Free Agents

… You might be worried about going out and spending a load on an outfielder when 1) We seem to have a handful of capable outfielders already and 2) we have those questionable contracts. But I think we need to remember a few things. First with pitchers 1) There is no reason at this point to think that Loshe’s contract is going to bite us in the ass, and 2) I don’t think Carp is done, I know it is wishful thinking, but Toronto left his career for dead and look what he did with us, this guy is a healer. As far as your comments about the outfield, we have a lot of talent there, but these guys are relatively untested. Shu- is at best a place holder in the outfield and an average leadoff man, I’m not putting my eggs in the Ludwick basket until I see him reproduce a little, Ank as much as I love him still makes me nervous for his health every time he steps out there, and Rasmus hasn’t even put on a STL uniform yet. I don’t think spending some money to go out and get a seasoned proven outfielder can hurt. I don’t think Burrell is that guy though, like ‘the moo cow’ and ’ mini boscoriono’ said he isn’t exactly the type of power/average we are looking for. Holiday would be a perfect fit, always tops in average in the league with some above average pop and a little speed on the bags, to hit right behind/in front of Prince Albert. They are both perennial MVP caliber and would protect each other, plus Colorado was shopping him at the trade deadline… they may be willing. All I know is that if we ended up getting Holliday (without loosing Rasmus) my first son would be named Jon Mozeliak.

They might offer arbitration, but he is a FA. At least, that is my understanding.

option will be declined according to what I’ve read. I have no idea what he may get offered as a FA.

I think Schu has a little more trade value than you give him credit for, but I do see where he has value to this team (I’m kinda a sell high guy, and I don’t see Skip getting much higher). Fact is, at some point something’s gotta give in the OF. Ludwick, Ankiel, Schu, Rasmus, Mather, Duncan, Barton, and even Jon Jay are ready (or will be at some point next year) to play in the bigs. We’ve only go room for five (obviously including bench guys – I’m not sure any of these guys are “bench” guys). I like a Ludwick, Mather, Rasmus OF for the long term.

What do we have now — 7 guys planning on coming to ST to compete for a spot in the outfield? (Ludwick, Ankiel, Rasmus, Skip, Barton, Duncan, Mather). I thought you were supposed to deal from a strength to improve a weakness, not improve strengths while ignoring weaknesses.

Also, why on gods green earth would we pay truck loads of cash for performance we can duplicate (or come very close to) for a fraction of the cost?

you’d have to ask whether he’s worth about $7 million a year more than Burrell who is 4.5 years younger than Manny. Both of these guys will probably get 3 or 4 year deals Manny for $18-22Mil/year Burrell for $12-15Mil per year. Manny has been one of the best hitters in the league for a lot of years (OPS’s over 1 don’t grow on trees) he’s also been a headache and in decline for two years (sans three months in LA).

There is not one FA I want to see the Cards sign to more than a two year deal (including Lohse..DOH!!). If this can’t be done, I hope we can get something done via trade…otherwise I’d rather go to war with the current troops (Lopez and Iz2 included – if Lopez will sign for $3mil/yr).

leading off to begin the year. That dude gets off to horrible starts at new levels, and that may be something he does each year. He needs to bat lower in the lineup until he shows he has broken out of that, or until he heats up later in the season.

I don’t get your logic. As I pointed out above, Pujols, Ludwick, Glaus, and Ankiel all have the potential to hit 30+ homers. Can you name another team in the National league that has 4 guys who have the potential to hit 30+ homers? I can’t.

You’re presenting a false choice in saying that having Skip leading off requires us to get a SS with some power. Why not just sign someone who is great with the glove and gets on base a .340 clip? That guy could bat in the 9 hole and be the second leadoff man. If you re-sign Lopez, he probably bats second and the lineup looks something like this:

Schumaker
Lopez
Pujols
Ludwick
Glaus
Ankiel
Molina
P
.340 OBP SS

but he wouldn’t hit 4th for the Cardinals, he’d probably hit 5th and bump Glaus down to 6th. I still don’t think that makes it ok to pay $15M+ a year for him when you have lower cost alternatives and huge holes at other positions.

Our outfield and lineup production was not bad last year. If you add a good stick at that SS position the lineup gets better than keeping Iz2 and signing Burrell to replace Schumaker.

But you don’t need a power hitting SS as much as you need one that can lead off, so you can put someone like Mather in LF. There are a ton of power hitting corner outfielders and they’re cheaper than power hitting SS. Even if you keep Schu leading off, you still don’t need a power hitting MI as much as you need one that can hit at a .280+ clip and get on base at a better rate than .319. If you had a SS like, say, Theriot of the Cubs (.307/.387/.359), you could still bat Schu leadoff and put Theriot ninth with Lopez batting second. This puts OBP intensive players in front of Pujols, which is a way to get him more AB’s with runners in scoring position. Theriot hit exactly one homer this year, but he scored 85 runs. I’d rather pay a Theriot $2M a year than pay someone like Tejada $16M a year, especially since the Cardinals already have 4 30+ homer threats in the lineup, as I said above.

might notice your replies if they were actual replies instead of new comments.

Just click the “reply” link next to the profile name and the time-stamp of the comment you want to reply to.

people don’t like to pitch to him

Or, people don’t like to pitch to a home run threat when everyone behind him in the lineup sucks. Pedro Feliz, Chris Coste, Geoff Jenkins, and Carlos Ruiz got the majority of the AB’s behind Burrell this year. None of those guys had more than 10 dingers, and all of them strike out quite a bit, are slow, and can be induced into double plays. I take my chances with them.

Burrell only hit .250, and his BABIP was .275, which was the second lowest of his career. In other words, he’s worse than league average on balls in play, even though he’s getting pitched around all the time. What this tells me is that he’s becoming an all or nothing type player, and his slash lines project this as well. He either hits a big fly, walks, or gets himself out.

Busch III suppresses home run totals, so the 33 he hit in Philly would probably shrink to around 25-28 next year - we have 4 players who hit better than 25 dingers this year, and three of the four did it for less than what Burrell made this season. He’s 32 years old, so he’s probably going to be looking for a 4-5 year deal at around $13$16 million per year. His stats just don’t show him to be worth that, imho.

The final knife in his back would be that his top comparable through age 30 on baseball-reference is Danny Tartabull, who had his best season at age 30 and went straight downhill from there and was out of baseball by age 34. Not exactly what I’m looking for from a guy looking for that type of money.

Thats his name, I don’t know what we would have to trade to get him though, if the M’s were even willing to do so…

And Furcal is on that list, but he is spoken above…

so it’ll be more costly than money to sign him- but his performance has been exemplary. I had no idea how good he was, 12+ K/9 with an average K/BB. Sweet.

Franklin was better than you think he was, though. He just isn’t a closer.