By Bernie Miklasz
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — After the ending to the St. Louis Cardinals’ season with a loss to the Los Angels Dodgers in the National League Division Series, many questions remained.
m Given the team’s unexpected collapse, was it a mistake for General Manager John Mozeliak to give up so much in the trades for Matt Holliday and Mark DeRosa?
Here’s my opinion: Absolutely not. When you have great fan support, a supply of marketable prospects and a good but undermanned team that’s desperate for help, you owe it to everybody to take your best shot. You don’t make dumb gambles when it’s a lost cause. But when you’re clinging to first place and you have two Cy Young candidates and the likely league MVP as the nucleus, it’s appropriate to be daring.
Propelled by those trades, the Cardinals went 33-11 from July 23 through Sept. 9. The subsequent crash does not wipe out the legitimate reasons and good intentions that led to those deals. And we can’t have it both ways, ripping management for doing nothing and then blasting them for being aggressive. No GM or owner should apologize for trying to win.
m Is Tony La Russa to blame?
In baseball, the manager is always held accountable. Mozeliak got the players that La Russa wanted and the Cardinals failed in October. No one feels worse than La Russa.
Some will dump everything on La Russa; that’s the easy way out. Yes, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Joe Torre had a better series. And we can quibble about this or that. But the overwhelming issue in the series against the Dodgers was the team’s poor hitting with runners in scoring position.
What was La Russa supposed to do? He can’t take at-bats for his hitters.
Maybe he should have. After all, La Russa was a .199 hitter in the big leagues, and the Cardinals batted .133 in the series with runners in scoring position.
m Was La Russa uptight? And doesn’t that make his team tight?
La Russa was a little rigid going in, and I have no idea why he gets silly by banning the media from the clubhouse and changing the normal routine. But let’s be real: This manager is always wound tight. He’s always intense. His personality was the same during previous division series tests in his career, and the Cardinals went 20-5 in those games before losing to the Dodgers.
m Did La Russa burn his team out in September?
With the division in hand, why not give more rest to his players, especially Albert Pujols? If the team flops in the postseason, the manager won’t avoid second-guessing. And he can’t win. If he frequently plays the regulars late in the season, he’s accused of wearing them out. If he rests them, then he’s criticized for allowing players to lose their edge.
I won’t bore you with all of the numbers, but I checked the amount of plate appearances for starting players on other teams that had comfortable division leads. There was no significant difference in how the Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Cardinals used their regulars in the final month.
m Will Holliday stay here? Or does he bolt as a free agent?
After Game 3, Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. told me the team remained determined to keep Holliday in St. Louis. Holliday hit .353 with a .419 on-base percentage, 13 home runs and 55 RBI in 64 regular-season games as a Cardinal before having a brutal playoff series. The performance could reduce Holliday’s free-agent appeal, but it’s difficult to forecast the market.
But how high is DeWitt willing to go? If the team plans to go all-out to re-sign Pujols, and invests heavily in Holliday, does it compromise the payroll and restrict the ability to solve other roster problems? And do you want to play the usual cut-throat poker with agent Scott Boras? Is Holliday worth it? Would it be smarter for the Cardinals to focus on another, less costly free agent, such as Jason Bay?
The franchise needs to take a hard look at all of this. I’m not in the camp that believes the Holliday trade was a failure if you don’t re-sign him. Crazily overpaying him isn’t the answer, either.
m Will La Russa be back as manager?
I don’t see why he wouldn’t return. In St. Louis he has a competitive payroll and a front office that proved it will make aggressive moves to help him win. La Russa also has a team outfitted with Pujols, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, and the National League Central isn’t as challenging as other divisions. This isn’t the time to go.
I can’t imagine La Russa would want to end his Cardinals career on such a downer. That’s not like him.
m Will Dave Duncan be back as pitching coach?
I hope so, but if he wants to walk out on the pitchers who love him just because he dislikes Cardinals player-development director Jeff Luhnow, a few media people and the usual crackpot fans — it’s the wrong reason. And a mistake.
m What about the future of batting coach Hal McRae?
He’s certainly vulnerable.
There are many other questions, of course, but it’s too soon to analyze the entire roster or start making free-agent recommendations. Let’s not forget that the Cardinals won 91 games this season and the building blocks are there for a successful 2010.
BP 
