Personally, I like Mozeliak. I’m confident he is seeing what’s available and that the team is weighing the relative risks involved in potential moves. I like that we’re hoarding our farm system a little, that’s the new organizational philosophy. Of course this comes with an opportunity cost, but I’m glad we’re not moving someone like Craig for a AAAA relief prospect…like Perdomo.

25 man team
1b pujols
2b kennedy
ss greene
3b glaus
of skip
of ankiel
of ludwick
c molina
of mather
of duncan/barton
c larue
mi ?
ci freese/st invite

sp carp
sp waino
sp lohse
sp welley
sp ?
sp/lr piniero/thompson
rp mclellan
rp franklin
rp motte/kinney
rp miller
rp manning/ring
cp perez

possible trades

ankiel for mike gonzalez. this needs to happen so bad it hurts. the braves need to let their young outfielders develop so one year of ank would have appeal. same for the cards we need perez to develop. heck after 09 they could resign gonzalez and we could resign ank if somebody regresses. the needs for 09 fit perfectly. they can sign izzy or cordero to compete with soriano.

ankiel for bj ryan and tallet. this would up the budget by about 5 mil because ryan is owed 10 but 2 lefty relievers, one of whom can close sounds good. drawback is ryan is also signed for 10 for 10 mil and perez should hopefully be ready by then. too much money for a possible lefty specialist.

ankiel and motte for phil hughes. if the yanks can trade one of their many corner outfielders they will want a better cf than melky. also if pettitte resigns hughes has no spot. odds are they keep him but the yanks are the kind of team that could resign ank after 09. longshot but worth asking. would save the cards money, improve the team with a cheap young starter for the future, and give rasmus a chance to play.

ankiel for ben zobrist. we need a mi that could possibly start(peace out ak). while the projected production wouldnt compare for next year we might have a long term ss or 2b going forward and that would be huge. the rays have brignac so they dont need him a ton. they also currently have gabe gross as their projected starting of. it would cost tampa a little money but it sems to make sense. also rick is from florida so as opposed to the other trades this would consider him.

Ludwick, Ankiel, Rasmus, Schumaker, Mather.

Unfortunately, that will NOT be our outfield in 2008. Rasmus will be in AAA, and its likely Mather will be as well. Tony will give Chris Duncan EVERY opportunity to stick. A trade is becoming necessary. I am beginning to wonder if John Mozeliak was the right choice to be our GM. John Mozeliak represents the antithesis of aggressive. Duncan and or Schumaker need to be traded in my opinion. Duncan will not bring hardly anything in return. Schumaker seems to be under-valued, even though he put up better numbers for the season than Kosuke Fukudome did in the first half (before he completely dropped off). And Fukudome makes 12 million a year!

I believe Freese should make the team and take the Spezio role. Here is a good question though. Who makes the team as the backup middle infielder? Tyler Greene? I am certain that Tony LaRussa would not start the season with two rookie backup infielders. I am even more certain that TLR would not start the season with 2 rookie backup infielders AND a rookie starting outfielder (rasmus).

My final point is this. Tony LaRussa and John Mozeliak simply are not on the same page. LaRussa was quoted as saying it would hurt the development of Motte/Perez to ask them to close in the big leagues in 2009. This is some weird crazy logic that TLR uses regarding young players. I believe Motte/Perez together would be better than any closer left out there on the free agent market. Yes, they are young and in-experienced at the big league level, but they both have REALLY good stuff and can get the job done. TLR is just not comfortable with young players in many cases.

John Mozeliak on the other hand has done a great job of holding on to our young inexpensive players. This is key in my opinion if we want to re-sign Albert Pujols. TLR on the other hand just isn’t comfortable putting a rookie in a key position on the team. I disagree with this whole heartedly. I believe the TLR/Mozeliak combination is a terrible one. This team will be better off as assembled (assuming some of this young talent isn’t traded for veteran talent) with LaRussa riding off into the sunset.

For those of you who aren’t reading FanGraphs everyday (you should be, but that’s besides the point), Cameron makes some very interesting points. I always thought that Craig to 2B was wishful thinking but this has me warming to the idea.