What are the Cardinals doing????

So when the Cardinals released one of the best GMs in all of baseball, I was not very happy, but I thought maybe this will be for the best as they will spend more money to make sure the public doesn't think a decline in performance was from the owners' doing.

When they decided to go with John Mozeliak and hire in-house, instead of finding someone who had a farm system development (the area the Cardinals are the weakest), I thought maybe it's for the best to have a GM who learned under Walt.

When they decided to not offer a contract to David Eckstein, our shortstop and leadoff man, I thought maybe he's too expensive and they are trying to be able to offer a lot for a big name pitcher, minus the fact that there are not any top pitchers really in the free agent pool.

When they hired Cesar Izturis, a career .259 hitter, to be the replacement at shortstop while Eckstein was still on the market and his list of future employers were getting slimmer, and signing him was getting cheaper, I thought maybe they feel Brendan Ryan is their man of the future and needed a veteran to mentor him for a year with diminished play as they split time and felt Eckstein deserved a chance to play every day.

When they released So Taguchi, a veteran utility man who has been through thick and thin for the Cardinals, I figured, hey we have a really deep outfield, maybe the Cardinals are making room for this top pitcher they keep talking about.

When they drafted Brian Barton in the Rule 5 draft, a minor league outfielder who has never played a game in the big leagues, when we have a plethora of outfielders including good minor league outfielders that would probably make other teams but are in the minors due to a deep Cardinal outfield, I thought maybe they see something in him that we don't (at least I hoped).

When they decided they would shop Scott Rolen, one of the best third basemen of all time, I thought, he's getting old and the riff between him and LaRussa could be a cancer in the clubhouse. Maybe we could use his star power to get a stud pitcher, since we don't exactly have a whole lot in the farm system for trading.

When they didn't do anything in the Winter Meetings, even though there were top pitchers being shopped and a top starter was Mo's top priority, I thought maybe the asking price was too ridiculous. But couldn't they at least make some offers? Couldn't they at least let the Redbird Nation know they were trying?

Yesterday, they got rid of Aaron Miles, the solution to our second base problem as we can't rely on Adam Kennedy to get it done right now.

Now there have been some pretty bad moves by the Cardinals organization this offseason, but this one takes the cake. When our middle infield batted .258 and .219 last year, and we have no leadoff man, how do you expect to contend. And that is ignoring the fact that we still have a rotation consisting of Adam Wainwright, Joel Piniero, Braden Looper, Anthony Reyes and Brad Thompson. I like the top three there and we will return Mark Mulder (who the hell knows what we can expect from him), but we need a solid top-three pitcher. And a leadoff man. Oh yeah, and maybe a pair of balls to go out and get someone good and maybe spend a little money.