rest and rehabilitation

So, Brendan, gimme a call if you need some company for the AS break. My son just got Rock Band. Yes, it's that time of the year again. The Cards have played 96 (that's roughly 60% of the season), and are sitting at 10 games over .500, 4½ games back in the NL Central, with a half-game lead in the NL Wild Card race. The trade deadline is 17 days away. The rumblings are growing louder, and the one name in particular that grabbed my attention was AJ Burnett. He's a righty, and he's a starter, but he's a solid starter that could fill out our rotation. What we really need is some left-handed brilliance in the 'pen. Maybe even two. The Pirates can keep Nady, the Rox can keep Holliday, and the devil can keep Bonds. We don't need a bat, no matter what the suits say. We need some pitching, and we need it yesterday. Literally. We need to get some decent help in the bullpen and a time machine to go back to the collapse we suffered at the hands (and batting gloves) of the Bucs yesterday. García will start for the series finale with the Pads. The ever-fluid starting rotation will look like this for the start of the second half: 1. Lohse 2. Looper 3. Wellemeyer 4. García 5. Piñeiro Flores is expected to be back in the bullpen by that time, so we'll keep two lefties. Sort of. (And no, I won't elaborate on that...) So here we stand, a little more than halfway through the season, and things aren't as bad as they could be. But they aren't as good either. A little R&R might be just what we need.