May 21, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) throws during the second inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The question “Who is the best team in baseball?” is often one of the most talked about topics among fans across the country. Sure, they want to say that their favorite team is tops among the league, but this is frequently not the case.

This season there hasn’t been a team with more talent that has showed up than the St. Louis Cardinals. Mike Matheny’s team has been putting on a big show in the division and is providing a reason for everyone to talk about their impressive first two and a half months.

It has started with the team’s pitching, which has been better than ever. This year, St. Louis has been led by Adam Wainwright who has become the first 10-win pitcher on the staff. Wainwright, 31, is in a groove where he has truly had his best stuff. If his five consecutive wins aren’t enough to convince you that he is having a tremendous year, just take a look at his 2.18 ERA, 3^rd best in the NL. The 6’7” right-hander will look for his 11^th win against the Chicago Cubs in the upcoming series.

That series is going to be big as it has the potential to further distance the Cardinals from the Cincinnati Reds who are already 2.5 games back from the lead.

The Cubs have been very “Chicago-like” this season with their 29-39 record. St. Louis has to take advantage against a rough pitching staff. No MLB game is easy, but the lineup that the “red birds” have is very capable of turning any game into a blowout.

It has all started with Yadier Molina, who is having one of the best seasons he has ever had. Batting .352, he is on pace to break his single-season average record. He leads the NL in the category and has been helping the team lately with RBI’s as he has five in the past week.

There has been no power outage with Carlos Beltran’s bat either as he has launched 16home runs to go along with his .306 batting average. Expect him to tee off this week against Chicago as he is hitting .556 against the Cubs this year. The switch-hitting batter is hitting .320 when batting from the left side, so a steady dose of the right pitchers could lead to some late-inning heroics.

Led by these three stars, the Cardinals are in for another great finish to the season. They won it all in 2011, can they do it again this year?

Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports

Goold reports that the Cardinals will activate Freese from the disabled list prior to the start of the game, and he began his rehab stint on Friday to get back from the back injury. In his first rehab game for Triple-A Memphis, Freese played in seven innings total and notched an excellent two-run double for his lone hit.

After that rehab game, the 29-year-old third baseman said he felt good and was suffering no setbacks. Thanks to the fact that everything has gone flawlessly for Freese on the rehab front, the Cardinals plan to have him ready for today’s big game against the Reds has been fulfilled. We’ll see how he does in his first game back, and the Cards will likely shift Matt Carpenter over to second base now that Freese is in the fold again.

It would seem as though Carlos Beltran played through the WBC and most of Spring Training with a broken toe,. (Image Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports)

In early March, Carlos Beltran was forced to miss one of the St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training games after he’d been hit by a pitch earlier that week, taking a ball off his toe. Beltran was set to leave the Cardinals to join Puerto Rico for the World Baseball Classic and there wasn’t much said about the injury concern at the time. It didn’t appear to be anything serious.

It would seem, according to Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, that Beltran has been playing with a hairline fracture in his pinkie toe ever since.

I can deal with what I feel. The doctor said it’s not going to get worse, so I just have to go day to day and see how I feel.

Beltran was in the Cardinals lineup for Opening Day and isn’t expected to miss much time, but there’s no way to tell how much things will linger into the season and if that will have any effect on Beltran’s play. Beltran will be 36 later this month and is in the final year of his current contract, meaning he’ll want to remain healthy and production this season in order to obtain one last multi year contract on the free agent market. He hit .269/.346/.495 with 32 HR and 97 RBI last season for the Cardinals, but the team already appears certain to hand their right field job to Oscar Taveras next winter rather than being the ones who end up signing Beltran.

After missing a chunk of time with a knee injury and limping (slightly) into the post-season in 2012, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto should be back to his All-Star form this season. Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

As well as the Cincinnati Reds played last summer during the regular season, adapting and overcoming injuries, they couldn’t play better in 2013. But they can play longer and that’s the goal and likelihood. The Reds won 97 games and the National League Central Division title last year, but they got knocked out of the playoffs early by the eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants after leading the series 2-0.

They accomplished what they did with star Joey Votto missing a chunk of the summer with injury and with starting third baseman Scott Rolen missing time with injury.

The two biggest things on the Reds’ minds in the off-season came to pass in a way. One was moving Drew Stubbs out of center field to the Cleveland Indians because he kept striking out too much and used up his chances. The other was not moving star closer Aroldis Chapman out of the bullpen and into the starting rotation. Well into spring training it seemed the Reds were committed making the Chapman move and then, out of nowhere, Chapman announced maybe should stay as the closer where he was an All-Star last year. That was probably the best plan for the team.

Shin-Soo Choo came over to the Reds from the Indians in the Stubbs deal, but no one seems to think that he can play center adeptly enough. So there may be some shuffling going on. Todd Frazier was a versatile rookie last year and he is starting at third. The rest of the starting lineup is in intact and the starting rotation, led by scheduled opening day hurler Johnny Cueto, looks tough.

St. Louis residents like to pride themselves on being just about the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans, and just about every year the Cardinals reward them with a contending team. Losing starter Chris Carpenter for the season and probably forever to injury, is not going to help the cause. The Cards are pretty solid all around, but some regulars like Carlos Beltran and Rafael Furcal (both going on 36) may be showing signs of age. Right now Furcal, David Freese and closer reliever Jason Motte are on the disabled list.

It doesn’t seem as if the Cardinals closed the gap on the Reds during the off-season, but they could eke into the playoffs and make some noise, which they did last year a year after winning the Series as a long-shot.

The Milwaukee Brewers suffered a talent drain after they won the division title two years ago and they are now seemingly a .500 team. Star Ryan Braun is the best player on the team, but now that his name has surfaced in the Biogenesis Clinic investigation you have to wonder if he will make it through the season unscathed and unbothered or Major League Baseball will end up suspending him for patronizing the wrong business at the wrong time. Losing Braun would pretty much doom the Brewers to a life as the second coming of the Houston Astros.

Meanwhile, if you ever had any fondness in your heart for the Pittsburgh Pirates, even if it was long ago when Roberto Clemente was playing, you should throw a little love Pittsburgh’s way in hopes that they can finally end their 20-year streak of sub-.500 finishes. They were close last year at 79-83 after a late-season collapse. But it’s got to happen soon or the Pirates will be dropped to AAA.

And then there are the Cubs. Last year Chicago finished 61-101. They were pretty horrible. Any Cubs fan that thought Theo Epstein was going to come over from the Red Sox, wave a magic wand, and everything would be all right, was a tad optimistic. It was obvious from the start that rebuilding was not going to be accomplished overnight. (Of course what is the definition of overnight in the context of going 105 years without a World Series title–five years?). Checking out the Cubs roster can be pretty demoralizing. They really don’t have more than two or three guys that seem likely to cause any excitement in the batting order.

It also seems that anyone in the pitching rotation positively seems capable of winning eight games. Many more from any individual except maybe a healthy Matt Garza would be a bonus.

Wrigley Field will be 100 years old in 2014 and no doubt the Cubs want to put together a smashing celebration. Just maybe they’ll be able to field a spicier lineup by then.

This is how the NL Central Division will look: 1) Cincinnati Reds; 2) St. Louis Cardinals; 3) Pittsburgh Pirates; 4) Milwaukee Brewers; 5) Chicago Cubs. 6) Houston Astros, in memoriam after being forcibly moved to the American League West Division where they can finish last instead.

Bud Norris is the one most likely to be traded. He has historically owned the Cardinals. He has a career ERA of 2.74 in fifteen starts vs St. Louis. He is scheduled to make $3 mil for the Astros and is also currently their highest paid player. His name has been tossed around in trade rumors for over a year now and figures to be dealt on or before the July 31st trade deadline.

Harrell on the other hand is unlikely to be dealt unless its an offer that Astros GM, Jeff Luhnow, just cannot refuse. He was technically a rookie last year and pitched superbly to the tune of a 3.76 ERA, 11-11 record and striking out 140 batters in 193.2 innings pitched. He is also under team control until 2018 so the Astros have very little motivation to deal him unless the offer is too good for a rebuilding team to refuse.

Astros GM, Jeff Luhnow spent almost a decade working for the St. Louis Cardinals, mainly in their scouting department. He knows their system as well as anyone that currently works for the Cardinals and a trade between the two clubs would seem to be a good fit as the Cardinals have arguably the best farm system in baseball and the Astros have been purging their team of all major league veterans in lieu of younger prospects as they build for the future. The Cardinals also have a rotation spot open following the injury to staff ace Chris Carpenter.

Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal will undergo Tommy John Surgery and will likely miss the whole 2013 season. (Image Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports)

When St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal first tore his ulnar collateral ligament last August a decision was made to forego surgery, hoping that rest and rehabilitation would be enough for him to return healthy this Spring. As he’s continued to experience pain and discomfort in his elbow and after consulting with famed orthopedist Dr. James Andrews earlier this week, the team announced this morning that Furcal will indeed undergo Tommy John Surgery.

Furcal is expected to miss at least 6-8 months, but at 35 years of age it’s tough to predict the impact that this will have on the remainder of his career.

St. Louis was optimistic enough about Furcal’s return that they didn’t look to acquire another shortstop this offseason. Pete Kozma would appear to be the favorite to take the bulk of Furcal’s playing time at short. Kozma hit well when he joined the club after Furcal went down, hitting .333/.383/.569 in 82 PA down the stretch last season, but he’s done little in his minor league career to suggest that he can develop into a solid everyday Major Leaguer. The Cardinals might catch lightning in a bottle for a brief period with him, but he won’t replicate what a healthy Furcal is often capable of from an offensive standpoint. Kozma will hold his own defensively and appeared likely to make the team anyway in a utility role.

Ronny Cedeno is the other potential in-house option, having signed a one year deal with the club over the winter to battle with Kozma for the bench job. Cedeno fits a similar mold to Kozma – reliable defense but little offense.

Furcal hit .264/.325/.346 in 531 PA last year before getting hurt, a drop from his career averages. He’ll earn $7 Million this season while on the sidelines and will be a free agent next offseason.

(Image Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)

Every baseball player wants to go out on his own terms, to end the career he has pursued since boyhood at a time of his own choosing in a manner he would prefer, but really, very few manage to do so. Careers end abruptly every day.

A player who hopes to be drafted by a Major League team and is not, gets the word in a harsh manner, by his name being left off a list. A one-year Class A player doesn’t have his contract renewed. No room in the organization for you son. It happens to AA players, to AAA players, who have to believe they are so close to the Show and then get cut.

Same for those who have a cup of coffee in the majors and even those who become stars. One day nobody wants their signature on a new deal and they have no team to join in spring training. What happened to Chris Carpenter is just as bad, if not worse. One minute he was the ace of the St. Louis Cardinals’ pitching staff and then he gets hurt and instead of getting well finds out that he probably can’t ever throw hard enough again to do more than practice with his son’s Little League team.

In early February it was announced that Carpenter would not be able to pitch for St. Louis during the 2013 season. This is on the heels of his being unable to pitch for St. Louis during the 2012 season except for a few cameo appearances. That makes for two straight years basically out of the mix. Soon after the word seeped out that the numbness and pain in Carpenter’s shoulder likely means he will never pitch again. The diagnosis of nerve damage has essentially ended his career.

That’s tough news to take and it is almost certain that Carpenter refused to believe it at first. Career-ending injuries are often sudden, but this one seems to have snuck up on the hurler. After missing almost the entire 2012 season Carpenter came back to pitch late in the season. That certainly hinted that he had recovered and would be ready to go in 2013. Which is what made his departure so surprising.

Carpenter, a 15-year major leaguer, has a lifetime record of 144-94 with a 3.76 earned run average and was a three-time All-Star. It was so long ago that Carpenter pitched for the Toronto Bluejays it’s amazing to recall that he spent six years with that club. He was much better in just his Cardinals years and twice was on a World Series champion with St. Louis. In 2005, Carpenter went 21-5. In 2009, he finished 17-4. With him in the rotation at full strength, the Cardinals would have been much more formidable this season than without him.

It is a disappointing end to a very solid career, for sure, and it would be neat if the hopeless situation found a solution. This is probably not practical, or even the answer, but maybe Carpenter can take knuckleball lessons from R.A. Dickey. But although Carpenter had no intention of retiring otherwise, he is 37, so barring miracles this really is the end of the line.

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Furcal, 35, started off 2012 red hot, but slumped so badly down the stretch that he finished with just a .671 OPS in 121 games. The switch-hitting table setter, who eventually lost his job as the leadoff hitter to Jon Jay, is entering the second year of a two-year, $13 million deal given to him prior to the start of last season.

Despite Furcal’s health problems and obvious decline, he may still be the best man for the position in an organization completely deficient at shortstop. Without Furcal penciled into the lineup, shortstop duties may well fall to recently signed journeyman Ronny Cedeno, although he could wind up sharing the duties with the likes of Pete Kozma and Daniel Descalso.

Can’t get enough of Spencer? Check out his work at StanGraphs and follow him on Twitter at @shendricks221.

Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports

The Cardinals will be taking great pains to keep Beltran healthy and rested throughout the spring and into the regular season as well. The switch-hitting outfielder will be 36 at the end of April, and has had a long history of injury setbacks over the course of a very successful career. After racking up 3.6 WAR per FanGraphs a season ago, Beltran will be looking to make good on the second year of a two-year, $26 million deal signed last offseason.

Replacing Beltran’s bat in the lineup today for St. Louis is highly regarded prospect Oscar Taveras, who is ironically slated to replace the former when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Can’t get enough of Spencer? Check out his work at StanGraphs and follow him on Twitter at @shendricks221.

Still offensively sound, Carlos Beltran doesn’t have the defensive ability to handle center field anymore. (Image Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)

For the first thirteen years of his MLB career Carlos Beltran was part of any discussion about the game’s top center fielders. Eventually, like many others before him, injuries and age started to catch up to him and he simply wasn’t able to handle the responsibilities of the position defensively anymore, necessitating a move over to right field during the 2011 season. Yet when the St. Louis Cardinals signed the now 35 year old prior to last season to a two year deal, they reportedly were considering Beltran an option in center field.

That option is no longer on the table, according to notes passed along from Jennifer Langosch at MLB.com. Manager Mike Matheny reportedly mentioned Sunday that the team will not consider Beltran as an option in center field this year. The move is presumably an effort to keep Beltran healthy but will likely affect the team’s remaining roster as they’ll need to have a backup available. As Langosch points out, the team could look longer at internal options Shane Robinson, Adron Chambers, and non-roster invitee Justin Christian. All three have limited experience in the Majors over parts of the past three seasons. Chambers would presumably be the front-runner of the group.

Fortunately for the Cardinals the team already has a solid center fielder in place in Jon Jay. He’s been reliable defensively, every now and then making a play reminiscent of the days that Jim Edmonds patrolled center field in St. Louis. Jay’s a .300/.359/.414 hitter over the past three seasons and won’t reach free agency until after the 2016 season. Provided he can stay healthy whomever serves as his backup shouldn’t expect to see much time in center field.

Limiting Beltran from consideration in center field is likely the best course of action for his health, but in the grand scheme of things it won’t play a vital role in the team’s season so long as they don’t have to endure the loss of Jay for an extended period of time. If such a situation does arise, the production stemming from the team’s corresponding roster moves will ultimately be telling. If those moves don’t pan out, some of the blame could deflect back on Beltran for being unable to handle the role any longer.  It’s all speculation and “what ifs”, but still something to consider.

Beltran is a career .282/.360/.496 hitter, with 334 HR and 1,243 RBI. He’s a former Rookie of the Year, a three-time Gold Glove Award winner, and seven-time All Star. When healthy he’s a solid right fielder and arguably among the National League’s best, but he’s no longer a center fielder.