GAWD I’m glad we don’t have to deal with this anymore. I loved “old Rolen,” and I know its not his fault he got hurt, but I got so sick of people lamenting “once Scotty gets right, our team is tough!!!”

I thought it was (potentially) a great trade at the time, and I love Scott Rolen. but the guy’s offensive skills had clearly diminished and he was injury-prone.

when he was healthy. No doubt. What a complete package. It just didn’t last long enough.

To be fair to him, he was victim of not one, but two, of the freakiest, most unlikely base path collisions imaginable, which have ended up giving him the shoulder(s) of an arthritic 45 year-old. The way he handled his lack of production from that point was bizarre … very stubborn and combative – bordering on “head case” status.

I guess as the years fly by, we’ll choose to remember the good years. And they were magnificent.

has been by far the best thing Mo has done this year. I dare say if Rolen was still with us we would be a 4th or 5th place team right now….just because of the drama that would have worn this team down not to mention his horrible hitting stats now.

The Scott Rolen saga is one of the more disappointing in the history of Cardinals baseball. I’m not overstating, as I am not defining it as THE most disappointing. They traded for one of the premier players in all of baseball, and 2004 may be the only year we ever really saw him at his best. The irritating play by Cintron and the absurd injury due to Choi sapped virtually everything from him.

I know that many have disparaged him as difficult, stubborn, or worse; but I still hold him in the highest esteem for how he played the game. He was a player that came along too late. Neither fans nor managers seem to appreciate the hard-nosed ballplayer the way they once did. I hope, for Scott’s sake, that he can finally put the injuries behind him; and he may once again become the player he should be.