Since you asked, I’ll say Mr. Mozeliak is making a big mistake if he really is asking for a top prospect and another player…..the only teams that could afford to part with that would be the Angels, the Red Sox and possibly the Cleveland Indians. I don’t see that any of those teams really need him-unless the Angels are thinking of not retaining Jon Garland, and worried about the long term health of Escobar, but still, they have solutions in their own system. Ditto the Red Sox. The Indians have more lefthanders than they need, and may want to replace Byrd for 2009 and insure themselves against Westbrook’s yearly DL time. But none of those teams needs is great enough for them to make a deal where they overpay. And IMO, that’s what the Cardinals are doing.

He is making a hugh mistake here. Go read the comments about this at MLB trade rumors….....”he can’t even beat out Looper, Wellemeyer, and Piniero for a rotation spot” Fair or not to those pitchers (who have been pitching well so far) the perception of an awful lot of people is he’s crap.

I’m thinking they are going to play around with this until Reyes gets hurt, completely falls apart trying to adjust to his new role, or finally goes postal…...then they can just non tender him at the end of the season.

I said at the end of spring training, if they were not going to commit to him (and I DON’T mean being forced onto the roster by Mr. Mozeliak), that he should be moved for the first offer of a player they could use. No fleecing. Just a fair trade. They didn’t do that. Now we know why. It’s a stupid strategy, and it most likely will blow up in their face…..

Here’s how I look at the Reyes situation. Take it as you will.

I have a ‘57 Ford Fairlane 500 sitting under a tarp all winter. I start it once a week. Every year when winter is done I remove the tarp and I take it to get washed and cleaned out and then it sits in the driveway. I barely touch it, it’s primered, so it doesn’t have an impressive paint job, and the chrome is borderline perfect.

Every year I get 10-12 offers ranging from 500 to 2,500 when it comes in plain view. From an outside appearance it’s a car that never gets used, isn’t polished up. Sometimes it’s someone new, sometimes it’s the same Joe, regardless I’m clearly not going to.

The car very well could be gorgeous in someone else’s driveway, or it could be blue with pink polka dots – I don’t know. I don’t have to get rid of it, I could invest more into it, I may end up in a bind where I actually need it. It has value to me, even if it sits 355 days a year.

Reyes, to me is no different than the above scenario.
No one in Memphis has peaked yet. All of them can benefit from more innings at work. I’m not saying there’s not a few who you’d like to see have a chance, I’m just saying that Memphis provides growth for everyone Reyes could be blocking. As of right now, there’s no opportunity cost.

Even more so when you consider the effective outings that our staff is providing. When you have 3 innings or less of chances for relief, bringing up someone from Memphis to ride pine makes little to no sense at this moment. Let them get innings in and develop, it’s what Memphis is there for.

Even with the chances he’s not making it count. If there is contention that he needs a chance, it’s a false point. He has almost 14 innings of work thus far. The innings avail is widely spread out, actually. Izzy with 13ish, Franklin with 15, K-Mac with 16. Villone with 12.3. He’s getting work, it’s not like he’s sitting and doing nothing.

And in that work.. he’s put up 8 runs on 16 hits with an era over 5. Compare that to the ten runs combined from Villone, Flores, K-Mac and Franklin in over 50 innings of work. He’s not performing, but we still need an innings eater to protect the bullpen when the starter can’t perform. He’s filling that role.

As far as the trade, it’s a lot like my ‘57. When there’s something reasonable, we trade. It’s not just us, but there’s been scout talk that it could be the difference in approaches that goes against his mechanical grain. Everything about Reyes is publically known, so it’s not going to be something that will burn future trade talks. You want to take a chance on him, offer something on value. Right now he’s providing a role that no one else has to. If you want to make a package deal that to get Reyes then that’s fine as well. Irregardless, we don’t need to trade him, there’s no reason to.

If anyone wants to play the role of for the players interest needs to keep that in mind when Lohse looks for a sizeable contract here in the future. I don’t think he’ll sit there and look for the teams interest/investment. he’s out for him. Berating a team for doing the same isn’t making sense.

Reyes is quickly becoming the urban legend under the arches. All of this (not here particularly, but in general) for a guy who’s had one reasonable AAA and two reasonable post seaosn starts, sigh. I’d rather put my attention to Flores in Memphis, who’s absolutely ripping through the innings he’s in, and if it wasn’t for a solo hr, he’d be sporting a 0 era in 15 innings of relief.