Cardinals Primed for the Postseason?

As infuriating and unpredictable as the Cardinals can be — and lately they have taken their hair-pulling inconsistency to unsurpassed gut-spinning levels — even the most raging pessimist can still have some glimmer of optimism from their current circumstances.

Thursday when general manager John Mozeliak pulled off a trade for veteran third baseman Pedro Feliz, some Cardinal loyalists reacted as if they'd just been handed a flat bottle of soda pop. But the truth is, no matter how far over the hill Feliz might be (and we'll have to wait and see what sort of invigorating powers a late season pennant race might provoke), he symbolizes an undisputed truth:

The Cardinals went shopping because they believe, as maddening as this team can be, it still has a chance to get to the postseason. Mozeliak wouldn't have gone trolling desperately on the waiver wire for third base help (or, for that matter, dealt off Ryan Ludwick to get Jake Westbrook as his fourth starter) if he thought this team didn't have enough ingredients to make a serious playoff run.

And the manager, Tony La Russa, wouldn't have spent so much time in the GM's ear urging him to make a move to get him a reliable glove at third base if he didn't think a little patching here and there couldn't fix what has been ailing this obviously talented, but extremely thin baseball team.

Mozeliak and La Russa had tried repeatedly to do this with the spare parts they already had in hand as the injuries kept cropping up. But as this season has dragged along, and the flaws became more glaring, they were forced to admit that the patchwork wasn't going to be enough to build around the amazing core of their superstars. You might be able to look at that dugout and see Carp and Wainwright and Garcia, Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, Yadier Molina, Colby Rasmus and Jon Jay, but you also have to know that things get a little thin after that.

So you bring in a playoff-tested veteran who was once considered one of the best defensive third basemen in the National League and hope that the familiar scent of a pennant chase revives his tired bat and hope that he can be an above-average stop gap for the next two months.

Feliz struggled so mightily in Houston that the Astros conceded defeat in this offseason acquisition quickly, promoting Chris Johnson from the minors and riveting the struggling Feliz (and his $4.5 million salary) to the bench. But his glove is better than anything the Cardinals have tried so far to replace Freese, and with the other potential available third base talent equally flawed (or worse), the only thing you can realistically say when you heard that Mozeliak had pulled off the move was this:

Ehhhh, it couldn't hurt.

Even though they have teetered about the NL Central all season long, the Cards are a team of frustrating intrigue. Just good enough to keep you interested, just unpredictable enough to make you scream, but never bad enough to make you offer any concession speeches either. The first-place Cincinnati Reds may have recovered just fine from last week's three-day beat down by the Cards, but the talk around baseball is that the division title will end up in St. Louis when all is said and done.

So to get there, they have to keep plugging in the holes. It would be nice if there was some late August miracle out there to spark a playoff run (is Westbrook this year's Larry Walker?). But in the meantime, you plug up the holes any way you can.

So they traded for an aging Pedro Feliz?

Ehhh, it couldn't hurt.