Cardinal Off-The-Field News

A couple of things took place this weekend.  One was at least semi-hopeful, one fairly disappointing.

First off, the Cardinals finally made a formal offer to Matt Holliday.  No details on it have leaked out, though it is most likely not a deal that will be accepted without discussion.  Still, John Mozeliak expected to hear back from the Holliday camp this weekend with a mid-week "deadline" of moving on.  Since Scott Boras didn't make a quick rush to the press to decry the offer as demeaning and insulting, it's possible that the Cards might be in this thing.

I don't know if you can read just a whole lot into the lack of news on this front over a weekend, but the "Cards are in it" take does sound reasonable to me.  You'd like to think that Holliday wants to be here and Boras would take that into consideration, but you can't assume it.  Still, the market for Holliday isn't what most expected--a solid offer from St. Louis might be enough to get into final negotiations.  I'd think we'd hear something one way or another either today or tomorrow.

The down side was that David Freese was arrested for DWI.  Unfortuately, this isn't the first time those letters (or similar ones) have been used in relation to the Cardinals.  You'd think the death of Josh Hancock would have helped keep players sober, but it's been a couple of years now and Freese wasn't even in the organization at the time.

How this will affect his status among the organization's power brokers is up for debate.  Most likely, the best thing that Freese could have happen would be that Holliday signs.  If that happens, it's not likely that the Cards will continue to pursue a veteran to play third.  Which means he can work his way back into the good graces of Mozeliak and company.

If Holliday doesn't sign, though, it may make for a situation where they push harder for a Mark DeRosa, who can play third, and use one of the minor league outfielders such as Jon Jay or maybe even Allen Craig out there, leaving Freese for a bench role or as trade bait.

Finally, Dave Duncan gave an interesting interview yesterday to a local radio station and Derrick Goold has the highlights.  Duncan is very excited about the acquisition of Brad Penny, feeling that he's never really been the best pitcher he can be.  If Duncan can get that out of him, the rotation next year could be amazingly dominant.  It may not have the stretch like the '09 did where they didn't give up more than two runs for about two weeks, but every night there's a good chance you'll get a shut-down performance.  He also expressed some interest in the non-tendered Chein-Mein Wang, but I don't expect anything will come of that.

UCB Radio Hour on Wednesday, likely the last one for 2009.  Mike and I will be your hosts and hopefully will have some good Holliday news to share!


Leave a comment

2 Comments