ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Here is the team that made the ‘wild card’ worth wild.

The Champion Cardinals finished 90-72, 6 games behind the division-winning Brewers and went all the way to the World Series winning it all. This year they have the task of doing it under a new manager and without the best bat in baseball, with Albert Pujols signing with the LA Angels.

The Cards finished 5^th in runs scored, 5^th in batting average, 3^rd in on base percentage and 6^th in slugging percentage! With hitting like that they managed to overcome some mediocre pitching that finished 12^th in ERA, and 20^th in opposing teams batting average of .261.

Aside from Albert Pujols trading uniforms to go to the Angels for 10 years and $250 million, here’s what else happened on the free agent market in bird-land. Octavio Dotel P, .350 to Detroit, resigned Rafael Furcal ss to a 2-year $14 million deal, backup catcher Gerald Laird went to Detroit to catch Dotel, Nick Punto 3^rd B to the Bosox for 3 years $3 million, and Ryan Theriot SS to the Giants.

CARLOS BELTRAN

To make up for the loss of Pujols bat, they signed Carlos Beltran RF from the Giants for 9 years and $26 million which will haunt them in a couple of years, J.C.Romero RP, from Colorado for $750,000 on a year tryout, and that aside from some minor league deals with some washed up or retiring veterans sums it up.

The Cards will miss Pujols, Beltran can’t carry the team and the pitching still stinks. The question is are the Brewers any better in 2012 than 2011?