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New Year, New Rumors

Posted on January 4, 2012 at 8:10 AM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
I hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year and now you are getting fairly comfortable with the year 2012.  We've past the baseball solstice and are slowly but steadily getting closer to those magical words of "pitchers and catchers report."  Just six weeks from Saturday!

This time of year, things are pretty quiet.  However, just like the unseasonably warm weather has allowed for some weeds to pop up in my flower bed, some news starts pushing toward the surface in baseball as well.

The biggest rumor floating out there is that the Cardinals are looking at Roy Oswalt.  Now, I've been for Oswalt coming to St. Louis for a long time, at least since he was put up for trade by the Houston Astros in 2010.  I think Oswalt is a guy that would fit perfectly into St. Louis (especially since we seem to be collecting former 'Stros, which must drive Astros County nuts) and would improve a team that's already primed for a good season.  Swapping Oswalt for Jake Westbrook in the rotation would be a very nice upgrade.

However, how in the world would the Cardinals be able to do it?  It seems like the deck would be stacked against such a move.  I think Kyle has some strong points, but let's play a little devil's advocate.  The Cardinals still should have some money to play with in the budget, especially for a guy that's just looking for a one-year deal.  The Cards do have some internal options, but I for one would like to see Lance Lynn stay in the bullpen and I'm not sure anyone else is as primed for the big time.  You could move Kyle McClellan there, but I'm not sure that the club wouldn't like to move him if possible.  You have to figure the relationship is a little strained after last year, when McClellan got his wish to be a starter, then got moved to the bullpen, then barely got used in the postseason.

Also, if you sign Oswalt now and then give him an extension later (assuming he pitches well and the team wants to do that), you have Kyle Lohse rolling off the roster, so you'd still have an opening for Shelby Miller in 2013.

The bigger obstacle, of course, is figuring out what to do with Westbrook.  He's got a no-trade clause and is owed $8.5 million this year with an option for 2013.  It would seem possible that, if the Cards offered to take on a good chunk of this year and a portion of next year and the receiving team exercised the option that Westbrook might waive the NTC.  Finding someone that would do that, though, is a different story.

I originally thought they might slide Westbrook into the bullpen, but that doesn't seem feasible.  The pen is already full of good young arms, so unless you demote one of them to Memphis so that Westbrook can be there for long work/blowout games, there's not a slot.  I'm not suggesting they do that, either--I'd rather have the young arms out there in the pen.

There's also the idea that they could just eat the $8.5 million and cut him, but I think that's a little extreme and probably not in the Cardinals' plans.  They have some money but they don't want to be crazy about it.

Also, the Cards filled Jeff Luhnow's role in the organization by hiring Dan Kantrovitz.  Kantrovitz is a former player that has worked with the club before but most recently was in the Oakland front office.  This comes as Luhnow raided the Cards for Sig Mejdal.  Mejdal had been working on amateur draft analytics and was highly respected.  Hopefully that'll be the end of Luhnow's thievery, but it looks like Houston's going to have a pretty strong front office.

I tweeted this last month, but I see that it's out there from this interview with Brian Walton.  Jamie Pogue is the new bullpen catcher for the Cardinals, replacing Jeff Murphy.  Pogue is actually a friend of a friend of mine, so I'm hoping to get him on one of our shows before spring training starts and have him talk about his new position.

Forget the motto of the Starks.  Baseball is coming!


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1 Comments

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WilliaminMaine | January 4, 2012 12:34 PM | Reply

Oswalt would be a good flyer for the Cards no matter how awkward it would make the situation. Can never have enough good pitching.

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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jason Motte (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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