Cards News: La Russa, Pujols, Rasmus, the Future, Disappointment

Cards News & Notes

Tyler Kepner of the New York Times examines the disappointment of the Cardinals season despite having a loaded roster. St. Louis has Albert Pujols, the best hitter in the game who could win another MVP award and the Triple Crown. Perennial All-Star Matt Holliday protects him in the lineup. Adam Wainwright was the best pitcher in baseball through August and remains in the Cy Young discussion. Chris Carpenter has been Wainwright’s equal in a career year. And Jaime Garcia is the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award. Few teams have the talent and production from key players that the Cardinals do, yet they will likely be on the outside looking in when October comes. The Cards collapse only adds weight to heavy issues heading into the offseason. Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan may be gone. Albert Pujols is no guarantee after 2011. And this team could be in trouble in the near future.

Bernie Miklasz breaks down the feud between TLR and Colby Rasmus, finding some fault in both. Rasmus can be immature and needs to grow up, but La Russa needs to know when to back down and that he really should be using a kid who seemed destined for stardom at the All-Star break every day. Rasmus has been on the bench too often in favor of Jon Jay who has been red hot all year.

Albert Pujols felt compelled to give his thoughts on the tug-o-war between the skipper and his teammate. Pujols, who had a small fight with La Russa early this year, took the manager’s side and bashed Rasmus for being disrespectful and ungrateful to the organization. The Cardinals are considered a model organization with great fans so it’s hard to argue with Pujols there. It’s a great place to play and Rasmus can suck it up for a month. After this year, La Russa may not be back. It would be a shame to see a kid throw away his talent and legacy so early in a place like St. Louis.

Pujols’ thoughts:

"“It’s a privilege to play in this organization, just behind the Yankees with 10 World Series (titles) and be able to be in the postseason almost every year,” Pujols said. “I have nothing negative to say about this organization."

"“For a young kid to come up and say that, that he wants to be somewhere else, I don’t know why.”"

"Pujols pointed out that he, too, was once a “young guy.”"

"“You need to know the mistake you make and be accountable to that. I think for him to come up and ask for a trade and that you guys should know about it, I don’t think that was pretty professional,” Pujols told reporters."

Rasmus has since backed off his hopes for a trade and just wants to play ball and help the Cardinals win again. I can understand Rasmus’ frustration and I do think everything will work out in the end. No athlete at any level likes to sit and watch from the bench. Especially when the athlete’s team is losing. Well, the Cardinals have lost a lot lately. Rasmus has a lot of pride as a professional athlete and he wants to play. For now, I’ll let this incident slide. I’d actually be more worried if the guy didn’t mind sitting back and watching his team fall apart. At least he has a pulse.

It’s something this team severely lacks.

Maybe some new leadership in the dugout next year wouldn’t be bad for this organization. It might even be good.

Cardinals lefty reliever Trever Miller has a forearm strain and will miss the next few days. Miller had been feeling discomfort near his left elbow and saw doctors Wednesday to find the problem. David Freese had surgery on his left ankle after having a procedure on his right ankle in August. The left ankle surgery was needed to fix up the ankle after having surgery on it last year due to an auto accident in the winter of 2009.