highs and lows, is to spread your fandom around. I have been following the A’s because the types of players they field is fascinating; and the White Sox because they are my husband’s favorite team-he spent his high school years in the Chicago area. When it feels unbearable, I lock in on one of those teams for awhile. You don’t have to turn in your fan card to do this…...just distract yourself with another team-at least for an evening.

I’d be curious to see a breakdown of, should we keep losing over the next five days, what we could SELL to make the team better. Not a ton of supreme value, I’m sure, but Lohse would seem to be a useful chip. I’m as excited about Carpenter coming back as anyone, but I don’t think he and Wagonmaker sould delude us into trading Bryan Anderson, Pete Kozma or better for a George Sherrill or Huston Street.

I’ve enjoyed this season immensely; I’m just not all that surprised by the last five days. I’ll continue to watch and savor the victories, but I think we’re all now a little more realistic about our playoff chances with two clearly superior teams in our own division and two or three better teams in the East (and we’ll see about Atlanta in a few days). This year’s playoffs might be a bitter pill—an NL playoffs of 1.) the Jo-se, Jo-se, Jo-se Mets 2.) the Cubs 3.) the shirt-untucking Brewers and 4.) some putrid, undeserving team from the West (probably featuring Dan Haren sniff) will be full of unsavory thoughts.

Uh, go Rays?

I can’t say I’m optimistic either. It may just be the reality that we can’t obtain an impact reliever without grossly overpaying and, even if we did, it wouldn’t solve the problem of keeping our offense awake after the third inning. Franklin is clearly not up to the kind of responsibility that’s been laid on him. Barring a trade the first option I would try is to put Izzy back in the closer’s slot for a sink or swim trial, hope that he floats and that the rest of the pen falls in line behind him. If he sinks then let the Chris Perez era begin prematurely or not . Even a random dominant save would bolster the team’s confidence. Anyway, I’ve considered this a gravy season all along. It’s been a blast being this unexpectedly close and, if this team scrounges up enough character to stay in it then….pass that gravy back here.

Are we trying to improve this years club or planning for ‘09? Obviously Street might help next year as well, but Arthur Rhodes really only helps this season, and Sowers, Lillibridge, Cox, and Wood really only help next season, hopefully.

I’m not near as bullish on Sowers as most—I see a guy who’s very similar to Mike Maroth at this point in his career, and we all know how well that worked out for the Cardinals last season.

I also have questions about Brandon Wood. The Angels are pretty good evaluators of talent, and their farm system has developed a lot of good players for their club, but not so many good players being sent to other clubs from what I can remember. Seems to me that if they’re willing to give up on a guy, he’s probably not MLB caliber and they’ve decided he’s not going to help them.

I agree that if we aren’t going to upgrade this year’s club we do need to look at shopping some pieces that have some market value before the deadline.

I have been looking for an appropriate thread for this rant, this one semi-fits so here goes. :)
To some extent I agree that our homegrown prospects need to stay in the organization and be given a chance to come to their fruition, but at what cost? I have seen people hedge about trading Rasmus for anyone short of Jesus himself, and it makes me think back to a time when A. Reyes had a similar high rating.
And how did that turn out for us? One fluke WS start and a horrible season later, our former bluechip trading piece has been severely downgraded and is behind such folks as Mitchell Boggs in the Cardinals rotation options.
I am not saying we dump all our prospects once they have some value, but I wish people would keep an open mind when talking about certain players. For example I personally think a Rasmus for Holliday trade would be great for the Card’s. But some on the board are avidly against it. In my opinion, the odds of Rasmus turning in the kind of numbers that Holliday has in the major leagues aren’t that great.

Sidenote: Who the heck is Jason Motte and how does he have 79k’s in 49 innings at Memphis??

Holiday will be looking for a 4 year deal next year at 11 or 12 million a yr. Lets see.
650 mill stadium, 650 million village project, team financed. It started this year. It ends, lets see, when you become the Minnesota Twin. Its the new business plan. Its a little like the Iraq war. Mo is the white house press secretary. Enjoy! You have been taken over by big business, not billionaire enthusiast’s like Cuban or Moreno or Steinbrenner. Look where Atlanta ended after Turner left.
I think this might be it for Socrates La Rusa too. They are letting him choke on the hemlock, (Chris D and Izzy). Its illogical, Lohse for the rest of the year for 3 mill is a deal, getting rid of the sign posts of downsize change, priceless. If Mets sweep, Lohse will be traded in a flood of tears. Poor kid. He likes St. Louis. Healthy arms are so hard to come by.

Getting the MLB “Extra Innings” package this year gave me the opporutnity, for the first time in my life, to see almost all the games of the two teams I root for: the Cardinals and The Red Sox. My heart is way more with the Cards because it goes back for decades – my roots, so to speak. Because my expectations for Boston were very high (coupled with an extremely obnoxious Yankees fan next door), bad days were very bad days. The Cards, however, I could enjoy for all nine innings every night. My expectations for them were low, so it didn’t kill me if they lost.The more they won, however, the more importance I put on their games. I tried to keep telling myself, “without a closer, this team isn’t going anywhere regardless, so try not to get upset tonight.” Well, most of us are competitors and losing – especially in the last inning or two – bums us out, so it’s only natural most of us are upset these days, no matter what we tell ourselves. When hopes are dashed, it’s tough to take.

I guess my points, Red Baron, are simply: 1 – Your reactions are normal and human; thanks for sharing; 2 – If we don’t get a dependable closer, we will never contend; it’s that simple. I like what you said about Street, and getting someone in now to give us a head start on 2009. I don’t think sitting back and doing nothing is going to do anything but leave us further behind. Fears about “mortgaging the farm” are a little dramatic; we don’t need to do that – just grab us a closer and a perhaps another pitcher (if Loshe leaves). That would be a good start!

When you’re discussing an Oakland pitcher and you imply that you’re not concerned about his health being the cause of a recent dropoff in numbers… Makes me shudder.

week has been tough, I’m still fine with this team. Their offensive slump can’t last forever and maybe putting Wainer in the bullpen while Carp goes right back to the rotation (or vice-versa?) could solve many of our pitching woes. It aint over yet, folks. My expectations for this year were so low that the fact we are still within spitting distance of first place is incredibly exciting. If we fall out of contention, so be it. We have nothing to prove to other clubs or their fans. We’ll either come back this year or the next or the next. This “win now” mentality was fine in the 02-06 seasons, and it paid off in another World Championship. 08 is a time to calm down, back off, and let the dice fall where they may. Rebuilding is a tough but necessary process. The dividends will pay off in 09, 10, and 11. THEN I’ll be back to WIN NOW mode. As for now, enjoy the ride they’ve given us so far—it’s been a helluva lot more fun than anybody expected. And keep your eyes on the future prize. We’ll be back. The cliche about a season being a marathon and not a sprint is also true of the rise and fall and rise and fall of teams that are regular playoff contenders. At least when the Cardinals say “wait till next year” there’s a real reason to believe it.

for RHP Luis Perdomo according to rotoworld.
Any opinions? I might just watch game 1 on DVD right now.