I read two reports today (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/CD9CC078711136E08625736800128FCC ?OpenDocument  and http://www.startribune.com/twins/story/1458559.html) that made me optimistic the Cards could (should?) realistically make a run at Santana, but not sure in terms of the exact dollars and cents of it or the exact type of players or prospects the Twins would want in return (since the Twins already have Mauer making Bryan Anderson a less attractive prospect for them).

I know the Santana possibility has come up before at VEB, but I thought it was worth it's own diary.  A 2008 playoff rotation consisting of Santana-Carpenter-Wainwright would be nasty with the bullpen the Cards look to be returning.  If the Dispatch article is on point, where according to La Russa, it says  "Bill made it very clear that we have resources, and if the right people are there we would be very aggressive," and the Cards are looking to add 2 starting pitchers, I'd rather just as soon add Santana and go with some low cost option depending on what we have left (Reyes, Thompson, Wellemeyer) until Carpenter/Mulder are ready to go.  So, that would put us at a rotation of

Santana
Wainwright
Looper
Piniero(?)
Reyes/Thompson/Wellemeyer(?)

until our rotation got healthy.  In the weak division we play in, that seems like that would be a workable rotation to tide us over until Carp recovers and until Mulder does something meaningful in a MLB game.  Is this realistic at all?  Doesn't seem to hurt us long-term too much(assuming Santana (age 28) agrees to an extension) and it keeps the Cards flexible to audition some homegrown talent in 2009.  Any thoughts?

Given the lack of young outfielders on the Cards or in their system overall, I thought it might make sense for the Cards to make some of the following trades, since our starting pitching looks like its in pretty decent shape.  

 Trade Wainright & Lambert for Alexis Rios.

 Trade Marquis for Crisp.

 Trade Marquis and Lambert for Kearns, or Pena.

 Trade Marquis, Wainright and Lambert for Dunn.

All of these seem to make sense we still keep our best pitching prospect in Reyes, and our rotation stays in tact for the future since none of these guys projects as a 1-2 pitcher, which is really what we need.  In exchange we get some young outfielders who will at some point set the table for Albert or give him some protection.  Just the thought of a Edmonds-Pujols-Dunn-Rolen heart of the order is scary.