“Dangling” a rotten deal to us is not really even worth reporting. Did they “dangle” Duchscherer for Pujols as well?

seriously, what the hell?

it would not surprise me to see Street wearing a Cards’ uni next season. For Ludwick, that’s insane. But it won’t surprise me if he is quickly spun to the Cards. In fact, it won’t surprise me to find out that those conversations Mo was having w/ Dan O’Dowd were about Street and not about Holliday at all.

throwing 80s toward the end of last year and out of the closers role or somethign?

There is NO WAY Street is worth Ludwick. If this happened then Mo is a chump. I would rather they spend some $$ to get Hoffman.

If Mo is so hellbent on trading Ludwick…I hope he has a plan to replace his production on the team. Because I don’t think Rasmus will do it. Plus the pressure on Rasmus to produce would be too much for the kid I think. I’m not against trading Luddy if we can get a big piece to help this team contend…but Street is NOT that piece.

for Carolina. Yadi, Brian Anderson, PJ Walters and…one more from the Cards org, I think?…are playing for him.

3. Gist of the coverage. Plus ridiculous ‘this just in’ stuff along the lines of ‘Cards back out.’ (How is this priority news? Whatever.)

Regardless of whether or not this is true (and whether the deals are worth it in the first place), the perception is out there that we’re not going to pull the trigger on anything. And it’s being reported every few days in the national media. Does this really give the team an edge? I’m not quite understanding it.

The Free Agency Period hasn’t even begun.

he’s saved at least a few million dollars to live off of.

did fine in the OF except Lopez. He was a very small sample size worth of poor.

FL: -3
AM: +2
AK: +2

although there’s always room for improvement…

The problem with the team is lack of raw materials. Something’s wrong with the scouting team.

Duncan is the magic pitcher fixer-upper.

Oquendo is the “secret weapon.”

TLR…well, he’s the creepy old wizard.

To bad it was wasted on such a poor team

Bridge to Young Pitcher. Short-term, low-risk, meets Tony’s criteria for a closer, etc. But there are lots of options at closer now. Among the names that are/could be available: (Fuentes, Rodriguez, Izzy, Sherrill, Putz, Jenks(?), Hoffman, Street, Wood(?).) Many ways to go.

And it sounds like will, I like this idea better than most. At least he doesn’t truly stand in the way of anything internal long term. He might still be able to get the job done. The interesting thing about him is that everything statistically is pretty close to in line with his recent history, except for allowing 8 homers. Hits, BB’s, K’s were all the same. Still murder on righthanders.

A couple of things are interesting about those homers. Contrary to what you might think, 7 of those 8 came at home. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing, but it is interesting. What definitely is encouraging is that he only allowed 1 homer in the second half of the season. He was pretty much his usual self in the second half, although it was in limited opportunities.

This may be worth pursuing. If Mo is considering signing K-Rod, Fuentes, et al, to multi year deals, or if he is considering trading for a closer, I hope he makes this call first.

just average D is what I read.

Instant Breakfast was actually quite clutch in 2007. That year he was 3rd on the team in WPA, behind Pujols & Duncan. He was pitiful in low leverage situations, mediocre in mid-level situations, and quite good when it really mattered. Add it all up and it doesn’t look real impressive, but he helped out the team more than most people thought.

He didn’t look it on tv, but man was he big. He was tall and had shoulders like Wellemeyer. I remember the first time I saw him in person. It was during batting practice and I was like, “Hmm. There’s Enc. Who’s that little guy standing next to him?” And it was Scott Rolen. And the thing is, Rolen is actually bigger than Enc but his physique was just that much more impressive in person.

Another victim of a freak baseball injury.

Yeah, I thought this went without saying.

if your namesake were to go out there and have Ray Lankford’s career I would be thrilled.

…was really freaking good. In terms of pure hitting ability he comes out ahead of the three guys you mentioned, at least in my book. Career OPS+ of 122, OBP of .364, .900+ OPS twice. I may be tempted to take him over those guys actually.

The thing I’ll always remember about him though was this…I was watching a game at Busch, and he fielded a ball down in the corner. It was going to be a bang-banger at the plate on a relay, so he comes up firing. Somehow, the camera just loses the ball. Dan and Al (or maybe it was Bob and Al…it probably was actually…anywho…) are going nuts up in the booth trying to figure out what the hell happened. Turns out Lankford somehow threw the ball at such an angle that it dinged off of the front rail of those cut-out seats in left and went INTO THE STANDS!!! I have no idea of the date of that game or who they were playing or anything like that, and I’m not exactly sure how he did it (I mean the geometry of the thing…). It was undoubtedly one of the craziest things I’d seen, right up there with the Canseco “Ball off the Head” and the Manny Ramirez cut-off play.

They are very similar players. Good defenders, they can hit for power, steal bases, draw a lot of walks and are both lefties to top it off.

Try this again

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/11/11/655975/top-fifty-players-of-2008

the quote seems to imply that reporters only found out about his discussions w/ the Rockies, and not about any w/ any other team. Therefore, the Rockies must have leaked it, apparently.