Cardinals' struggles are on display

If you haven't heard, we got whipped by the Cubs last night. I even watched the replay last night and we still lost that bad. We lost 17-5 and allowed 17 runs for the first time since 2010. So after a loss like that where do we look to start putting the pieces back together?

Coming home to a long home stand after a big win against our division rivals, the Pirates, the Cardinals sure didn't look very energetic. Yes I understand the late flight after playing a Sunday night game and not much rest before Monday's game. That being said I am sure you have been up late the night before and still had to be at work at 7 a.m. They still had plenty of time to sleep and relax before the evening game. What happened to a thing called the "happy flight" a few years ago?

So far this season if one thing goes wrong, it all goes wrong. Our pitching isn't going deep into games, the bullpen is on fumes, the offense is not exactly consistent, the lineup is a mess, the defense is not exactly stellar and having Tim McCarver announce a few games with Dan McLaughlin is unbearable. OK I threw the last one in for me. Even our dominate closer looks human this year and not the flame thrower we were used to watching last year in the playoffs.

I have said before how much of a fan I am of Mike Matheny. I enjoyed how he played the game and his knowledge of the game and he is a true leader, demanding respect on and off the field. But I think he shows favoritism too much and that is a big weakness. I will say this a few more times and maybe I might convince a few of you to see my point. Move Matt Carpenter from the leadoff spot! I don't know why the past success automatically guarantees your future. I know we will never be a base stealing machine like we were in the 1980's, that is not why I keep bringing this up. My point is, Carpenter is struggling leading off this year. OK, I know the whole lineup is struggling but why not at least change it up some and give him a break to become the hitter we saw last year. Carpenter has a great batting eye and works the count, but he seems to have lost some of his aggressiveness. I will say that I hope when Kolten Wong gets called back up they at least give him a shot to lead off. He is leading off in Memphis and is hitting over .300 and has a slightly better on base percentage than Carpenter. Matheny also keeps using the same arms game after game in the bullpen. Nothing against the big three of Kevin Siegrist, Carlos Martinez and Trevor Rosenthal but we do have other options to use. Pat Neshek seems to be the new Seth Maness this year and usually gets the first call if it is early. My thought is if Maness needs some work let him go to Memphis and bring up David Aardsma who is doing very well. If you recall we signed Aardsma late in spring training and he was close to making the team but agreed to take a minor league roll. To make a long story short he is able to walk away on May 15 if he is not in the majors by then. Matheny indicated a roster move is possible to give the bullpen some help. Do we see Aardsma? Or is Jaime Garcia coming up after a few rehab starts?

I have read and heard people say over and over about how we aren't the same without Carlos Beltran. Yes there is some truth to that but as good as Beltran was when he wore the birds on the bat I don't think even he could help with all of the struggles we are going through right now. So where does that leave us? Do we bring up Oscar Taveras? Do we make a trade as rumors are starting to fly? In my opinion the answers are no and no. It is still early enough in the season to get things lined out and I don't think we should give in to desperation and start trading pieces in hopes we can get on track. This is the same team as last year with only a few different pieces and you all know like I do that they know how to get it done. To me it seems like they play better as an underdog so after our rough stretch maybe it will get some of the lime light off of us so we can get back to work. It would also be nice to see Matheny show a little fire and get thrown out of a game or two. Yes I am old school but in my opinion sometimes a simple thing like getting thrown out of a game will fire a team up and then hitting becomes contagious.

It doesn't make it any easier that we lost as bad as we did to the Cubs and of all teams to take a beating from the Cubs were last on the list. So now we regroup and refocus and get back to work tonight. Adam Wainwright takes the ball so that will get us back on track. Let's just hope our offense will soon find their groove. If nothing else comes out of the bad loss, at least we know that little Daniel Descalso can pitch in a pinch. Lets hope next time he pitches it is a blow out in a positive way.