I will amend a previous comment and say that the Cardinals are a mediocre team playing awful baseball. Actually a word that rhymes with "pretty" would be more accurate than awful. I've got a question about whether slumps just end on their own or do teams make some sort of adjustment/shakeup. I hope it's the former, because the adjustments I'm seeing don't seem to be helping.

We can start with Anthony Reyes. Part of me wants to scream "LaRussa's an idiot! Duncan's ruining him!" Starting with Ankiel (and with Neyer's accusation that TLR and DD were war criminals), the brass have come off as overprotective parents with their young pitchers. The best recent example of this overprotectiveness is last night's unintentional intentional walk to Andruw Jones in the first inning to load the bases with a .350 hitter on-deck. However, before I fire LaRussa in my imaginary world, I will note that his spring training squeamishness with a flyball pitcher earned about 1100 feet of credibility in only five innings of work. Watching Reyes against the Braves Monday was like seeing a "Road Construction Next 15 Miles" sign on the interstate.

Even with the pitching staff struggling for over a month now, I'm going to question the conventional comparison with the 2003 staff. I think this group has much deeper talent than that one had. You may not want to go back and look at that 2003 staff, seeing as its #3 starter was supposed to be Brett Tomko, and its second-best reliever (behind the DL-induced amalgamation Jako Isrinero) was Cal Eldred. There are plenty of reasons to be uncomfortable with Jeff Suppan, Jason Marquis, Braden Looper and Randy Flores, but they're not just not in the same class as Garrett Stephenson, Tomko, Esteban Yan and Jeff Fassero. At least not yet. Give that 2003 team a couple of guys like Josh Hancock and Adam Wainwright, and Bartman never happens.

I'm certainly not here to praise the pitching staff. The bigger reason that I'm willing to dump the 2003 theory is that this group as a whole reminds me more of other recent Cardinals efforts, namely the LaRussa NLCS squads. What happened on offense Friday and Saturday against the Royals and in the 5th inning Monday against the Braves was ugly in its own right. I know, I know, those things happen over the course of a 162-game season. It's that those things are happening now that bothers me. In addition, the defense has been spotty (as an aside, Chris Duncan looks as awkward as an inexperienced European actor portraying a left fielder for a baseball movie) and there have been a couple of odd tactical maneuvers. This team is pressing. That leaves me with another question: Supposing they make the post-season, is this team brittle or will it be a case of Nietzsche's "That which does not kill makes me stronger"?