Spring Training

If I were planning to make a regular baseball bet on the St. Louis Cardinals this year, I’d steer toward putting money on whomever they were facing. I see these guys coming together as a disaster in the making, certainly not improving over their 86-76 schedule or climbing any higher than the 4th place they finished in the Central division in 2008.

In fact, take Pujols off this team, and they get dangerously close to looking like cellar dwellers, don’t they?

They’re badly in need of a 4-5 year rebuilding effort, instead of trying to compete now. And while Albert may draw the crowds, he could probably land the Cards a whole boatload of prospects and young talent from a team contending this year.

So why no respect for the Cardinals? I’ll start with the ninth inning. More specifically, the team identified relief help and a solid closer as their one, big offseason priority this past winter. Did it happen? No. So they’re left right now with facing the prospect of going into opening day with a closer-by-committee situation. A virtual death sentence for a team that blew more games in the eight and ninth inning last year that is acceptable by little league standards.

So put your money on that happening again. And if the Cards are already down, you can virtually count on their competition piling on a few more insurance runs before the end of each game. They’re relying on two guys who LaRuss said himself weren’t up to the task last year. So what, they’re young, that means all of a sudden with a few dozen more games under their belt that they’re ready to step into the high-pressure spot of game saver? Please.

Speaking of LaRussa, anyone else get the sense that players are tired of his pocker demeanor these days? You keep hearing stories about how this player didn’t gel with Tony, that player didn’t get along with Tony. They keep shipping the players out, but you wonder where the real cause is. And when a team’s losing, not having 100% faith in your coach is poison for locker room chemistry.

So any much as it pains me to say it, but looking at the mlb odds for the upcoming season, the Cards won’t even see the Cubs on the road ahead of them after about a third of the way through the season. They might not see the Brewers, either, at least by the All-Star game.

2010 Cardinals: 4th place…78-84 if they’re lucky.