In spite of promises that were made about pursuing "top free agents" with luxury box revenue from the new stadium by the ownership we all know that it's never going to happen. The latest mantra is "we're going with a youth movement."
The trouble with that strategy is that Larussa almost has an allergic reaction just thinking about playing young players. If you'll remember the only reason that Albert Pujols stuck with the team in 2001 at the close of spring training was because Bobby Bonilla was injured. The real shame is that we have the best player in the game and we're wasting his prime years because of the ownership's unwillingness to spend the money for a couple of key pieces to the puzzle. An analogy can be drawn to the career of Stan Musial. After winning the World Series in 1946, the rest of his career was spent playing for mediocre teams. In my opinion, based on the personnel that we have, Motte should be the closer. As far as starting pitchers go, aside from Carpenter, we've cornered the market on the 88 MPH fastball.