers (17, tied with Pujols) and RBI (51) and now looks to man first base while Albert’s arm heals.
La Russa, however, hinted that precautions may be needed to keep Berkman healthy, and that he may still play in right in an attempt to limit his exposure to injury.
In his career, mostly with Houston, Berkman has played all three outfield positions as well as first base, which has been his primary position for the past six seasons.
John Jay, the team’s super fourth outfielder talented enough to be a starter, will play right field if Berkman plays first. Jay is hitting .313 in part-time duty.
Shortstop Ryan Theriot continues to provide a spark from the leadoff spot, hitting .303 in his first season in St. Louis.
Team Depth
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This is the main reason why St. Louis has remained in the thick of the race in the N.L. Central.
John Jay, third baseman Daniel Descalso and utility men Nick Punto and Allen Craig have all played well filling in for injured starters.
David Freese, who has hit .356 in 87 at-bats this season, will begin a rehab assignment at Class AAA Memphis today and hopes to rejoin the Cardinals next week.
He hasn’t played since May 1, when he broke his hand after being hit by a pitch made by Braves reliever Scott Linebrink.
Ryan Theriot, who was a Cub in 2006 when All-Star first baseman Derrek Lee suffered a similar injury, knows this team has already proven it can overcome adversity.
Chicago went 19-40 without Lee between late April and late June. The Cubs had a winning record when Lee was hurt but finished in last place at 66-96.
“You want to have that guy in your lineup,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “You’re not going to be the same team as before. You have to find other ways to win. Maybe you do things differently than you would if he was in the lineup. What we didn’t have (in Chicago) is the luxury of an All-Star first baseman (like Berkman) ready to come into the lineup. What other team does?”
Don’t count out rookie Andrew Brown, who could also see time at either first or right. He hit .351 with 11 homers and 41 RBI at Class AAA Memphis and is coming off a 2-for-4, 2-RBI performance Sunday in his sixth big-league game.
Track Record
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This is the third time Pujols has spent on the disabled list in his 11-year big-league career. The other two times were milder injuries, muscle strains—in 2006 with his right oblique and in 2008 with his left calf.
He has missed a total of 28 games during those two D.L. stints, and the Cardinals went 14-14 in those games.
The roster the Cardinals have this year will help give them a chance for a winning record without its star player. St. Louis was 40-33 at the time of his injury, a half game ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers, who swept the Cards a week ago to briefly take the lead in the division.
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Rasmus Rise?
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In his first two years, center fielder Colby Rasmus has been in a maturation process at the plate.
He went from .251-16-52 as a rookie in 2009 to .276-23-66 last season but has regressed in the early going in 2011.
The team’s former No. 1 prospect enters today hitting .258 with five homers and 28 RBI as the team’s main No. 2 hitter.
As others will need to raise their games in the heart of the order, the 24-year-old has been circled as the one player who could step up and start showing why the Cardinals are so high on him.
June has not been kind to Rasmus, and his lack of production was one of the main reasons why the team lost eight of nine games. In that stretch, he hit .182 with just one RBI.
Cardinal fans are growing impatient with his play, but he can silence everybody by elevating his game when his team needs him the most.
The team’s first-round pick in the 2005 draft played some in the middle of the order when Holliday missed time, and he produced mixed results.
Now, the spotlight will be squarely on Rasmus to perform like the player they envisioned someday batting .300 with 30 homers and playing Gold Glove defense in center, much the way Jim Edmonds did for years.
Pitching Staff
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Despite the loss of Adam Wainwright to Tommy John surgery back in February, the Cardinals have held their own on the mound, ranking eighth in the N.L. in ERA.
The one guy who clearly can make a difference is former Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter, who is struggling mightily with a 1-7 record and 4.47 ERA in 15 starts.
The 36-year-old has at least 15 wins and an ERA no higher than 3.46 in all five complete seasons he’s pitched in St. Louis, including a 21-5 campaign in 2005.
Kyle Lohse, Jaime Garcia and Kyle McClellan have been carrying this staff, while Tony La Russa has gotten solid bullpen production from Eduardo Sanchez, Jason Motte and closer Fernando Salas.
Salas has solidified the end of ball games, recording 12 saves in 13 save opportunities after the horrendous start Ryan Franklin had that cost him his job.
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