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http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atl/blogs/blog_post.aspx?id=15988&blogid=256

With Walt's departure after 13 years in St. Louis and Shuerholz's 17 with the Braves, it looks like there really is a changing of the guard/shift in philosophies in the way baseball teams are being run.

Both men were very, very good at what they did, for a long time.

In the case of Elijah Dukes, another name immediately sprang to mind, one that I know will set people off immediately:

Albert Belle.

Then a couple of other names floated up--Brett Myers.  David Justice.  A very quick-and-dirty Google came up with a few more.  Armando Benitez.  Scott Erickson.  Wil Cordero.  Dmitri Young.  Julio Mateo.

All guys who didn't just threaten domestic violence, but actually reached out and struck their wives/girlfriends/etc.  

I didn't even bother going into the NFL and NBA, because I could have been there all day.  

What's my point?  Lots of guys hit their wives/girlfriends, so that makes it OK?  Hardly.

Major league baseball, as much as it is romanticized, idyllicized, fetishized and italicized, is a business.  The bottom line is making money and winning games, period.

You can say all you want that the Cardinals "don't need those kind of people."  But the fact is that the St. Louis Cardinals are a corporation, just like Edward Jones or Monsanto or Enterprise Rent-A-Car.  And bringing in Elijah Dukes will not decrease attendance by a single person.  It won't cost a single advertiser.  It won't sell one less beer.  And it might win quite a few games.

I love baseball and the Cardinals as much as anyone.  I've loved them my whole life.  But now that I'm a grownup, even while I am root-root-rooting for the home team, dissecting Tony's latest crazy managerial play, and monitoring Rick Ankiel's OPS, even while I am sitting in "baseball heaven" itself watching the home team with my daughter, part of me is very aware that my love requires, to a large degree, self-deception.

The St. Louis Cardinals, LLC, does not care about me.  It does not feel my love.  It will never reciprocate it.  When I scream and cheer for another Pujols blast, or a diving Edmonds catch, The St. Louis Cardinals, LLC does not hear me.  I know this.  

From a business perspective, acquiring Elijah Dukes is an easy decision if he can be had for a relief pitcher or two.  Just as acquiring a young David Justice or Albert Belle would have been a no-brainer, or Brett Myers.  There will be a PR cost--a couple of columns in the Post-Dispatch, maybe a week's worth (at most) of talk radio fodder.  But it will go away.  

My love for the Cardinals, my fandom, does not have anything to do with The St. Louis Cardinals, LLC and how it runs its business.  I can (and often do) pretend that it does, but I know it does not.

The Phillies are once again reported to be shopping Jon Lieber for bullpen help.  Would there be any interest by the Cardinals?  Better question: would it be a good idea for the Cards to have an interest?

In Lieber, I see a guy with solid groundball tendencies, who walks very few batters.  His career stats compare favorably to Jeff Suppan (although he is 36).  The last three seasons he has averaged ~175 innings, with an ERA in the mid-4.00s.

Lieber makes a relatively modest (for an established veteran pitcher with a career winning record) $7.5M this season.  To offset some of that salary, the Cardinals could include Looper in the package of relievers.  Lieber would then, conveniently, end the Braden-Looper-as-starting-pitcher experiment before it even began.  Depending on what the Phils are looking for, Johnson or Kinney would probably make up the other part of the deal.

Lieber isn't going to be a No. 2 starter, but he's a better middle-to-bottom-of-the-rotation option than what they have.

Gil Meche is a seemingly popular choice to be part of the Cardinals rotation in 2007.  Maybe some of you who are smarter than me can explain why.

I see a guy who is 28, with 4 full big league seasons.  He has never thrown as many as 200 innings.  His ERA and WHIP are unremarkable, especially considering he pitched half his games in Safeco.  He was third in the AL in BB with 84 in 2006.

And the trendlines aren't encouraging.  His four-year numbers for

ERA: 4.59  5.01  5.09  4.48
K/BB: 2.06  2.11  1.15  1.86
K/9: 6.28  6.98  5.21  7.52

I will admit that I've only see him pitch a couple times, but on paper this isn't electric stuff.  He made $3.7M in 2006, and this is his first big FA market.  What justifies his likely $5-6M salary?

And by "we" I don't mean the Cardinals, I mean each and every one of us who are fans of the team, and specifically of its greatest player.

If you give him a chance, Albert Pujols will kill you.  He has that Michael Jordan/Tiger Woods quality.  Every professional athlete loves to win.  The great ones want to BEAT you.  It's a subtle difference, but an important one.  For them, every situation is personal, and intense, and extremely focused on beating the player/situation opposing them.  In some arenas, it can appear selfish.  AP has the luxury of not having any control over when he gets a chance to hit, or when the ball is hit to him.  He just has to be ready so that, when the tiniest opportunity presents, he delivers.  This is also extremely difficult, as far as maintaining focus and concentration over the course of a game.  AP cannot just "take over a game" like a basketball player can.  He cannot make his own opportunities.  He can't put runners on base ahead of him.  Add to that the fact that the trade he plies--using a stick to hit a ball being flung directly at him at 90+mph, or with a wicked bend--is the most difficult in any professional sport.  We are fortunate indeed to have lived at a time when we can witness this.

I am posting prior to his start against the Marlins.  Expectations are (justifiably) low.  Five innings of non-blowout pitching would be greeted, perhaps not ecstatically, but at least with lowered pitchforks.

My question: what else is the club supposed to do with Mulder, besides run him out there every 5-6 days and hope things turn around?  I don't pose this question from a "what to do about the rotation" perspective, but a "what to do about Mulder" perspective.

The bullpen?  Why?  There's no reason to think he would be any more effective there -- and he would have less opportunity to work out his mechanical issues.  Other than having him hang around soaking up a roster spot, the only other choice would be to DFA, which would be a bad idea for a number of reasons.

First, by team policy the Cards might be obligated to immediately re-sign him.  Heh.  Seriously, DFA'ing Mulder works harm in two ways.  First, there's the outside chance he gets picked up by a contender, and comes back to bite you.  Second, and more important, if the Cards are to make a play in the FA market this winter (or ever again), they have to at least not worsen the poor reputation they already have for treating veteran FAs-to-be with "respect."  (See: Williams, Woody; Renteria, Edgar; Matheny, Mike)  How eager would a Barry Zito be to sign here, seeing that his good buddy was essentially thrown overboard, deservedly or not?  

Sad to stay, but we're stuck with him.  So we may as well root for him.