Updates

Alberto Pujols was put on the 15 day DL due to a fracture in his wrist.  Yesterday's collision with a KC base runner proved to be worse than a strain, which was the initial thought.  Lance Berkman will be the everyday 1B, which is probably the luckies off-season acquisition that the Cardinals ever made.  First off, Berkman was thought to be a waste of money when the Cards signed him for 8MM.  Not only has he crushed the ball as their outfielder, but now he will be a nice fill in for Alberto while he recovers.  They're saying that he will be out for 4-6 weeks, but my guess is that it will be longer...it always is.  The 4-6 weeks is to quell the fears of the Cardinal fan base; my bet is that he'll be out 8-9 weeks.  Berkman however is no clutch of a permanent fill in, as he too is battling some bumps and bruises.  Albeit, it's only basic rare and tare. 

 The 3 x All Star will be missed, even though he was having a "down" year that has seen him shifted to 3B for a couple of games.  If the Cardinals can remain in 1st place by the end of June, that will prove to me that they are almost a lock to take the Central; they are with out their ACE and now their stud 1B and Holliday, who missed a good chunk of  25 games while on the DL.

This only helps Prince Fielder's quest for a big pay day this winter.  Yesterday's news of Pujols' injury only sheds more light on the possibility of Albert being on his downside of his career.  Teams like the Cubs, Rangers, Giants, and Nationals are only going to shift their focus that much more on Prince.   This injury news assures me even more that Prince will be out of Milwaukee this off-season.

Shaun Marcum has been cleared to pitch Wednesday (correction from my early post of Tuesday).  Although he is still day-to-day, Marcum will most likely pitch OR be bumped a game because of the off-day this Thursday before they fly out to NYC to take on the Yankees.  This would mean Estrada get's a spot start or Wolf gets moved up a day early, with his last start being on Saturday's win.  My guess is the latter; although that would really screw up the rotation with the southpaw. 

JJ Hardy, although Baltimore is looking at extending him, may be the (one of the) hottest trade piece on the market next month.  Granted, Reyes is the key player--but JJ is raking right now and he won't take a huge cost in return.  It would be great if the Mets would fall out of contention so that Reyes would become more likely to be traded next month...however, they're still hanging around (barely) and NY could hold on to him.  They could avoid the bad press that would come if they dump both Beltran & Reyes.  So, Milwaukee should pursue Hardy aggressively come mid-July or sooner.  My guess is that it would take a couple of low level prospects or a Heckathorn?  I have no idea really, but I can't imagine it taking too much.  It would help if Hard cooled a bit with in the next 4 weeks.

Milwaukee could also use another arm in the bullpen, with Saito having numerous set-backs.  Yet again, he experienced tightness in his back when he threw in Appleton this weekend.  Parra doesn't look like he's returning any time soon.