With the current status of the team, a lot of us have been talking about trading for impact players.  We have two "needs" - outfield bat and power pitcher.  I wanted to take and early season look at who was available and who could be counted on come October.  When eliminating players from the trade pool there were three factors - contending teams, division opponents, and arbitration eligible players. Walt may be able to pull of a trade within the division, but that seems unlikely.  Disclaimer - I know not all these players are available, I just wanted to look at what the Cards could do.

On one side of the coin - we "need" an outfield bat to shore up the lineup.  To find a big bat lets first look at the available leaders in OPS:  
Vernon Wells (.994)
Casey Blake (.963)
Bobby Abreu (.956)
Alfonzo Soriano (.950)
Pat Burrell (.946)
I stopped there since everyone else was below .900.  Also if teams like ARI (Green, Gonzalez, Byrnes) or TEX (Matthews, Jr., Mench, Wilkerson) would hit hard times some of their players could become available.  Looking through that list I would eliminate Abreu and Burrell for their contracts after this season, sorry but I don't want Soriano, which leaves Wells and Blake.  Wells could be a decent replacement of Edmonds in CF.  Another possibility would be to find a high OBP player for the #2 hole: Ichiro Suzuki (.387) is about the only person not mentioned earlier.  So this brings us to Wells, Blake and Suzuki as possible outfielder upgrades.  

On the other side of the coin - we "need" a power pitcher to give us that 1-2(-3?) punch for the postseason.  I know there is debate about the need for this power pitcher and what actually defines a power pitcher but I believe in the need.  The first stat I looked at was K/9 with 6.5 being the cutoff (since the Cards really lack there):
Johan Santana (9.56)
Jake Peavy (9.35)
?Cory Lidle? (8.14)
Gil Meche (7.38)
Ted Lilly (7.29)
John Lackey (7.22)
John Smoltz (6.93)
Kelvim Escobar (6.90)
Cliff Lee (6.89)
Jason Schmidt (6.86)
Dan Haren (6.81)
Barry Zito (6.72)
Before I kid myself eliminate Santana, Lidle & Meche (career years), Peavy (only $2.5MM, what a deal), Smoltz, Haren and Zito.  Comparing the remaining 5 and looking at other "power" stats:

           Lilly   Lackey  Escobar  Lee      Schmidt
K/9     7.29    7.22    6.90       6.89      6.86
H/9     9.31    7.09    10.42     11.06    6.41
BB/9   5.43    3.11    1.76       2.73      2.81
K/BB   1.34    2.34    3.92       2.53     2.44
WHIP  1.64    1.13    1.35       1.53      1.03
G/F     1.02    0.87    1.21       0.43     0.67

Looking at these numbers, Escobar really looks appealing since he is in the AL (minus that H/9 - his BABIP in `06 is .340 with a .313 career).  Lilly is the only other GB pitcher (barely) which Duncan likes.  I don't see Lilly or Lackey as power pitchers, but that may be just me.  Then again I have heard about some Reyes kid in the system who can't get a decent chance, but without getting into that debate to much, I'd go with Escobar or Schmidt.  

Well I think I have convinced myself into Vernon Wells and Kelvin Escobar as the best options for the Cards.  The only other question would be what does it take to get them?  I'll let you all decide that.