A big reason is the alarming climb in strikeouts. The team has gone down on strikes 146 times in 637 at-bats. The strikeout total ranks fifth-to-last in the league.

Players such as Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols are striking out at unprecedented rates.

While Molina’s 8 k’s in 62 at-bats is good, it is still an increase for a player who has been the toughest strikeout in the majors the past two seasons.

Pujols has gone down an alarming 14 times in his first 73 at-bats. Colby Rasmus?

17 in 51.

It is a trend that needs to end for the Cards. They need to put the ball in play to advance runners and put the pressure on the opposing pitching, something they were excellent at in years past.

Aside from a double play, nothing kills an inning more effectively than a strikeout.

And if the Cardinals keep swinging and missing at this rate it truly will be home run or bust in St. Louis.

Chris Carpenter has the next highest ERA of 3.60. The team as a whole has a remarkable 2.72 mark.

Lohse sits at 7.31. He has not been the victim of bad breaks. In his last start against the Brewers he gave up hard hit after hard hit.

He says his stuff has been okay, his location is okay, so whats the deal?

His early-season walk totals would show that his location is not necessarily the best. 7 in 16 innings. From someone who walked 85 in his last 317.2 innings of work this is not acceptable.

Against Milwaukee he consistently fell behind in the count and was hit hard when forced the throw fastballs.

Lohse has made three starts, two poor, one good. The key to his success in his good start? Zero walks allowed.

It allowed the righty to throw a season-high seven innings allow just two runs.

Quite simply put, Lohse needs to find his location. Or he will be bumped to the 5th starter spot in favor of Jamie Garcia.

The recent call-up from AAA is 0-2 in two pinch hit opportunities so far. Anderson is in the majors with regular backup catcher Jason LaRue on the DL.

Anderson will spell Yadier Molina who caught every inning of the 20-inning loss to the New York Mets and both subsequent games.

The timing allows Molina to have tonight and Thursday, an off-day for St. Louis, to rest.

Bryan Anderson will bat 7th in the Cardinals lineup, behind David Freese and ahead of Brendan Ryan.

After hitting .080, 2-25, in his first nine games Ryan has hits in three consecutive games. Two of those three games were multi-hit games. Though his average is still sub-par Ryan looks far more comfortable in the batter’s box these days.

The Los Angeles native has been taking extra BP sessions, working closely with Mark McGwire in an attempt to re-find his stroke that saw him hit .292 a season ago.

St. Louis hopes that he has, because no matter how good he is defensively it is near impossible to justify playing someone every day who can’t hit .150, especially with the pitcher’s spot also being a factor.

Quite simply these guys may be the best rotation in baseball.

The rotation has put together seven straight starts of 7+ innings in which they have allowed two or fewer earned runs. It has happened one other time for the franchise the last 55 years.

The ERA is a league best 2.12.

Everyone knows that Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter are two of the best four starters in the NL along with Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay, but there were questions about the rest of the rotation.

Brad Penny was signed as the third starter to replace Joel Piniero, who was magnificent last year, and has looked excellent so far. After allowing two first inning runs against the Diamondbacks yesterday he didnt allow any his final 6 innings and the Cards rallied for a 4-2 win.

Kyle Lohse may still not be as good as he was in his debut Cardinals season, but even if he averages his current 4.15 ERA the rest of the year it is more than acceptable for the #4 slot and will win a ton of ball games with the St. Louis offense.

And lastly Jamie Garcia has been a revelation through two starts. Sure it is early, but one run allowed in 13 innings is pretty good. Especially since in his first start Garcia decided not to even use his curveball and dominated solely with a fastball and changeup.

Injuries are the one thing that could derail this unit. Carpenter has a list a mile long of career injuries. Wainwright is the least prone of the bunch, but even he has had minor-to-medium afflictions over the past couple seasons. Penny has had his share of elbow problems. Lohse missed a good chunk of last year, and Garcia is in his first full year following Tommy John surgery.

If the rotation is healthy though, look out. There may not be a better group in baseball.

No one has reached this milestone as quickly as A-Rod has, not even Hank Aaron. Rodriguez had this to say:

“It feels good to keep moving up the line.” “Long after I’m playing, I’ll have a chance to reflect on that. Right now, the focus is on winning.”

The Yankees have won four straight series to open the season and are tied for first place with Tampa Bay with a record of 8-3.

It was not clear what he was sick with or if it could last beyond today. Manager Tony La Russa expected Holliday to take indoor batting practice and said his slugger was at the stadium today.

Holliday struggled in the last series against Houston, going 0-11 and dropping his batting average on the year to .297.

Anderson went 0-1 in his debut, pinch-hitting for Yadier Molina and lining out to right field in a 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros.

It was a bit of a surprise move as Matt Pagnozzi had been the team’s number three catcher all through spring training and had nearly made the opening day roster when both LaRue and Molina were struggling with nagging injuries.

Anderson, a left-handed hitting catcher, hit .333 in his first four AAA games however and got the call. He is considered a better hitter than Pagnozzi who is thought to be the better defender.

The St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 defeat to the Cincinnati Reds exposed a few potential problem areas for the Cards in their quest for the playoffs and beyond in 2010.

This by no means is a panic-now article. But lineup issues could have been revealed in the defeat.

Giving Ryan Ludwick, David Freese, and Yadier Molina a day off, Tony La Russa’s lineup was significantly weaker. Without Ludwick Felipe Lopez slid into the 6th spot in the order followed by Allen Craig.

Lopez is a fine hitter, but he belongs in either the top 2 or bottom 2 in the lineup. When flanked by Craig the lineup fell off considerably after the terror of Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and Colby Rasmus.

The result was a 2-1 loss in which the lone run came via Holliday’s solo bomb.

There were other factors of course, Pujols had an off-day as did Rasmus and Skip Schumaker. There will be times when this lineup will work as Pujols and Holliday get so hot that it is more than enough on its own.

But the lack of depth could potentially have been exposed. If Craig and/or Joe Mather and Nick Stavinhoa do not hit well off the bench it will be a struggle some days for the Redbirds.

Plenty of time to go, but keep an eye on how St. Louis holds up over the season, especially if Pujols/Molina/Holliday/Rasmus/Ludwick get hurt. They could very well be in the market for a veteran bat from the left side.

Now, I have a hard time believing this is a real rumor at all, since almost everyone involved has come out and said it is completely false, but just for the sake of argument, let’s take a look at how this trade could work for the Cardinals and Phillies.

Albert Pujols is pretty easily the best baseball player in the world, but Ryan Howard is no slouch. Here’s how they compare in different aspects of the game.

Offense

Pujols is obviously a beast. He has a career .416 wOBA, and has had a wOBA over .450 three times. Fantastic. He has been worth over 70 runs with the bat in each of the last two seasons. His wRC+ has never been lower than 152, with his career average being 173 (wRC+ is set up so that 100 is average and any number above or below 100 is that percent above/below average. So, a wRC+ of 101 means the player would be 1% better than average).

For those that are less sabermetrically inclined, Pujols’ traditional Triple Crown stats have averaged 41 HR, 124 RBI, and a .334 AVG in his nine major league seasons.

Simply put; he’s the best.

Howard, however, is no pushover at the plate. He’s posted a career .396 wOBA crossing the .400 wOBA mark once, in 2006. His batting values have been fairly sporadic through his career, thus far, but he’s had a 141 wRC+ for his career. Obviously, he’s a far cry from the level Pujols is, but he’s a very productive offensive player.

His Triple Crown stats look like 37 HR, 107 RBI, and a .279 AVG for his career.

Defense

Pujols is touted as one of the best defensive first basemen in baseball, and for good reason. Although his last two seasons have shown decline from his 2007 season, in which he posted an 18.8 UZR. That’s almost two full wins of defense, alone. His 2009 UZR was an unimpressive 1.3 runs, but he’s got the tools and the determination to be among the best in the league, once again.

Defense has never been Howard’s strong suit, but in the past few years he’s turned himself into a decent first baseman. In 2008, he posted his career high 2.8 UZR, which is probably his ceiling going forward.

Baserunning

Pujols tends to put up a surprising amount of stolen bases each year, but his baserunning in general is about average. Baseball Prospectus has a statistic called EQBRR, which stands for Equivalent Base Running Runs and is a combination of stolen bases and different types of base advancement. Pujols has been around 0 for his career, with some seasons above and some below average.

Howard’s baserunning ability is easily his most limited skill. He’s posted EQBRR numbers under -3 for most of his career.

Pujols is obviously the superior player. The question becomes one of money. Howard is due to make $7 million more than Pujols is over the next two years, but Pujols will undoubtedly command more money than Howard on an extension. If the Cardinals thought they couldn’t afford Pujols, or that they didn’t want to risk plunking almost 40% of their payroll on him and Holliday with a fairly weak farm system behind them, they may actually entertain trading for Howard. The money they would save could help in fielding a good team around Howard, something that might not be possible if Pujols gets $30 million per year, like some think he will.

Personally, I wouldn’t make the deal unless I was assured that ownership wouldn’t raise payroll to acomodate the new extension. If two players are taking up between 30 and 40% of the payroll space, it’s hard to imagine fielding a successful team around them unless you have strong support in the minor league system. Cardinals fans, I’m sorry, but your farm system just isn’t that system right now. In fact, Beyond The Box Score just ranked the Cardinals’ farm system dead last in the majors. Now, I don’t agree with that assessment since the Astros are worse off by a pretty wide margin, but the Cardinals are in the discussion.

My conclusion is that it might behoove the Cardinals to try to move Pujols given the right situation