Sorry for the casual post, but I had my draft last night and I'm wondering who is on your team and how you feel about it.

I have...

C-Chris Iannetta

1B-Adam Dunn

2B-Mike Aviles

3B-Adrian Beltre

SS-Jimmy Rollins

CF-Carlos Beltran (in the 4th round!)

OF-Magglio Ordonez, Corey Hart

BN-Mark Reynolds, Adam LaRoche, Jose Guillen (I regret it already), and Mike Lowell

SP-Franciso Liriano (I took him too early), Josh Johnson

RP-Jonathan Papelbon, Huston Street

P-Carp, Jose Arredondo, Aaron Cook, and Kenshin Kawakami

I inexplicably have 2 pitchers who play in the mountains. Whoops.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/02/rays-ink-kenned.html

I thought the problem was that Tony wouldn't guarantee him a starting job, but a week later he's snapping up a minor league deal with an organization with numerous 2B blockages. WTF?

If he would have started out the season in Memphis, where he could have shown if he was worth anything, why cut him? This is starting to seem like a complete waste of $4M. I'm liking this move less and less.

VEB, enlighten me.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2009/01/13/braves_lowe.html

Speculation is that its for 4 year/$60 mil. I'm bummed the Cards missed out on him, especially after the Mets set the price so low (no pun intended), but I don't think we could have or I would have wanted them to drop $60 mil right now, even on a starter as good as Lowe. Between Lohse, Lowe, and Carpenter, I just think that would have been too much money tied up in aging pitchers. C'est la vie. At least he didn't go to the Brewers.

That leaves Pettitte and Sheets as the two remaining free agents that I'd like to sign. From the sounds of it, and unfortunately for him, it sounds like Sheets will be laughably cheap, and I'm not sure what's going on with Pettitte and the Yanks, but I'm not sure why we aren't in on it. Definitely worth a look I think.

Maybe Mo's focusing on trading an outfielder(s) for a starter instead of messing with free agents. 

On another note, how good do the Braves look now? Lowe, Vazquez, Kawakami (no idea how good he'll be), Jurrjens, Campillo/Hudson after the break/Tommy Hanson, plus an offense of Kotchmann, Chipper Jones, McCann, and Kelly Johnson. The defense is pretty weak, but if Francoeur bounces back, this is a dangerous team.

Something to get the trade juices pumping again; feel free to yell at me if this should be in the hot stove thread...

Aside from Colby Rasmus, I'd say Ludwick is out hottest trade chip right now, but the teams that were purportedly looking for a corner outfielder with a bat (or should be looking for one if the aren't) either A) already got one this offseason (Tampa got Matt Joyce, Philadelphia got Raul Ibanez) B) aren't offering what we want (Matt Cain is off limits, Jonathan Sanchez seems hard to pry loose, and Kelly Johnson is extraneous if we're keeping Kennedy) C) don't have what we want (Texas has no starting pitching) or D) are in our division (Pirates bounty). 

However, it does seem like our old friends in Cleveland might be able to help out. They very well might have the worst corner outfield in their division, and they have Jeremy Sowers, a young, cheap good pitcher and Rafael Perez, a fairly nasty, also young, also cheap lefty reliever. Ludwick for Sowers/Perez/prospect certainly seems like a good fit for both parties to me, in addition to being probably the only fit that doesn't fall into those 4 categories I mentioned before. Just curious to hear what you all think. I'm getting hot-stove withdrawal.

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/bird-land/bird-land/2008/12/chris-carpenter-targets-january-to-start-throwing/

Thank god/they better not be lying about this. Who believes this?

In the same article, Mo concedes that they are going to be looking for pitching at the Winter meetings. Given that, I'd like to hear his reasoning for not offering Looper arbitration. I know its been discussed 17,000 times on here, but seriously, he's a smart guy, and it'd be interesting to hear what absurd idea was going through his head at the time. 

[Update - azruavatar - 6:47am]

Khalil Greene Acquired.

[/end update]

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/st/archives/2008/12/khalil_greene_o.html

After the Looper fiasco, I was looking forward to Rafael Furcal at short. Not sure what I think about this yet...

Maybe we buy low on him and get a solid defender with decent pop and a cool name for pennies on the dollar? I'd be pretty happy with that. I'm definitely glad it's not 2/$18 mil for Edgar Renteria. The optimist in me says that a vacation from Petco would do KG right, but I haven't seen/am too busy right now to look for his home/road splits. Depending on what it cost, I think this could be good news.

So who plays second now? A bat presumably, but which one? There's not a lot out there on the market. Maybe Mo trades for Uggla? Maybe the Ludwick-Kelly Johnson fantasy? I'm definitely at a loss for 2B.

According to Bernie.

http://www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=588288

I don't have peripherals, but he was .235/.327/.382 against lefties in 2008, and he's 35.

Not quite a shut down lefty, but depending on the contract, this could be a pretty smart pick up. LOOGY's seem to be in high demand this offseason, and Mo went out and made sure to snag a serviceable one. Again, no contract details yet, but he's certainly going to be cheaper than Affeldt, so the Birds could/should still be in the game for Rhodes/Ohman/Cruz/someone better than Miller.

He is a type B FA though, so the Rays get a pick, which I'm sure they'll use to draft some elite player who will be better than whoever we would have drafted with the pick. 

Thoughts?

Hey I'm new. I've been lurking for a while though.

Anyway...

Pitching is always good, and given the potential instability of the rotation next season, I'd say that one of the most important goals of the offseason should be to obtain a legitimate 2-3 starter. However, the middle infield is obviously the weakest area of the Cards' lineup, and I think most would agree that if we're going to be an elite team, we need to be better at 2nd and SS. While starting pitching is crucial, the middle infield is our most pressing need and needs to be addressed before pitching.

There's been a lot of chatter around here about getting a mashing shortstop or 2nd basemen via free agency (Furcal, O. Hurdson) or trade (Brian Roberts), and those are great ideas, if not really difficult of costly to pull off.

There's been a lot more talk about getting a SS than a 2Bmen (Roberts talk aside), so I got to thinking what would second basemen would be valuable and obtainable assets for the Cardinals, and Brandon Phillips is at the top of my list. Cincinatti is dunzo, and they'll be in sale mode pretty soon if they're not already. Phillips has been an elite defender this year, hits for reasonable average (.270's), high ops (.800+; currently 5th among NL 2bmen), great speed (14 steals and 5 triples), he's only 26, and he's signed pretty cheaply (I think something like $4 million/year) through 2011, with a club option for 2012. 

It'd be cheaper (economically) to get Phillips than to chase Hudson or Furcal, and by saving the money there we would have more money to go out and get a starter in the free agent market. It would allow us to mildly satisfy two needs--weak middle infield and unstable starting rotation--instead of just super-satisfying one. In other words, Hudson, Furcal, or Uggla would be better than Phillips, and Sabathia or Sheets would be better than Phillips, but Phillips AND Harden/John Lackey/some other non-elite SP free agent would be better than getting just an elite middle infielder or elite SP. Agree/disagree? Can he even be had at the deadline?