SB Nation User Blog: JoeyBombs

More Halladay

JoeyBombs — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:00:59 -0000

The most recent buzz has just come in about Roy Halladay saying the the Cardinals may have serious interest via Mlbtraderumors.com

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/07/cardinals-have-real-interest-in-halladay.html

I know there has been a couple posts about him already I want to lay out some of the things that need to be looked at in order for us to be able to acquire Halladay.

First of all, the Cardinals will actually have some spending money in the offseason if the aqcuire Halladay. Heres how I have the Cardinals set roster for the 2009 offseason.

Pujols-16m

Halladay- 15.75m

Carpenter-14.5m

Lohse-8.875

Wainwright-4.65

Molina-4.25

Ludwick- About 3m

Franklin-2.5m

Reyes- 2m

Schumaker- about 1.5m

Rasmus, Motte, McClellan, Ryan, Thompson, and Kinney-.4

That puts our total payroll up to about 75.5mil give or take. That with only 16 roster spots filled.

Many of the other spots will most likely be filled with minor leaguers. Here are some minor leaguers that I believe have a chance to make the club out of ST and fill in: (bold signifies could be used in trade already)

Joe Mather

Jess Todd

Clay Mortenson

Jaime Garcia

Daryl Jones

Pagnozzi

Jon Jay

With that situation we'd still need 2 (or 3 if LaRussa's still around) more pitchers, a fifth starter, and 1 or 2 more relievers. Garcia is my guess for fifth starter. Todd would be my reliever if he's not going to Cleveland. All of our pitching vacancies would most likely be filled from within.

Now for offensive needs we still need: 2 OFs, 1 3B. a util/infielder, and a backup catcher.

For OF I say we use Daryl Jones if he's not going to Toronto, and Jon Jay, Joe Mather, or a Free Agent. For 3B I say we should go with Craig or a FA, possibly Chone Figgins. For catcher I pick Pagnozzi or Anderson.

Now for an OF spot and/or 3B we still need some power. So we would have to dip into free agency. We have around 20 million to spend if I calculated the payroll above correctly.

Some possible FA targets, some of which unlikely are:

Chone Figgins

complete list here:

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2001/05/2010-free-agents.html

So pick 1-3 of those guys depending on the caliber, mix in some cheap minor leaguers and you have yourself a ballclub.

To be honest I can not decide whether Halladay is good or bad for the team. It would deplete our farm system, and would not help our terrible offense at all, but if we could get some offense for 20 million in FA, Ludwick gets back on track, who knows what could happen if you have the best rotation in all of baseball.

We could start to lean towards an offense built for speed it we sign Figgins and get to keep DJ. We'd still have some pop with Pujols, Rasmus and Ludwick. So I say if we keep Jones and sign Figgins and maybe Derosa or Dye, then we should pull the trigger.

Now a little from the other end of the spectrum:

We don't make the trade. Our rotation is Carp, Wainwright, Lohse, FA, Garcia

Our lineup could be:

Schumaker, Jones, Pujols, Wallace, Rasmus, Ludwick, Molina, Pitcher, Ryan

Plus we'd have about 30 million to spend in free agency with that lineup.

It's a tough call and I can't decide unless I'm in the room with the negotiations, to see just how much we'd have to give up.

Poll

From those two scenarios, which one?

Halladay if we keep Daryl Jones, and not Wallace

90 votes

Halladay if we give up both Daryl Jones and Wallace +

94 votes

No if give up both DJ and Wallace +

64 votes

We should just stand pat

53 votes

Other (comment)

11 votes

312 votes | Poll has closed

Cardinals Sign Wagner Mateo

JoeyBombs — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:12:54 -0000

According to MLBTradeRumors.com via Baseball America, the Cardinals have been in negotiations with Wagner Mateo, 16 year old outfielder from the Dominican Republic since May and plan to sign him after the signing period begins on July 2. The report says we will give him a 3 million dollar signing bonus.

I like this move. It shows that we are committed to expanding our farm system in more than just the draft and I think Mateo could be a solid player and help our team a few years down the road. And if all goes well we would have an outfield of a Daryl Jones, Colby Rasmus, and Wagner Mateo in 2012 or 13, along with Brett Wallace at third. Good move by the Cardinals if it does get done like it is supposed to in my opinion.

Could this be our Domincan connection kicking in?

THE MOVE IS NOW COMPLETED AND WE WILL PAY HIM 3.1M FOR HIM.

Now lets sign Miller and get Sano (still praying)

Poll

Do you like the idea of signing Wagner Mateo?

Yes. Great young player with great potential

189 votes

No. Too much money to be spending on an unproven 16 year old

31 votes

220 votes | Poll has closed

Major Glitch

JoeyBombs — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:51:53 -0000

Major Glitch

I just picked up my copy of MLB 09: The Show today. I didn't have a lot of time to play it so I simulated through a season so I could check out the salary arbitration feature. On my way through the simulation, at the end of the playoffs there was a major glitch. At the end of October a message popped up that said... The Chicago Cubs have won the World Series. Someone should talk to the game designers about that one.

Viva el Birdos Fantasy League Chat

JoeyBombs — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:24:35 -0000

Viva el Birdos Fantasy League Chat

Chat for those in the fantasy league to discuss trades and things like that.

Chris Carpenter!/ST Update

JoeyBombs — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:41:52 -0000

Chris Carpenter is just got done pitching in his first outing of Spring Training. He looked great today going 2 innings with no problems. He gave up 0 hits, 0 walks, and 0 runs and didn't even throw 20 pitches. Mike Shannon said he looked like he was throwing free and easy and that he was not struggling with his arm at all. This sounds very promising to me. Carpenter was effective, located, and had zero signs of any health issues. The Down Side: He never really got into the 90's. But that may not be such a bad thing, since this is his first game in many days.

Jon Jay is also looking good. He has been playing DH and has gone 4 for 9 so far with a double and an RBI triple. The double was deep of the right field wall and was nearly a Home Run. Schumaker is hitting well and is playing decent defense not making an error so far, although I don't think he's done anything spectacular. I did notice on a groundball that he did not get down on it very much, but it was a very easy play. The ball was a slow roller and was pretty easy. Ankiel has already made some great defensive plays. Rasmus is 2 for 12 with a double. He also tracked down a ball over his head and got some glove on it but couldn't hang on. He was in right field though. Duncan has gone 2 for 9 with 4 strikeouts. Greene has gone 1 for 5. Our starting pitcher besides Carpenter haven't looked to good so far. Motte and Perez have both thrown a scoreless inning. Motte threw one strikeout and gave up 0 hits. Perez had 0 strikeouts and gave up 1 hit.

There's an early update on some of the Cardinals question marks.

Also Mather is looking good at third base. And he has taken number 7.

Duncan just came up with the bases loaded and had a Grand Slam robbed by Nationals outfielder, Maxwell. Then he came up with two men on and hit one to the wall. He's just missed 5 RBI's and 2 Home Runs by a few feet.

Cardinals winning 5-0

Franklin went 3 innings with 5 strikeout and just one hit (an infield hit by the way).

2 SLOTS LEFT FOR FANTASY BASEBALL. so far I have: 1. Myself 2. Cards Fan in Chitown 3. Dave...

JoeyBombs — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:27:27 -0000

2 SLOTS LEFT FOR FANTASY BASEBALL.
so far I have:
1. Myself
2. Cards Fan in Chitown
3. Dave Barry
4. Tupelo
5. Chicagocardfan
6. mitcho
7. skcabrozar
8. felonius_monk
9. ckeiner
10. effin fisk
11. spants
12. salti cracker
and two other people that I don't know the names of.
The league still has two available slots. It is a standard roto league and the draft is scheduled for March 1 at 12:15 PM.

I'm starting a yahoo fantasy baseball league for those who are interested. I'd need 8-12 teams. ...

JoeyBombs — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:09:32 -0000

I'm starting a yahoo fantasy baseball league for those who are interested. I'd need 8-12 teams. Completely free. Comment if you're interested and I'll set it up.

2B/OF Schumaker +

JoeyBombs — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:15:00 -0000

If Skip Schumaker could play average defense at second base, he would be a great choice as our next second baseman.

I used a couple of basic hitting sabermetrics to determine his runs created and I also used a linear weight formula to compare him to second basemen around the majors from 2008. The stats I calculated must be fairly accurate because they said the Pujols was the best hitter in the National League (and the majors) and Pedroia was the best hitter in the American League.

The linear weight said that Schumaker would be the 5th best hitting 2B in the Nationals and 11th in the majors. The runs created stat said he would be 4th best in the Nationals and 9 in the majors. The only better option that we might have a chance at would be Jose Lopez which I would recommend we do if we can get a good deal for him. Only $1.6M. But that’s for a later time.

With our surplus of OF we could easily afford to move Schu to second. If he can prove that he can field the grounders then there is absolutely no reason not to give him the job.

Which leads me to Adam Kennedy. He was nowhere near the top of the list in these hitting categories. Schumaker was nearly 40 better in both runs created and linear weights. That is a fairly significant offensive upgrade, which I think would outweigh the defense downgrade. To be fair to Kennedy, he did play in 38 games. But regardless, I still think Schumaker would have a great offensive advantage over Kennedy.

Schumaker was even a little better than Hudson on offense but Hudson played only 107 games while Schu played 153 and these stats are affected by amount of playing time, so Orlando would be a better option if we can get him.

Schumaker was our second best hitting OF last year. DeWitt just came out and said we’re not being affected by the economy much due to the all-star game, so what I take out of that is that we have money to spend. Manny anyone? He was the best hitting OF last year creating more runs than anyone with 140 and finishing in second in the linear weights by 1/100 of a point. Ludwick was 5th. Ankiel wasn’t too shabby. That would be a great lineup.

Although if we did somehow sign Manny, Ludwick or Ankiel would be gone for pitching. Now for pitchers I used a rating based off league average. If we are going the trade route, there are a few people I would like to see in a Cardinals uniform. Not much from the Marlins, Nolasco or Volstad. If Detroit is trading, I want Gallaraga. There are a few others I would like to see. The Free agent wise, Perez was only slightly above average, so I’m not too upset there except he good have had some more potential. We’ll see I guess. Looper was above average and started 33 times. He is what we need. I am all for re-signing him. Cheaper and more durable than Sheets, he fits in with what we need and he will not cost us our 1st round pick.

By the way, Springer was very slightly better than Fuentes last year. He would have also been a few million cheaper. But we couldn’t sign either. Also, our only starting pitcher that was below league average for us last year was Pineiro and he wasn’t that close to league average.

To finish this off, I’ll just say that we should sign Manny trade Ludwick/Ankiel and/or a prospect or two to the Mariners for Rowland-Smith/Morrow and/or Lopez. Or to Marlins for Volstad and/or Uggla (probably just one of them) Then we still have a logjam in the OF if we get Lopez or Uggla so we can trade Dunc to the AL for some relief help.

2B Lopez

CF Ankiel (Rasmus will go to Memphis for a while)

1B Pujols

LF Ramirez

3B Glaus

SS Greene

C Molina

RF Schumaker

Or flip Lopez and Schu

I can go on longer but won’t waste your time with more ideas that will never happen that this turned into at the end.

Poll

Do you think Schumaker is going to play 2B for us next year?

Yes I think he would do great.

24 votes

No, I think he should but I dont think he will.

30 votes

No, I think Kennedy will.

96 votes

No, I think we are still going to get a new 2B from outside.

2 votes

152 votes | Poll has closed