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.

Last April I came to the conclusion that Opening Day was like Christmas. There is much anticipation, and everyone has a good time once it arrives. As you can see from the picture below Santa joined us last year on Opening Day..he didn’t have to work that day. Today, Santa is working very hard. In fact, he’s probably already taken off to deliver presents to the good boys and girls on the other side of the International Date Line. I’m pretty sure Santa will land at an island in the Southern Hemisphere after his 31 hour Christmas Eve is complete. Too bad there won’t be any baseball to watch.

I don’t have many baseball thoughts this week. Christmas, and other life events have sapped my sports energy this past week. However, I would to wish all the readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you all take some time when friends and family are gathered this week to plan a baseball outing this spring and summer. I know it doesn’t seem like it now. But we will flip the calendars. The 2012 Season will go from next season to this season. And baseball will return. In fact, there are only 59 days until the beginning of spring training.

Enjoy the down time. Hopefully you get some good baseball stuff for Christmas.