Matthew Leach believes if the Cards do trade Lud for Holliday, it would not just be straight up. The Rox will probably demand one of the Cards relief prospects, and we know they asked for Motte in a deal for Fuentes before. While it feels like there is a lot of momentum to this story, I think this deal will fall apart. Leach has some pretty nice arguments as to why this would be a head-scratcher of a deal apart from just the usual “Holliday has a bad home/road split”.
By dealing Ludwick, who will be arbitration-eligible for the first time, for Holliday, the Cardinals would be taking on approximately $10 million in extra salary without addressing any of their needs. Holliday is due $13.5 million in the last season of his current contract, while Ludwick is arbitration-eligible for the first time this year.
The Cardinals have somewhere on the order of $25-30 million in payroll flexibility to build their 2009 roster, but that money must be used to address needs at second base, shortstop, left-handed relief, starting pitching depth and perhaps closer. Committing more than one-third of that sum to an area that is not a pressing need would be a curious move.
I forgot to mention the other day is that beat writer/wordsmith/pollster Derrick Goold is running his own community Top 30 prospect ranking over at Bird Land. Be sure to participate. We will have our own community top twenty after we roll out our own rankings, which I’m hoping to start as early as Monday. So far it’s looking like:
- Colby
- Wallace
- Perez
- Anderson
- Freese in the lead, but too close to call.
Daryl Jones needs your help! While l like David Freese, I think it would be a travashamockery if he beats out Jones.
I’m usually not one for yard sales, but I spent a good hour and a half pouring over the new listing of minor league free agents. There are some familiar names on there, including: Jeff Weaver, Carmen Cali, Cory Doyne, Aaron Herr, Randy Keisler, John Gall, Tagg Bozied, Troy Cate and Juan Gonzalez. I was trying to forget the Juan Gone crisis, sorry for bringing it up. This is another post for another day, but while the Cards don’t need another OF muddling things, Val Pascucci seems more than flyer-worthy. DH him, if you must. And I’d love to see R.J. Swindle and his 55 MPH curve get a look in spring training. His numbers have to bee seen to be believed. R.J. Anderson at BTB looks at other LOOGY possibilities.
‘zona
- Playing 3B, Tyler Greene went 1-for-4 with a double and a walk. He also went down swinging three times. While I want to get excited about Tyler’s big numbers in Arizona, it is a hitter’s league and he’s still whiffing at an alarming rate.
- Justin Fiske threw two scoreless innings, allowing a couple of hits and striking out one. Box.
Hawaii
- As Honolulu’s DH, Tony Cruz went 1-for-4. He’s batting .351/.393/.494.
- Tyler Herron threw two perfect innings with 2 K’s and has lowered his winter league ERA to 0.75.Box.
Puerto Rico
- Stepping in off the bench as a pinch-hitter, Bryan Anderson proved to be the Secret Weapon’s secret weapon. He hit a walk-off single in the 9th to win it for Carolina. Box.
DR
- Amaury Marti went 2-for-3 with a double and a sac fly. Box.
Entries (RSS)
The Cardinals released the fewest MiLFA for whatever that’s worth.
I believe this means Perdomo will be on the 40-man roster.
Rosenthal on foxsports.com is saying it would be Ludwick, Skip, and Boggs for Holliday.
BTW, I absolutely despise Rosenthal. Guy is always trying to think up ways the Cubs can come up with a lineup of all-stars and five Cy Young pitchers, while at the same time questioning a Cards move to get Holliday.
I don’t know how many times he’s started a column with “Imagine Dice-K pitching to Fukudome in the World Series”, “Imagine if the Cubs added Brian Roberts to their already potent lineup”, “Imagine the Cubs with a rotation of Zambrano, Peavy, Dempster, Lilly, and Harden”…
How many more “difference makers” can the Cubs have? Juan Pierre, Fukudome, Harden, Soriano have all been named the “final piece” to the Cubs championship puzzle, so if they were to get Peavy, it personally doesn’t bother me a bit. If they want to pay him 80+ million over five years, have at it. Even if they do win the World Series, as a Cardinal fan I would be incredibly dissapointed, but the bottom line is they didn’t win this year, and will likely be the only franchise in professional sports that will have gone 100 years without a title.
For whatever it’s worth, I’ll be very upset if the Cards make that trade. Like Leach said, it doesn’t address our current needs and seems to be a trade being made out of respect to TLR’s final contract year. Boggs has good stuff and Skip was one of our most consistent hitters. You don’t really have anyone to replace their 2009 roles so I don’t do it. And I think Ludwick has another 3-4 good years ahead of him, cheaply as well
I don’t like the Holliday-Ludwick deal either. It doesn’t really improve the team that much, and doesn’t address any of its needs either.
This is exactly why I was unenthusiastic about bringing Tony back. He’s a manager, not a GM; the team shouldn’t be making decisions just to appease him, if indeed that is what’s going on with the Holliday trade.
I’m not a big Boggs fan, but I don’t get trading Schumaker and Ludwick. I don’t think Holliday is worth making that trade for. It increases our salary, reduces are trading options, and doesn’t address any needs. Where’s the upside to this?
As far as ML free agents go, why not sign Jeff Weaver? It seems like Duncan fixed him once, he might be able to do it again…
reduces our* trading optoins
options* darn it.
Most “interesting” scrap heap finds:
1. Joel Guzman
2. Daniel Haigwood
3. Eric Threets
4. Eric Milton (look at the LOOGY possibilities)
5. Victor Diaz
6. Cory Doyne
7. Jose Capelan
I don’t know if this has been addressed before, but why isn’t Freese on the Caribes anymore?
clark,
the answer to your question will be posted at the birdhouse in a little while.
Did anyone else get onto the Troy Cate bandwagon as hard as i did when he was tearing it up as a starter? God, i thought he’d come out of nowhere and help out. So disappointing.