Pujols was just as integral to the Cards' success with Rolen and Walker debilitated by injuries,
I believe you have a typo there, you meant to say:
Pujols was
substantially more integral to the Cards' success with
Sanders, Molina and Walker debilitated by injuries,
and Rolen out for good after the break.I still think Carpenter is the Cy Young as well, he did something that hadn't been done since Gibson's 1968 season, racking up
22 consecutive "Quality Starts" (min 6 inings, 3 or fewer runs). He tailed off a bit, but his dominant consistency meant that for 3 months the Cards only lost 2 series. Clemens famously lost a whole bunch 1-0 games, but 2 of them were to Carpenter.