More on the Lopez play

The folks over at stl post dispatch, via the message boards, are hammering Lopez for his casual play yesterday. I wrote plenty about it yesterday, and said the play may have been partly Pujols fault, but it is Lopez's reputation ALONG WITH THE PLAY that has me ticked off.

I think the bigger issue is, and this is something I haven't heard discussed as much, WHY ISN'T MILES PLAYING MORE?

Lopez was an All Star with the Reds a couple seasons ago. He has some talent. He also has baggage, which is why the Nationals, yes THE LOWLY NATIONALS placed him on waivers. Meanwhile we have this tough, gritty, hard nosed team playing "Cardinals Baseball." Everywhere you look the powers that be in the Cardinals organization are shoving it down our throats, "Baseball Heaven," "Play Like A Cardinals," etc, etc, etc.

Personally, I love the new marketing slogans. I think it sums up the average Cardinals fan, and what we expect. We just want the team to play hard, to play smart, and at the end of the day we want to win if at all possible.

Well take a look at Aaron Miles! He plays hard, he is hitting .311, and he has been pretty clutch this year. When we brought Lopez on board Miles playing time has been reduced drastically.

I have been saying for some time now that we need some better players in our middle infield. That is our weakness, and looking ahead (to next season) we have to upgrade this part of our team if we are going to keep up with the Cubbies. Our starting rotation, when healthy, has the chance to be pretty darn good. We have an abundance of outfielders on the horizon. The corners (Pujols and Glaus) and backstop (Molina) appear to be set for the next few years. The bullpen is getting better, and we'll have money to spend if we need to this offseason.

So what do we do about the middle infield?

Is Lopez the answer? I remember a similar move a few years ago, when we picked up a guy who was underachieving. His name was Ronny Belliard. He helped us win a World Series.

So who knows? Maybe this will work out in the Cards favor. I, for one, don't think it will this time. Lopez is a decent player, but he isn't the long term answer. So for right now, for this team, for the way they've played all year, I say play Miles. He deserves it, and he gives us the best chance to win.