joe strauss reported the cardinals have made an offer to will ohman. why?

he's the only lhrp stl has made an offer to that i have seen reported. in an effort to understand the orgs reasoning, i will share the research i have done. not that it answers why, but these stats could be behind their offer.

here is a list of the FA lh relievers, their 08 team, and compensation status. using baseball prospectus quality of batters faced (OPS) and each pitchers OPS allowed results from 2008.

the difference column to sort results. negative result (-) has the pitcher holding his batters OPS below what they (batters) did vs mlb.  a positive result (+) is the pitcher allowing a higher OPS to his batters, than what they (batters) did vs mlb.

......................................OPS...............OPS.............OPS

2008..............................faced..........allowed..........diff..........IP..........FA type

a. rhodes.............fla......782...............524..........-.258..........13.............B

..............................sea....770...............590..........-.180..........22.............B

b. fuentes............col.....743...............570..........-.173..........62.............A

w. ohlman...........atl......766...............640..........-.126..........58.............no pick*

d. reyes..............min......761...............658..........-.103..........46............B

b. shouse..........mil........747..............656..........-.091...........51...........B

j. beimel.............lad........746..............671..........-.075...........49...........B

d. oliver...............laa........746..............682..........-.064...........72...........A

j. affeldt...............cin........746..............733..........-.013...........78...........B..................................signed 2 yrs/8 mil with giants 11-17-08

a. embree..........oak.......774..............769..........-.005...........61...........B

c. manning...was/stl......781*.............782..........+.001..........42...........team control

r. villone..............stl.........750..............754..........+.004..........50...........no pick

t. miller................tb..........763..............787..........+.024..........43...........B

c. fossum............det.......754..............806..........+.050...........41..........no pick

r. flores................stl.........725..............883..........+.158...........25..........team control

three things stand out for me. ohman's no compensation status, mannings quality of batters faced and flores VERY poor results vs. a very low quality of batters faced.

rhodes lack of innings and fuentes expected contract $, make ohman the first choice by OPS difference and compensation status.