Cardinal Clinching And Cardinal Concern

That was one hell of a baseball game on Saturday night leading to the clinching of the National League Central. Adam Wainwright may have won the Cy Young with that performance. I loved how fired up he was after getting the backwards K on Jason Giambi to close out the 8th.

That gives the Cardinals 6 NL Central titles this decade...and 7 post-season appearances (depending on how you want to view the Co-Championship of 2001). That's one hell of a decade, and this has been one hell of a year. Considering there weren't many high expectations at Spring Training, the ease with which the Cardinals won the division is quite a credit to the entire organization.

Meanwhile, the elephant in the room that is The Ryan Franklin Situation continues to grow in concern. He still hasn't had a 1-2-3 inning since August 19th, and he has allowed two baserunners in each of his last three outings. Saturday night in Colorado got interesting in the 9th...once again.

I really think it's a huge mistake not to move John Smoltz to the bullpen. At this point, it's clearly not going to happen barring injury. But, when you consider how shockingly bad the Cardinal offense has been over the last month (they've scored 3 runs or less in 19 of their last 30 games), Franklin is going to be pitching in close, one-run ballgames, and I can't imagine there are many people with much faith left in him.

One of the things that made this year so successful is that the Cardinals---specifically Bill De Witt and John Mozeliak---recognized this was a potentially once-in-a-lifetime situation in which you have two Cy Young candidates and the MVP all on one roster...and they went out and got numerous big pieces to give the club the best chance to win a World Championship.

In my opinion, it's in the best interest of Tony La Russa to move Smoltz to the bullpen for the final week of the season. Kyle Lohse of 2009 isn't Kyle Lohse of 2008, but I'd rather take a chance with a weakness in a Game 4 than five week's worth of a clear trend of a weakness at closer...which can bang you in any game---not just Game 4---and cost you the game. If you throw Lohse out there in Game 4, you're also facing the opposition's fourth-best option. Game 4's tend to be high-scoring affairs...because of that reason. For example, in the 2006 NLDS, NLCS, and World Series, the Cardinals and their opposition combined for more runs in the respective Game 4's than any other game of the series.

Smoltz's value to this team now is greater in the bullpen than it is in the rotation as a Game 4 starter. He needs to go to the bullpen now to see if he can do it and bounce back on the short rest a closer gets.

But, you know Tony La Russa, and you know he's not going to bail on Franklin at this point. I've said it before...and I'll always believe this: if it weren't for Jason Isringhausen's injury in September 2006 that ended his season, the Cardinals wouldn't have won the World Series. Tony would've never pulled him...despite the fact that he was blowing saves left and right in '06. That's nothing personal against Isringhausen, but without Adam Wainwright in the bullpen, the Cardinals don't get that World Championship. Hell, they might not have even made the playoffs.

This team has World Championship potential...but I fear the heartbreak of a blown save could ravage this chance.

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