is that all those type of players are currently within the organization. My guesses would be Motte, Kinney, Rasmus, Freese, and Mather. Maybe Barton, but I have a hard time seeing him get a chance. If we have to have a reclamation vet on the bench I hope it is a RH bat that either plays corner OF or corner IF.

I know this isn’t going to be a tremendously popular idea, but picture a scenario in which miles is not your reserve middle infielder, where a legitimate defensive replacement can come off the bench for either of the middle infield spots, or the outfield and be really good as a pinch runner.

the pitch is, when he has played shortstop, he’s been one of the best defensive shortstops around, but the sample size is relatively small.

i’m not advocating using him full time, i would never want to see him used as against left handed pitching but he does bring several qualities that would help.

as long as he is willing to throw only middle-relief instead of closing and doesn’t break the bank.

jeremy affeldt as a relief ace/potential closer archetype.

Though that didn’t work out so well for the royals, he’s just a type B free agent, he’s a LHP, and he throws 94+. Struck out more than a batter an inning in ‘08 with a 55 percent GB rate, so even Duncan could get along with him… sounds like a steal if he’d sign for what Dave proposes.

Ludwick was the diamond in the rough for ’08

the white sox jumped on their chance and picked up a low risk 2b. wish the cards would have picked him up.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/10/white-sox-sign.html

For reference, when asked who was going to be the surprise player to land on the 2009 roster, Mo answered that Tyler Green could surprise everyone with a good ST.

I see the club doing something along these lines — getting ONE marquee name middle infielder and populating the other side of the middle infield with a stopgap starter(Miles/Izturis/Lopez/Kennedy) and hoping that Barden or Green comes up and wins a starting role.

The obvious flaw is that if both Barden and Green are hitting .164 in ST, we will be hard pressed to find a reasonable MIF in April and stuck with at least one of the mediocre MIF we overexposed this year.

The upshot is that this might allow the club to really pull a blockbuster for the marquee name MIF (or elsewhere, like relief), in terms of prospects and/or dollars.

How ML-ready do you think Barden and Green are? NB — Green is pulling time at second in the Arizona League. If his defense is up to par, that would probably put him ahead of Hoffpauir as a potential 2B, yes?

chad cordero. of course he’s coming off of shoulder surgery for a torn labrum, i’ll bet somebody signs him to a big league contract, which could turn out either way

But declining the $2.25 million club option on Toby Hall leaves the White Sox temporarily in search of a backup catcher. A.J. Pierzynski and Minor Leaguer Cole Armstrong stand as the only two backstops on the White Sox 40-man roster.

“Shortstop Orlando Cabrera, third baseman Joe Crede, infielder Juan Uribe and relief pitcher Horacio Ramirez all figure to join Griffey and Hall in free agency from the White Sox. Closer Bobby Jenks and outfielder Dewayne Wise both are arbitration eligible.”

They also signed Jayson Nix. I’m undecided about dealing Anderson, but might be of interest.

a little off the recent topic, but now that Burnett seems to be on the open market, barring monday’s decision, our signing of Lohse seems to look pretty dumb….A good way to judge whether a signing was a good idea is to see what kind of trade value he would bring now that he is signed long term. My prediction – NONE. That $40 mil would have gone nicely into getting a REAL impact pitcher named A.J. Burnett, not the replacement level rubber arm we got.

I haven’t heard this guys name thrown out there yet. I saw that he is a FA and I don’t see why we don’t go for him. Especially if we are trying to bridge the gap at closer this guy has backed up Street pretty successfully the past two years so he could be put in that role and he is a lefty. I know he is older, and he made 3.1mil last year, but unless i am misunderstanding things he might be worth kicking the tires on. What do you guys think?

are pretty much unpredictable, but it’s hard not to notice they have some real pitching depth. this is what they have at the big league level.

Ricky Nolasco
scott olsen
Josh Johnson
Chris Volstad
Adam Miller
Annibel Sanchez
Eulogio De La Cruz

and then quite a bit of pitching depth below that with guys like west, sinkbeil, hernandez, winters, thompson etc. If they were serious about competing, they certainly have the talent to do it. I have my doubts that’s what they’ll do.

Is he a possibility for a supersub role. Plays all over the field with a slash line of .279/.377/.285 this year. That slugging % is disgusting, but he did steal14 bases this year so he could provide a bit of speed that is definitely lacking on this team. Ideas?

pornstache larue! So it now appears that Mo WILL make a trade this offseason, seeing as how this now makes Anderson expendable. Any thoughts on what we could get for a sweet-swingin’ lefty catcher?

Don’t gamble on Carp’s health.
Don’t pinch pennies when we’re talking rotation.
Go ahead and either have a legit starting 5 or 6 if all works well.
You can always trade from your surplus (like we were going to be able to do this past season, right?)

put up a link today….www.mlbtraderumors.com

He attempts to place each of his top 50 free agents with teams who will sign for them.

In his opinion, St. Louis picks up Orlando Hudson, E. Renteria (on a one-year deal) and Damaso Marte. (Lopez signs with Baltimore, Looper to SF).

How do we feel about this? What would the lineups look like? While playing around with the rosters, I don’t necessarily think the Defense would be that bad, with an above average fielder at 3B, 2B, and 1B, and a former gold glover at SS in Edgar. In fact, if Troy Glaus and Yadi both picked up the Golden Rawlings this year, that would put a gold glover at EVERY position in the infield. How could we be disappointed in that? Yes we’d be much older, and yes Edgar seems to have slowed, but he is still the same guy; how old was Izturis last year?.

I also think the batting orders Tony would play around with would be very interesting. What questions jump out to me is who bats leadoff and who bats 9—Skip and Colby would be the biggest difference makers assuming they are on the team. Where would Hudson bat? He’s traditionally a 2 hitter, with good pop, OBP and a decent average with low strikeouts. Who’d lead off? My best bet would be whoever is in the lineup between Schumaker and Rasmus, (or even Barton if he wins the fifth OF challenge). Would Renteria be the 9 hitter? It looks like he would be to me…

Schumaker/Rasmus – CF
Hudson – 2B
Pujols – 1B
Ludwick – RF
Glaus – 3B
Ankiel – LF
Molina – C
Pitcher
Renteria – SS

Does Renteria look better now that he’s a 9 hitter in our lineup? Would TLR bat Schumaker (or Barton) in the 9 hole and put Hudson or Edgar in the Leadoff? Lots of potential problems and lots of potential runs in that lineup. Looks like a fun challenge for TLR—something he’d enjoy, no doubt.

So our roster would look like

OF—Ludwick, Ankiel, Schumaker, Rasmus, Barton/Mather/Duncan
INF—Pujols, Hudson, Renteria, Glaus, Molina, LaRue, Ryan, Freese (I’m insterting these two since we’d have spent our FA money completely) Mayber Mather and Barton both make it as Mather becomes corner IF backup and Ryan can back up Glaus at third and Troy backup Albert at 1st? Where’s Duncan in this scenario

SP—Wainwright, Welley, Lohse, Piniero, Carpenter/Boggs
RP—McClellan, Perez, Marte, Franklin, ? Does Springer get re-signed cheaply? Motte in the bigs or closing in Memphis? Kinney/Tyler Johnson/Worrell??? Who rounds out the team?

so, through my stream of consciousness here it looks like MO and TLR have A LOT of questions to sort through. Looks like fun to me.

But I live in Chicago (well, south sub.), and I was listening to the local drive home on ESPN Radio (Mac, Jurko, and Harry) tody when I hear Jim Hendry of the Cubs met with San Diego people informally involving Jake Peavy. It was reported that the Friars were interested in this group of four players; Sean Marshall, Felix Pie, Ronny Cedeno, and a Triple A prospect whose name escapes me. Now to me even if the Iowa prospect is the next best thing in baseball (and I haven’t heard that out of Cubbie-land) that seems a bit low. My point is this: 1) I am outraged at the thought of the Cubs getting maybe the biggest impact pitcher in the NL (Top 5 at least) for three players not worth the stale gum that comes with thier baseball cards and ONE prospect, and 2) Maybe Peavy isn’t going to cost as much as we originally thought if we decide to go after him. What do you guys think?

need a left handed first basemen. They acquired one of ours.

Renteria having a bad year offensively is still a ton better than Izturis having a normal year. I wouldn’t put that much more value in his defense over his offense.

straight up makes me hesitant, but if there were some more goodies in their grab bag…then maybe….

www.mlbtraderumors.com

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/BCAB64342B022790862574F70079A4C3?OpenDocument

Ludwick no doubt had a career year but still should be a valuable and relatively affordable for the next couple of years. Holliday’s home/road splits are rather telling.

1.063 OPS Home
.803 OPS away

Coors effect, anyone?

First I find two things that make me think this trade won’t happen.

1. The huge increase in salary the Cards would have to pay to Holliday to fill in a position that is not in dire need of filling. They have a glut of outfielders and I feel they will trade some OF’s to fill the two holes in the MI first and others. Its just not like the Cards to do something like this in the past as they tend to fill needs first. They put a self limit on how big they will let their payroll rise. The more they pay for a OF the less they have for the holes they need to fill. But, things can change, so who knows?

2. The Rockies would be taking on Ludwick who had a great year, but was it a career year for him or the beginning of a great future? He is 30 years old….. So, which is it? Career year? The beginning of more great years? To give up a proven player like Holliday, who is 2 years younger seems a bit like a chance they would be taking.

Reasons why it may happen:

1. The Cardinals get a proven big bat. I kept hearing how playing in Coors helped Holliday, but I looked up his split stats and his road numbers are pretty darn good also. But, playing at Coors does have an effect on his numbers. With him batting behind Pujols it could be a lot of fun to watch.

2. The Rockies could free up a lot of money to fill their needs and become more competitive in the West, but that is if Ludwick continues to perform. I believe he would, especially at Coors. So, the Rockies would gain a lot from this.

Those are just some quick thoughts I have about this proposed trade. I am sure there are more reasons to make this trade happen and more reasons to keep it from happening. I would love to see more reasons on both sides of why this trade may or may not happen.