Wainwrong

For a team that already has to deal with its best player, the whole sport's best player, spending an entire season in contractual limbo, the loss of one of the best starting pitchers in the game is quite the cruel twist of fate. The Cardinals were entering the 2011 season with their starting rotation representing a real strength. Now? Well, not really. The issue isn't so much that Chris Carpenter is now once again considered the team's ace (though he's certainly more of a number two in his mid-30s), it's that the 40 percent of the Cards' starts are going to come from the guy who was previously slotted to be the number five starter and a guy who was previously slotted to start in Memphis.

Am I right about that? Are the Cardinals not going to do anything about the gaping whole that Adam Wainwright's messed up arm has left in its wake? According to TLR, that's exactly the case. La Russa was quoted as saying that the answer will not come from outside the organization, that the Cardinals have what they need right at home. Clearly he and I have different definitions of what the word "answer" means. I'm not saying that the team should trade valuable parts for a rental starter, but I am saying it's going to take a miracle for this team to keep up with the 2010 division champion Reds and the revamped Brewers. Even before Wainwright went down, this thing was looking like a dead heat between those two teams and the Cardinals. So where does that leave St. Louis now? It's too soon to say, but I intend to predict a third place finish.

We all obviously know that this news is going to cost the Cardinals a few wins in 2011, but which in-house option is going to be the least awful?

Ian Snell has obviously always had the stuff to succeed at the Major League level; in fact, he actually did for a while in 2007. Problem is, Snell is also considered to be crazy and incapable of learning from anyone, so Dave Duncan's Dumbledore dust might not even be able to fix him.

Kyle McClellan has finally bettered his peripherals to the point where he's a useful reliever, but there's no way anyone could safely project him to succeed as a starter.

Miguel Batista can play the guitar and do magic tricks or something, but he can't pitch.

I hate PJ Walters and will never have anything good to say about him. His name is PJ; that's ridiculous.

Simply put, this isn't 2010; there's no exciting option like Jaime Garcia. Me? I guess I would rip my hair out, pick McClellan, and hope for the improbable best.

So what, if you're the St. Louis Cardinals, do you do? Going into the season, the offense was middling and the pitching staff was strong. Now middling seems to describe an entire team that could easily finish 81-81 to a tee. Is the answer to simply sit back and hope for some accidental breakout seasons? I don't think. After all, why should we be certain Carpenter and Garcia won't incur injuries of their own? That said, I really don't know what I would do in Mozeliak's shoes. Perhaps I would spend my time writing letters to Lance Lynn asking him to suddenly project as more than a four starter and Shelby Miller asking him to become Future Shelby right now. There simply aren't any expendable, useful parts to trade for anything resembling a replacement. It looks like all the Cards can do is play the horrifying wait-and-see game.