While I’m not quite sure what to make of all this Ryan Ludwick for Matt Holliday talk, but from the sounds of things Mo is trying to create an opening for Rasmus. I know this would not do it, they’ll also have to move Skip or Duncan (Skip’s value will never be any higher, Dunc’s probably won’t be any lower), but my sense going into this hot stove league is that chances were higher than ever that Colby would get moved. Yet all the trade talk to this point has centered around Ludwick and not Rasmus. Interesting…
At Fangraphs.com, Marc Hulet reviews the 2008 minor league Cards.
Arizona
- In a game that saw 29 total runs scored, Shane Robinson walked four times and scored four runs. Gotta like it. He also stole a base.
- Brett Wallace went 2-for-5 with a double and a walk.
- Adam Ottavino was ergh. 3.2 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR. Ergh, I say.
- Tyler Norrick stopped the bleeding. He allowed no runs on a hit over 1.1, with 2 K’s.
- Brad Furnish walked one and struck out two in his one inning of scoreless work. Box.
Venezuela
- Yet another scoreless inning for Luke Gregerson. One walk, two ground outs and one fly out. Box.
Puerto Rico
- Starting on opening day for The Secret Weapon’s Carolina Giants, P.J. Walters allowed a run on three hits over 2.1 innings pitched. 4 K’s, 1 BB.
- Bryan Anderson went 0-for-2. Box.
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I think most of the Holiday rumors are being generated by the Rockies to drive the price up for him. This junk doesn’t make much sense to me, we want an impact bat so we trade an impact bat that is considerably cheaper. Let the Phillies have him.
i dont understand ludwick for holliday. i wonder if this is only half true…i.e. the cards would have to ship ludwick + other stuff to SD for peavy, and are angling for holliday to replace ludwick?
One positive thing about acquiring Holliday is that he would certainly be a type A free agent and certainly decline arbitration for a long term deal, leaving the Cards with 2 draft picks.
I would prefer to get Escobar from AtL, just because a SS is so much harder to come by. Plus he has a great glove and has put up pretty decent numbers with the bat as well.
The idea of trading a cheap slugger PLUS PROSPECTS (!) for a very expensive free agent to be, with terrible road splits who does’nt address our many weaknesses is an absolute franchise killer. Bringing up Colby before he’s ready, as I think is the case, makes it even more putrid. I’m afraid we may pay the price for this surprisingly competitive season that Tony engineered by cow towing to his win now screw later agenda. Worst of all I don’t think we’d win now as I don’t think Holliday would put up numbers approaching what Lud did last year. I’d love to get Escobar too but I doubt we can. It is, though, the kind of trade we should be pursuing at this early stage in the off season.
Trading Ludwick for Holliday is a big gamble and I think the only reason you do it is because you’re positive that Ludwick had a fluke year.
Now what has happened to Ottavino? I’m pulling for him but right now it just looks bad. Maybe a switch to the Pen is needed?
When does “The Walrus watch” start? Or you going to avoid that with him?
I don’t think they would trade for Holliday unless they knew they were going to sign him long-term.
That long term contract would be the franchise killer I was talking about. I think Dustin’s right that the Cardinals see Ludwick’s season as a career year. I don’t but even so we should use him to fix our holes rather than make it financially impossible to do so. Beyond the money and the road splits I have seen Holliday make some absolutely dreadful plays in the outfield. Small sample but it adds to my confusion as to why the team would be even slightly interested in this.
For what it’s worth, Holliday has very good +/- ratings, a +11 according to the Fielding Bible.
I don’t think it’s as horrible as some of you are making out. Skippy becomes addition by subtraction in a way, clearing a path for Rasmus to play every day. Boggs is probably a 5th starter/mid-reliever. Ludwick will still be a good player, but not quite the same caliber as Holliday. I’m not reading quite into the splits thing as much as some of you are. The thing I don’t like is it killing payroll flexibility. If DeWitt is willing to increase payroll in a recession, then all I could say about that is wow. He would have to in order to address the middle infield and the bullpen, unless Mo makes some sort of amazing unforeseen trades.
I agree that the major problem with this trade is the payroll issue and how it relates to plugging all of our other holes. Since we are using two outfielders to get one it is unlikely that we would trade another, such as Ankiel, for middle infield or bull pen help. That would mean that, in addition to resigning Holliday we would need to solve those other issues by throwing money at them in free agency. As you indicate we’re not likely to do that and it’s probably not good policy anyway.
Regarding the splits, I also don’t think they mean that Holliday is not a good player. I don’t, however, see him hitting significantly better here than Ludwick did last year and possibly not significantly better than he would this year. I also agree that Rasmus is the future but I actually think that Skip has turned himself into a useful player and will outperform Colby at the major league level for the next year or two. Given all of that I would much prefer that we use our surplusses to directly address our very serious defecits.