The Mercado deal was the result of a perfect storm of circumstances. There was/is the roster situation, a glut of outfielders and their internal evaluations. To be fair, the Cards don't have a bad record when it comes to trading minor league'rs to other teams. Not many have gone on to be great MLB'ers. Only time will tell if that move was good, bad or terrible.

This team is better than it was a month ago but that wasn't a very high bar to go over. Their base running is still atrocious and they have moved from horrific to just average on defense. The bullpen makeover and Carpenter becoming the ghost of Ted Williams have been the biggest factors. And, of course, the new skipper seems to have eliminated much of the "dumb-manager" moves that hurt them. Can Carp continue to rake? Can the bullpen hold up? Can the young pitchers keep it up? It's going to take a lot going right for a few months for them to even have a prayer at a wild card spot. Not likely but hopefully they don;t collapse and give us something to watch...

I'm all for giving Shildt a two year deal and see how he can do. He lacks the flash and name recognition but seems to know what the fork he's doing...