With Jeff Suppan and So Taguchi rescuing the Cardinals from their recent cold streak, I don't need to resort to diversionary tactics to maintain my sanity. Nonetheless the Cards shuffled the roster enough over the last few days to merit some discussion. I'll note up front that none of these moves are as significant as Jim Edmonds regaining his stroke in a snap or Scott Rolen struggling to find his form over the last week.

First off, the Cardinals traded future considerations for 26 year old minor league infielder Tim Hummel. Consistent with his AAA career, Hummel was hitting 250/341/393 at Pawtucket this season, so presumably the Cardinals don't have any bold plans for him. Minor leaguers are swapped all the time without much fanfare, but this one ties into a couple of major league transactions over the last week. In fact in an article at the Post-Dispatch (that I can't find any more) there was speculation that Hummel had been acquired to replace Seabol at 3B at Memphis.

Consistent with that theory, Roger Cedeño was designated for assignment. You have to twist the data to say good things about what he did on the field for the Cardinals and he looked even worse than the stats indicate. Cedeño had some nice numbers in 1999 and 2000, and perhaps that history will lead some other team to take a flyer like the Cardinals did. However this could be the end of Cedeño's career.

Just when Scott Seabol is starting to feel a bit more comfortable, the Cardinals optioned him back to Memphis. The Cardinals recalled Hector Luna, who's hitting 229/295/341 at Memphis. That's right, a 636 OPS in the Pacific Coast League. The official reason is that it's really hot in St. Louis, so they need somebody who can give David Eckstein days off against left-handers. Truth is, Tony LaRussa can never have enough shortstops. Either that or Eckstein's days off are so written in stone that he can't shift his rest a day forward or backwards to permit Nuñez to hit from his strong side. Take the good with the bad with LaRussa, but Hummel's a better player than Luna and it seems strange to be worrying about shortstop depth when one of your thirtysomething outfielders has a cracked rib and another is getting cortisone shots for his neck.

Finally Randy Flores went to the disabled list with a foot problem that sounds more icky than serious. If you have the choice, then you're better off if you don't learn the exact details. The Cards called up Carmen Cali to replace him. Cali is a litmus test for lapsed Catholics, since some mysterious force compels us to do signs of the crosses whenever he enters the game.