Long-Term Thinking

So the big news out of the last day of the Winter Warm-up was the Cardinals signing Yadier Molina to a four-year deal.  The money seems fairly reasonable and I don't think you'll find too many people that say Molina isn't worth keeping around.  There is some debate about Bryan Anderson and where he fits into the organization.  If he keeps developing, either he or Molina will be a great trading chip in the next couple of years.  It could be that Anderson gets a chance to be an understudy at the major league level (like Jared Saltalamaccia did last year) before getting moved.  The defense and leadership Molina brings to the table is almost worth the money, but the contract really becomes good if the advances in hitting he had last year stick and he keeps improving with the bat.

Other things from the Warm-up wrapup:

• Albert Pujols isn't taking that false link to the Mitchell Report lightly.  He banned a reporting crew from the station that aired it from his press conference yesterday.  Personally, I kinda like this quote:
  

  "This is a hobby, man.  I fear God too much to do stupid things in this game.  Cheating on this game, that's not right."
  

  
  It's often been said that we build people up just to tear them down.  Hopefully Pujols continues to walk the straight and narrow and make it very difficult for people to do that.

• During that press conference, though, Pujols made it known how much pain he was in with his elbow last year.  Personally, that sounds to me like we'll see him get some surgery mid-season if it flares up and the team is out of contention.  You'd hate to see him down, but if this year pans out the way some expect, it would be the best time for him to get it taken care of.

• Mark Mulder is not too comfortable with setting a return date.  Can you blame him?  Especially with this organization, you take return dates with a silo of salt.  If he's back at the beginning of May, it'll be a bit of a surprise.

• Adam Kennedy is already digging himself a hole.  Not a great idea given the weak season he put together last year and the plethora of middle infielders this team has.

• Anthony Reyes wants to find his fastball.  If you've seen it, please leave it at the Busch Stadium will call window.

• And, if you had LaRussa in the pool of who would crack in public first after the trade, him or Rolen, congrats.  You'll see in the Reyes link that TLR has already taken a shot in the press at Scott.

4 Comments

4 Comments | Leave a comment

Deaner | January 22, 2008 10:55 AM | Reply

Kennedy is definitely digging himself into a hole. Tony saying that Adam's decision to not show up for WWU was a "mistake" definitely shows that TLR is not happy... and we all know that you don't want to be on Tony's bad side.

Deaner | January 22, 2008 10:58 AM | Reply

I just read the TLR comment on Rolen... "mistakes" must be the theme of the day! I agree with Tony and Scott did make a mistake, which is bad for him and bad for us fans who liked Rolen so much.

cardinal70 | January 22, 2008 11:10 AM | Reply

Heavens no, don't get on LaRussa's bad side. You may never see the field again.

And I'd like to know what Tony thinks of as Rolen's mistake. To ask to leave what he thought was an intolerable situation? Rolen would have stayed if Tony hadn't returned. It's not that he didn't realize that St. Louis was a great place, he just couldn't stomach Tony anymore.

Proverbs 21:9 says "Better to live on the corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife." I think the same sentiment applies in this situation as well.

andujar | January 22, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply

Scott really put Tony on life tilt. He has been very curmudgeonly lately.

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