Rich Harden finally received the Levon Helm-sized blue-pinstriped weight on his shoulders gifted to him by Mark Prior as trade talks for the talented pitcher heated up during the A’s rather surprising run at mediocrity this year. As such, the Cubs finally allowed Harden to join them via trade yesterday, a mere news cycle away from CC Sabathia’s blimp-like tethering to Miller Park.

Therefore, the last two days have graced us with talk of the escalation of war in the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor (may we suggest The Battle for the Hiawatha?) for NL Central supremacy and the opportunity to stumble against another divisional foe in the playoffs. (We’re leaning towards the other team in this duo as the wild-card invitee.)

But does anyone want to talk about the second-place team in the division?

The St. Louis Cardinals still sit a half-game ahead of the Brewers in the NL Central standings as of Wednesday morning. They’ve got their own flawed aces returning; Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright could be back by August. Albert Pujols has already used his yearly injury vacation days. Colby Rasmus even awaits if times get rough.

Even if one of the Hiawatha duo should stumble, the other won’t get an opportunity to take their load off for the rest of the season as long as the Cardinals put the load right back on. We don’t expect the judgment day to come until at least late September.