Albert Pujols was recently offered salary arbitration by the St. Louis Cardinals, and while it’s possible that the most desirable free agent in Major League Baseball decides to accept a one-year deal at a price arbitrarily set by a salary arbitr—wait a minute—I think it’s important that we prepare for the outside chance that Pujols decides, instead, to continue negotiating for one of the largest contracts in the history of baseball. 

In that case, should the Cardinals fail to be the ones offering that large contract, they will receive two draft picks—even after the new collective bargaining agreement, which effectively banned the practice of offering Type-A relief pitchers salary arbitration and then laughing at them, very loudly, while they tried to find a team willing to sign them—and the sympathy of every other Major League Baseball team. 

Look, I know Albert Pujols will probably agree to play for one more year at a salary determined primarily by the worst season of his Major League career to date, just because the Cardinals offered it to him and he’s a very polite young man. But if it doesn’t happen, it’s important to know what happens next, is all. 

By R.b. Fallstrom, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Kyle Lohse threw six scoreless innings on eight days’ rest and the St. Louis Cardinals got home runs from Jon Jay and Matt Holliday in the third inning, slicing just a bit into the Milwaukee Brewers’ formidable NL Central lead with a 4-2 victory on Tuesday night.

Lohse (13-8), who leads the Cardinals in victories, gave up four hits, struck out six and walked three. He was pushed back two days behind Chris Carpenter and Jake Westbrook after giving up four runs in five innings in a win against Pittsburgh in his last start.

Yovanni Gallardo (15-10) gave up three runs in six innings, and has allowed six home runs in 10 2-3 innings over his last two starts, both losses to the Cardinals. He gave up only three his previous seven starts combined.

Gallardo dropped to 1-7 with a 5.66 ERA for his career against the Cardinals, the lone victory on May 7 in St. Louis when he took a no-hitter into the eighth of a 4-0 victory.

Nyger Morgan had three hits and Jonathan Lucroy had an RBI double in the eighth for the Brewers, who lead the Central by 9½ games with 19 to play after their four-game winning streak was snapped. Corey Hart extended his hitting streak to 18 games for Milwaukee, which is a major-league best 40-16 since July 6 — with six of the losses against the Cardinals.

Jason Motte allowed three hits and Prince Fielder’s RBI single in the ninth before earning his third save in six chances in a September shot at closing. The run ended a streak of 21 consecutive scoreless appearances for Motte, and also was the first earned run he allowed in 34 appearances since June 24. Fernando Salas, who has 23 saves in 28 chances, got the first two outs in the seventh.

Lance Berkman, who struck out three times against Gallardo the last meeting, gave the Cardinals the lead with an RBI in the first. Jay hit his 10th homer with one out in the third and Holliday hit his 22nd just inside the right-field foul pole with two outs.

The Cardinals had three straight singles off Kameron Loe with one out the seventh with Jay getting the RBI before Albert Pujols hit into his major-league leading 26th double play. The Cardinals lead the majors with 151 — 15 shy of the major league record held by the 1958 Cardinals.

NOTES: Zack Greinke (14-5) opposes Chris Carpenter (8-9) in the finale of a three-game series. Carpenter is 5-6 with a 5.05 ERA in 14 career starts against Milwaukee and is 1-2 with a 5.68 ERA in three starts this year. … Pujols has one more double play ball than Boston’s Adrian Gonzalez. Holliday and Yadier Molina are in a three-way tie for second in the NL along with Atlanta’s Alex Gonzalez. … Lohse beat the Brewers for the first time in four decisions at home. … Hart doubled to lead off the game and singled to start the ninth and is batting .359 (28-for-78) with five homers and nine RBIs.

By Dan Moore

– Managing Editor

Follow , and

Like SB Nation St. Louis on Facebook.

Sep 6, 2011 – If you’ve heard one thing about Adron Chambers, the St. Louis Cardinals’ only September call-up to be making his Major League debut, it was probably about how fast he is—Chambers, 24, has 35 triples in his minor league career, including 16 in his 2009 breakout with Palm Beach. With that in mind it was only fitting that Chambers made his debut Tuesday as a pinch runner, replacing Lance Berkman after the outfielder-in-name-only picked up his second hit of the night. Chambers scrambled to second on a wild pitch before being stranded there.

(Chambers didn’t stick around to make his defensive debut; in a truly La Russian set of moves, Jason Motte came in in his spot while Ryan Theriot was switched in to hit in the pitcher’s spot in case of a blown save.) 

Chambers hit .277/.368/.415 with a career-high 10 home runs in 128 games as Memphis’s starting center fielder. One thing he’ll have to work on, strangely enough, is his baserunning—for all his speed he’s never stolen more than 22 bases in a season, and this year he was caught on the basepaths 13 times. When he gets going and the ball’s in the gap he uses his speed brilliantly; from a dead stop it looks like Adron Chambers has a ways to go. 

Read More: Lance Berkman (RF – STL), Ryan Theriot (SS – STL), Adron Chambers (CF – STL), St. Louis Cardinals

Follow , and

Like SB Nation St. Louis on Facebook.

Do you like this story?

By Dan Moore

– Managing Editor

Follow , and

Like SB Nation St. Louis on Facebook.

Sep 6, 2011 – The St. Louis Cardinals’ September call-ups have already made themselves known on the pitching staff; Brandon Dickson made an ill-fated but ultimately successful start on September 1 and looked fine in relief on Monday, and his availability for mop-up innings could give the team additional chances to evaluate Marc Rzepczynski, the only part of the Colby Rasmus trade likely to pay off in 2012 unless you count draft compensation picks. But it’s Maikel Cleto, who began the year in A-ball, who figures to get the most attention out of the bullpen. 

After a brilliant stint in high-A and AA, a rough-but-serviceable run as a starter with the AAA Memphis Redbirds, and some tantalizing innings in the Major Leagues, I still have no idea what to make of Cleto, who’s done as good a job as could be expected of making up for the Cardinals’ absurd decision to trade Brendan Ryan for what amounted to a pitching prospect and Ryan Theriot. His breaking pitches are a nasty rumor, and he wastes a lot of pitches well out of the strike zone, but as bad as his command is supposed to be he showed decent K:BB ratios in the minor leagues and will, every so often, throw a perfect fastball on the outside corner against big league hitters. 

Also, that fastball’s going to be clocked at 98 miles per hour. Cleto hit 99 miles per hour three times according to game day, and was never clocked below 97 on a pitch that I can confirm to be a fastball. 

Read More: Ryan Theriot (SS – STL), Maikel Cleto (P – STL), Marc Rzepczynski (P – STL), Brandon Dickson (P – STL), St. Louis Cardinals

Follow , and

Like SB Nation St. Louis on Facebook.

Do you like this story?

HOUSTON (AP) – Prep star C.J. McElroy is picking baseball over football.

The University of Houston signee and St. Louis Cardinals draft pick will sign with the major-league team. The Cardinals drafted him in the third round of the major-league baseball draft in June.

KRIV-TV first reported McElroy’s decision, and University of Houston officials confirmed it on Tuesday morning.

The 5-foot-10 McElroy played center field for Clear Creek High School. He hit .488 with five homers, 20 RBIs and stole a school-record 33 bases as a senior.

McElroy’s father, Chuck, played in the major leagues from 1989-2001.

Associated Press