precious little time today for an aft'noon post. i am editing an article about heated battles that occurred in rural Colorado during the Depression / Dust Bowl involving the Works Progress Administration. the agency came bearing gobs of federal money to employ the unemployed and help tide these stricken communities over; but such assistance reeked of charity to some people and violated the famous western code of rugged individ'lism.

the communities themselves had to apply for WPA funds to build a new school or sewer system, and enormous fights erupted --- within families, among close friends --- over which was the lesser evil, starvation or "disgrace."

not as important nor as enjoyable as the sanders-v-encarnacion argument, i will grant, but it diverts me nonetheless.

so i have nothing to add for the moment, but rich lederer has plenty say over at baseball analysts. he has posted a cogent, non-stl-centric look at the cards' offseason to date, and it's called pass the trash. lot of discussion follows in the comments there, also over at the think factory, where the primates are screeching at each other. the gang at bernie's has taken notice, too. . . . . .

as you head off to those destinations, take this thought with you: if the cardinals had made one meaningful upgrade somewhere on the roster --- a stud outfielder, an ace pitcher, even tom gordon as a new setup man --- would you accept downgrades at other positions more readily? i think that's the piece that is missing here; just one strong addition and i might understand the downgrades as necessary payroll adjustments to accommodate the offsetting improvement elsewhere on the roster.

such a move could still occur and make all of us nattering nabobs change our tunes in a hurry. so c'mon walter, please shut us all up . . . . .