Red-Hot Red Birds! The Post-Pujols Era in St. Louis

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Do you see something wrong with the picture above? Big guy, had one of the best 11 year starts to an MLB career EVER. No? Well, apparently neither do the Cardinals as they are rolling along just fine without Albert Pujols.

I could tell you that the Cardinals will make the playoffs this year and that the Angels will miss the playoffs this year and you could call me crazy. This offseason, it seemed as if the Cardinals were doomed when they lost out on Albert Pujols and Tony LaRussa announced his retirement after winning the 2011 World Series. Pujols jumped ship with the Los Angeles Angels and they instantly became an American League powerhouse. The Cardinals, meanwhile, brought in new manager, and former catcher, Mike Matheny and also signed some guy named Carlos Beltran. While Beltran is no Pujols, the guy is no slouch either. He’s more than capable of putting up big numbers for the Cards, who look poised to defend their title without Fat Albert’s services.

Does the name David Freese ring a bell? This kid only put the team on his back to help the Cards slip into the playoffs and eventually win the World Series last year. He only broke the postseason RBI record, with 21, 5 HRs, and hit .397 in the playoffs last year. In fact, it was Freese that won the World Series and NLCS MVP, not Pujols. The fact is, St. Louis was prepared to lose Pujols last year and they are proving it this year with a batting lineup featuring Freese, Matt Holliday (remember him?), Lance Berkman (NL Comeback Player of the Year), Carlos Beltran, Yadier Molina, and Rafael Furcal. Factor that in with a rotation featuring a healthy Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, and young lefty Jaime Lopez, you have yourself a team set for another playoff run. With a punchless, princeless Brewers team, who else is there to contend with them? I like their chances at the playoffs this year as they are 7-3 and leading the league in runs, batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage so far.

Out west Pujols and his new crew are going to have to get by the back-to-back American League Champion Texas Rangers to get into the playoffs. If not by division, they will have to beat out one of those tough AL East teams (there are four of them now) to get one of the two Wild Card spots. So yeah, go ahead and call me crazy. Pujols out, Cards in. Yes, we are talking playoffs Jim Mora

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