Facing a loss of 3/5ths of their starting rotation, the St. Louis Cardinals obviously had to do something about it. As good as Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright are, they can’t carry the team through the entire season. Heck, they couldn’t even carry the team through the playoffs.

So the Cardinals turned to Brad Penny, the former Marlin, Dodger, Red Sock, Giant. At first blush, $7.5 million dollars might seem like a lot for a pitcher who’s been just a tick above league average on his career. (And not even that since 2007.)

But I like the deal. In this day and age when teams seem to so readily throw multi-year deals at injury-prone pitchers, it’s nice to see a team pay for only one-year. It gives the team a solid chance at having a killer stating rotation, without mortgaging the future. Given pitching coach Dave Duncan’s history, I have a feeling this won’t turn into another Junior Spivey. Or even a Mark Mulder.

It’s something that other teams should do more often.

The St. Louis Cardinals traded for Matt Holliday this week and dramatically boosted their chances to remain atop the NL Central. Again.

Everyone knew Holliday was going to be traded from the A’s this year, but the rumors were flying. Heck, even the Reds blogs were talking about how he might help the team. Unfortunately for Reds fans, the team is once again in selling, building for the future mode. Renting Holliday for the rest of the year wouldn’t have been enough to win anything. Unlike for the Cardinals, who are in first place but need a little offensive help to stay there.

Must be nice to follow a team who ends up in a good position when the draft deadline comes.

The Reds have done a great job over the last few years of building up the farm system. In my mind, a team’s prospects have two uses.

1. Provide cheap, good talent for future wins.
2. Use as payment for renting expensive veterans in a year when the playoff gods choose you.

Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker must think there’s another use, though: taunting young athletes who are superior to their overpriced crappy veteran counterparts (see Ramon Martinez and Willy Taveras).

Come to think of it, maybe that’s why the Reds are in the cellar again. Nah, couldn’t be. The Chicago Cubs were great when Baker was there.

There have been a few big disabled list moves over the past week.

First off, let’s start with the Chicago Cubs, currently stuck in the middle of the division. With Ryan Dempster “struggling”, or “returning to normal” as I like to call it, surely the team doesn’t need any more adversity in their pitching staff. Whoops, too late.

Carlos Zambrano has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain.

Zambrano hurt himself running out a bunt. I do have to wonder if the Big Moose is starting to wear down, though, as he ages. He had injuries last year, too.

Still, Zambrano doesn’t have the worst injury. No, that belongs to St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel, who crashed face-first into the wall while making a catch. Hopefully, he’s able to bounce back. However, if the damage to his face is too severe, he should rest assured that modern medicine is now capable of face transplants. All he’ll need is a donor.

Lastly, in the category of “Boy, I didn’t see that one coming,” Cincinnati Reds shortstop Alex Gonzalez has strained his oblique muscle. Having followed the Reds like I have for most of my life, you can bet they’ll do their best to hamstring “manager” Dusty Baker by *not* placing Gonzalez on the DL and having him be day-to-day for a week or two. I think it’s called the GL, the Griffey List. It’s a good thing the Reds didn’t trade away any useful middle infielders during the off-season. They’re going to need them.

Boxscore

The St. Louis Cardinals sent out Kyle Lohse against the Braves last night, hoping to continue their dominance.

Lohse did. He lowered his ERA to 1.97 with a 6-inning shutout performance. Unfortunately for him, there was another Kyle who couldn’t match those zeros.

Kyle McClellan came on in the 8th with the Cardinals leading 1-0, thanks to an RBI by Yadier Molina. And then McClellan couldn’t even make it out of the inning. He walked 3 to load the bases and then gave up a single to Matt Diaz that sealed the Cardinals’ fate.

I guess Cardinals fans will just have to deal with still having 1st place all to themselves.

A foot of snow dropped on the Midwest last night. I spent all day shoveling the driveway–next year: snow blower–but it looks like a Cardinals fan in St. Louis saw the chance to make a masterpiece.