The Day the Music Died
Posted on July 24th, 2009 by erik in Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen, Shane PetersonThe Faberge Eggs are busted. And I am so disgusted. Koo-coo-ca-choo is flying the coop, along with my favorite pitching prospect.
FR is not going to be the same without the Walrus. Or Morty for that matter.
Wallace for Holliday was bad enough as it was. Then they gave away Mortensen too. And Peterson (meh). Still nothing official, but this is a sad day for the HPGF.
edit: Don’t misunderstand me, if Holliday means playoffs, then I can understand it. I don’t think there is a guarantee he does, or that he even vastly improves the odds that happens. I also just think they gave up a lot, and writing for FR becomes quite a bit less interesting.
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Throwing in Mortensen is steep. . .Oakland better be kicking in a LOT of money. And Mo needs to have some kind of assurance from the player that he’ll consider re-upping before the season ends and give St L the first crack before free agency.
I am sick to my stomach. Very sick right now. What a horrible trade!!!!!!!!!!
This deal is terrible…
And i don’t understand everybody’s insistance on extending him. Holliday is a free agent and we could have had him this off season without Walrus/Mort.
Yes we’d give up the draft picks, but not of the quality to land Walrus with.
I want Larussa gone, no way this deal goes down without him as manager
They’ve obvioulsy made the detimantion that Wallace can’t stick at 3rd in the bigs, which is what these guy’s get paid to do. I don’t like having Mort thrown in but I bet it is a money deal, the A’s will be paying part of Holiday’s salary. I’d as soon pay the money and keep him but its not my money. I like Peterson, saw him play in Springfield and I think he could be a nice league average OF. Wallace and Peterson I’m fine with for Holiday but they have to resign him. Boras will have all the leverage so Dewallet better open up or this is a terrible deal. They’re going to have to reup Derosa as well becasue they are going to need a 3B next year. Its a great line up for this year so you got to give them that, they are trying to win now.
It really shocks me that they are giving the A’s a better package for two months of Holiday than the A’s gave the Rockies for 4 months of Holiday. Unless the Cards are getting something else like Wuertz for middle/set up relief and/or Duscherer to be their 5th starter down the stretch, I really don’t understand, why after saying they were going to build within their organization, they are deciding to do a 180 degree change.
I guess if they are able to extend Holiday (very difficult and expensive with Boras as his agent), that makes some difference, but I just don’t have a great amount of confidence about Holiday outside Coors. I guess they can offer him arbitration and take the draft choices to replace two of the three high choices they are supposedly trading, but one of the two choices they might receive in compensation will not be in the first half of the first round, and they could get screwed like the Brewers did regarding Sabathia, when the Yankees also signed Texiera and thus the Brewers didn’t even get the Yankees’ first round pick.
Again disappointing unless they get something additional from the Athletics. Finally if this was the offer a month ago then the Cardinals made another mistake in that they could have had Holiday’s July performance if they made the trade earlier, which could have made the difference in a couple of games the Cards have lost thus far in July.
I meant to say neither of the two choices they could receive if Holiday signs elsewhere will be in the first half of the first round like Wallace was.
Sorry to not express myself more clearly.
This trade is as much to make Albert happy as well. No small consideration. IMO Holliday is a solid .290 25 100 guy who will play solid outfield and is a solid citizen. . .I think he’s the outfield equivalent of Scott Rolen (when we acquired him in 2003) in that regard. Cardinal nation will love him, he’ll play hard, etc. But can Mo convince the player to allow his agent to negotiate DURING the season and not hit free agency? Holliday’s a Midwestern guy, and he seems like the type of player to buck Boras’ system to stay in STL. Losing Mort hurts though. Never saw that one coming.
I really don’t mind losing Mortensen. I’ve seen him a few times and was never really impressed. Maybe he makes a nice 4th-5th starter but he just has an average sinker and slider. He’s not Dan Haren(2004). Not even close.
I’m glad we kept Lance Lynn over Mortensen.
Overall, I’m not a huge fan of Wallace for Holliday but this isn’t Haren/Barton for a pitcher who lost 5 MPH and his splitter. Holliday did post an .830 OPS in a very crappy lineup. He could improve a lot in the Cardinals lineup but I can’t say that for sure. He could also continue on with the slightly above average hitting.
If this actually goes through it will be bittersweet. Loved Wallace as much as the next guy and would love to have a cost controlled solid bat in the lineup but his defense really concerned me. I have no concerns about Holliday whatsoever. As long as he resigns and they resign DeRosa I have no problem with this deal. Alot of IF’s though! I dont think the FO is dumb so I have confidence that they plan to extend the guy.
Bernie just said the deal is going to happen.
I’m so excited that I want to take the day off and celebrate.
Erik, can I please swear?
only in Afrikaans.
ujwsoihiovj3u98ej oih3q47u 9-35 9u89w54 gosih 890j34oieht824wu s9unbiwjt4978hn234jy9h 098gj398eh 04h59whiur!!!!!1
Well—give Mozeliak credit. He is certainly going “all in”. I loved Wallace as a hitter. Nervous about him defensively. As someone said, the guys who get paid to make these decisions must feel he isn’t a major league 3Bman. I understand that.
How much better is Wallace than Craig? Do we know that he the answer to this?
Look, the Cardinals have a SMALL window with Carpenter. And even Pujols to an extent. I’m not a huge fan of the trade but I give Mozeliak credit for trying to win now. It’s hard to question that.
Plus getting high picks back if he and DeRosa leave makes some sense.
Won’t be that bad if Oakland kicks in some money. We can then hopefully allocate that towards the two draft picks we’ll get when Holliday walks. Could get another Wallace and Mort with those draft picks.
I know everyone here won’t like it but it doesn’t really have the same bust potential as the last time we dealt with Billy did.
–Wallace wasn’t going to stay at third long, maybe at all so he didn’t really have a place in the organization. And despite being extremely highly regarded, he is only slugging .429 this year. That is not very good for a corner infielder. Wallace is a good prospect but I think he is overrated at the moment given his defense and lack of power. I think it was a good move to trade him while his value was high.
–Mort is having a very good year but he doesn’t have top of the rotation potential. I’d rather give up him than Boggs. These mid to bottom of the rotation pitching prospects never seem to pan out in the long run.
–Peterson’s inclusion is curious but doesn’t bother me at all. Another 4th OF prospect in a system with a ton of these players.
for that we get…
–Holliday, who basically makes us the favorites to win the NL Central, gets rid of a huge hole in our lineup, and adds some much needed power to the lineup.
–2 draft picks when he walks which is likely to net us at least one top prospect.
A’s are kicking in 1.5…not that it makes the trade better.
I follow minor league baseball more than majors, so it is difficult for me to see three prospects go. I view this as solely Wallace for Holliday. I doubt will resign Holliday (I don’t actually even want us to), and Peterson and Mortensen are easily replaceable by the compensation picks. Also, with all due respect to Mortensen, I believe that Boggs, Lynn,
Looking by MLE, I think a realistic expectation for Wallace is a OPS in the .750 – .850 range , which would likely 110 POD+ guy If he is able to stay at 3B and not be too bad defensively, he’s a valuable player. If he can’t stay at 3B and has to switch to 1B or LF, then its fairly easily to replace him.
Holliday is going to re-sign. The Cardinals have too much money to work with this winter. They had a lot last winter and didn’t spend all of it because they were worried about attendance. Attendance is great and Glaus/Greene/Kennedy/Wellemeyer/Pineiro/Ankiel are coming off the books. They’ll re-sign him.
I mean to see I think Boggs, Lynn and Walters are better.
if we resign Holliday, okay, cool. If we don’t, this is a really irresponsible deal
if we win the world series would the rest of you guys step off the ledge?
UB44, don’t be so sure. We have 2 rotation spots to fill, third base, and one OF spot. I suspect we’ll begin to talk with Albert about locking him up for life too. I don’t see the money being there for Holliday.
Well @*#$&((#*, and another thing %*#AL##$@#@
Ohhhh. I feel faint.
Man, it’s gonna hurt to watch Mort and Walrus in green.
Let’s make sure we sign Shelby Miller now. Sorry to see Wallace go though. Hopefully we’ll look back on this trade in November and say it was worth it to get the Championship. If Holliday signs long term, it’s a great move.
Horrible trade – Fleeced by Beane again… I will try to give the org the benefit of the doubt in that Wallace is a 1B…. If that minor point were true and he slashed 310/380/460 then I guess……
Don’t like it…… The worst part is if we don’t offer arb and end up with no draft picks…
I have no problem with the concept of trading Wallace – he’s got significant value right now and there were still too many questions about his defense to be sure that he ever would have been as valuable to the Cardinals on the major league roster. However, I hate trading our most valuable chip for 2 months of Matt Holliday. Holliday is a good player, but not a great one and a lineup of Schu, Rasmus, Pujols, Holliday, Ludwick, DeRosa… is solid, but I personally don’t feel significantly better about our WS chances than I did when I woke up this morning.
I would have much preferred going after Willingham in a smaller deal and then using Wallace to see if we could snag a top flight pitcher.
Like I told some buddies, if we’re ditching the whole “develop from within” mantra and going balls-to-the-wall for a championship this year, we may as well offer Colby to the Jays for Halliday.
I feel like I’m gonna puke…
Is this really all that Wallace was worth? Really? I have a lot of faith in the Cards FO and Moz, but I just can’t wrap my head around it. I don’t know what to make of this right now.
At least we don’t have to trade Craig now, right?
^
Craig’s a LF. He’s buried behind Holliday for the next 7 years.
fpslackers, I think DeRosa is re-signed to play 3rd base for Greene’s money. Glaus and Ankiel’s money goes to Holliday. Ludwick will get about the same money in arbitration. We’ll still have Wellemeyer, Kennedy and Pineiro’s money left to spend on one starter, Schumaker, Trever Miller and other parts. And then there were savings from last year as the payroll is down about 10 million this year IIRC. The money will work out. I doubt they make this trade if they think otherwise.
A bad trade…really?
If we resign Holliday long term, that makes losing Wallace inconsequential. Has Mortenson shown to be better than Boggs or Hawksworth? Or Lance Lynn for that matter? I was a fan, but you have to give something to get something.
I can’t say how disappointed I am. TLR has wanted Holiday for years and you can’t tell me that this deal was all Mo. Getting rid of Wallace, especially for a COORS FIELD hitter is incomprehensible. So after the season we have to try and resign him at however many millions per year, when I would be worried about getting over my head with him and not being able to keep Albert in two years.
Plus, getting rid of Mort…at least to me, is just another example of TLR’s insanity. He came up for one game this year, didn’t do great, sent back down and Tony doesn’t think he can pitch. Personally I can’t wait til TLR is gone. I like baseball the way it’s supposed to be played. I’m tired of having a manger who acts like he has a neutered pitching staff (I say that because apparently in St Louis major league pitchers can only through about an inning and heaven forbid a righty try to get a lefty out…) and seems to have to baseball sense. I love Duncan and wish him all the best in Boston, but pitch hitting him the other night because lefties were hitting .300+ against whoever the pitcher was… and he think s we’re the ones that are blind. See ya Tony, won’t miss ya a bit.
I am less than impressed with Moz’s ability to trade….these deals all feel like he’s trade from weakness and overpaying. All of that for a 2 month rental?
I was hoping that we had learned that building from within is the path to long-term success. If they are abandoning that approach and instead trying to keep Pujols for several more years and considering that their window, fine, I guess. But man, the years after that are going to be long, many, and painful, when the vets fade with age and the minors are empty because the focus has been on the MLB club.
Right now is there a single player in the Cardinal’s system that projects to be better than an average MLB player (not counting Miller, who isn’t signed, or Mateo, who’s 16)?
This is still a mediocre big club, combine that with a depleted development system and I’m just not that excited.
The Cardinals traded a nice, but extremely overrated prospect for the left field version of Jim Edmonds.
Give this a few years. Everyone was high on our deal the last time we traded with Oakland too. Wow. If Holliday walks and we don’t make the playoffs this is a disaster. If we don’t make the playoffs and Holliday re-signs it’s just a gift of prospects to Oakland.
The only way this works out as a plus in more than the next 2.5 months is if he resigns AND we make the playoffs.
Now that’s a bet.
On the other side, how much of this is TLR (who I love)? We are totally bailing on the “develop” idea and going back to the Jocketty mold of trading for established people (DeRosa, Holliday) who are not on the upside of their careers. I like both players for the next year or two, but where does that leave us in 2011? We’ve heard a lot about how we were going to build a farm system that could contribute to the big league team…
Still though, here’s hoping Holliday hits like he has been and not like April/May, and that Mr. P appreciates the move and we do well in July/August/September.
Another thing this trade probably does is cut down on Rasmus’ playing time. Woo hoo.
I still don’t understand why 90 percent of the people who are against this trade are betting that
a) Wallace DEFINITELY succeeds
b) Holliday MAYBE means playoffs
c) Holliday DEFINITELY walks at the end of the season
I have yet to see anyone being rational when it comes to Brett Wallace. There seems to be this perception that Wallace is going to be an All-Star and there is no way he fails. I’ll put it this way: he has a better chance of being Casey Kotchmann than Kevin Youkilis.
I think you are misunderstanding why people are against this trade. It isn’t that Wallace will definitely succeed, it’s that Wallace has a lot of value to the organization right now because of his potential. It is possible that Wallace’s value today is the highest that it will ever be (if he busts in the next couple of years), which is why (unless you are 100% convinced he will not bust) you have to consider trading him. BUT, you also have to get proportional value in return, and two months of Holliday is not proportional value.
By the way, Holliday is nowhere near the leftfield version of Edmonds, offensively and certainly not defensively. Take away the Coors Field effects and Holliday isn’t in Edmonds league.
+1
I agree with Jon. . .this puts even more pressure on management to sign Miller. We did add Mateo earlier, so adding Shelby means we’ll have two-high level prospects to be excited about next year, and possibly a few first round compensation picks if Holliday or DeRosa walk. If Wallace had a true position other than 1B, the big club never trades him. It’s that simple.
What Holliday does at the end of the season doesn’t enter into the deal; he was going to be a FA regardless, and they would have the same opportunity to sign him regardless.
All the Cardinals get in return is 2 months of Holliday; everything else they still have to pay for….
Wallace has done well in his one year of pro ball. Going from draft pick to AAA in less than a year is pretty good.
The foundation of the best teams are drafted and developed: Red Sox, Yankees of the 90′s, Dodgers, Phillies…..all teams whose core were drafted and developed. I feel like Jocketty has stolen back into the FO.
Snayke I’m glad you’re here to be relentless and positive. What do you think of the package of prospects/players Oakland dealt for Holliday in the off-season, when his numbers looked better than they do now?
I would love for you to be right. I really would. I can’t wait to see Holliday hit. I just hope he hits.
Another thought: maybe now TLR will stop sac bunting when we lead off an inning with a double? Nah… that would be trusting your bats…
Paper Lions our OF should be Ludwick, Rasmus and Holliday every day now, right? I mean I know Ankiel will play some b/c TLR likes him, but he’s hurt or something, so…
It is very true. Holliday’s post-season performance is irrelevant, unless he loves St. L and takes a discount, in which case that would be value added by acquiring him mid-season. Unfortunately he has Boras as an agent, so that seems like a low probability.
But I do think it’s time to be positive. Let’s hope Carp/Wainwright/Piniero can hold it together and a top of the order of Schu/Rasmus/Mr. P/Holliday/Ludwick/DeRosa/Molina can get us some wins and a playoff berth.
I still don’t understand why everyone is ready to jump. Holliday, Rasmus and Lud in the outfield? Most teams would kill for that. Pujols, Yadier, DeRosa and Schu in the infield? We are a five man from a great team and that fifth man means nothing in the playoffs. there is no possible way they let Holliday go at the end of the season w/all this cash coming off the books. Let is play out first. I saw Mort pitch this season and he was nothing special. This was Wallace for Holliday and trust me Wallace was not going to be the next Stan. I know I am in the minority but I say kudos to management. We could have gone after the perfect pitcher who would mean something every five days and in the meantime Carp and co. are losing games by a single run. Holliday was the best decision.
UB44, you’re right the money is there in the short term. Resigning Holliday is going to take a long term committment, though. 5 years at the least I’d say. What happens when we re-up Pujols and he starts making about $25-30 mil/year? We can’t afford to pay Holliday $15-20 mil/year on top of that. That would be a little less than half of our payroll invested in two players. We won’t have any money to put a rotation together. Given our lack of starting pitching prospects and our lack of being able to draft and develop starting pitching prospects, this is a big concern.
With Boras as his agent, you have to expect he will test free agency. I’m sure the Cards will make a push to resign Holliday, but I suspect they’ll fall short of years and dollars Boras wants. You can almost see them planning for this happening too. The A’s give us $1.5mil, enough to cover the bonus of one of the draft picks we’ll get when Holliday walks.
Holliday won’t necessarily test the market; Lohse didn’t and he is a Boras client. But it does mean that we likely won’t get a discount.
Holliday won’t get anywhere near 20 million a year. Maybe 13-15 million on average. He’s a .290, 20-25 HR, .850 OPS hitter. Not .320, 25-35 HR, .950 OPS hitter like in Colorado.
What the Cardinals will likely/hopefully ask Holliday to do is front load the deal a little. Maybe 16 million a year for the first two years then like 12-13 million a year for the last three.
And will Pujols really ask for 25-30 million? Is he the kind of player that will hurt his teams chances of putting together a good team because of his contract? Pujols has already stated he wants to see the front office put a good team on the field before he commits to a long term deal. He’s a team player and he’s already got 100 million in the bank. I would guess he’d take between 20-25 million to stay in a town he loves. Maybe 8 years, 180 million?
As for the future rotation, I like Jaime Garcia and Lance Lynn in the near future and Shelby Miller, Deryk Hooker and Anthony Ferrara near the end of Holliday’s contract. Just give Carpenter’s money to Wainwright when his contract is up and Lohse’s money to another quality pitcher.
The only thing I’m worried about moving forward is a closer. Maybe Eduardo Sanchez is the guy if he isn’t traded to Cleveland(dear lord I hope not).
@fps … hopefully we’re not only using the 1.5. I would (like to) think that after losing Wallace, we will sign guys that drop due to signability to restock the system that has “lost” maybe half of it’s top 10 prospects (Rasmus, Wallace, Perez, Todd??, Motte, Mortenson-borderline). System looks rather blah right now.
the only difference between this and a walt jocketty trade is that there is a lot more depth in our system now…we have players who, while not quite at the level of wallace, are legit major league prospects…this wasn’t really the case with the jocketty era
think about our current starting lineup…pujols, yadi, skippy, ryan, rasmus, waino(yes i count him), motte, ank, k-mac, thompson all come from our farm system
luddy, while not a member of the farm, is still technically cost-controlled and was a minor league free agent, as was kinney…our team is loaded with homegrown talent
this is not the jocketty model of doing things at all in my opinion
still not completely behind the trade with the addition of mort, but i think the principle is right…the central is very winnable, and with our pitching rotation, who knows what we can do in the playoffs
Really how much more would it have cost us to get Halladay?
I looks like maybe the name of the website should be changed.
“Future Redbirds” doesn’t seem very accurate.
How about “Future PTBNL” or “Future Rental Payments”?
I’m bummed.
Should have started “It looks like”….see, I’m so bummed I can’t even proof my stuff.
What Holliday does at the end of the season doesn’t enter into the deal; he was going to be a FA regardless, and they would have the same opportunity to sign him regardless.
This really isn’t true. First, the incumbent club has exclusive negotiating rights before the free agency period begins. Second, the Cardinals have had a good track record of re-signing traded players to extensions. It’s simply not the same as an auction process with the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Cubs, etc. The process by which deals are done is very important. This one went for a bell-ringing price presumably because Mo was feeling competition from San Francisco and perhaps a couple of other clubs. In the end, the Cardinals paid the market price for Holliday. Whether they can afford it is another matter entirely.
I am actually happy for the guys, Wallace and Morty will play MLB asap until waiting forever. They just want their ML clock to start ticking and stick. Both have families from the west coast?
Sounds like they made out pretty good in this deal.
Erik–
Chin up! Think of this as a college team. Every four years there’s a new set of faces. The Cards only had Wallace for a year. Think of him as a freshman who goes pro. There will be another prospect to taking his sunny place in the minors soon. As long as Luhnow keeps doing what he’s doing the system will be fine.
Upset about Mortensen? Really? If that much upset, just switch his uniform with Boggs or Todd or Walters or Hawksworth or Ottavino or Kopp. Can’t tell them apart. There are a dime a dozen of college RHPs in the org. Kind of glad they held on to Lynn and Hearne for what it’s worth.
Mortensen is better than all of those names you mentioned, IMO. I have him up their with Jaime Garcia. Lynn may not be that far behind.
My two cents:
A very good friend of mine works in Minor League Baseball and knows a few scouts. We both grew up Cardinals fans (he doesn’t work for a Cardinals affiliate) and so its nice that we can talk shop when I get to see him. About a month or so ago I asked him if he had heard anything on any Cardinals prospects i.e. whether or not the Cardinals where overvaluing them as was the rumor at the time.
He basically told me that the Cardinals have been burned a couple times in recent years with prospects that at one point had faily high trade values but lost most if not all once they got into the upper minors (read: Bryan Anderson). He said that there were 4 or 5 guys that they were very torn about because they felt like they were headed down the same road (fairly high now, questionable in the future).
I didn’t put too much stock into it (because I, too, have an biased love for Cardinal prospects) but since then 3 of the 5 guys he mentioned have been traded. Take it with a grain of salt, this guy is no where near high up enough to have any real inside information, he just bs’s with other teams personnel from time to time, I just thought it was interesting that 3 of the players he had heard the Cardinals were a little concerned about are now gone.
My feeling is this move was made to make Tony and Dunc happy after trading Lil’ Dunc (if the rumors were true about them threatening to quit).
Up to this point, I was happy with most of Mo’s moves; now I’m not sure.
I don’t think Holliday will resign – he could cost the Cardinals an opportunity to lock up Pujols. We already have something like $40MM tied up in the rotation when Albert hits free agency. If we have to add another $15MM for Holliday, there is no way we can keep Albert and still have a full 25-man roster.
I also don’t think Holliday is the answer for the team. He’s better than Ankiel, but I haven’t been impressed since he left Colorado.
The cost is also too high – Wallace would most-likely contributed next year, as would Mort. Now, we may need to get someone for 3B. I would have preferred having Wallace there, re-signing DeRosa for second, and moving Schu back to the outfield.
UB44, Holliday is currently making $13.5 mil this year. You can bet with Boras as his agent he will get at least $15 mil/year. Why $15 mil/year would be “a bargain for a .300 hitter who averages around 30 HR a year, is an above average OF, and is entering his prime”! Not to mention he steals bases too. I’d use Teixeira’s deal with the Yankees as a good reference. He probably won’t get that much but you have to think he’ll get somewhere close.
Pujols is a team player and wants the front office to upgrade the team and I could see him giving us a little discount. However, he is also a very proud man and the best player in baseball. He will certainly want more than Teixeira’s $180mil/8 years. Something closer to A-Rod’s $275mil/10 years would probably be a little more accurate.
You are optimistic on our pitching prospects and I agree I’m very high on Garcia, who hopefully will come back with good stuff after surgery, but Miller is the only one who probably has ace potential and he’s likely around 4 years away from the majors. If we lock up Holliday for 5 years, there might be a couple years where we have a very bleak rotation once Carp’s contract ends.
fpslackers, Holliday isn’t in Colorado anymore. He’s not the hitter that got 13.5 million in arbitration. He was a .320, 30-35 HR hitter then. He’s now a .290, 20-25 HR hitter that currently has an .832 OPS. Not even Brian Cashman would throw 18-20 million at him. He’s worth about 14-15 million a year tops. I thought he would have gotten Teixeira money if he stayed in Colorado and then became a free agent. But it’s obvious that his big numbers are a product of Coors Field. He’s Larry Walker.
As for Pujols, he has to know Bill DeWitt doesn’t have a YES Network feeding him 50 million a year or whatever it was. He has to know that if he wants an A-Rod contract, his time in St. Louis will soon be like A-Rod’s in Texas. 8 years, 180 million is 22.5 million a year, AKA enough.
And where will he get A-Rod money from? I doubt he’ll want to DH in New York and not many teams have A-Rod money.
As for Shelby Miller, that is what I said, he’d be up at the end of Holliday’s contract. And like you said, the money is there for the short term. We need to be worried about the long term.
UB44, we shall see what happens. I understand your points with Holliday, I was only using what Boras’ argument will be this offseason when he’s trying to land Holliday a massive contract. You can be sure Boras will want to test out free agency, though, and the Cards may not want to wait around that long.
Meanwhile, Holliday gets 3 hits to help beat one of the better teams in the NL on the road. Meanwhile, Wallace is still waiting for his chance at his first major league hit and Mortensen is….well….doing what?
Yeah, because 1 day is sufficient to evaluate this deal. This deal will never look better than it does today, unless the Cardinals win the WS and Holliday is a significant contributor.
I agree that many of us (myself included), probably over value prospects, but the best way to add a difference maker to your team is through the draft…they are cheaper and stick around longer. Every stud once was a prospect and many were called over-rated and traded for rental/peanuts (you don’t think Atlanta would love to have Wainright and all the guys they gave up for Tex instead of the time they got from JD and Tex?). We just don’t want to give one of those away for a 1-2% increase in odds of winning the WS in one year, when keeping that player possibly could increase the odds of winning a WS by more than that for 5-6 years.
Plus…it just pains me that the Cards gave up way more for 2 months of Holliday than the A’s gave up for to get him.