It’s not exactly peachy for St. Louis teams … Except those SLU Billikens. 

St. Louis Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak gambled this offseason. He knew Rafael Furcal opted against surgery to repair a torn ligament in his throwing elbow. He knew Chris Carpenter faced a steep mountain returning as a top starter in the league. He’s playing with fire believing in the mind of Jaime Garcia. He signed off on the idea Matt Carpenter at second base.

Let’s not forget: this is John Mozeliak’s club. Don Tony no longer fights for personnel necessities. Dave Duncan no longer oversees the pitching staff. It’s now all Mozeliak with a hint of Mike Matheny to push the buttons.

I like ‘Mo, respect him as a person and his expertise. His decision-making has led to continued success including a World Series Championship. However, I am a tad concerned when one person has as much power that ‘Mo possesses.

Had La Russa not written ownership the passionate letter to acquire guys like Furcal, Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski and Arthur Rhodes, the Cardinals probably stumble through the final two months and miss the playoffs entirely. Without saying Matheny doesn’t have such leverage, I’m saying it’s probably not as convincing as a manager with 2,728 wins.

Call it Camp Happy, or whatever you please — but some sense of urgency in Jupiter, Florida would be nice. Some acknowledgement like, ‘Hey, we might be in over our heads thinking a shortstop can battle through a torn ligament’. How many times can this organization get away with humiliating injury reports?

Right now, I see an 84-win team. One can certainly be naïve and think Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, and Lance Lynn will throw 200 innings each and win a combined 45 games, but that’s not how it works.

One can believe in the ‘Wizard of Koz’, Pete Kozma, but come on.

This team lacks speed, defense and proven pitching. But otherwise, all is absolutely fantastic in South Florida.

Blues Search For Consistency

Perhaps it will come off as an overreaction, but know this folks: these Blue Notes need some help.

Forget the Colorado loss. Jaroslav Halak looked good, the Blues played stingy defense, and Semeyon Varlamov was strong in net for the Avalanche.

Frankly, the Blues will win a lot of games if they play like Wednesday night.

Let’s talk about Tuesday night at the Scottrade Center against San Jose. Coming into the game, St. Louis had the Sharks swimming in circles. For SJ to come and at times dominate the game says a lot about this Blues team. The Blues had a long plane delay in Vancouver, blah. Forget fatigue…and if not, then thinking this team can compete in a Conference Finals is absolutely ludicrous. Once again, Jake Allen fought through poor passes and sloppy turnovers but it still wasn’t enough.

Ken Hitchcock called out Alex Pietrangelo and Kevin Shattenkirk after the 2-1 loss. This engine runs on those two players, and when they aren’t playing like elite defenders, the team struggles.

The Blues only have five players with a positive +/- (goals for/against while on ice), and one of them, Jamie Langenbrunner, is out for the season. The list excludes names like Chris Stewart (0), Andy McDonald (0), David Backes (0), Patrik Berglund (0), David Perron (-2), T.J. Oshie (-2) … yikes.

If play continues as such, this team will have an early exit when the Playoffs begin in May.

GM Doug Armstrong needs to make a deal, period.

2 quick notes

• Sending Jake Allen to Peoria is a mistake.
• Mark Olver’s hit on Vladimir Tarasenko was a blow to the head on a defenseless player; therefore it should have been a penalty. It wasn’t, and the NHL screwed up again. The timing of the hit doesn’t matter…it was an illegal hit.

Rams Have Decisions To Make

So I’ll do it for them … they need to re-sign: (in preferential order)

RB Steven Jackson

DE William Hayes – 35 tackles, 7 sacks

WR Danny Amendola

RT Barry Richardson – filled in nicely at RT. Resign as a utility man

CB Bradley Fletcher

DT Jermelle Cudjo

The hiring of Tim Walton is very exciting. I’m Looking forward to his introduction and hearing his thoughts and philosophy regarding the Rams defense. His rapport is off the charts.

NBA – Where Amazing Happens

James Harden had a nice day against his former teammates in a 122-119 win Wednesday night.

News/Notes

Orlando traded J.J. Redick to the Milwaukee Bucks

NY Knicks signed Kenyon Martin to a 10-day contract

THREE former KU Jayhawks were dealt in a 3-way deal yesterday. Thomas Robinson (Rockets), Cole Aldrich (Kings), and Marcus Morris (Suns) all found new homes.

Finally, the NBA All-Star Game is still a complete waste of time … sorry @AllIDoIsOwen

Keep Grindin’ and FOLLOW @DGRINDSPORTS on Twitter.