adam kennedy and kip wells reportedly signed by cards

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6216252

Wells scares me though, unless we got for good money. I'd personally much rather have Lilly.

Wells      24 GS, 138 IP, 144 Hits, 99:63 K:BB, 16 HRs

Agent Paul Cohen said Kennedy turned down more money from two other clubs that had an interest. The Toronto Blue Jays are believed to be one of those teams.

"Adam's going to the World Series champs, to one of the two or three best baseball cities in America, to a place where he's been and he knows well,'' Cohen said. "On a 1-10 happiness scale, he's like a 12 right now.''

Kennedy is a .280 hitter over eight big-league seasons with the Cardinals and Angels.

This is good to hear, IMO.

This does save us some money to use for someone else.

Kennedy was cheap and will be able to fill the 7 or 8 slot (and there are no better prospects coming up soon).  3 for 10 is at least not overspending which is good.

Wells' salary figure will be interesting.  I gotta believe it is about 3/20.  Anyone else want to hazard a guess before it becomes public?

Bennett - Well the guy did single handedly allow us to make the playoffs.  Lifetime pass!!!  Although I was pining for J.R. House.

Back to work before I am caught!  This will make for outstanding speculation on the big fish as these minor moves make you think that there is a big move in the works (Dontrelle???)

Wells doesn't have a big body (6'3 205) and won't have the same conditioning problems that ultimately brought Ponson to the DFA platter (and to other literal ones).  I've been pumping Wells for a few weeks (and called that we would sign him in June), as long as it's around 2 or 3.5 guaranteed, it's a good high reward/low risk deal for a 5th starter.  

I'm happy with the other moves and some ex-Cards coming back, but... ugh.

My main concern is he is just not a good productive hitter. And unless Yadi can have a big improvement hitting next year, the bottom of our order will be a black hole.

I just can't imagine opposing pitchers getting too worried facing Juan Enc, then Yadi, then Kennedy then the pitcher.  

Unless Jocketty has something up his sleeve as far as a trade for a power hitter for LF, I am not impressed with a big chunk of our line-up.  Let's pray Edmonds has a huge comeback year and Rolen stays healthy!!!

nothing flashy, but the needs were filled. Typical Cardinals.

I see him in the seven spot, unless Yadi hits better this year moving Kennedy down to #8.

Eckstein  290/345/360
Duncan   275/350/485
Pujols   331/425/650
Rolen    305/395/560
Edmonds  265/375/520
Encarnacion  280/320/450
Kennedy   302/355/375
Molina   265/330/425
Pitcher

We can make moves later on. The Astros can't do that.

I still think Walt plans on moving Juan. I never thought he planned on seing that contract to the end. Ask yourself this. What would Juan get this year based on Pierre and Mathews? At least 5@$50M and you can have him for 2@$10M?!? To bad the Giants don't have anything to trade for.

 Check out this link: Pretty funny stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-WIUGKk98

but hey just glad they have gotten to work

kennedy-very surprised he took 3/10, and i am happy with him at that price

wells-once again, happy with the price, even happier it was for one year, very little risk

bennett-he is ok, not enough money to care much either way

marrero-low risk, if he plays well, u keep him, if not you dont, simple as that, nothing to lose for the team

i just hope this allows them to get a big time pitcher now, like schmidt, with wainwright in the rotation, or leave wainy in the pen and get two from among lilly, padilla, meche, supp, weaver

but long way to go to april, so lets see what else they do

"The Cardinals have reportedly reached an agreement with free agent second baseman Adam Kennedy on a three-year, $10 million contract. That effectively takes the Cards out of the running as a possible Marcus Giles destination. It's also a relatively sane contract compared to what has being handed out elsewhere, and it is more reasonable for a more proven commodity than the three years and $13 million that DeRo got from the Cubs. Kennedy's contract is the same money and length that former fellow Angel David Eckstein got two years ago from the Cards.

It is interesting that from the Cardinals' perspective, the value for middle infielders has not changed in the last couple of years, yet everywhere else they seem to be exploding. I also think it further underscores that there are two or three different camps of General Managers; those who will spend whatever on whomever (Cubs, Angels, Astros, Phillies), those who spend what little money they have on the wrong people (Pirates, Blue Jays, Reds, Dodgers), and those who wait for the sane contracts that largely go unnoticed but add up to the right pieces (Braves, Cardinals, Brewers, A's)."

Here's the link:  http://www.talkingchop.com/

After today we are set up to chase a big name, hopefully for the starting rotation.  Another stud to pair with Carp would be killer in the postseason.  Let's see how Walt plays this one - his endless patience could have us waiting through the winter - spring training - even into the season!

i like the wells signing.  i hope he pitches up to his potential under dunc and we sign him to an extension during the year.

i don't know my so many people are against the gary bennet signing.  i think bennet did a great job for us this year.  heck, i would have signed him just for that slam he hit last year.  a team's back-up catcher is not that big of a deal especially when you have a horse starter like yadi.

i definitely wouldn't mind keeping dunc if his defense improves.  as long as we keep him in that 2 whole and he keeps seeing a steady diet of fastballs i think he will keep hitting the way he did last year.  that said i also wouldn't mind seeing his trade being back a semi-young picther.

mulder won't be back until mid-season apparently so if we sign him we would need a good stop gap till then.  plus it sounds like mulder is getting from many overpaying teams and there is no way walt wants to compete with that.  i think his track record over the past couple years warrents a lot of concern.