I was reading a few past blogs and also have been thinking about this post for a while.  Many people are in favor of getting rid of players who are not currently performing on our favorite team.  Some favorite targets of these posters are: Kennedy, Duncan, Izzy, Flores (of the Randy variety), Villone, and more.

One thing that I have read consistently, and believe to be true myself (mainly because it just flat out makes sense) is that it is difficult to trade a player who is very much underperforming for a valuable asset, or one that is overperforming.  This is the "sell low" or "buy low" philosophy, depending on from which angle you are looking at the trade.

One of my favorite "help both teams" trades over the past few years was one in which the Cardinals traded an aging outfielder hitting .235 with 15 homers and 39 rbi in 91 games and, in return, received an aging pitcher who had posted a 4.97 ERA in 145 games with San Diego before becoming a Cardinal.  Ray Lankford went on to hit .288 with 4 homers, 16 rbi, and 6 steals (0 caught) in the final 40 games with San Diego and Woody Williams pitched 75 innings over the next 11 starts with St. Louis with a 2.28 ERA and a .973 WHIP.

My questions to VEB posters is this:

What players out there would be good for the "rebuilding for the future" approach (that most of us would like the Cardinals to take) that are also performing below expectations that we could trade for?

Would the Cardinals hvae a player that is a good fit for that team (Duncan, Kennedy, Izzy, Villone, Flores, etc)?