Slight Movement in Cardinal News

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  There's not been much to talk about and I've not had a chance to get back to the blog much due to the family obligations, but I'm pretty sure you've not missed anything.

Finally, though, we get a little piece of news that, while it doesn't directly effect the Cardinals, does make some impact on their backup plans.  Mark DeRosa is going to be a San Francisco Giant next year.

It's been assumed, if not outright stated, that DeRosa represented "Plan B" for the Cardinals in their off-season quest, subordinate only to the Matt Holliday grail.  (Off-topic, at least after Friday we can really get away from the Holliday/holiday puns.  Probably.)  With DeRosa now out of the picture, that means one of two things.

1) The front office is very confident they are going to eventually sign Holliday.

2) The front office is about to start dipping into Plan C and Plan D range.

Honestly, I think it's the former.  With the Yankees not signing DeRosa, they could still be a player in this game, but I do think they are at least paying attention to the payroll, not necessarily just spending with complete abandon.  They are already sitting close to $200 million, and eventually even they'll notice paying the 40% luxury tax.  And, in fact, there is apparently "zero chance" they'd sign him.

The Mets have said that they are monitoring Holliday, but they thought that Jason Bay would be the easier sign.  Given how difficult it's been to lock down Bay, what does that tell you about getting Holliday on board?  I wouldn't completely rule them out, but if Bay doesn't go back to Boston, it looks to me that he has to go to New York.  Which then takes the Mets out of the running.

Who else is there that needs an outfielder enough to spend the money?  I don't see anyone.  I don't think the front office does either, which is why they are content to wait.  It could come back and bite them, but I don't think it's going to.  I expect Matt Holliday will be in Cardinals camp come the beginning of spring training.

I've been delaying way too long in doing some book reviews, so after the jump, let me give you a few options in case you have some extra holiday cash of your own and you are looking for a good baseball way to spend it.


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Tony LaRussa: Man on a Mission, Rob Rains: Back when this book came out, around the beginning of the season, we had Rob Rains on the UCB Radio Hour and got to talk to him about the book.  It was interesting to hear his take on LaRussa and how he went about writing this volume.

If you want a good overview of LaRussa's time in baseball, this is a great book to pick up.  It follows him from a young child, through his time in the bigs, and then gets into his long managerial career, including the 2006 World Series and beyond.

However, there are drawbacks to covering over 40 years of baseball in 320 pages.  No story gets fleshed out, no buildup is allowed.  I've not reread the book since earlier in the year, but I remember an example like the following.  (Note: this may not be in the book, but a similar scenario is.)  A paragraph talking about Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS might end with, "However, the Cardinals weren't done yet."  You'd think there'd be a buildup, a detailed account of what came next, but instead it'd be, "Albert Pujols hit a massive home run off of Brad Lidge to win the game and send them back to St. Louis."

That's part of the limitation of such a large scope of a career, I guess.  I think I'd have rather had less exposition about some of the lesser seasons in TLR's history and more details about the highlights, but that's a personal preference.  Also, TLR didn't officially help out with this project by giving interviews, etc., so most of what you read is quotes from the season or time under discussion.  If Rains had been able to sit down with LaRussa, it might have been a different book.

It's also an easier read than some others, which may be appealing to buyers.  I remembered reading Rains's collaboration with Ozzie Smith in Wizard and thinking it was written at a pretty basic level.  Man on a Mission isn't too that extent, but it's still not overly complex.  On the whole, it's a great way to get more familiar with #10 and see where he's come from.

On a completely different level you have The First Fall Classic.  Now, I've read a number of baseball histories and I have a general familiarity with the time period, so I thought I remembered who won the Series, but the fact that I wasn't completely certain aided in the fun of reading it. 

Mike Vaccaro did an excellent job of setting the scene, both with the teams and the general society of the time.  It's a definite page turner that will keep you interested even if you know the final results.

Finally, there's the highly informative Evaluating Baseball Managers: A Comprehensive History and Performance Analysis, 1876-2008.  As you can imagine, it's a little lengthy.  The title is longer than some of my son's books!  However, there's good stuff all the way through it.  Chris Jaffe send me excerpts that tie into Cardinal history and the details are incredible.

I found it fascinating that the first manager mentioned, Charles Comiskey, used the "pitching and defense" mantra that the current group tends to use and that Whitey did as well.  It seems to be somewhat of a Cardinal tradition.

If they managed St. Louis, they are in the book.  Big names such as Miller Huggins, Billy Southworth, and Red Schoendist mingle with Gus Schmelz and Patsy Teabeau.  There's not been a lot of work on managers and how they affect the game, but Jaffe's work goes a long way in that regard.  (For more on this, VEB did an overview and a look at Tony LaRussa's section.)

While I'm in the housekeeping mood, I got an e-mail from the Baseball Collection at the Elliot Museum in Stuart, Florida.  Apparently, Stuart is fairly close to Roger Dean Stadium, so if you are headed down to spring training in a couple of months, look into going by there.  There are a lot of cards, bats, balls, and other memorabilia on display down there and it sounds like it'd be a fascinating complement to your baseball trip.

And, of course, I want to bring to mind the annual tradition that is Pip's 12 Days of Christmas over at Fungoes.  It always is an awesome way to recap the past season and it's amazing how creative Pip gets with it.

No radio show this week, we'll be back on the air a week from Wednesday.  In case I don't write again (which, without a signing, is a strong possibility) have a wonderful and safe New Year!