As the Cardinals sink six games back of the Reds, even the most loyal fans are wondering whether the team has what it takes to get back into the NL Central race. Herein are five ways that they can.

La Runcan scraps Lohse and goes to a four-man rotation
The difference is simply too great between Lohse’s starts — in which he offers a 5.19 xFIP — and those of the other four starters — 3.21, 2.57, 3.75 and 3.82. With a four-game deficit to the Reds, the team can’t afford to handicap itself every fifth game the rest of the way with a Lohse start. With only two more off days, it’ll mean one rotation in which the other four pitchers go on four-days’ rest, but if the team wants to win this year, it’s better than the alternative.

Offense plays aggressively
The overthinking, namby-pamby bunt-in-the-first inning tactics need to go by the wayside. When the Cardinals broke out against Tim Lincecum and the Giants back on August 21, it was a Randy Winn home run in the fourth — not small-ball bunting by Jon Jay in the second — that sparked the win. That also means that La Russa needs to put a sock in in it and let Colby Rasmus play his game. The fact is that Rasmus is third on the team (min. 300 PAs) with a .364 wOBA, and it doesn’t matter if he achieves it with bunt singles or pulled home runs.

Pujols apologizes then leads
The ugly elephant in the room this season is the team’s lack of leadership, and more specifically the lack of team-orientation from its best player, Albert Pujols. Pujols has disrespected coach Jose Oquendo on multiple occasions, and he often goes his own way, whether in the field or on the bases. Pujols needs to address the issue by apologizing to his teammates and coaches, which, once it’s out of the way, can lead to a true kind of team spirit that a superficial act of group head shaving cannot.

Mozeliak makes another move
It’s not too late to add an impact player, as recent castoffs Manny Ramirez and Brad Hawpe attest. Pedro Feliz was the kind of addition that a team makes as a security blanket, not a pennant-race difference maker. John Mozeliak and company need to keep sniffing the waiver wire, even if it means replacing a regular. The team can easily upgrade in several places, if at least in their pinch hitters, where Aaron Miles and Randy Winn are their top threats.

Fans set the tone
Listen, fans: Stop freaking out over one bad inning, one loss or even a lost series. It’s baseball, and no team is “consistent,” not by Cardinal fans’ and media’s spongy definition. Even the worst teams win 40% of the time. Sometimes bad luck — such as the team’s .192 BABIP over the last two games — makes things look worse than they are. Undoubtedly, the team is playing tight and aimlessly — but fans can do their part to loosen them up and point them toward the goal. After the current road trip ends in Houston, the Cardinals will play 17 of their final 30 games at Busch Stadium. Over the years, the home crowd has taken on the tense personality of Tony La Russa’s clubs, clamming up at the first signs of demise and ganging up on their own players to jeer when they fail then mock them when they recover. For the stretch drive, the hometowners need to throw off that spirit and simply “go crazy, folks, go crazy.”

This entry was posted by Pip on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 10:01 pm and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.