My Cardinals Christmas Wish: One Third Basemen to Play Them All

Goold reports Freese is still progressing nicely

over under on when he’ll have to become half man half machine? i bet the All Star break

Well, I posted some last thread, but since I only mentioned baseball presents, I might as well expound upon that. Well, to rehash, I got Ken Burns’ doc in book format, Baseball trivia for the dumpster (not in the literal sense of course), Best American Sports Stories book, Cards T-shirt, Holliday jersey….

non-baseball, I got a Playstation3 (well – it was a family thing) which I will use mostly to play Madden and MLB ‘10 since I’m not a big “war” game guy (I have never gotten into Halo or CoD). I got a few movies as well with – Get Him to the Greek (I had the misfortune of watching this with my family unaware of what happened – awkward way to start Christmas morning – I didn’t put two and two together when I figured out it was Rated R and also about a rock star), Inception (still haven’t seen), and The A Team (ditto).

Rams are my other distraction. I really can’t get into hockey. Maybe it’s the simplicity, maybe something is wrong with me. I love going to games, but it’s rare and infrequent. I can’t sit down and watch it on TV either. It has to be the background to something else I’m doing. I find it boring somehow. (Ironically, I can sit and not be bored in a 1-0 baseball game, but the big hits and fast pace of hockey doesn’t do it for me)

Who wouldn’t love an infield of Pujols, Cox, Greene, and Carpenter in 2012? Pipe dream for sure if you ask me. Tony will have to be gone for sure.

And to finish off my novel, Merry Christmas!

And after being around a combined seven screaming kids for the last four days, the best present I did not receive was monday’s vasectomy.

Best presents, actually received division: Old school pajamas (matching top and bottom kind), a shit ton of books (Eggers last two and Taibbi’s most recent as my personal highlights), three new amazingly awesome Japanese knives (9" chef knife, 7" chef knife, 11" slicing knife), a mechanical chiming wall clock (circa 1940) which was not actually a present but I found it in my parents basement while searching for an erstwhile crock pot and they said they clearly did not want anymore, and a back scratcher.

I’m like a 78 year old man!

I’m Jewish. Didn’t get anything for Channukah either. Well my dad gave me a belt.

what kind of tennis racket id you get?
Ive hardly played since high school
I should probably get back into it this spring, thanks for making me think of it

from the Musial era with the skinny cardinals Grey and Red thick flannel , thanks wife.
Woke up to the cat hurling at 5:30am i guess he ate to much ham.

the presents under my tree (relative to this board) are yet to be realized, but I must say, compared to recent years, things look pretty good.
What I always want beginning this time of year, or when the roster looks fairly set, whichever comes first, is three feelings:two very raw statistical (non-sabermetrical) [a bowling ball and a can of Simoniz] and one admittedly totally subjective [the thrill of seeing the son rip open his Rider Rider package]
I want Cardinal hitters to lead the league in fewest strikeouts.
I want Cardinal pitchers to lead the league in fewest walks allowed.
I don’t want anybody on the roster that I don’t like.

Cardinal teams generally do pretty well re the first two, with Duncanism helping out the second one. And so far so good on the third one. I feel ok with Westbrook for a full year and with the acquisition of Laird, And tho’ decidedly pro-Boog, I have nothing against Theriot, at least going in. I’ve always liked Berkman, I’m fine with rooting for Freese to stay healthy, and I’ve always had a place in my heart for Skip.
The line-up looks good.
The only three dark horizons I can think of involve Franklin, Rasmus and LaRussa, but those are not emotionally based. I LIKE all three but I just think we need a better closer, that we would have better balance with McCutchen in CF rather than Colby, and Tony is a hapless tinkerer.

I would think the Freese’s ankle injuries are sapping his power. While that may be an excuse, unless that issue repairs itself he’ll be an average 3b with no power and it would logically argue for taking a look at Carpenter unless they give Beltre a big one year offer.

He’d better be as good as he claims, b/c I suck horrendously. The only thing I can do is drive, but that’s only b/c I get to swing the club like a baseball bat. The ball rarely, if ever, goes straight. :/

but my favorite gift was josh hamilton’s book ‘beyond belief’. i also got an autobiography of daniel schorr (a famous journalist), and i think that should be an interesting read since journalism is what i want to get into later on in life.

I’m sick of my a-hole relatives looking askance at routine laptop usage.

Who has a better Projection than Freeze and is also 2 years younger. Carpenter isn’t that young also, 25. I am skeptical of Freese for the same reason. Lack of power and low iso. He has shown the abilty to hit to both sides of the diamond but doesn’t have the power I am hoping for.

just finished season 1 last night

Season 3 of 30 Rock is uneven. Just a warning.

best fuckin show on tv.

I need a new elliptical machine and hope people give up on theirs by Feb

the shiny new restoration of Metropolis.

I also got something I didn’t ask for- a damned cold. Bah.

wasn’t something I got but something I gave.

My-son-the-percussion-major, alongside the usual iTunes cards and Xbox games, asked for “CDs of Renaissance masses”. Now I personally have no particular fondness for ecclesiastical music, even if it’s 500 years old; but it’s incredibly heartening to find he’s not only learning something in college, he’s valuing it. It’s like getting all his tuition back.

I tend to limit my Cardinals paraphernalia to baseball caps. I do own a couple of t-shirts with Pujols’ name and number, but I don’t have many occasions to wear them here. Since I already have 6 or 7 Cardinal caps, and I tend to wear them out before going on to another one, I’m set for awhile; therefore, nothing new on the Cardinal front. Also, being in my 50’s, there’s not much that I want that I don’t already have, so my gifts from wife and kids tend to be clothing and the like, often something I’ve already picked out and told my wife about (and rarely, something I’ve already purchased and had her set aside). This year, my fave gift is a nose hair trimmer that came with a new dopp kit; at my age, I’m easily amused.

Imo’s gift cards…and plenty of them.

included a car and a sectional this year. Not the typical Christmas in the least. Oh, and the parents got me a new skinning knife and climbing stand.

Az, its sad that hockey is becoming more enjoyable to watch for you, and to some extent for me for the same reasons. It is at times agonizing to watch baseball and second guess, whereas I don’t know enough about hockey to second guess. I guess ignorance truly is bliss.

In baseball news, which sometimes seems to get reported here, Brandon Webb is apparently still deciding between the Rangers and this “mystery” NL Central Division team, according to Stark. But Stark also says that the Cubs (and Natinals) are out of the running, and the Brewers and Reds seem unlikely destinations (according to Rotoworld), while the irate Pirates haven’t spoken to him in months. This leaves the ’Stros, and some team whose misguided GM has pulled this kind of thing in the past, as a sop to the rabid ( but somewhat less enlightened) fanbase.

too much food/family/snow/etc.

My stocking was filled with a couple of books (a bio of Buzz Aldrin and a “bio” of the Mars rovers), a couple of things I’m not sure I’ll use, and Star Trek (calendar, movie). I was hoping for the Cards calendar but no go. Guess I’ll have to order it myself now. I did hit home runs with my family, Star Wars movies for the grandson, diploma frame for his mom, and an iHome and Frank Sinatra bio for daughter #2.

Let’s all hope that Cards fans receive a non-crippling AP contract as a late Christmas, early Valentine’s Day present!

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/rangers-reach-agreement-with-webb.html

Which consisted of 4 copper mugs of a much cooler design than anything I can find on line.

I know it’s not a huge deal up St.L way but it’s the first time it’s happened here since 1967. It was great for my kiddo and generally an overrated pain in the ass for me.

As for Cards gear, I got a set of home and away jersey Tervis tumblers to add to my collection, a road gray ThermaBase dugout pullover, and a 1946 M&N Musial jersey.

Hope that the rest of the VEB crew had a great one…is it Spring yet?

Well, other stuff too.
The thing is, we actually were at the game where they gave them away for free. We went with my parents and our two year old. They were out of them by the time we got to our gate, which was ridiculous because we made a point to try to get there early, but since it was with my parents things didn’t exactly go as planned. The folks working the gate told us to try another gate, they still have some down there. Well, I was skeptical, but off we went. We finally got there and asked of they could give us some. No, they said, we’d have to actually exit and get in line and re-enter in this gate to do that. And by this point they’d be gone by the time we got back in. Phooey!
I had the last laugh, though.

It may seem like a small thing, especially since I generally wear contacts, but I didn’t realize just how bad my old glasses had gotten.

new guitar pickup that sounds amazing, and some nice oil based markers that I can paint on anything. also dvds, cds, books, snacks, and a cool power drill set. excellent christmas, I now have my bike hanging from the wall.

do you think the Cardinals would actually consider using Carpenter as insurance for Freese? or would they just get another Pedro Feliz