See, that's the problem with phenoms. No matter how talented, any phenom is still just a kid, vulnerable to the struggles of a young player just like anyone else.

Luckily, the Cardinals took full advantage of Cueto's struggles last night, scoring early and often. Really not much of anything bad I can say about the game overall. I'm a little conflicted about the offense's performance; on the one hand, it makes me a little nervous the way they went to sleep after the second inning. On the other hand, they still took great at bats, grinding it out and getting on base, until the game was well in hand as the innings just melted away. The offense still generated a ton of baserunners, and left a ton of them on, but they did send Kid K to the showers early, so I choose not to dwell on it.

The pitching was outstanding. Jo-el struggled with his control a bit early, but didn't get hit. Then, when his team handed him a big lead, he pretty much just put it on autopilot and threw it down the middle. His relievers followed suit; Villone continued to make me feel stupid by pitching beautifully, and Reyes did just what you want to see in a seven run game. Yeah, Dunn beat him on that fastball, but if two outs in the ninth inning with a seven run lead isn't the time to just toss it up there and dare 'em to hit it, there is no right time. Bottom line, the pitchers took the lead they were given and forced the Reds to try and beat them. Nice job all around.

Today, of course, the Birds face Aaron Harang, who is quickly becoming a serious thorn in the collective Cardinal side. I'm hoping for the good Looper to show up today, because I don't think the Cards are going to put up a big number on the Harangutan. The Brewers did their job last night and helped you out, guys. Don't waste it. You win today, you're in first place. At least for a little while.

I have a quick topic I wanted to broach this morning. I was watching the Yankees and Indians play this past Saturday on Fox, largely because I really like Cleveland. Starting the game for the Indians was a young, soft tossing left hander named Jeremy Sowers.

Sowers is a personal favourite of mine, in large part because he reminds me a bit of John Tudor, who was one of my heroes when I was little. Sowers has a similar slingy sort of delivery from the left side, his repertoire consists mostly of slow stuff, offset with even slower stuff, and he seems to think his way through his outings.

Sowers was formerly a top prospect in the Cleveland organisation; he ranked as their second best prospect according to Baseball America in 2006. He came up later that year and was dynamite, looking to be every bit of the future #2 that everyone had thought he was going to be. Sowers started the 2007 season in Cleveland and struggled mightily. It was a bad year overall for upcoming Cleveland lefthanders; both Sowers and Cliff Lee were brutal and ended up cooling their heels back in Triple A. Cliff Lee, of course, is back up with the Indians now, and is currently carrying a 0.28 ERA.

Why do I bring this up? Because Sowers pitched very well against a monstrous Yankee lineup on Saturday; he ended up with 3 ER on his line, all of which scored after he left the game on a triple by Jorge Posada. I look at Sowers and I see a talented young lefty, who's still only 25 years old, and looks as if he may be putting it together to me. He's currently blocked in the Indians rotation by Aaron Laffey, another young lefthanded pitcher, and really has only been in the rotation because of injuries to the aforementioned Laffey and Jake Westbrook.

My question is this: is this the sort of pitcher that might be worth targeting for the Cardinals? I realise that this may not seem to make a whole lot of sense, given the logjam the Cards already appear to have. Between pitchers at the major league level and pitchers on their way back, El Birdos are going to have some very tough decisions to make in the coming weeks. Why would they go out of their way to acquire another arm, particularly another one who's mostly struggled in his brief ML career so far? Here's his page at First Inning.

I'm going to take the old axiom, that you can never have enough pitching, and modify it slightly. You can never have enough young, cost controlled pitching. Sowers is still pre-arbitration eligible, so he costs virtually nothing. He still has an option for this year, so he can be sent to the minors to continue to try and get himself on track this season. And most of all, this is a pitcher who, as recently as two years ago, was seen as a potential upper part of the rotation pitcher, who now finds himself trying to reestablish himself, blocked at the major league level.

I'm not sure exactly what it would take to acquire a guy like Sowers, but I can't imagine it would be too large a ransom. The Indians seem to be looking for some help in the outfield; what type of player would the Indians need to add in order to make it worth a guy like Schumaker? Note that I'm not necessarily advocating trading Skip specifically; please don't everyone get all huffy on me. But if you could get a legitimate return for a player like Skip, you would do well to consider pulling the trigger. He's probably not a starter on this team long term, with Rasmus waiting in the wings and everyone in the outfield hitting from the left side.

Better yet, what about our own problem child, Anthony Reyes? Reyes has been very good out of the 'pen this year, but still just doesn't seem as if he really fits in here. I still believe he would be better served in another organisation, with a little less baggage on everyone's part. Maybe Sowers is in the same boat; a new set of eyes might do him some good. I don't know how much interest Cleveland would have in Reyes; again, I'm simply throwing out the idea. If this sort of deal were made, Sowers could very well fit into the bullpen right now as a longman; maybe Duncan could do some good with him. Maybe not. I'm not sure.

Long term, I have to admit, I still see this team as being sellers this year. I hear talk of signing Kyle Lohse to a long term extension, and I cringe inwardly. As good as he's been, do we really believe in him for four years at $10 million+ a season? What happened to the mantra of flexibility, flexibility, and more flexibility? Don't get me wrong, I'm only hearing that from the media, so I have no idea if it's legitimate or not. But the Cards have a ton of talent already in the pipeline, and I fear the long term repercussions of signing a new batch of veteran starters to multi year deals.

I see Sowers as a chance to buy low on a pitcher who could still pan out to be much better than he's shown so far. The other half of the reason I've been mulling this over in my head lately is the performance this season of the Reds' young starter, Edinson Volquez. The Rangers had soured on the kid a bit, even after sending him all the way back down to low A and working him back up step by step last year. He showed tremendous progress, but the Rangers saw a chance to get Josh Hamilton, and they took it. Now Cincinnati is reaping the benefits, with Volquez throwing lights out so far. It wouldn't take a Josh Hamilton to pry Sowers loose, but I think he's a bit of a similar situation. The organisation he's in currently isn't a great fit for him; maybe we could put him to use here?

He pans out, you have even more flexibility to deal away some of you veteran pitching contracts at the deadline, opening up more spots to be filled by cost controlled youngsters. He doesn't; hopefully you didn't pay too much for him. I don't think you would have to.

So, what say you, Birders? Is this the kind of player the Cardinals would be well served to target, while his value is low and they might be able to bring him in for pennies on the dollar? Or do we already have too many pitchers as it is, and you want to see the team try to improve right now, as opposed to still focusing on the boring future? Is Sowers just a bad pitcher, and I'm fooling myself in thinking there may be something there? I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks about this, as it's not really the sort of move we're looking for the team to make, but I think it could be an opportunity.

Anyhow, game today at noon; let's go Birds! Losing to Cincinnati is shameful in the extreme; you will bring dishonour to your house if you fail to find victory today! Good luck, you'll probably need it with Harang on the mound. Go get 'em boys; let's head into the off day, and Chicago, with a full head of steam.