he’s probably the most replaceable player on the team. We’re relatively deep in the OF, and Skip appears to be only a platoon player, given his awful splits vs. lefties.

Perez — though I’d like to keep him, I also would like him to close though I could go w/ him as a setup man provided we don’t spend lot of $ or lots of prospects acquiring a closer. However, if Tony isn’t committed to him — and won’t be for the forseeable future — he surely has as much trade value as anybody on the active roster. It would seem to me that a trade package to acquire a good young SS could be built around Perez.

The other one is Ankiel. The Cards should definitely consider trading Rick if they can acquire a good, young player for him — either an SP, a closer, or a SS. Ankiel’s 30 next year and will be a free agent in 1 year. He’s also replaceable w/ Rasmus and, as a free agent, will likely be lost after the season anyway. His trade value could be pretty high.

I know that there’s a contingent of Cards’ fans who assume the Cards will resign him at the end of the season but I’ve got my doubts. He’ll earn a lot of $ on the open market, has Boras for an agent (which means he’s looking to get paid), and it’ll be his one and only chance to hit the jackpot. Even if we could sign him after next season, I’m not convinced it would be a good idea. Would we have signed Torii Hunter to the contract he got from the Angels. A good season from Ankiel would mean he’s liable to receive a Torii Hunter-like contract.

it would be worth a trade otherwise i would keep Perez. i would do Wood, Brignac and maybe Zorbrist but the latter scares me on defense and i cant seem to get over that. Although i must admit i haven’t given up on Kozma, yet, but at the very least it will be 2011 before he is ready.

I agree with “The Artist Formally Known as HC” re: Ankiel… im not sold we will resign him and there is no way he should be off limits. if your name isn’t Pujols, ADAM, or Yadi you are fair game…

Over on ole’ ESPN Buster Olney mentions in his video blog that the Padres might move Khalil greene and Jake Peavy together. He cites the Cardinals as obvious suitors. What would the Redbirds have to give up for a tandem like that, and would they even want it?

is anyone else having trouble on Bill James’ site while using Google Chrome? i cant get the stats to work and it very much is a pain…i have to go back to IE just to look up fielding stats :(

maybe some kind of trade package involving Skip, Flamethrower, and AK7 is on the horizon?

i was thinking about asking last night if anyone could do a post like this. i really wanted to see what realistic value some of our trade chips have.

i agree that skip could bring something good back. he is a decent leadoff hitter that plays above average defense and is still cost controlled for a few more years. that’s pretty valuable in my estimation.

if we can get a good young player back in exchange for ank we should do that as well. i’ve been a proponent of trading him for a while now. maybe next year’s deadline is the best time to trade him considering he plays well. however, now that i think about it an outfield of ank, rasmus, and ludwick doesn’t sound too bad.

Skippy has value in trade since he has at least 3 years of relative cost control remaining. He’s a solid OF vs RHP and can be used as a defensive replacement too, making him of value as a 3rd (particularly in CF say for the White Sox) or 4th OF. In 2008, he had 5 WSAB which if maintained (I think) projects him to be more valuable over the next 3 seasons than he’ll earn in 1year pre Arb and 2 years of Arb.

Thompson however is supposedly Arb eligible this offseason and that makes him of basically no value in trade. He had 0 WSAB in 2008. At league minimum he’s a useful enough piece for the BP — sort of a jack-of-all trades master of none type. A guy you can send out for an inning, then three days later ask to pitch 4 when the starter’s career implodes in the first. At $1M and/+ , not so much.

are the two that have the best chance to get dealt IMO, although it would pain me to part with YP. TLR will want a vet closer next season and Skip presents plenty of upside to his trade value. Like RB said, our sudden abundance of 3B prospects makes Glaus a potential chip, however none of these guys have had a looksie in the big leagues yet. I’d love to see Freese backing up Glaus and Albert to start next season, then if his production is to our liking, we could deal Santa to a team that needs his services at the deadline or All Star break, and get some decent prospects in return.

It all depends on what we do in the free agency period. I see the outfield being our strongest position(s), making it the best place to deal from. I think that if we can sign someone like Furcal, then we should try to deal Schu. Furcal would take the leadoff spot that Schu held, and then Rasmus could fill the 3rd outfield spot. I think it is important that Rasmus would be able to be slotted into the #2 spot so that he has Pujols behind him, forcing pitchers to throw him strikes. If we stick with Iz2 or get someone like Greene via trade, I honestly think that Ludwick makes more sense. We would likely still need a proven lead-off hitter, which is why keeping Skip makes more sense in this instance. Plus, after an MVP-esque season, we could get good pieces in return for Luddy and still allow our good piece (Rasmus) a spot in our line-up. I’m sure this will be highly debated, but it is nice to see that we do have some depth on our team. Hopefully, our depth will turn into filling the holes on our team…

Very nice.

See more in the catch all hot stove thread.

I’d like to deal an outfielder to address weakness in the MI, or to add a starter.

Assuming Schumaker has equal value with Ankiel in the eyes of others (because of 3 years of cost control), he’d be first on my list. I don’t have anything against him, but there is redundancy with lefthandedness in the outfield. Also, it may be hard for him to hold a spot here for 3 years anyway. If what we saw this year is what he is though, and I think it’s a pretty close representation, he’ll be an upgrade for a lot of teams and, again, he’ll be cheap.

I’m not opposed to dealing Ankiel either for a lot of the same reasons. Obviously his payday is coming soon, and I’m currently leaning against paying it (though I could see scenarios that would change my mind on that). So if you can get a return that will exceed the draft picks you get, or what you think you could get over the summer it’s worth considering. The fan fallout may be real though, and it’ll be a consideration. TLR’s loyalty will too, but then again he’s not making any committments after next year, as far as I know. So that should be about 101 on the list of considerations as far as I am concerned. Mo’s the one who has to live with his decisions long term.

Ludwick, I am very much against trading. The return you’d have to get for him would have to be enormous. The sell high approach I normally appreciate, but here’s some other considerations. Ludwick is exactly the type of asset that separates decent teams from really good ones, at least if you aren’t in an unlimited payroll market. He’s up there in years, but he is exactly the thing that makes prospects so appealling and you get to add the polish and poise of someone that’s been through the grind on top of it. You are getting star production for rookies salary, and getting it for years. Sure this season may not be repeatable, but say he hits .270/.350/.480 even….at the cost you’re paying him it will be an ok investment. Little downside risk (except injury), and a ton of upside – the likes of which you can not find elsewhere. So why trade him for someone that you hope turns out just like him?

I just don’t think Duncan has a market now, so going to move on.

Ditto Kennedy, if you can get someone to take some of his salary as a throw in then I’m happy about that.

Glaus may not repeat this season, but I don’t care, I don’t really want to trade him. I don’t think he is blocking anyone really. In fact I think he is a perfect bridge to whoever emerges in the minors, probably Wallace if he can stick at 3rd.

I just don’t see the point of dealing Perez. Much like his attachment to Ankiel, Tony’s thoughts on the matter shouldn’t count for that much. This is Mo’s call, and unless you can get a windfall for him I don’t do it. They apparently want to get a veteran in here to close. I can understand why, though I do not want them to sink all this payroll flexibility we finally have to do it. Even if that is exactly what they do (sign K-Rod or something), we still need to get big outs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th. I don’t see where we are in any position to move out the guys we have that are capable of that, and that certainly includes Perez. I wanted Motte up in STL earlier badly, because I felt he could have helped this sorry group and wanted to see if it was true. Now he did show well, but it was just a handful of innings. The jury is still out. We should keep both here next year, even if it is not for the 9th. They want a proven closer? Fine. The most important outs are often in the 7th and 8th anyway.

One item relating to Ankiel and free agency that is not brought up much is Ankiel’s mental makeup. His past trials and tribulations would, IMO, rule out several high pressure cities from his potential free agent market. I could not envision Rick playing in Philly, NYC or Boston. On the other hand, LA might fit, but Rick is a Florida boy. If you start eliminating some clubs because of the media market in where they play, then the free agent windfall possibility decreases.

One possibility is a club friendly extension. Rick would have to drive this with Boras, but I could see it happening based on Rick trying to find security both financially and psychologically. This could give us an everyday OF of Ludwick/Rasmus/Ankiel for the next few years. I could live with that.