The most recent buzz has just come in about Roy Halladay saying the the Cardinals may have serious interest via Mlbtraderumors.com

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/07/cardinals-have-real-interest-in-halladay.html

I know there has been a couple posts about him already I want to lay out some of the things that need to be looked at in order for us to be able to acquire Halladay.

First of all, the Cardinals will actually have some spending money in the offseason if the aqcuire Halladay.  Heres how I have the Cardinals set roster for the 2009 offseason.

Pujols-16m

Halladay- 15.75m

Carpenter-14.5m

Lohse-8.875

Wainwright-4.65

Molina-4.25

Ludwick- About 3m

Franklin-2.5m

Reyes- 2m

Schumaker- about 1.5m

Rasmus, Motte, McClellan, Ryan, Thompson, and Kinney-.4

That puts our total payroll up to about 75.5mil give or take.  That with only 16 roster spots filled.

Many of the other spots will most likely be filled with minor leaguers.  Here are some minor leaguers that I believe have a chance to make the club out of ST and fill in: (bold signifies could be used in trade already)

Joe Mather

Jess Todd

Clay Mortenson

Jaime Garcia

Daryl Jones

Pagnozzi

Bryan Anderson

Allen Craig

Jon Jay

Nick Stavinoha

David Freese

With that situation we'd still need 2 (or 3 if LaRussa's still around) more pitchers, a fifth starter, and 1 or 2 more relievers.  Garcia is my guess for fifth starter.  Todd would be my reliever if he's not going to Cleveland.  All of our pitching vacancies would most likely be filled from within.

Now for offensive needs we still need: 2 OFs, 1 3B. a util/infielder, and a backup catcher. 

For OF I say we use Daryl Jones if he's not going to Toronto, and Jon Jay, Joe Mather, or a Free Agent.  For 3B I say we should go with Craig or a FA, possibly Chone Figgins.  For catcher I pick Pagnozzi or Anderson. 

Now for an OF spot and/or 3B we still need some power.  So we would have to dip into free agency.  We have around 20 million to spend if I calculated the payroll above correctly.

Some possible FA targets, some of which unlikely are:

Jason Bay

Matt Holliday

Xavier Nady

Jermaine Dye

Chone Figgins

Magglio Ordonez

Adrian Beltre

Pedro Feliz

Melvin Mora

Mark DeRosa

complete list here:

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2001/05/2010-free-agents.html

So pick 1-3 of those guys depending on the caliber, mix in some cheap minor leaguers and you have yourself a ballclub. 

To be honest I can not decide whether Halladay is good or bad for the team.  It would deplete our farm system, and would not help our terrible offense at all, but if we could get some offense for 20 million in FA, Ludwick gets back on track, who knows what could happen if you have the best rotation in all of baseball.

We could start to lean towards an offense built for speed it we sign Figgins and get to keep DJ.  We'd still have some pop with Pujols, Rasmus and Ludwick.  So I say if we keep Jones and sign Figgins and maybe Derosa or Dye, then we should pull the trigger. 

Now a little from the other end of the spectrum:

We don't make the trade.  Our rotation is Carp, Wainwright, Lohse, FA, Garcia

Our lineup could be:

Schumaker, Jones, Pujols, Wallace, Rasmus, Ludwick, Molina, Pitcher, Ryan

Plus we'd have about 30 million to spend in free agency with that lineup.

 

It's a tough call and I can't decide unless I'm in the room with the negotiations, to see just how much we'd have to give up.