Seemingly Impossible Optimism

Right about now, Cards fans are lower than they have been in a long time. And that is completely understandable. Within the last two weeks, two catastrophic events have taken place. The first, really more of a lack of an event, involved the superstar and face of the franchise not signing a contract extension. This fact means that Albert will be a free agent next winter. Then, more recently, we were all informed that the ace of the staff suffered a season ending elbow injury and will have to undergo Tommy John’s surgery. Combine these two terrible stories and your outcome is the current situation in St. Louis. To say it kindly, these reports are not exactly the best news that Cardinals fans want to hear coming out of Jupiter during this time of year.

Because of these recent events, everyone is counting the Cardinals out. Both local and national opinions about the upcoming season in St. Louis have virtually all been negative. No one–and I mean no one–expects the Cardinals to win the division, much less make the playoffs, much less finish second or third in the division.

Who knows? Maybe we need to be realists and agree that these potential negative outcomes are all probable and have been predicted by experts, based on solid facts and previous patterns.

But these events have also all occurred before the Cardinals really took the field, before a real pitch was ever thrown. I say we wait. There’s no sense making negative assumptions this early about 2011.

Right now, the best thing that we can do is to support the club. Rather than tear this team apart, let’s focus on the things that the Cardinals can hang their hats on heading into the season.

For one thing, Pujols isn’t gone yet. Whether the slugger “does it big” for the St. Louis fans or just tries to increase his market value this season, the man will put up big numbers. That is always a guarantee. The second part of the Cardinals one-two punch on offense is the dependable Matt Holliday. The player who offered to give up some of his salary in order to pay Pujols will be giving it all he has got in 2011 to help save this team. And when the team runs into a formidable Righty who stops Matt and Albert in their tracks, count on Colby Rasmus and Lance Berkman to have big offensive seasons. Colby will desperately want to eliminate the question marks that have surrounded him for a year or two now and move into a comfortable position of dependability for the future. On top of this, count on Berkman to provide the spark needed for this offense. If this team decides to campaign hard for a playoff spot rather than roll over and die at the first sign of defeat, the offense will get hot and the players will feed off of each other’s successes.

In terms of pitching, the Cardinals do still have one legitimate ace in Chris Carpenter. And Jaime Garcia had quite a promising season last year. The rest of the rotation will have to band together and all have career years in order to make up for the loss of Wainwright. But, hey, stranger things have happened.

The success of the Cardinals this year comes down to the extra effort that each guy will have to put in to make up for the loss of Wainwright. Teams of all kinds often use adversity to grow, and the Cardinals will have to tap into this precedent in order to have a successful 2011 campaign. No doubt–there will be bumps in the road. In fact, while this pitching staff begins to come together at the beginning of the year, bumps in the road will most likely be early and often. The thing that will ultimately determine the success of this team will be its character. If the team can persevere and fight back after some tough losses, that would be special. And in terms of having the right casting characters to pull off such feats, this year’s clubhouse perhaps has all the right ingredients in place. 

Rather than abandon this team in February (or anytime you fair-weather fans!), let’s get excited for tomorrow’s first spring training game, against the Marlins at 2:05 CT. We’ve got a Cardinals team playing again.