Sorry for the slow down on posts recently. The AFL is starting this week, and more winter ball leagues are starting soon this month as well, so we will be on that. Roarke and the robot have been taking a little bit of a sabbatical, but are expected to get back into the swing of things soon as well. It won’t be long and we’ll start cranking out prospect profiles, rankings and what have ya..
While I’m glad the Cardinals put together a nice little win streak to end the season with their heads up high, it could have cost them in the draft. Right now they project to pick 19th in the draft, putting them past the cut off point of having a protected first round pick. That means if they sign a type A free agent they will forfeit their first round pick. With extra money to spend this offseason, that is entirely possible.
Here are some projected type A’s that could interest the Cardinals:
- Orlando Hudson
- Orlando Cabrera
- Edgar Renteria (assuming offered arbitration, which looks unlikely. Let me know if I’m not understanding the rules correctly)
- A.J. Burnett (if he declines team mutual option)
- C.C. Sabathia (Longest of long shots)
- Ryan Dempster
- Mike Mussina
- Ben Sheets
- Oliver Perez
- Derek Lowe
- Damaso Marte (club option)
- Darren Oliver
- K-Rod (yeah, right)
- Brian Fuentes
- Juan Cruz
- Doug Brocail
- Kerry Wood
Russ Springer is a projected Type A himself, but last I heard, he’s comtemplating retirement. Braden Looper is a type B, making him a no brainer when it comes to arbitration time. Then again, I thought the same thing about Eckstein. There’s not a name on that list that is worth forfeiting their first round pick that I could see the Cardinals signing. K-Rod and C.C. are going to price themselves out of the Cardinals grasp. Orlando Hudson or Ryan Dempster I could see intriguing them. If they forfeit their first round pick for a middle reliever, I will lose it.
Entries (RSS)
If Edgar is not offered arbitration, they should go after him with full force. A two year deal would be perfect. Other than that, the trade market is the ticket
That winning streak at season’s end was really frustrating. Served nothing useful. Got us a worse draft pick. Very unfortunate. Even if we would have ended up drafting 16th (still lost our pick if type A signed), 16th is better than 19th. Stupid win streak.
“Roarke and the Robot”. Sounds like a sitcom. Call Merv Griffin.
Don’t know about you guys, but I feel like this offseason will be a real litmus for what kind of GM Mo wants to be. Last offseason was a mulligan I feel; he was interim for a while, didn’t know if he’d still have the spot at the beginning of the season. I know it’s not an excuse, but I’m willing to forgive signing Piniero, Izturis, and not offering Eck arbitration; Mo just wasn’t on his feet yet.
During the season, Mo showed that he was willing to stick with the organization’s stated plan: holding on to the young guys, not making a move for this year that would cost us value over the next few.
But Mo still has an entrenched TLR to deal with. Even if Mo were the GM we all hope he is, Tony is a stubborn and talented manager that isn’t going anywhere for at least a year. And Tony’s going to expect to get his way on at least a few things, or else I imagine he’d already have left.
So, on the one hand, you have a GM who won’t trade prospects for relief help at the deadline. On the other hand, the same guy gave Lohse 4 years, with $24M coming in the last two.
I’m not saying that move isn’t defensible. I do think, though, that Mo’s report card at the beginning of spring training will tell us alot about the kind of GM he is.
As much as I loved having Edgar Renteria at SS back in the day, the thought of having a keystone combination of Renteria and Lopez sends shivers down my spine. I’m willing to trust that Oquendo can turn Lopez into an average defensive second baseman, but anyone hoping for Edgar should think about this: Glaus can field anything he can reach, but his range into the hole is well short of Rolen’s. Izturis, on the other hand, has great range into the hole, so we didn’t see too much of a drop-off in left-side defense. If Renteria were paired with Glaus on the left side, I fear we would see a plethora of groundball singles through the hole. And with Lopez in the lineup, I’m not sure we need Renteria’s bat.
Orlando Hudson is the only player listed that I would really want to spend the money that it will take to get him. If it also meant losing our first round pick I probably wouldn’t want him, either.
On another note, I apologize for my recent absence – I had to suspend my blogging to work on the economy, but now that I’ve fixed that…
What about Furcal? Does the injury knock him out of Type A range? I know he will be uber-expensive, but if MO can work some magic — hello mr. lead-off!!!
at arch support…Mo did not sign piniero, that was jocketty giving him an extension last season….and i personally didn’t mind the izturis signing, he did exactly what he was supposed to do for us all season
at gforce…from what i’ve heard, furcal is neither a type a or b because of the injury…i’ve also heard the dodgers really want to bring him back(but, if they bring manny back, they probably can’t afford furcal)…furcal is gonna be expensive, but i think we need to be willing to give a 3 or 4 year deal at 10-12 million per year…he would be the “impact bat” tony wants, would not be blocking any prospects(kozma and niko are at least 3 years away) and would free us up to trade our only other lead-off hitter type(shumaker)…it just makes to much sense methinks
of course i could be dead wrong
No, Pineiro was signed when Mo was acting as interim GM.
Jocketty fired on Oct 3, and Pineiro was signed on Oct 15.
wow…why did i think piniero signed during the season…i take back what i said arch support…that was a dumb decision
‘Salright. I honestly think the Pinata signing is defensible if you look at context.
Carp’s outlook was pessimistic (back at the All Star break at the earliest).
Wellemeyer/Reyes/Thompson (at least one of whom was going to be in the rotation) were all question marks as far as durability and results.
Clement was touted as ready for Opening Day, but I can’t imagine the front office was 100% on that (I hope so anyway).
We needed to get innings from somewhere. We hadn’t yet signed Lohse. Giving two years to Jo-El was not the worst thing we could do. I’m not saying I agree with the defense, but it is defensIBLE.
Not giving Eck arbitration was silly, I think. And signing Izturis so early in the offseason was jumping the gun a bit. But Itzturis was the most reasonable of those moves, imo.
Just out of curiousity what are the rules on signing guys like Crow and Scheppers who were drafted but ended up signing with Independent ballclubs? Is it something worth pursuing?
I don’t see much available in the trade market. We could squeeze a starter from San Francisco or Minnesota using David Freese, but outside of that I don’t expect a whole lot of turnover from last year’s roster.
Ryan Dempster is the only intriguing Type A realistic guy, but would cost a pretty penny and was terrible as a closer before being great as a starter.
Roarke, thanks for fixing the economy. Each of us owes you a huge debt of gratitude!
I’m not sure there is a free agent out there worth sacrificing the first round pick. Furcal would be great but I have seen at least five other teams that may be targeting him as well.
Unless the Cards increase payroll by at least 5-7 million, I don’t see any way to sign Furcal or even Hudson, while upgrading the other middle infield position AND adding a solid bullpen lefty or two. But maybe my math is off….
But perhaps we could trade for Khalil Greene (good glove, lifetime road OPS over .800), leave Miles to play 2nd, and still get the bullpen southpaws we need.
Could the Yanks let Marte go without offering arby? After all, Damaso wasn’t good at all for Bombers this year. I’d love to see him in Busch next year. ;)