The St. Louis Cardinals opened the season in a competitive fashion in Arizona, splitting the first two games of the series, before dropping the final contest in a long, 16 inning affair last night. It was fight throughout with a Diamondbacks club that shows a lot of potential, but still is a frustrating effort, because of some of the details that led to the verdict. And while the season is young, there are a few things to pull away from the series, inside of the box score. Here is a wrap on the series with three details from inside the series to walk away with:

1. Trevor Rosenthal learns a lesson: One day it’s more than enough, the next day it isn’t. The temptation is real to go after guys with pure fastballs at any point when your stuff is as good as Rosenthal’s. However one of the lessons that will be learned this year is that it’s not about how hard he throws it, rather it’s where he throws it that hard. A day after blazing through a 13-pitch, two strikeout performance in Tuesday’s win, the next day wasn’t as kind.

In the course of surrendering three consecutive hits, which pulled the Diamondbacks even in the bottom of the eighth inning, Rosenthal didn’t struggle with his velocity (as he kept every pitch at 96 mph and up), but he kept the decisive deliveries high, and two veteran bats in Martin Prado and Aaron Hill made him pay. Yet he showed that he can learn on the run, as he began to change locations with regularity the next two at-bats to Miguel Montero and Paul Goldschmidt and worked his way out the inning. While his potential and heat check digits will be exciting, the road for Rosenthal meeting his potential will be lined with him learning to trust the method as much as his power.

2. Jaime stepped up. After letting the first game get away from Adam Wainwright and Fernando Salas, the Cardinals dropped their first contest of the year. Yet the troubled lefty delivered a solid effort in the subsequent game to support the staff ace, and help the club pull out a solid victory. Jaime Garcia threw a very solid 5.2 innings, surrendering one run and two hits in route to his and the club’s first win of the year. It’s early of course, but when combined with his solid spring effort (2.48 ERA in 29 innings over six starts) along with the encouraging road start, a promising rebound campaign could be in store.

3. Allen Craig is a gamer. It was an interesting series for Craig. In what could become a familiar scenario for him throughout the year, he started the first two games of the series at first base, and then shifted to right in game three to spell Carlos Beltran. But what truly showed what Craig is all about was the bottom-top 2^nd/3^rd inning stretch he had. After taking a rough slide into foul territory in pursuit of a foul ball, and in the process bloodying his knee through his pants, he noticeably limped through the outfield. Yet for the final out of the inning, with his banged up knee, was forced to break back and make a tough over the head catch to save a run and end the inning.

Back at the plate shortly afterwards, he ripped an RBI double down the left field line to bring in Jon Jay and put the team ahead. He scored on the next pitch as the second run brought in via a Yadier Molina base hit. That combination of flexibility and grit goes a long way in proving his mettle on the field, as well as inspiring the club.

Where to Next: San Francisco for weekend series vs. Giants (2-1), who are on a quite notable 3-game winning streak against the Cards from last season’s National League Championship Series.

The talk of the St. Louis Cardinals’ offseason has been the strength of its pitching staff. A particularly exciting component is the potential of the bullpen, which has a chance to be amongst the best in all of baseball. However, there has been one part of the equation that has largely gone unconsidered in most discussion, and this is Fernando Salas. It is a pivotal season for the up and down Salas, and he has potentially as tough of a future to determine as any arm on the roster.

Salas has truly been a jack of bullpen trades since breaking in with the club in 2010. From spot reliever, to set-up man, to a closer who at once, led an eventual World Series Champion team in saves, to a seldom used long-reliever in the course of three months, he’s seen it all, fast. And that leaves him uniquely equipped for a role on the evolving bullpen of the 2013 Cardinals. But where does he best fit in, if at all?

One thing for certain is that a late game role is unlikely. With Jason Motte putting the clamps down on the ninth innings, and the seventh-to-eight inning sequence locked down between Edward Mujica and Mitchell Boggs in the lead roles, with Randy Choate and potentially Trevor Rosenthal on hand as well to add some variety. Earlier on in the game, Marc Rzepczynski would be in the mix, but it this is where Salas has been fit into, the hybrid of “if needed” as bridge/spot reliever. That’s a tough place to sit at, and is very circumstantial to being overtaken by the desire to have another arm in the mix as well, such one of the losers of the battle for the fifth starter, such as Joe Kelly or Lance Lynn. Both would be higher caliber arms, and fit into the role of a prototypical long reliever better.

In all actuality, injury may be his ally. It’s an ugly truth, but it’s an ultimate one in the course of the year: guys get hurt. And this is where Salas’ most valuable asset, his versatility, pays off the most. He can fill in at any level of the pen if the depth is rocked, or the young arms have adjustment issues. The kicker is, he’s far less effective early in games as opposed to late. In his career, the disparity in opponent’s batting average in the sixth and seventh innings (.304 and .276 respectively) in comparison to the eighth and ninth (.188 and .196), yet the backbreaker is that he’s given up 11 of his 14 career home runs in the final two frames. So the gift comes with the curse.

The Cardinals’ ultimate enigma sits in a very fitting place for himself. If there is anybody that could benefit from showing up to Jupiter and looking a lot better than anybody expects, it’s him. For the team, yet another great, battle tested arm to put to use is the best kind of problem to have. But for Salas, he’s a fish that’s swam in many types of water, but risks finding himself out of it completely if can’t find a middle ground. But if he intends to hold some sort of ground in the battle for a spot in this year’s bullpen from day one, he better get accustomed to shooting early and often.

Whenever the World Baseball Classic rolls around, questions abound about who will participate in the tournament and whether or not that compromises their preparation, and later success, in the regular Major League Baseball season.

The St. Louis Cardinals will have those questions about their four players who were selected to World Baseball Classic rosters, which were announced Thursday, but the biggest news came from the Cardinals player who isn’t on a WBC roster.

Mitchell Boggs will pitch for Team USA, and Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina will both play for Team Puerto Rico. Fernando Salas will pitch for Team Mexico, but his Cardinals teammate Jaime Garcia won’t join him.

Garcia had been on a preliminary roster for Mexico earlier in the offseason, but his participation was contingent on the health of his injured left shoulder that caused him to miss much of the second half of the 2012 season.

It would be unfair to jump off a ledge and say Garcia won’t pitch for Mexico because his shoulder isn’t healing fast enough. We don’t know that. Garcia and the Cardinals could simply be playing it safe to make sure he is as prepared as possible for the upcoming season. Hopefully that’s the case.

Garcia reportedly wanted to pitch for his native country pretty bad, and the Cardinals were playing a role similar to a parent who doesn’t let their child play on the monkey bars because it is dangerous. Sure, it limits the amount of fun, and pitching in the WBC would’ve undoubtedly been fun for Garcia. However, the smart move for the Cardinals is to keep him on his normal rehabilitation schedule.

Garcia is going to be an important part of the Cardinals’ starting rotation this season. If Garcia can pitch well as the No. 3 or No. 4 starter, the Cardinals can use more of their young pitchers in the bullpen instead of having to push them into the rotation and face the uncertainty that comes when a young pitcher is regularly exposed to full lineups rather than three or four hitters each night.

Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly did a great job filling in for injured starters in 2012, and they are big reasons the Cardinals were even in contention for a wild-card spot late in the season. But a full season from Garcia could play a large role in if the Cardinals can compete with the Cincinnati Reds for a division title, not just a wild-card spot.

With Garcia healthy and pitching well, the Cardinals could feature a rotation with Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Garcia, Jake Westbrook and either Kelly or Lynn. The loser of that fifth-spot battle would move to the bullpen and provide strong middle relief, along with Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal, for what could be a very good bullpen.

If Garcia continues to have shoulder issues, the Cardinals would be OK because they have available pitchers who can fill a rotation spot, but his presence would put the Cardinals in a real position of strength in terms of their pitching staff.

Now even if Garcia is healthy, that doesn’t guarantee success. Garcia has some of the filthiest stuff of any pitcher on the Cardinals roster and is one of the most likely candidates to someday throw a no-hitter. But he has been frustratingly inconsistent in his three seasons with the Cardinals. He owns a 3.43 career earned-run average, and his ERA has climbed from 2.70 in 2010 to 3.92 last season.

The Cardinals would likely be satisfied with an ERA in the neighborhood of 3.43 from Garcia this season, but the key is consistency, which could be as much of a mental issue as any physical problem. For example, Garcia has always struggled on the road when he doesn’t have the normal routine of a home game. His career road ERA is 5.02 compared to 2.82 at home.

Hopefully Garcia is fully on board with the decision to not pitch in the WBC, and that disappointment doesn’t affect his performance for the Cardinals in 2013.

But those types of questions are what always make the World Baseball Classic a conundrum in the world of Major League Baseball.

The i70baseball teams, the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals, will combine to send 13 players to the World Baseball Classic in 2013.  Among those 13, nine of them will come from the Kansas City organization.

In addition to the large amount of players being sent to the WBC, the Royals will also achieve a historic moment for one team.  Bruce Chen will pitch for the team from China, becoming the first major league ball player to do so in the history of the event.

The Royals press release states:

The selections are as follows:  Left-handed pitchers Bruce Chen (China) and Tim Collins (United States), right-handed pitchers Kelvin Herrera (Dominican Republic), Luis Mendoza (Mexico) and J.C. Sulbaran (The Netherlands), catcher Salvador Perez (Venezuela), infielders Irving Falu (Puerto Rico) and Miguel Tejada (Dominican Republic), and outfielder Paulo Orlando (Brazil).

You will notice three of those players have yet to play in Kansas City as a member of the Royals: Tejada is a non-roster invitee to spring training and Orlando and Sulbaran spent last season in Double-A.

According to the Cardinals press release:

Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina were among four Cardinals named to participate in the 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC). Both will be on Team Puerto Rico and this marks the third WBC appearance for each.

Relievers Mitchell Boggs and Fernando Salas were also selected for this year’s WBC. Boggs will play for Team USA while Salas will be on the roster for Mexico.

The major concern for the Cardinals was an earlier rumor about Jaime Garcia being invited to pitch for the team from Mexico.  The bullet may have been dodged as it appears he was left off the roster while teammate Salas gets the nod. Editor’s note: more on this subject tomorrow as i70 writer Jacob Mayer takes an in depth look at Garcia not pitching in the WBC.

The WBC will commence in March as these 13 players take the field for their respective countries in an exciting and competitive environment.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

The unofficial second half began Friday as the St. Louis Cardinals got back into action following the All Star Break. But trade season is also officially underway, and the Cards are looking to improve so they can make another run at the postseason.

Lance Berkman is due to come off the disabled list this weekend while the team is in Cincinnati, making the lineup and bench whole for the first time in months. Obviously, upgrading the pitching staff is now the most logical move for the Cardinals—especially in the wake of losing both Chris Carpenter and Kyle McClellan for the season, and having no idea when they’ll see Jaime Garcia again. The debate on who to go after could be endless: Top of the rotation guy? Innings-eater? Closer? LOOGY? Middle reliever? All of the above? Regardless, you have to give up something to get something as the old saying goes. And the Cards have some depth. They have guys they can deal.

This list is by no means easy to compile. And the number of players going each way is a huge factor. John Mozeliak may end up packaging one group of players to acquire another group of players like he did for the Colby Rasmus trade in 2011, or he could do a one-for-one swap. So I’m compiling a list, and it is by no means comprehensive. But since the Cards need to add to their pitching staff, I’m going to avoid designating pitchers on the active roster as “expendable”—even though a guy like Fernando Salas seems to be as far from “untouchable” as a reliever can get. And if they had a better relief option in the minors, that guy would be up…he wouldn’t be trade bait either. Are there better starters than Jake Westbrook out there? Of course. But anyone who thinks the Cards are going to be able to trade him for Cole Hamels is quite obviously hoarding all the good drugs.

So we’ll focus on position players, and pitchers not currently on the 25-man roster. I think you might know who I’m talking about. Again, there might be 50 players in the entire organization the Cards could do without, but players off the 40-man roster without name recognition—or players on it with no real upside—aren’t likely to bring much of a return. Anyway…my list:

Tyler Greene (2B, SS) – Shocking his name would pop up on this list, eh? Greene has been given every opportunity to stick with the big club. At first, we all thought it was nerves playing for Tony La Russa. Well, La Russa is gone. And the Cards are getting the same old, same old from Greene. One concession: he’s never gotten a legitimate chance as a shortstop, his natural position. Perhaps that’s the best reason of all to trade him. His value may not be much, but packaging him could help yield the Cards a player who can be consistently productive…something they probably will never see from Tyler Greene.

Shane Robinson (OF) – Sugar Shane has done everything asked of him: start, come off the bench, pinch hit, pinch run, you name it. He may never be a great player, but he is a good player and could have a role with any club as a fourth outfielder. Unfortunately, the Cardinals have like three other guys that can fill that role right now. Robinson is the classic odd man out, and he may benefit from more time in AAA. But he still retains some upside for any club, and would be a good addition to a package deal for an impact arm.

Matt Adams (1B) – He’s the Brett Wallace of 2012, except Adams can actually move. He’s blocked six ways from Sunday at 1st base, and that happens to be the only position he can play. If the Cards don’t have Carlos Beltran next year, I think Adams’ value is a little higher because Allen Craig would likely be needed in right field. He may anyway after Beltran leaves. But at this point, Adams’ trade value is pretty high, and may not get much higher.

Bryan Anderson (C) or Steven Hill (C) – The Cardinals are good behind the plate. Yadier Molina is obviously here to stay, and Tony Cruz is more than capable as a backup. And if he isn’t, backup catchers aren’t real tough to find. Anderson has never developed into what some thought he could be, and Hill is just a tic ahead of him offensively. Neither has a ton of value alone, but a team looking for catching depth may be interested in one of them as part of a package.

Brandon Dickson (RHP) – Dickson has some experience at the big league level and has some upside. Where he projects in a given rotation is anyone’s guess, but pitching is always at a premium and the Cardinals have enough organizational depth to dangle Dickson for a team looking for a young arm.

Shelby Miller (RHP) – This one is tough to swallow. Miller has been perceived as untouchable since he was drafted in 2009. And his struggles in 2012 are no reason to give up on him. But again—in order to get something, you have to give up something. The real, logical reasons Miller can be deemed expendable are: A) the emergence of Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly as viable rotation options, and B) the depth behind Miller in Carlos Martinez, Trevor Rosenthal, and John Gast (among others). Trading Miller is not a must—the Cardinals could do a lot worse than holding on to him—but in terms of upside and ceiling equating to trade value, Miller may be the best chip the Cardinals currently hold.

Again, this list is far from complete. If they go after a second baseman, for instance, maybe Daniel Descalso becomes expendable. But aside from the unlikely hypotheticals, the Cards have pieces to move and they have the motivation to once again win now. That should equal an intriguing trade season for the defending World Champs.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @Birdbrained.

The St. Louis Cardinals entered the 2012 season with a potent, yet aging, offense that was prone to injuries. That potential was realized as several key hitters hit the disabled list early in the season. However, the Cardinals pitching staff is still the biggest factor in the team’s success.

When the Cardinals jumped out to a 3.5-game lead in the NL Central through April, their team ERA was 2.66. In the following six weeks, the team has gone 18-24 heading into play Saturday. The team ERA was 4.43.

Plus, since the debacle of a series in New York that included Johan Santana’s no-hitter, the Cardinals have lost just two games when their pitching gave up less than six runs, including Friday’s nail-biter when Tyler Greene nearly tied the game with a Little League-style dash around the bases that ended in hime being thrown out at the plate.

So, what do all these numbers tell us? They say Cardinals fans should be much more concerned about the performance of the pitching staff than the lineup. Despite the myriad of injuries to position players, the Cardinals will still put up enough runs to contend more days than not. The key for a successful rest of the season is whether or not the pitching staff can keep the opposition’s score within reach.

And that’s been the problem.

Even without Chris Carpenter, the Cardinals starting rotation pitched great for the first month or so of the season. The staff even carried ace Adam Wainwright for much of April and the bullpen was solid. Then the wheels fell off. Kyle McClellan got hurt, and Fernando Salas, Mitchell Boggs and Marc Rzepczynski saw their ERA’s balloon to a combined 4.32. Closer Jason Motte also blew three saves.

The pitching has been better of late, however. The Cardinals have given up four runs or less in eight of their last 11 games heading into play Saturday. The team won six of those games.

Basically, the Cardinals will win more often than not when they get good pitching performances. When they don’t, the team enters slumps that threaten to take them out of playoff contention. That’s not surprising. It’s been an old baseball adage forever.

Just look at the Pittsburgh Pirates, who up until this last week were tied for the division lead with the Cincinnati Reds. The Pirates are hitting just .225 as a team, dead last in Major League Baseball. But they also have a 3.51 team ERA, fourth best in the league.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals could be in line for more problems after starting pitcher Jaime Garcia went down with shoulder trouble last week.

Hopefully new starter Joe Kelly can put together a few solid starts. His contributions, combined with an ever-improving Wainwright and continued stellar performances from Lance Lynn could be the most important aspect of the 2012 Cardinals team for the balance of the season.

Yes, offense is important, but the pitching staff will be what determines how far the Cardinals go in 2012.

When the St. Louis Cardinals started the season with an 11-5 record and a substantial lead in the NL Central, everything looked sunny in Baseball Heaven. Then the dreaded injury bug visited and slowly but surely Cardinals players have checked in to the disabled list.

Relief pitcher Kyle McClellan, and outfielders Jon Jay and Allen Craig all went to the disabled list this week.

On top of that, outfielder Carlos Beltran has been slowed by a leg injury that kept him out of four games this week and first baseman Lance Berkman has yet to see regular playing time because of nagging injuries.
The injury issue was the biggest concern for the Cardinals heading into the season. This is an old club that has several veterans with substantial injury histories.

The injuries have played a large part in the Cardinals recent 2-6 slide that began last weekend with a sweep by the Atlanta Braves. The Cardinals had just a 2.5 games lead in the division over the Cincinnati Reds, who could easily be leading the division if they put together a winning streak. Thankfully for the Cardinals, the Reds have only gone 3-5 heading into play Saturday’s game against the New York Yankees.

Granted, the Cardinals’ pitching has also been less than stellar of late. The team has the third-worst ERA in May at 4.79, and the relievers have given up runs during critical points in games recently. For example, Berkman hit a game-tying blast in the ninth inning Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers to tie the game at five. Then Fernando Salas came in and promptly lost the game with a bases-loaded walk.

Although it has been a depressing week to be a Cardinals fan, there are still reasons to remain positive. The team still leads the NL Central by 2.5 games heading into play Saturday with a 22-17 record.

Plus, all of the injured players are scheduled to be back at some point in the next month. It’s the long-term injuries that could seriously hurt this team’s chances at the postseason. McClellan, Jay and Craig are important parts to the team, and it would be foolish to think the Cardinals could continue to play .700 baseball, especially against good teams such as the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.

Anyway, Berkman is likely to start producing more runs soon as he continues to recover from an early season calf injury, and Beltran is making progress, albeit slow, and was able to start Friday’s game against the Dodgers.

Also, none of the pitchers in the starting rotation have missed a start this season. Consistency in the rotation is typically a huge factor in determining a team’s overall success.

The Cardinals won’t get much of a break in the upcoming schedule. The San Diego Padres come to town to start the week, but then the Cardinals play the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. We already know what the Braves are capable of, and this time the Cardinals will have to visit Atlanta for three days.

Still, this is a part of the season that could boost the team’s confidence if it can play .500 or better against some of the best teams in the National League.

Life isn’t as rosy as it was a couple of weeks ago, but the Cardinals will have to suffer a few more injuries before the panic meter should rise substantially. Hopefully that’s a situation we don’t have to discuss anytime soon.

After Edwin Jackson inked a new deal with the Washington Nationals, the St. Louis Cardinals now sit pretty with five of the first 60 picks in this year’s amateur draft. With that many selections so early, the Cards should be in good position to fortify organizational needs.

Every MLB team shows time and again that the ultimate weapon to wield is depth. It doesn’t even matter where the depth is—positions on the field, rotation, bullpen, lineup, bench—the more quality players a team and a franchise has, the better their chances of making it to and through October baseball.

Take a look at the 2011 Cards’ bullpen as a prime example: at the beginning of the season, Ryan Franklin was the closer. By the ninth inning of Game Seven of the World Series, the closer (or ninth inning man…whatever, Tony La Russa) was Jason Motte. In between was a closer rotation consisting of Fernando Salas, Eduardo Sanchez and Mitchell Boggs. Lance Lynn made it to the big club and had a huge impact in the ‘pen. Kyle McClellan started and then pitched relief. Arthur Rhodes. Mark Rzepczynski. The list is long, but the story was clear…the Cards’ bullpen depth was one of their greatest strengths through the end of the regular season and into the playoffs. Just look at how they were used in the postseason. If that group falters, the Cards are done. But they held up, and the team kept advancing.

A long-standing credo states “You can never have enough pitching.” And that’s true, to a large extent. But one of the many things the Cards proved in 2011 amends that theory. It should really state “You can never have enough up the middle,” including catcher, pitcher, middle infield, and center field. Those zones are the ones that rely most heavily on defense, and by deepening those positions the Cardinals are likely to enjoy success for years to come.

Again, the 2011 team is a prime example of this theory in action. At the beginning of the year, the Cards had Colby Rasmus in center field and Ryan Theriot at shortstop. But John Mozeliak strengthened the pitching staff by sending Rasmus to Toronto and filled up a leaky shortstop position by acquiring Rafael Furcal. These may not have been foreseeable moves early in the season, but they were very necessary in building the 2011 World Series Champion.

Overall, the Cards showed how important organizational depth can be in 2011. When a player went down to injury, or a defensive substitution was needed, or a big out had to be secured on the mound, it seemed like another Cards’ farmhand was stepping in to take the reins. And it would be nice to know that if any problems at all creep up in the middle of the field, a capable player waits in the wings to get a chance to prove his worth to the Cardinal organization. Finding those players starts with the draft.

The Cards do have some promising Middle Field players coming into their own already. Jon Jay obviously has the most credentials of any position player. Daniel Descalso and Tyler Greene look to challenge Skip Schumaker for the starting role at second base. Tony Cruz and Bryan Anderson will be the favorites to back up Yadier Molina in 2012. And prospects Kolten Wong (2B) and Ryan Jackson (SS) look to get a chance to open some eyes fairly soon.

But it’s not enough. It’s never enough. The Cards need to take these extra draft picks and concentrate on the middle of the field. They need to look at center fielders with gazelle legs, cannon arms, and live bats. They need to look at middle infielders with magnetic gloves and impressive hitting stats. And pitching…well, a team can never have enough pitching. You pick often in 2012, Cardinals. Please pick wisely.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

Various media outlets are reporting St. Louis is the front runner to land former Houston and Philadelphia starter, Roy Oswalt, and if that deal happens, watch out folks.

Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Roy Oswalt. That’s a nasty 1-4 in the rotation. Then you’ve got Kyle Lohse coming off a career year, going 14-8 with a 3.39 ERA. Jake Westbrook would either be an insurance starter, an asset to be traded, or an additional option in the bullpen. Waiting in the wings is top prospect Shelby Miller, who has a chance to rise to Triple-A Memphis this season. We haven’t even touched on Kyle McClellan, who had a very successful season as the club’s 5^th starter, or Marc Rzepczynski, who’s also projected to be a starter someday.

So what’s that all mean? It means that John Mozeliak will have some serious bargaining chips to work with this spring and summer that could make the Cardinals even better than the team already is.

Let’s take a look at the projected lineup for a minute:

1. Furcal
2. Jay/Beltran
3. Holliday
4. Berkman
5. Freese
6. Craig
7. Molina
8. Descalso/Schumaker
9. (Pitcher)

Not a lot of holes to fill, but let’s say Furcal gets hurt or the team wants a little more pop at second base. Mozeliak is now free to make a move. Without Pujols in the lineup, the Cardinals will have 9 legitimate starting position players with only 8 spots to play them, and have 7 legitimate starting pitchers will only 5 spots in the rotation. Even the bullpen will be loaded with talent with the return of Eduardo Sanchez, Fernando Salas, Jason Motte, Lance Lynn, McClellan, Rzepczynski, and company.

There were two general thoughts when Albert Pujols left (other than outrage, anger, and despair), and those were: 1) Mike Matheny will have less pressure to repeat with Pujols gone, and 2) the team will have a lot of flexibility to make improvements.

We’ve already seen scenario number-2 in action… and if the club lands a healthy Roy Oswalt, it blows scenario number-1 out of the water.

Simply put, the addition of Roy Oswalt (and all the other options the move would present) puts this team on the fast track for at the very least a return trip to the NLCS, if not the World Series. It should be fun to watch.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen came a long way in 2011, beginning with Ryan Franklin’s blown save on Opening Day and ending with Jason Motte’s final pitch to win Game Seven of the World Series.

The squad battled through major ups and downs throughout the season, and the final roster hardly resembled the Opening Day roster. All of those changes turned out to be a blessing, however, as the team went on to win the World Series.

The Opening Day bullpen that included pitchers such as Miguel Batista, Brian Tallet and Bryan Augenstein eventually turned into a bullpen with Fernando Salas, Marc Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel.

The latter group was instrumental in the Cardinals run to the world championship. Manager Tony La Russa used his bullpen more extensively in the playoffs than any manager in the history of the game, and the relievers came through nearly every time in the playoffs.

Veterans such as Dotel and Arthur Rhodes left during the offseason, but the Cardinals picked up left-handed specialist J.C. Romero Dec. 15 and still have a strong core of young arms that will be ready to defend the championship this year.

Plus, the experience those young pitchers got during the stretch run of the 2011 season is sure to help them in future seasons.

After watching Motte nervously bumble his way through relief appearances at times during the previous two seasons, few people could have imagined him all of a sudden shutting down the best teams in the game during the most important stretch of the season, much less coming through flawlessly in the World Series to beat the Texas Rangers.

Yet, there he was on the mound at Busch Stadium throwing some of the most important pitches of the season.
After years of turnover and uncertainty in the Cardinals bullpen, that group could be one of the best parts of the team in 2012.

The Cardinals lost a lot of firepower in the lineup when first baseman Albert Pujols left in December to sign with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and they only brought in players who were Pujols’ age or older. The chances of both shortstop Rafeal Furcal and outfielder Carlos Beltran staying healthy for the entire season are very low.

That means the Cardinals will have to rely heavily on their pitching staff. The good news is this year’s pitching staff could be the best the Cardinals have had since 2004 when four starters had 15 or more wins, and that team went to the World Series.

Adam Wainwright will return this season to join what should be a strong rotation that includes Chris Carpenter, Jamie Garcia, Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook.

However, that rotation can only do so much. The bullpen is also going to have to shut down teams regularly late in games. With a strong rotation, the relievers will likely come into games with a lead, and a bad stretch of relief pitching could quickly demoralize the entire team.

Losing games is one thing, but losing because a reliever blew the game late adds an extra sting.

In any case, Cardinals fans should be as confident in this season’s bullpen as it has been in many years. This group is younger than most of the Cardinals’ bullpens during the La Russa era, and it now has experience that should keep them from getting rattled in tight situations.

After having a bullpen that appeared to be one of the worst in the league less than 12 months ago, the Cardinals could go into 2012 with one of the best bullpens in the game. That is quite a turnaround.