Cardinals news and notes: Heyward, Parra, Bowman

Whether true or not, there was a meme floating around that the Cardinals stood a good chance to sign David Price because he preferred to pitch in the NL where he could also swing the bat.  Of course, Price signed with the Red Sox for roughly 30 million more dollars which is easily enough money to help Price (or anyone for that matter) care less about hitting.  Basically, the Red Sox blew Price away with such an offer that he was really left with no choice.  That's what the Cardinals should have done with Jason Heyward.  Granted, I'm on the outside looking in on this process, but from everything we know up to this point I think it's fair to argue they had the reason and means to blow away whatever offer the Cubs put on the table and either chose not to do so or lacked the ingenuity to pull it off.  Like the Red Sox, the Cardinals should have left Heyward with no choice but instead he'll be playing for an already-stacked division frontrunner.  What a shame.

Here's what was going on at VEB on Friday and over the weekend:

Gerardo Parra

• Before the Heyward news broke on Friday, John Fleming analyzed whether Gerardo Parra could be a solid, short-term fix in the event Heyward didn't sign with the Cardinals.  (In the event you missed it and also didn't read the opening paragraph - Heyward didn't sign with the Cardinals.)

Jason Heyward

• Here's an exercise in trying and failing to not think about Jason Heyward.
• Craig Edwards was the first to tackle the Heyward news after it was announced on Friday afternoon that he was signing with the Cubs.
• Ben Markham mourned the loss of Heyward by remembering how great he was with the Cardinals in 2015.  Watch the highlight video at the end of the post to greater appreciate Heyward's talents and to become very angry.
• Heyward doesn't owe Cardinals fans a single thing so says John and John is right.  On the other hand, Heyward could have tactfully waited a few more days before announcing his new relationship on social media.  That hurts, man.

• Nick Lampe looked at the Cardinals' future going forward without Heyward.
• The Red Baron did the same on Sunday and wondered how long the fanbase will tolerate offseason missteps from a franchise which is quite-publicly rolling in record profits and goodwill.

Rule 5 Draft

• The Rule 5 Draft was easy to overlook with all of the Heyward hoopla but the Cardinals selected reliever Matt Bowman from the Mets' organization.

A Tweet I Liked

The Tribe have asked teams about a slick CF. The Cleve willing to deal theirs.

— Bot Stove (@BotStove) December 12, 2015

There's a glitch in the bot stove.