Comments on: Reader Top 20, vote now for #7

By: bigchieftootiemontana

bigchieftootiemontana — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:19:28 +0000

I also voted for Kozma, the way I see it he has potential to be much more valuable
than most of the pitchers listed. After Perez and Motte the rest of the pitchers don’t seem very exciting. Garcia has potential and Boggs did pretty well during his call up last season.

I want to see how Reifer, Todd, Mortenson and Lynn do this season before rating them in the top 7.
Also want to see how Garcia recovers from surgery.

Certainly with all the prospect ratings out there that we all read there must be some bias as mentioned.

Thanks for the great job y’all do!

By: joel

joel — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:47:17 +0000

to continue with what u r saying jawz, i agree the impact guy that made perfect sense really easnt available. with fuentes i could have gone either way. #1 pick and 9 mil per is quite pricey. here r a couple of ideas for a trade or “throw at the wa;;”.

free agent

kris benson(he has cardinal written all over him)
looper if hes cheap
ohman/beimel(ill take either one)
orlando hudson(if his price keeps going down why not)

trade

mike gonzalez
ben zobrst
roberts/sherrill from baltimore(exactly what we need)
bj ryan
ian kennedy(i would invlude my pinky for hughes)

i also woulddnt mind us talking to colorado and getting a #5 or #6 starter. how about wellemeyer for de la rosa and hirsch or reynolds. i think welley is the best pitcher but we would get 2 guys, one of whom is lefthanded in de la rosa(who is severely underrated). also i am all for taking pitchers from colorado. guys magically forget how to pitch there and leave there and remember again. much like taking a guy like greene from san diego, im all for acquiring col pitchers.

By: BigJawnMize

BigJawnMize — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:26:21 +0000

Lou-

I dont disagree with a thing you said. There isn’t a player out there that can add many more wins to the bottom line. In a grand cardinal tradition I do think that there are a few “throw shit at the wall moves” that can provide some insurance. I would like to see them trade from the outfield depth for a pitcher or take a flyer on one of the second tier starters on the market. And gawd I would like to see them sign Will Ohman, pleases.

By: Lou Schuler

Lou Schuler — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:04:02 +0000

The Cards are projected as an 88-win team. If Carp can pitch a full season, it’s more like a 91- or 92-win team. If K. Greene puts on a salary drive in his walk year, we might be a 90-win team even without Carp.

I know this isn’t a popular opinion, but I think Mo has had a decent off-season. I don’t see any moves out there that would’ve improved our team by another 3-5 wins that appeared to be in our price range.

(And by “price range,” I include the opportunity cost of losing a first-round draft pick.)

By: joel

joel — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:28:27 +0000

ok thank you. i believe the money will be there but i agree they might find a way to not spend it. its still unclear whether or not they will spend the roughly 8 million more they have for this year. i agree the cards r cheap in the sneaky way u describe but we still have tons of money coming off the books. i really like our future with wallace and rasmus(who doesnt) so i sure hope we can hold this 100 million payroll. the cubs think they r the yankees midwest trying to buy a championship. we have history on our side. go cards.

By: Shi

Shi — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:26:16 +0000

I voted kozma, for essentially the same reason as PFP.

also, this may have been stated already, but maybe next year when you guys decide on your prospect list, hold them. then, take the community, and after that, reveal your list. it seems the only way to try to minimize bias as much as possible, aside from daily readers knowing each of your personal favorites.

i also think that if every reader submitted their own list, it would vary much more from the community as a whole. for example, maybe my first 5 are unique, but my next 5 fall in line with the rest of the community. chances are, my first 5 will be part of also-ran candidates from the first 5 polls, so my unique perspective will be washed out. though perhaps this is trying too hard, maybe we could invovle some sort of spread for each player poll-by-poll. clearly, motte will not get any more votes, but it may be telling to see how early he started to get votes. this will likely be more useful starting with the current poll, where there is likely more disagreement among readers.

By: themop10

themop10 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:36:37 +0000

Joel – your work was well done and I appreciate it. I was just trying to bring some reality to your optimism of spending alot of money. I think that while the numbers show we will have 30-40 million to spend in reality we will find alot of excuses from the FO of why we can’t spend that money.

By: joel

joel — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:19:43 +0000

no that number is with all the raises. we dont have too many guys whos salary increases drastically between 09 and 10.

carp +.5
lohse +.6
molina +.1
wainwright +2.05
ludwick arb raise
skip first time arb

thats 10 mil tops. please do not dismiss what i say so blindly. i actually spent time to figure this stuff out. u complain about our payroll but go to cotsmlbcontracts. last years payroll was 7 million more than any year in cardinals history. our problem was dead weight contracts in encarnacion, mulder, carp, and izzy. next year we drop more dead weight in piniero and kennedy. that combined with a healthy carp means a rise back to the top.

- cardinal fan. nothing more. nothing less.

By: Liam

Liam — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:11:04 +0000

I voted Boggs, too, although a vote for Lynn was tempting.

By: themop10

themop10 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:29:53 +0000

With salary increases and arbitration that 35-40 million will come down to nothing. Probably enough to extend Charlie Manning for one more season. Expect more low hanging fruit.

- jaded fan who doesn’t buy the BS coming from Moz or the front office