It’s really a moot point, of course. The Cards aren’t players for Burnett and don’t intend to enter the fray.

the cost of a draft pick is very big in today’s game. teams value this more than ever now that the realization of building from within is more and more empasized (see tampa bay). but one thing that i firmly believe about the cardinals is this: luhnow and co. have done an excellent job of replenishing talent back into this once barren farm system. however, what they have excelled at is providing depth, not impact talent. sure, there is the obvious exceptions with players such as rasmus, wallace and perhaps jones. but the cardinals have been EXTREMELY poor at developing frontline starting pitchers. haren turned out to be an all-star, but the last pitcher that we developed that was a frontline pitcher was morris. you could argue wainwright, but bottom line on him was that we didn’t draft him (though in hindsight that was a helluva trade). I do like that we are drafting sleepers in the later rounds (hooker, zawacki, ferrera to name a few), and we finally are starting to see some interesting names being circulated from the international front (castillo, franco, help me out here….maybe colorado?).

bottom line….do i think we should pony-up and throw a ton of money at burnett? very intrigued, but no. however, until we start developing legit SP prospects we will always have to explore the free agent/loss of draft pick options as a realistic possibility.

The contract “extension” we worked out with Carpenter ended up as the equivalent of a 5 year deal. It was a 3 year extension for after the 08 season. He still had 2 years remaining on his current deal, so it was the equivalent of a 5 year deal.

I believe the deal we gave Waino last year was a 5 year deal as well… Or maybe it was 4 years with an option for a 5th. I don’t remember.

Let me repeat that: Burnett projects as better than ANY current starter the Cardinals have for next year.