In the New Year

I finished my revisions on my new stat, OAR… expect to see a post over at my new blog: 4B. my resolution last year I followed pretty well: only drink good beer. check out 4B for a few beer reviews already posted, and more to follow. beer baseball bands blog!

my resolution for ‘09 is to travel more, and to see a game in the STL. also, I plan on getting the new MLB channel, especially if it doesn’t cost much. I resolve to make more money too (good luck with that!). won’t be too hard I guess, since the last couple of years I’ve been living on a zen-like just above food stamps budget. maybe I should work for mlb.com or something. I have a jack-of-all-trades renaissance man type of work/skills history, if anyone can stand that.

The Cardinals need to resolve to garner themselves some value from the still-in-limbo outfielder glut of 2008. don’t tell me we will see Duncan eating up playing time trying to prove himself… sure he deserves it, but let’s give him a short leash, ok? surely someone would be interested in someone like Ryan Ludwick, or to a lesser extent Skip Schumaker, Joe Mather or Brian Barton; all 4 of those guys seem to have a lot of value to other teams… let’s do something about it, Cards! Mozeliak must have something up his sleeve, or somehow knows Sheets will fall into our lap like a Lohsean dream.

also, let’s give Freese, Barden, and of course the law firm of Motte-Perez plenty of chances… and if we trade away some outfielders (or even if we don’t) let’s give Rasmus a chance ferchrissakes

everything about baseball coverage is going to change because of this network. The past, like never before, is going to be connected to the present with daily footage of classic games, hall of fame players, interesting debates.

For once, we will have legit in-depth MLB coverage on television and it quite possible could take over my entire life.

for me either, but I really don’t have that much to complain about. My girlfriend got me/us tickets to opening day at Busch as a Christmas present, so that was a nice little cherry on top of 2008 for me. I can’t wait to see the boys ride in on the red convertibles, especially (and hopefully) Mr. Colby Rasmus. Rock on 2009 Cardinals and all VEB readers; I look forward to 365 more days of (mostly) witty baseball banter among fans of the greatest sports franchise in the world.

in the underachievers who somehow arise to greatness under the Gateway Arch. Best to all VEB readers from Korea, Japan and Thailand where I have done time for over 20 years.

fondly,

Akaitori – via Maplewood HS, a long time ago

I have a lot to be thankful for in 2008, my son was born (already has lots of Cardinals gear at three months old), good health for me and my family, made it to St. Louis with my family with tickets in the Champions club, and they won a pitcher’s duel with Adam Kennedy hitting a homer in the game. That was much better than 2007 when I saw two games in St. Louis and one in KC. I suffered through two Kip Wells’ appearances and a blasting of Anthony Reyes. Everyone have a great 2009!!

Since this is a free-for-all, I want to ask a long-winded question.

I think Brett Wallace may end up being the Cardinals version of Matt LaPorta. If you don’t know (and I assume most of you do), LaPorta was the centerpiece of the deal that sent Sabathia to Milwaukee. LaPorta was expendable because he most likely will end up at 1B or LF. The Brewers already have a couple of guys who are pretty good at those spots and another (Mat Gamel) who might play his way off 3B and end up complicating things even further.

If it becomes clear that Wallace cannot play 3B, will he have a chance to succeed in LF? I’m skeptical – I have a hard time seeing a guy in LF who is nicknamed the Walrus – lets see how he runs, like pigs from a gun? Besides, the organization already has few good OF prospects who project to both hit and play above average in the field. If you don’t think OF defense is that important, look no further than the lack of interest in Adam Dunn and Pat Burrell (although the Raul Ibanez signing destroys this theory – seriously, check out his numbers on FanGraphs).

I don’t think any of the players who will/may be available (Justin Duchscherer, Matt Holliday, Jose Valverde, Brian Roberts and the underrated Randy Winn) are worth Wallace, but would the Roberts rental + 2 compensation draft picks be worth Wallace +? I think the bigger question is what does everyone think of the strategy of trading prospects for rental players and their compensation? Do you have enough faith in the scouting department to think this is acceptable or even encouraged?

1. I resolve to mercilessly skewer the homers (yes – I’m talking about you, you know who you are – you know you read this blog) on KTRS and in the P-D more this year. However, instead of pure and utter bile about them, I will have more factual and reinforced bile. I mean seriously…the role of the press is to increase the public debate and keep the argument moving, not spoon feed us oatmeal.
2. Kidnap Joe Posnanski if he comes over for the All-Star game and force the KC Star to trade for Bernie and three single-A prospects. Just kidding.
3. Take in as many ballgames of opportunity that I can.
4. Not criticize Dan and Al, realizing that I am insanely jealous of their jobs (I mean, cm’on…watch baseball and talk about it?) and that jealousy manifests itself in sarcasm.
5. Never discuss Carp’s health. We shouldn’t keep perpetuating the hope that he may have an impact this year…we should just welcome it as a surprise if it happens.
6. Watch at least one game (in person, cable, etc.) of every MLB team.
7. Not get mad at Tony when he overmanages. Wow, that’s going to be hard.
8. Appreciate the fact that I live in StL more, even if the “baseball heaven” gimmick is stale.
9. Buy tickets to a game, just to give them to a kid.

and signed Aaron Miles……

Gritty Breaking News

ESPN’s reporting Angels sign Fuentes!!

Well, I have to say I knew it was coming, by the non-response from Fuentes to the STL offer.

Please MO, sign Hoffman to a one year deal, have him teach Motte and Perez how to throw a breaking ball, and have the better one close next season. Spend the remaining cash DeWitt will allow on an SP and let’s have a great year that sets up a promising future.

I went over to bleedcubbieblue.com to check out the Miles-related traffic over there, and a lot of their posters seem intrigued by Miles’ versatility…

By versatility, I hope they mean he is willing to stand at 3 infield positions and take up space b/c, well, someone has to play there.

Fuentes signs with the Angels

The Cubs sign Miles, so they can move DeRosa (and Marquis?) to make room for someone, probably Bradley

So 2009 is off to a bad start. Then the Cubs sign Miles…

But his contribution to the team can probably be replaced by someone in the organization currently. I am starting to get worried though – the Cardinals need to make a move yet seem complacent not to do so…

the team is going to be average. Which is what we are.

if everyone is fine with that, OK, but I wish the Cards would just come out and say it.

I mean right not we are shooting for guys like Wolf and Garland, but whats that going to do for this team really?

At one point we didnt consider ourself a second division team, at one point we brought in players like Edmonds and Rolen who made a difference. Now we dont want to bring those guys in, thats fine.
But be honest about it.

at one time this team added talent to get better and try to win the division, now it seems like we want to tread water.

this team has self limited the guys they will bring in to the Wolf, Garland, Hoffman, Greene type middle to lower rung players and it will keep us a decent enough baseball team. We wont be the Pirates or the Padres or whatever, and that rout wont make us the Mariners or the Mets of yesteryear either but its not going to make us consistent division winners.
Its clear that the finances of baseball have passed us by and we arnt going to try to compete and I guess we are just going to have to wait for the kids in a couple more years, still.

Again I wish they would just be honest about it, or freaking consistant.
they dont want to spend money,buy they dont give the kids a chance either (Perez, Motte) and they refuse to offer arbitration.

GO SIGN BEN SHEETS!

SIGN BEN SHEETS!!!

still available?

pitch in Cubbie blue.

that’s what the Cardinals offered Brian Fuentes. That was real money the Cardinals slotted into their budget that they intended to spend. How can you spend that?

Happy New Year to you all!

…Going out with the family to a neighbor’s PG-13 rated Christmas Eve party. I wish everyone a safe and happy New Year! Go Cards!

I’m apallingly bad at sticking to my resolutions. The only time I’ve ever come even close to sticking to them was a couple of years ago, when I resolved to take up smoking and play more guitar-based video games. And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t even do a very good job of sticking to those. I am, at best, an occasional smoker, and my Fisher Price plastic axe skills, while fairly well developed, are certainly not of the level one would refer to as ‘awe-inspiring’.

Well, trb, here’s hoping 2009 brings you tons of Gold Stars with your faux-guitar jamming.

i wish you all health, wealth & happiness for all your days, but especially for the new year.

and of course health & big hits, huge K’s for our Birds. and especially a Cardinals 11th Championship.

the whole reason i asked my employer to move me to this frigging city. Booo. Sadly, it’ll be 2-3 years before I can get another transfer.

Resolution is to indulge in much more culture (IE, more baseball games/metal concerts/opera etc) in 2009, instead of wasting my time at “the yard house” etc, and hang out with more blondes (ex is syrian, ie, brunette + crazy, booo).

I have the worst case of hiccups right about now, happy new year day