The St. Louis Cardinals suffered the first crack in their best-in-baseball starting rotation Sunday when they placed Jake Westbrook on the 15-day disabled list with elbow inflammation. The team decided to give Westrbook’s start to rookie John Gast, but they might have been better off to let a more experienced pitcher fill that role.

Joe Kelly made his Major League Baseball debut in similar circumstances last season after Jaime Garcia suffered a shoulder injury in June. Kelly went on to make 16 starts and post a 4-6 record with a 3.53 earned-run average, overall.

Although he didn’t have a winning record, Kelly did an admirable job filling a hole in the rotation last summer. He pitched six or more innings in all but three of his starts, and the Cardinals offense scored two or fewer runs in five of his six losses, and they scored just three in the other.

Kelly moved to the bullpen when Garcia returned in September and pitched well. He allowed just two runs in six appearances, but he also had a consistent workload by pitching about every third day. Manager Mike Matheny has significantly dropped his workload this season, and it’s shown in his results.

Kelly pitched twice in the Cardinals’ season-opening series in Arizona against the Diamondbacks, but he pitched only six more times the rest of April and had the fewest outings for any Cardinals reliever.

And then he imploded when the Cardinals did bring him into ballgames. He has allowed 10 runs in 11.2 innings pitched, but he’s also appeared in just three games in May. Perhaps a bigger role would help him get comfortable again and start to pitch better.

That’s also why a move to the rotation might help. Kelly would be guaranteed to pitch every fifth day, and he would be able to extend his pitch total well beyond what he gets as a member of the bullpen. He hasn’t thrown more than 27 pitches in an appearance this season, and that could quadruple if he moved to the rotation.

Plus, the Cardinals management wouldn’t have to hold its breath with another rookie on the mound to start a game.

Gast has been good for the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds. He’s 3-1 with a 1.16 ERA in seven starts this season in the minors, but there is always an unknown factor that comes into play when a rookie makes a start, and they often don’t pitch very deep into a ballgame.

The Cardinals might have left Kelly in the bullpen because they don’t want to force him to shift between starting and relieving if Westbrook comes back soon, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem since Kelly bounced between the rotation and bullpen last season and worked as a starter in spring training because he was in contention for the fifth spot in the rotation with Shelby Miller.

The Cardinals have even set a precedent for bringing up young pitchers this season when they brought Seth Maness and Carlos Martinez up from the minors. Both of those pitchers went straight into the bullpen and have done well.

Martinez gave up three runs Sunday to the Colorado Rockies in his third appearance, but he had not allowed a run and given up just one hit in his previous two outings. Meanwhile, Maness already has two wins, has allowed just one hit hasn’t walked a hitter in 3.1 innings through three outings.

Martinez and Maness could certainly become starters at some point in their career, yet the Cardinals will still send Gast to the mound while Martinez, Maness and Kelly sit in the bullpen.

Maybe Gast will be great and pitch the way Kelly and Lance Lynn did last season as fill-in rookie starters when they went a combined 23-14 with a combined 3.66 ERA.

But if he’s not, the Cardinals will have wasted games by hoping yet another rookie will do well in the rotation while Kelly sits in the bullpen.

A big thunderstorm helped the St. Louis Cardinals avoid a possible loss Tuesday when they trailed the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 after two innings in Pittsburgh, but they got an even bigger break by not having to play a doubleheader the following day.

The Cardinals and Pirates left the schedule unchanged and played just a single game Wednesday evening. They certainly had time to play another game that afternoon, but that would’ve been a minor disaster for the Cardinals pitching staff.

They wouldn’t have been able to bring Jake Westbrook back because he had already thrown the two innings Tuesday, so they would’ve had to find a replacement starter at the worst possible time.

See, the Cardinals are currently on a 10-day roadtrip and a 13-game stretch without an off day. They didn’t play April 11 before a three-game set with the Milwaukee Brewers, and they won’t have another scheduled off day until April 25 as they travel home from Washington to face the Pirates for three games.

So the Cardinals are already in a tough part of their schedule, especially with good teams in the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals up next, and a doubleheader Wednesday would’ve really hampered their pitching staff heading into those games.

Shelby Miller was going to be the Cardinals starter for Wednesday’s regularly scheduled game regardless, but the Cardinals would’ve had to scramble to find someone to start the make-up game.

Joe Kelly might have been an option, but he pitched two innings Monday, and the Cardinals probably wouldn’t have let him pitch very deep into the game since he is now supposed to be a full-time relief pitcher.

If not Kelly, the Cardinals would’ve had to bring somebody up from the minor leagues to make an emergency start, and that wouldn’t have been good for anybody. Sure, Michael Wacha or Seth Maness could fill in if necessary, provided they didn’t just pitch a day or two before for the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds, but the Cardinals would’ve had to make corresponding roster moves to make space for a one-day appearance by a minor-league pitcher.

Plus, the bullpen would almost certainly be strained because of a doubleheader early in the roadtrip.

Cardinals starters let the bullpen rest throughout the weekend against the Brewers, as the team needed just five innings from relievers in the three games against Milwaukee, but their workload would’ve changed instantly with a doubleheader.

None of the Cardinals’ options to start the make-up game would’ve been allowed to go deep into the game no matter how well the starter pitched, so the bullpen would have to cover significant portions of at least one game while still providing normal support in the nightcap.

All of a sudden the relievers would have racked up innings heading into four games against the Phillies. That, in turn, would put pressure on the starters to again pitch deep into games to try and save the bullpen from an overwhelming workload.

A major-league bullpen requires a delicate balance between not enough work and too much work, and the Cardinals bullpen almost certainly would’ve struggled to maintain that balance because the team simply had so many games in a relatively short period of time.

This wasn’t going to be an easy roadtrip in any case, but a doubleheader on the third day of the trip would’ve really made this part of the schedule difficult to survive. It certainly would’ve been difficult for the Cardinals to thrive in that situation and run off several wins against the Phillies and Nationials.

But as it stands, the Cardinals were given a respite Tuesday. They were already down two runs just two innings into the game, and Westbrook looked anything but sharp.

Of course, the game will have to be made up at some point, likely during a four-game series in late July when the Cardinals are scheduled to play in Pittsburgh.

A five-game series would surely create issues at that point in the season, but for now the Cardinals can attack the rest of the roadtrip without that potential loss on their record, and everyone got another day of rest leading into some important games on the road.

The St. Louis Cardinals finished second in the National League in hitting last season, but they also had plenty of stretches when the lineup didn’t score more than two runs, even when the pitching staff threw a great game.

And that trend has already continued into 2013.

The San Francisco Giants scored just one unearned run Friday off of Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook, who threw a very solid 6.2 innings and pitched well enough to earn a win, but the Cardinals couldn’t score any runs off of Giants starter Barry Zito and lost the game 1-0.

Yes, Zito is the same lefthanded pitcher who shut the Cardinals down in Game Five of the 2012 National League Championship Series, but the Cardinals have already shown signs of a team that will go through weeks when it struggles mightily to score a run, while other weeks it hits homers at an incredible rate.

In just the first four games of the season, the Cardinals scored 15 of their 17 runs in two games. They were held to two runs by Arizona Diamondbacks starter Ian Kennedy in the season opener, and then Zito and the Giants shut them out Friday.

This pattern is certain to cause frustration among fans who see starts such as Westbrook’s Friday outing wasted because the offense can’t score.

It’s also not a prototypical pattern of success. In fact, it was one of the biggest reasons the Giants beat the Cardinals in seven games in last year’s NLCS. No pitching staff is going to be able to carry an offense that scores one run in the final three games of that series.

The Cardinals actually scored 52 runs combined in their seven playoff wins last season, but they scored just five runs in their six losses.

And that one day hot, one day not syndrome carried into 2013. The Cardinals even showed inconsistency at the plate during the month of spring training games. They scored seven or more runs in nine of their 16 wins and scored three or fewer runs in 12 of their 15 losses.

Those numbers show the offense might be the most important factor for the Cardinals this season. Sure, the pitching staff has to pitch quality games more often than not, but the numbers say the Cardinals win-loss record is primarily defined by how well the offense hits.

When the Cardinals hit the ball well, they win. When they don’t, they lose.

That’s a pretty simple formula, but it’s also a scary one since the Cardinals have injury-prone hitters such as Carlos Beltran, Allen Craig and David Freese as important pieces of their lineup.

Beltran is playing through a fractured toe and has had trouble moving in the first week, Craig nearly injured his knee again by sliding into a wall in Arizona and Freese started the season on the disabled list with a back injury.

Those issues have surely played a part in the offense’s early struggles, and none of those figure to be major problems for the Cardinals throughout the season. Freese’s return by, hopefully, Monday’s home opener against the Cincinnati Reds will help, but the entire offense is going to have to be more consistent throughout the course of the season.

That means they’ll likely have to score more runs by playing small ball and moving a runner along the bases without getting a hit. Craig and Matt Holliday did a great job of manufacturing a run in the fourth inning of Tuesday’s 6-1 win over the Diamondbacks, which also happened to be the Cardinals only win of the season heading into play Saturday.

Centerfielder Jon Jay led off the inning with a double, Holliday then grounded out to second base to advance Jay to third and Craig followed with another groundout to score Jay.

The big homeruns and innings filled with bunches of runs might be fun to watch, just as a roller-coaster is fun to ride, but the steady, consistent innings that produce a run or two every day will more likely determine the Cardinals final record.

The St. Louis Cardinals, according to many sources, seem to be searching for starting pitching.

The one thing the team has made sure that everyone is well aware of is the depth of starting pitching in this organization.  If that is true, then why the search for another arm in the rotation?

According to Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post Dispatch, it appears the team feels the need for more innings in the rotation.  The loss of Chris Carpenter, the concern over Jaime Garcia, and the unknown of what kind of workload the young arms can carry has the team willing to add a known “inning eating” commodity.  Most recently, that interest has shown in the Tigers Rick Porcello.

Should the concern be warranted?  Adam Wainwright is now two springs removed from Tommy John surgery and projected to be back to his normal self.  The Jake Westbrook trade and subsequent signing was based off of his ability to pitch a high number of innings.  The Cardinals have not had two pitchers with over 200 innings just once in the last 26 years, as pointed out by friend of the site Jon Doble.

Looking at trends over the last three years for the projected six men battling for the five spots in the rotation, the concern does come through.

Wainwright was injured the entire 2011 season, having a large impact on his three year average of 143 innings pitched.  If we remove the injury season and go back a year further, his average jumps up to 220 innings.  The concern is whether or not his arm can carry that load again, but for the sake of argument in this space, I give him the benefit of the doubt.  Innings Based On Average: 220

Westbrook was brought in to solve the issue of innings pitched.  Despite nagging injuries the last few years, he has approached the 200 inning plateau, though he has not reached it.  His 2010 season was split between the Indians and the Cardinals, but was still a productive one.  His average places him second in this discussion, though he is probably the number three man in the rotation.  Innings Based On Average: 187

Garcia, the wild card of the bunch, has seen injuries and ineffectiveness effect him during his major league career.  At times, he has been a dominant, top-of-the-rotation type pitcher.  At others, he has been sporadic and wild, projecting more at the back of the rotation.  Last season was the worst in his three year average, only producing a little more than 121 innings.  So far this Spring, it appears he has righted the ship and is back on pace to be a big part of this team.  Innings Based On Average: 166

Lance Lynn is a bit harder to project based on his limited exposure at the Major League level.  Many tend to forget that he was a starter during his minor league career, however, and the three year projection goes back to grab an entire year of starting at the Triple-A level.  His average is hurt by his time in the bullpen in St. Louis in 2011, but is still respectable for a guy entering his second year in a big league rotation. Innings Based On Average: 150

The final spot in the rotation will be left to either Joe Kelly or Shelby Miller.  Kelly is the easiest to examine in this conversation, thanks to his production filling in for Garcia last season.  His workload reached a peak due to the need for him in the big league rotation last year and leaves the Cardinals hopeful that he can repeat that performance but concerned that he may have pushed too hard, too soon.  It is also important to note that his 2010 season saw him work out of the bullpen in Class-A ball for a period of time. Innings Based On Average: 138

Shelby Miller has everyone buzzing.  He ranks as one of the top ten prospects in all of Major League Baseball and the team and fans are both excited to see what he can do on the biggest stage.  He gave everyone a glimpse of his potential at the end of last season.  He may be the biggest unknown in this situation and he may also offer a saving grace.  He projects as a top of the rotation starter and will be relied upon throughout his career and that time may come as soon as this season.  Innings Based On Average: 131

The ultimate equation that you would like to apply to an ideal situation is to break up the innings based on quality starts.  A quality start requires six innings pitched from the starter and there are 162 games in the major league season.  That puts most teams looking for 972 innings from their starting rotation in a perfect world.  The Cardinals rotation will fall well short of that goal based off of these projections. Innings For Rotation Based On Average: 854-861

That leaves the team about 110 innings short of where they would like to be.  The name that is driving the most attention right now is Rick Porcello, who’s three year average puts him at 183 innings.  Even if he was slotted to fill the five spot in the rotation, this gains the Cardinals around 50 innings.  A drastic improvement but not one that reaches their goal.

The Cardinals are relying on one of the pitchers in their rotation to overachieve their average and the addition of Porcello, or someone similar, to pick up the remainder of the balance.

Ultimately, the move may not be necessary but at the same time, it is not a bad one.  Assuming the team doesn’t have to part with any key components of the future, a trade for Porcello makes a whole lot of sense once you take a look at the numbers.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at i70baseball.
You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

The first week of spring training games always brings a mix of excitement and trepidation as pitchers take to the mound for the first time in a game atmosphere against real opponents. So far the St. Louis Cardinals have been able to experience the excitement, but more trepidation awaits Saturday.

The Cardinals got to see their pitchers who came to spring training with the most health concerns, Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia, throw in game situations, and neither had any problems.

Wainwright threw 2.2 innings Monday against the Houston Astros, who got four hits off of the Cardinals’ right-handed ace, but he did not give up a run and struck out four.

Sure, Wainwright didn’t come into spring training with any major health concerns, but he is still just two years removed from Tommy John surgery on his elbow, and it is always crucial to get that first start out of the way without any problems.

Garcia pitched two innings in a start Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox. He gave up three hits but no runs and had two strikeouts.

His outing was a bigger concern because it was the first time he had pitched in a game since facing the Washington Nationals in Game 2 of the National League Division Series last year when he had to come out after two innings because of shoulder discomfort, and that was after he missed much of the second half of the regular season with the same problem.

But Garcia looked sharp Tuesday and reported no lingering issues with his shoulder.

That would be a huge relief for the Cardinals because Garcia is a key piece of the starting rotation, especially now that Chris Carpenter won’t be around. Carpenter’s injury effectively moves Garcia or Jake Westbrook up to the No. 2 spot in the rotation.

So, with Wainwright and Garcia off to good starts, the Cardinals move on to their next question mark on the pitching staff: Shelby Miller.

Miller is scheduled to start Saturday against the Nationals after he missed several days with soreness in his right shoulder. That could certainly be a major concern if something truly is messed up in the rookie’s shoulder, but most signs point to his soreness as just a normal part of working back into game shape after the offseason.

The Cardinals will find out for sure in just a few days when Miller takes the mound. So far the team has had all of its injury questions answered the way they would prefer. Wainwright looked sharp, Garcia pitched well and the rest of the pitching staff hasn’t reported any injury problems, which is more important at this time of the year than how they perform on the mound.

This will also be the first in a series of important outings for Miller, regardless of his health. He is competing for the fifth spot in the rotation with Joe Kelly and Trevor Rosenthal, in what figures to be one of the most hotly contested battles of the spring.

Kelly has yet to enter a game, but Rosenthal started the Cardinals spring opener Saturday against the Miami Marlins, and things didn’t go so well. He gave up four runs on five hits and two walks without recording a strikeout.

Granted, the results in the first start of the spring aren’t very important, and he didn’t have any abnormal discomfort after the game. Rosenthal will get his shot to make the rotation. And if he doesn’t, the Cardinals will have his 100 mph fastball as an effective weapon out of the bullpen.

So the Cardinals can relax a bit now that the pitchers recovering for old injuries have surpassed the first hurdle of spring, but Miller will have to get through Saturday’s game without any issues before they can fully exhale.

Our friends over at InsideSTL spent last week hanging out at a picnic table, and eventually under a tent, in Jupiter, Florida and talking with any Cardinal players that came by and were willing to sit down for a few minutes.

What resulted were some great candid shots of the guys as well as a very candid interview with Adam Wainwright about his contract situation.

The images below were posted to their website and are being shared here with their permission.

Carlos Beltran

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

Without rushing to judgment or burying a guy too early, time to face facts:  the future in regards to competitive baseball is not looking too promising for Chris Carpenter. With a re-occurrence of the nerve injury that kept him sidelined for much of 2012, the future of the 37-year old pitcher looks to not contain much more active baseball.

Some of the focus has inevitably shifted away from Carpenter, and to how the St. Louis Cardinals will try to fill the void he will leave in the rotation. There still looms the actual gravity of that situation. Unlike last year, there isn’t the hope of one of the game’s most domineering presences looming, waiting to reinsert himself in the mid-season fray. This was arguably what Carpenter’s biggest impression on the 2012 season was, and eventually became last summer. But that’s gone now, and from all impressions, what’s here now is what you get.

However, that’s not necessarily a totally bad thing. What won’t be possible to do is replace what he epitomizes, but from the standpoint having the talent on hand to deal with such a blow, perhaps no team is better equipped. The great strength of the Cardinals organization is young, power arms. This sudden opening creates another opening for that stockpile to be more widely featured in the Major League starting rotation.

But there will be ripple effect that goes into play, and many different actors will see themselves up more high leverage roles in the rotation, and ultimately throughout the season. Who fits in best, and where? Adam Wainwright will be the anchor atop the rotation, while Jake Westbrook will stabilize the backend as the fourth starter, but nothing less than everything changed everywhere else today. Here’s the potential impact, and new calling, the loss of Carpenter could carry for each of his young potential heirs.

Lance Lynn: He goes from competing for the fifth starter role to most the most qualified to directly take Carpenter’s place as the #2 starter. His 18-win, All-Star campaign from a year ago looks much better on paper than it played out in real time, but he represents the best combination of experience and top-end stuff to fill the role. He averaged 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings, but will have to pitch more efficiently and self-reliantly than he did a year ago to be a true asset in the role (11-0 with six or more runs scored, 6-5 with 5 or less).

Jaime Garcia: Who know s what to call from the sole lefty starting option in the rotation. That feature alone makes him very valuable, but the need for him in the midst of the rotation is offset by the tough truths of his situation. His shoulder health is static, and even when he’s healthy, it’s tough to call what he will offer. He’s given up over nine hits per nine innings the last two years, with a steadily rising ERA. He fits the profile of a solid middle of the rotation starter, winning 13 games in both 2010 and ’11, but if he’s not healthy, yet another question remains. A question that could potentially open up another door, for the most intriguing group of arms in the equation.

Shelby Miller/Trevor Rosenthal/Joe Kelly: And then, there were three. The race for the last spot in the rotation gets easier to pick out with Lynn ascending up the rotation. The decision still will be very difficult, with each representing a different quality. Kelly is the most experienced starter of the group, but Miller and Rosenthal are the more heralded talents of the trio.

This decision could set into motion much of the direction of the team throughout the season. There is next to no chance that Miller works out of the bullpen; he would be sent back to Memphis to continuing starting if he doesn’t win a spot with St. Louis. However, Rosenthal and Kelly have experience in both capacities, and could be immediate assets in the bullpen from Opening Day on. However, due to roster logistics, more likely than not one goes back to the Minors as a starter, one stays on in the bullpen.

How that plays out, anybody knows at this point. But there will be a gain, by yesterday’s unfortunate subtraction somewhere soon.

The last two nights at Busch Stadium have been indicative of much about the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2012 season. An injury-shortened roster has overexposed the team’s depth, the bullpen has been hit-and-miss, and the offense has sputtered with runners in scoring position. The result: back-to-back 2-1 losses; a total of two runs scored in 18 innings. And the two most consistent pitchers in the rotation this year—Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook—were the hard-luck starters.

Neither of these pitchers has gone wire-to-wire with stellar numbers this season. But they have basically been themselves or better throughout 2012. And if we were talking about Adam Wainwright or Chris Carpenter or even Jaime Garcia, it might seem par for the course. But this is Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook we’re talking about. They’re supposed to be a number three and a number four or a number four and a number five, but they’re pitching like a number two and a number three. And with Carpenter out for the season and Garcia missing a good chunk of 2012, that’s just what the Cardinals needed. Unfortunately, the team hasn’t been able to respond with any real run support of late.

Lohse has allowed more than two earned runs in just one of his last 10 starts. His ERA currently sits at 2.61 on the season; barring some disastrous starts in the last month and a half of this year, he will finish the season with an ERA under three for the first time in his career. The last time he failed to go six or more innings in a start it was still May. In the starts since, the Cardinals have lost five of the 14 games Lohse has started…and in those losses the Cards game him seven total runs in support, and he allowed seven total earned runs. He’s been great, but the team behind him has been brutal.
Westbrook is enjoying a great season as well. He has pitched at least six innings in each of his last 10 starts, posting just north of a 3 ERA in that time. For Westbrook, that’s fantastic. In fact, if his season ERA of 3.50 holds, it would be the first time he cracked a 4 ERA for a full season since 2004. Westbrook started 2012 hot; he had a 1.76 ERA through his first six starts of the year. But then he regressed to the mean, as they say, and was much more “Jake Westbrook-like” for the next month and a half. And then something happened: Westbrook caught fire again. Starting with a complete game victory in Detroit on June 20, Westbrook’s ERA dipped back below four and has stayed there. In his 11 starts since—including the gem against the Tigers—the Cards have lost three of his starts, scoring a total of five runs. Westbrook allowed six earned runs in those team losses.

One of the great injustices in baseball is watching a pitcher hurl one of his best games or put together a string of great starts and the team ends up with nothing to show for it because they couldn’t score more than one or two runs. Yes, the team on the other side of the field can have a pitcher just as good or better. And the Cards are battling more injuries, with Yadier Molina on the shelf with a stiff back and Rafael Furcal still being hampered by his own back issues. They’ve been battling tons of injuries this season, and ignoring the impact to the team by masking them as “excuses” is just absurd. So that the offense suffers peaks and valleys really isn’t a surprise at all.

But it’s tough to come to grips with the fact that the Cardinals are practically getting career years from Lohse and Westbrook and continue to be looking up at other teams currently occupying the National League playoff spots. If the Cardinals fail to make it to the postseason, the rotation will be the absolute last place anyone should lay blame.
Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

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 began their World Series title defense in impressive fashion, going 14-8 in April and leading the NL Central division by three games over the Cincinnati Reds. But then the season quickly took a turn for the worse as several key players got hurt and the Cardinals lost the division lead.

However, the Cardinals looked a lot more like the team of April this week than the depleted roster that struggled to keep up through much of May and June.

Sure, they are just 3-2 in their last five games heading into play Sunday, but the team has played much more solid games devoid of the mental lapses and poor fundamental play that plagued the team for more than a month.

Lance Lynn started last week’s series against Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers unimpressively. He gave up five runs in five innings, but since then the Cardinals pitching staff has been dynamite. Jake Westbrook threw a complete-game shutout Wednesday, and Kyle Lohse certainly pitched well enough to win Thursday afternoon’s game the Cardinals lost 2-1 in 10 innings.

But the real wake-up call came when the team showed up Friday at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City to begin a beatdown of their cross-state rival, the Royals. The Cardinals plastered 10 runs on the board in the first two innings of Friday’s game started by Joe Kelly. They went on to win 11-4 and then pounded out eight more runs Saturday to help Adam Wainwright get the 8-2 win.

Perhaps how the Cardinals won those games is more impressive than the fact that they won them. The offense jumped out to early leads in both games and put the Royals in a position where they had to try and make a comeback if they were going to win.

That’s what the Cardinals did so well at the beginning of the season. Fans who were late to their seats would miss most of the scoring because the Cardinals often had a multiple-run lead before the stadium lights would begin to take effect.

Not coincidently, the Cardinals recent performances happened the same weekend as centerfielder Jon Jay and utility man Matt Carpenter returns from the disabled list. Both players returned to the lineup for Friday’s game.

Now let’s not oversell those two players return as the saviors to the season. Injuries have certainly played a major role in the Cardinals’ struggles this year, but there have also been defensive lapses and bullpen problems that have nothing to do with injuries.

Still, the return of Jay and Carpenter are a boost to the club and should be the beginning of a stretch of better baseball.

Plus, the Cardinals will begin a series Monday in Miami to face the Marlins, who are in the middle of a rough stretch where they’ve lost nine of their last 10 games. The Cardinals started the season in Miami with a 4-1 behind a masterful performance by Lohse and maintained that momentum for the rest of the month.

Westbrook is scheduled to start Monday’s game, but his complete game last week in Detroit might have been the spark for a similar run into the second half of the season.