professional sports after this weekend's action...so let's start with the team that didn't play.-The rumored Matt Holliday for a package of Cardinals players...including Ryan Ludwick and his prolific '08 season...deal has a lot of jaws wagging and fingers typing. As I said on the radio today when discussing the possible deal with Ron Jacober, it seems to me that Cardinals management is saying that their opinion is that Ludwick's performance this season was a fluke...or at least an anomaly. If they believed that his .299 avg/37 HR/113 RBI season was the real Ludwick... one that could be counted on for the next 7 or 8 seasons...they don't talk about dealing him. It's
pretty obvious they believe him to be a player who's trade value is high...but real value is not nearly so. I have to say that the idea of Holliday in a Cardinals uniform and standing on deck while Albert Pujols strolls to the plate is a mouth-watering notion. For that reason, and because the Cardinals have a glut of major-league quality...if not star quality...outfielders, I'm ready to see it happen. Losing Skip Schumacher and Mitchell Boggs (the other players supposedly going to the Rox) doesn't concern me. Schumacher is a nice guy to have around...Boggs seems to be a 5th-guy-in-the rotation arm at best. The business end of it? Well, that could be problematic if they can't get Holliday's agent (the infamous Scott Boras) to be reasonable about a multi-year extention. Go ahead Mo. I'm on board.-The Blues have put together a disappointing couple of weeks and compiled a 5-game losing
streak as I write. Nobody thought this season would be a cakewalk...especially the pre-season prognosticators. But The Note gave us reason to believe things would be significantly improved with their pre-and early-season scoring barrage. And scoring hasn't been the problem during the losing streak. Keeping the puck out of the goal has. Of course, they wouldn't be the Blues without having to deal with a mess of injuries. The goalies, T. J. Oshie (one of the best players early on), and Paul Kariya have been absent lately. And it's tough to win without your best players on the ice...no matter what sweater you wear. I wouldn't think Andy Murray is in any sort of trouble as coach even though quite a few pundits seem ready to send him packing. I think management knows Murray is limited in what he can accomplish with the current roster. No matter how you want to sugar-coat it, the kids can't be expected to carry the load of a playoff-caliber performance. Not yet. So it's hockey for hockey's sake...and savor the wins when they happen. I've analyzed these things wrongly before, so it's entirely possible I'm wrong again and the wins will return in droves.-Now to the pathetic Rams. Obviously, the two-game win streak...if you can call it that...after
Jim Haslett's ascension to head coach must have been a mirage. Today's roll-over-and-play-dead routine in New York was as disgusting a performance by a "professional" sports team as anyone could imagine. 40-to-nothing at half-time? The East St. Louis high school team could have done better. There are so many problem areas on this squad...and everywhere else in the organization...that it would take a genius just to come up with a sensible plan on how to blow it up and re-start. And I'm certainly no genius...so I won't try. All I know at this point is that it seems like a century since the Rams were the toast of the town and Kurt Warner appeared to be a guy we could count on to lead the Super Bowl parade down Market Street every year for many. Now he's on his way to the playoffs with Bill Bidwill's outfit in Phoenix. Oh the agony!
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