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* With Brad Penny's immediate future more uncertain than ever, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak doesn't have much of a choice. It looks like the Cardinals need to secure another starting pitcher. And they have to be willing to give up something in the exchange.

The price for Cliff Lee was steep; Texas gave up a big package of young players to pull him out of Seattle. So that tells you what the Cardinals are facing. Houston's Roy Oswalt is probably a longshot because so much money is owed to him. (He's in the Holliday-Pujols range, salary-wise.) I don't think Arizona's Dan Haren is a realistic option, but my colleague and friend Joe Strauss deems it unwise to count the Cardinals out on Haren. The D-backs are asking for a lot in return, but perhaps will take less if the Cardinals are willing to take on a much of Haren's remaining contract cost. But Arizona won't want high-salaried veterans in return; they want prospects. Again: longshot.

Mozeliak certainly is exploring options, but he doesn't have as much to trade as a lot of the pitching-needy teams.

He's in a tough spot.

But he'll have to act on something.

The Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds are in a duel for first place. And as I've mentioned before, the Reds soon will have nine starting pitchers to choose from. Not all are good; Reds skeptics often point to Aaron Harang's 5.02 ERA. 

But that's missing the point. Which is: the Reds have so much starting pitching depth, when Edinson Volquez and then Homer Bailey return from the DL, the Reds will have plenty of options. They don't have to keep bad pitchers in their rotation.

The Reds can't match the Cardinals' top three of Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia. And manager Tony La Russa has done an excellent job of getting his Big Three as many starts as possible by limiting the number of times that the team uses a No. 5 starter. But the Reds figure to be stronger in the back end of their rotation, and that could mean a few extra wins down the stretch.

The alternative, I suppose, is to wait for Kyle Lohse to return and see how he does. But even if Lohse is OK, he's still probably a month away. And even then would a rotation of Carpenter, Wainwright, Garcia, Lohse and Blake Hawksworth sufficient? Or do the Cardinals need to do better? 

* It was reassuring to see Chris Carpenter return to form and handle the Dodgers with great command and confidence on Thursday night. OK, so maybe his recent problems were related to mechanics, as he said. But I'll venture to say that some extra rest (six days without pitching) did wonders for Carpenter and his right arm.

Thursday night was classic Carpenter. It was a brutally hot and sticky night at Busch Stadium, and you could see the discomfort on Carpenter's face. And you could see the obvious discomfort of Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers' terrific young starter. But it soon became apparent that this one was going to be, in large part, a test of pitching survival skills. Who would best endure the extreme conditions and win the battle? And in that scenario, you'd go with Carpenter every time.  The sweat was pouring off Carpenter, and he kept gritting his teeth and flinging those cutters and curves and sinkers at the Dodgers. Carp is nutso. And I mean that in a positive way.

*Back to the Reds: Volquez, completing his comeback from Tommy John elbow surgery, is scheduled to start Saturday against Colorado. The Reds have so many starters, they're still pondering their choices before disclosing their early second-half rotation. Bailey is probably two or three weeks away from returning.  Here's a rundown from Cincinnati Enquirer beatwriter Jon Fay.

* Reds GM Walt Jocketty, seeking to fortify his bullpen with additional experience, has signed former Cardinals reliever Russ Springer, who will tune up at Class AAA Louisville for a while. Springer, 41, had a 4.11 ERA with Oakland and Tampa Bay last season.  "I had him before and he can still pitch," Jocketty told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

But the experiment to convert high-priced Cuban import Aroldis Chapman to a reliever isn't going smoothly; he has a 5.79 ERA pitching out of the bullpen at Class AAA Louisville. Reds catcher Ryan Hanigan, who caught Chapman while on a rehab assignment, told reporters that Chapman has electric, "virtually unhittable" stuff but still struggles with command. Controlling that 99 mph heat is the challenge. 

* Non-sports note: for those who missed HBO's "The Wire" the first time around or want to see it again, show-by-show, in sequence, in its entirety ... if you have DirecTV, you're good to go. The replays begin Sunday night at 8 p.m. STL time on DirecTV channel 101. It's probably my favorite show. Ever. Or tied with The Sopranos, anyway.

* I visited with Mike Keenan on my 101 ESPN radio show Thursday as part of a "Flashback" week. We looked at the 1990s on Thursday and Keenan was a big deal back then, a source of constant news and controversy, as he coached the Blues for three seasons. Keenan was bounced during the 1996-1997 season. He told me that he regrets how he handled Brett Hull, and that he could have and should have done a better job in dealing with Hull's personality. Keenan also said it all went bad for him when Mike Shanahan was ousted as the Blues chairman; he lost a valuable ally and someone who understood him. 

During Keenan's 10-minute interview, our board was flooded with vicious messages, with fans trying to zing Keenan with some pretty nasty insults. They were ripping me, too, simply because I had a gentlemanly discussion with Keenan instead of berating him on the air. It's remarkable, how much hatred remains for Keenan in our town. Many years later, folks still won't let it go. And I'm not suggesting that they should let it go. I'm just surprised by the intensity of the anger after all of these years.

Keenan was a strange dude, and certainly seemed to enjoy playing the role of the bad guy. He almost wanted to be disliked. And I don't defend him except for this: Thursday I had more than a few people express their disgust with Keenan, saying how he'd ruined the Blues franchise. I'm sorry, Keenan did a lot of crazy things, and had a maddening style. But he didn't ruin the franchise. Keenan was fired in '97. Over the next six seasons the Blues had the NHL's fifth-best winning percentage (.609), won the President's Trophy (league's best record) in 1999-2000, and had two consecutive seasons off 100+ plus points (1999-00, 2000-01).

So how did Keenan ruin the franchise?

I didn't like the Brendan Shanahan trade either, but Chris Pronger turned out to be a special player, no? Yes, the Blues became better after he left. But if Keenan was so flat-out awful in every way, then why was Joel Quenneville able to take over the Blues and win immediately (and often) with a lot of the same players that had been acquired by Keenan? More than half the roster that won the President's Trophy was stocked with players obtained by Keenan. Keenan was guilty of a lot of things here, but wrecking the franchise ain't one of them.

* The Cardinals potentially have a nice RF platoon with Jon Jay and Allen Craig until Ryan Ludwick gets back. But let's calm down with all of this chatter about trading Ludwick. 

Thanks for reading, and please pardon my typos...

-Bernie