Let me get this straight... use new guys that aren't Fernando Salas and Mitchell Boggs and win a bunch of games. Use guys that are Fernando Salas and Mitchell Boggs and lose a bunch of games. 

If you're Mike Matheny, what do you do? What. Do. You. Do?

Let's establish that the Cardinals offense was mitigated by Jason Marquis. (Yes, THE Jason Marquis). 2 runs aren't going to win you many games. Ok, we good here? 

Then let's move to the 6th inning.

1) Shelby Miller gets into some trouble. He puts runners on 1st  and 2nd, but has 2 outs. Pitch count at 107. Perfect situation to leave a rookie in for 1 more batter, let him work out of his own jam and leave the game after six with the chance for the win.

Nope.

2) Matheny pops out of the dugout for... Fernando Salas. Quick, name a Padre batter (LULZ, you couldn't, could you?) Doesn't matter to #TossedSalas. He promptly gives up back to back hits and puts Miller on the hook for a loss instead of a win. Helping Miller's 'Rookie of the Year' bid.

Nope.

3) In the 7th, down 1 on the road, Matheny just can't help himself. If he has Boggs in that bullpen, he's going to bring him to the mound. He's the effing Don Draper of baseball. Boggs is his Sylvia Rosen. At this point all we're missing are the cigarette butts outside the clubhouse door.

Al can barely start slobbering over Mitchell's newfound mechanics before he gets tagged for a HR on his SECOND PITCH! 

He got out of the inning, though, and the Twitter went wild with support:

4) It was 4-2 and the game ended with a whimper. The Cardinals have now lost 5 in a row @ Petco field. 

I thought we were through this Salas Boggs phase. I thought the Cardinals were in a better place. I thought that the GM publicly forcing your hand was lesson enough for the un-tenured manager of the Birds.

Nope. Another bullpen loss.

And you still can't name a Padre.

Let's recap:

1) Chris Carpenter goes down before the season starts to ongoing nerve damage that we and he thought was fixed with surgery last season. He's placed on the 60 day DL and is rehabbing for a return sometime in 2013... just not sure when exactly.

2) Jason Motte doesn't pitch an inning in 2013 after marking over 40 saves in 2012. He's recommended to rest his arm and have it looked at in a month. Month comes and goes, he still needs surgery and the Cardinals pushed back his recovery by 5-6 weeks.

3) Jake Westbrook is put on the 15-day DL. We're told that he'll miss 2 starts and this is a precaution. He's now going to miss at least 2 more starts because the original diagnosis was wrong. 

4) Jamie Garcia is going to be shut down for the season to have shoulder surgery. This is the same shoulder that caused him to miss time in 2012, but rest was prescribed. 

Four very important pitchers to the St. Louis Cardinals. 4 problem laden returns. And this is just since spring training started this season. 

The Cardinals are earning a reputation as a place where often the worst case scenario becomes the norm. Now maybe they've known this information all along and are playing coy. Candidly, I hope this is the case. Because to have the fans predict with greater accuracy the outcome of pitching injuries than the paid medical staff is a bit alarming.

I'm a David Freese fan. You're a David Freese fan. As long as 2011 exists as a year, we'll all be David Freese fans.

Doesn't mean he's making it easy to say such things...

Mr. Freese has played in 27 games in 2013 and taken 91 ABs. He's hitting .209 and has only 7 fewer walks PLUS hits than strikeouts. In short, he's having a miserable start to 2013.

What struck me when I was digging into the numbers wasn't how itsy-bitsy his 2013 line was, but instead, it was just how  his career stats don't really belie his stature with the Cardinals.

Quick: David Freese, replaced at 3B. That's the headline. You think the reaction is muted in St. Louis? Heck no. It's a riot. But over the course of 3 full seasons and parts of 2009 and 2013, you know how many HRs he's hit? 35. RBIs? 181. Runs 150.

Not to be trite, but that's kind of what Pujols did fairly regularly for the Cardinals in a season (maybe a bit longer than a season, but not TOO much longer than 162 games). Yet, Freese has every bit the stature in the community that Pujols had.

Again, I'm a fan. 2011 was awesome. But if you're not a Cardinal fan, I think you're starting to wonder if the past is clouding the judgment of the right now. If he didn't have that 2011 post-season on his resume, what would we be saying?

He's earned the right to work his way out of a slump. His best overall year was in 2012. But baseball history is littered with  'good over one year'. As the Cardinals work into June with the chance to be special, it's still necessary to look at the teams points of weakness.

When one of your hitters is lifted late in a game for a guy hitting .200, that's an alarm bell finally sounding on David Freese's season.

Now, the Friday Links...

The most clever. LINK HERE

Campaigning. Then having the job. LINK HERE

Yelp review of Amy's Baking Company. LINK HERE

Fun at work. LINK HERE

Good kick. LINK HERE

Reverse cotton candy eating. LINK HERE

That's it. That's the week. Enjoy summer, since it's here in STL and not going away any time soon. We look forward to seeing how the Blues do in... oh, wait. Nevermind. 

We love celebs in Cardinals gear.

Honestly, it's even better when you're kind of meh on a dude, then he shows up on Letterman wearing a Whitey Herzog-esque satin jacket.

You do that and you're getting a video embed and the 10's of views that it will provide through this site.

Thursday October 20th 2011.

My real job had sent me to Denver Colorado to conduct some work. The Cardinals were playing Game 2 of the World Series that night. 

Luckily, some good friends of mine live in Denver and these good friends are Cardinal fans. We set out to find the best place to watch the game and settled on Stoney's Bar & Grill on Lincoln Street. Turns out several other Cardinal fans were there. The Cardinals won Game 2, I stayed the weekend, went back to Stoney's with several more Cardinal fans and watched Albert Pujols give us what turned out to be his parting gift. 

Freaking love Stoney's.

So it's with great pleasure I got this pic from my friend this past weekend:

That's right outside the front door. It's become the official St. Louis Cardinals bar for fans in Denver Colorado. And it's in no small part because of those two fateful October days in 2011.

We're proud at The CD to give Stoney's Denver the only 6 STAR rating we've ever given a bar & grill. Because when you fly the flag of Cardinal Nation in the town that has another MLB team, you've got guts (and reasonably priced beer specials).

If you're in Denver, go to Stoney's. And tell them how much you appreciate them adopting our team.

Lots to cover today... let's do some quick hits: 

1) This weekend was poised to be one of the most dominant sweeps in St. Louis Cardinals history (more on that in a minute), but turned into the second most gruesome day of the season (Opening Day fiasco being #1).

Jamie Garcia didn't bear down when he needed and got tagged for 5 runs. Carlos Martinez had his first real shaky outing, giving up 3 and looking like a prospect, not a MLB ready star. And the offense went limp. Again.

2) But the worst news came before the game started when Jake Westbrook was placed on the 15-day DL with "elbow soreness". 

Jake Westbrook is not stranger to surgery. Having procedures done on his right hip, left shoulder and, of course, his right elbow. The latter causing him to miss most of the 2008 season. 

The Cardinals are claiming that this is a precautionary measure and that he's expected to skip his next 2 starts.

Uh huh.

We've heard this before from the Cardinals medical staff. It's almost the kiss of death. 

Jake has been lights out this season, posting a 1.67 ERA that begets his 2-1 record. So at the very least, this is a two week setback. At the worst, a harbinger of bad news for the veteran pitcher. Come the back half of the season, we're going to need Westbrook and Wainwright to anchor this staff.

3) Wainwright looks up to the task, if Saturday is any indication. 

He took a no hitter into the 8th inning before surrendering a single with 1 out. He made Colorado look silly at the plate. and had every single pitch working to perfection.

When Wainwright is on like that, he's the best pitcher in MLB, able to get outs in every imaginable way and intimidating hitters into swinging at pitches they don't want to.

Would have been something we'd probably still be talking about.

4) But Shelby Miller, by at least one account, pitched the best game a Cardinal pitcher ever has. 

He gave up a broken bat single to lead off the game Friday night. Then pitched a perfect game with no walks and 13 strike outs. He showed us his ceiling. And judging by the reaction... his rocky year in the minors during 2012 changed many perceptions about what this kid can become.

Turns out he's got superstar potential.

And he reminded us of that emphatically. He's even turning his starts into must watch baseball and building confidence along the way. Think about the fact that between Miller and Wainwright, the Cardinals set down 50 Rockies in a row without a hit. 

Not one hit. Fifty batters. In the majors.

Hate that Jamie and Co. had to ruin Mother's Day, because FRI and SAT had everyone's pants getting a bit tighter. 

6) John Gast's Wikipedia page has been updated, so he's ready for his first MLB start this week against the incoming Pond Scum of New York.  Let's see what he's got.

14-7 on the road? 

Yup. That'll do. roughly 1/4 of the way through the season away from Busch, the Cardinals are pacing for a record-breaking road record. And when you win on the road, you go to the playoffs. It really is that simple. 

I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to get the feeling that this team could (COULD) be one of the best in franchise history. We're heading into mid-May and there have been 3 games that the Cardinals didn't have a chance at all to win. 

Three.

Out of thirty three.

Even the powerhouse 2004 team that went for 105 wins were out of games more often. Further, the young prized prospects are coming into their own. Carlos Martinez is throwing fastballs through our hearts. Shelby Miller is looking like 20 year old Andy Benes' wet dreams. 

Hell, Jake Westbrook for Cy Young!

Maybe it's Friday. Maybe it's the half-decent weather for the first time in weeks... but this Cardinals team has the makings of a super-freaking-power. And if they start taking care of business at home? 

Yikes. Watch out.

Now, the Friday Links...

Marketers at work. LINK HERE

Printing at the office. LINK HERE

Bad ad placement. LINK HERE

The world's best circle drawer. LINK HERE

Ladies Night. LINK HERE

Celebrity prom photos. LINK HERE

That's it, that's the week. Hopefully the Blues can pull out a GM 6 miracle of their own right tonight. Probably not. Since they're the Blues and you don't get a nickname like that and do awesome things. Although, I am more than willing to be proven wrong.

That no matter how bad the Cardinals are doing, and no matter how down and out you feel about your team, at least you don't have to wake up every single morning and deal with:

+ Articles on Y! Sports like: THIS

+ Drama about your stadium like: THIS

+ Questions about your star player like: THIS

+ Standings like: THIS

+ Faces like: THIS

+ T-shirts like: THIS

Nope.

You're a Cardinal fan. You listen to THIS. And you get lots of these:

Our friends over at Big League Stew had a nice little post about a new product that Topps (yes, the same company that makes ball cards) has created: LINK HERE

They're called 'Minis' and they're pretty... stinking... cool.

2.5" vinyl figurines of my favorite Cardinals? Put a couple in the office. Maybe give a few as gifts. The possibilities are endless. I'm going to get a Wainwright and a Holliday and a Beltran and probably a Carlos Martinez if they have one... where's the list?

Um. What?

No Cardinals? Not one? 

Makes sense, because Cardinal fans don't go out and buy anything that has the Cardinals logo on it. (VERRRRRY SARCASTIC LINK HERE) And not to lump Cub fan in with purebreds like us, but no Cubs either?

Is it an NL Central bias? A conscience effort to prop up Joey Votto into the spotlight because it's hard to appreciate Alan Craig? 

We deserve answers, Topps. As BLS points out, Brian Wilson doesn't, you know, play baseball anymore.

Do you like psychic readings? Do you like St. Louis Cardinal baseball? 

Buckle up, then. Because this is your lucky day.

A couple of weeks ago, Hollywood Psychics reached out to Cards Diaspora and asked if we've post readings for noteworthy Cardinal players. We could pick whoever we wanted a reading from, and they'd do all the, you know, psychic stuff.

Below are the results. I haven't edited anything they wrote, besides adding in a link to their site... so this is straight from the psychic to you.

Full disclosure:

This post is all in good fun. We don't have a business partnership with this site, just something we thought you'd like. Hopefully we were right. 

So enjoy...

The St. Louis Cardinals have been a dominant force in major league baseball for some time. The team’s current roster appears to take its cue from perhaps the greatest Cardinal of all time, Stan Musial, taking up Musial’s mantle of humble sportsmanship and a commitment to excellence on the field. Further buoyed by strong, city-wide fan support, this stellar group of athletes is consistently a force to be reckoned with on the diamond year after year. 

The term “stellar” applies to the Cardinals in more ways than one. Not only does it nod to their star-studded team of athletes, but it can also refer to their astrological compatibility as teammates. 

Let’s take a look at the zodiac signs of several of noteworthy Cardinals and see what makes them tick, as well as how their sense of team camaraderie is written in the stars. 

Mike Matheny - Manager (Virgo)

Born under the sign of Virgo, Cards’ manager Mike Matheny’s pragmatism is astrologically ingrained in him. Known for their meticulous eye for detail and mapping out strategies to the letter, Matheny’s Virgoan tendencies are evident in both his tenure as a manager and his distinction as one of the greatest Golden Glove catchers of his era as an active player. A consummate perfectionist, Virgo also has an extremely caring side, evident by his willingness to go to bat (pardon the pun) for his team -- going so far as to be ejected from a game against the Chicago Cubs for arguing a call with the umpire.

Adam Wainwright - Pitcher (Virgo)

Another Virgo, Adam Wainwright shares much in common with his manager, Matheny. As a Virgo, his yearning for perfection makes a great deal of sense with respect to Wainwright constantly tweaking and improving his pitching repertoire, hurling cutters and curveballs in excess of 90 mph from the pitcher’s mound. Although generally known as a kind, affable player, Wainwright’s demand for excellence from himself and others extends even into the realm of barbeque. 

Yadier Molina - Catcher (Cancer)

The protective nature of Cancer the Crab is clear when presented with Yadi’s status as one of major league baseball’s greatest defensive catchers in the game today. Born under the sign of the crab, Molina possesses all of the sign’s intuition and emotion, as this particular zodiac sign is governed by the moon and its effects on shifting tides. Some of Yadi’s greatest plays have demonstrated his Cancerian sense of instinct to be precisely where his team needs him to be on the field at exactly the right moment. 

David Freese - Third Base (Taurus)

Typical of his sign, third baseman David Freese charges forward like Taurus the bull and never looks back. The World Series MVP and Babe Ruth Award-winner is viewed not only as a high-powered baseman, but one of the Cards’ best hitters. Taurus is patient, yet persistent -- two traits which are hallmarks of Freese’s career. Also in-line with his astrological sign, Freese has been on the list of injured players quite a bit. This is interesting to note given that (along with Aries, Pisces and Cancer) Taurus is one of the zodiac signs most prone to injury. 

How The Signs -- and Cardinals Players -- Relate To Each Other

Virgo and Taurus are earth signs that get along extremely well with one another. Taurus has a calming, reassuring effect on anxious Virgo. While Matheny may agonize over the perfect play, Taurean Freese is able to calm their nerves and assure them that even a play run afoul can be salvaged with a solid hit and a few runs. On the flipside, Taurus feeds off of Virgo’s goal-driven attitude with the signs bringing the best out of each other.

Virgo and Cancer have a mutual admiration for one another. Remember who was the first to hug Adam Wainwright after he pitched a complete game shutout? Oh, yeah! That was Yadi!  Cancer may not always grasp Virgo’s drive for perfection, and prefer to take a more laid back approach to things, but the two have a strong amount of respect for each other’s talents.

On the other side of the fence, Taurus and Cancer are two of the most compatible signs of the zodiac and consistently “get” one another. Taurus can be somewhat needy, but Cancer is one of those signs that likes to feel needed. They share similar goals and are both driven by money, but also crave security. Contract negotiations for both Yadi and Freese in recent years indicate their strong loyalty to the Cardinals while still ensuring they’re well-paid for their talents.  

Overall, the Cardinals’ team dynamic is one of the most harmonious in baseball. It’s little wonder that they are consistently in the race for the pennant. Here’s to a winning 2013 season!

If you’d like to get some insight into your own life, talk with a Hollywood Psychics’ psychic today via this link: LINK HERE