To preface my remarks, I am a Rockies Fan that used to be a Card fan.  Grew up following the Cards of the 60s,70s,80s and moved to Denver in the lkate 80's and started rooting for the Rocks upon their inception.  I root for the Cards in a secondary fashion.  As a Rockies fan I was troubled by the loot St. Louis gave to get him last summer.  As a Rocks fan I was aware of the Holliday fielding defiencies, and inability to hit middle-in pitches consistently.  The bigger issue was his hiring of Scott Boras in 2006.  A clear sign he intended to test the market in 2009.  Rocks gave him a raise to buy out his remaining arbitration years at a premium following 2007.  But it was obvious he was going to market.  They dealt him and got some pretty good MLB ready guys who helped in 2009.  CarGo will likely surpass Holliday as he is a legit 5 tool kid poised for stardom.  You may want to nab him for your fantasy leagues next year. The A's got Holliday basically to try to turn him for some good talent.  They figured someone would be ready to bite in mid season.  Billy Beane is many things and among them an opportunist.  The Cards unloaded some significant jack for a three month player.  The Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and a few other teams can afford to do this, the Cards cannot.  Now you are stuck looking for the same thing you were three months ago  (Albert protection with production).  Holliday turned down 4 years and 80M from the Rocks.  Do you think he will settle for less?  Not under Boras' watch.  He wants a shot at the Red Sox and the Yanks figuring that each may have LF holes where Holliday will fit the bill.  I read in the STL Today site where many Card fans want to focus on rebuilding from within.  Given a mid market status, it basically the only way you can go.  I used to pound Dan O'Dowd for his moves where they all seemed like salary dumps (see 2000-2005).  A couple of years ago (2006) I began to see his logic and he has made the Rocks into an NL version of the Twins.  As a kid growing up the Cardinals always focused their energies on their player development with a few deals splashed in for good measure.  I think they have sort of lost that feeling but it is never too late to get it back.  Having two large salaries can hamstring you for years to come.  Look at Houston, the Cubs, etc.  My only sadness is the three prospects that got away for the failed experiement.  A few years ago the Rockies management had a press conference where they profoundly declared that "we know what we are"  we will manage our team with that in mind.  This offseason they will deal Brad Hawpe, non-tender Garrett Atkins, let Torrealba go, resign some bullpen help and be in a better position to contend in 2010.  I am thinking the Cards need to do some of their own internal mirror obeservation.  You can no longer afford to dump prospects on short term fliers.