Twigs For The Stove

First off, congratulations to the Yankees.  I'm not a Yankee hater, due to their tradition mainly.  I'm not big on the fact that they spent so much and won, but when you look at how often they spent a ton and lost, you can see that's not completely the reasoning.  Besides, it's been nine years.  While that's not that long for a lot of teams, it does mean that there's been plenty of other winners this decade.  Interesting that both old Yankee Stadium and the new place were christened with championships.  Of course, only one other team has done that, and we remember it well.

There have been just a few small items that were Cardinal related in the news lately.  First, the Blue Jays claimed Jarrett Hoffpauir off waivers.  Hoffpauir continues the interesting "former Cardinal" theme the Jays have had recently.  (After they got Scott Rolen and David Eckstein, a friend of mine who has family there stated there were shirts proclaiming the "St. Toronto Blue Cardinals.")  Hoffpauir's window effectively closed when Skip Schumaker made an effective transition to second.  Factor in Julio Lugo being around all year and Hoffpauir wasn't going to sniff playing time.  He'd slipped in the prospect rankings anyway, but if he gets a chance in Toronto he might be a servicable backup.

The Pirates are interested in talking to Rick Ankiel.  We all know that Rick is going to go somewhere else after this season; it's almost guaranteed.  A situation like Pittsburgh would actually be a good place for him.  He could work on being a hitter, probably put up some solid numbers in that park, and not have to worry about carrying a team or being a piece toward a post-season puzzle.  With him, Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones in the outfield, Pittsburgh would have a pretty interesting offense.

Not unexpectedly, the Cardinals released Brad Thompson yesterday.  I've noted many times how Thompson's effectiveness had declined pretty much every year.  If he can't get the sinker over and get the ground balls, he gets lit up.  With the bullpen being pretty defined already, there wasn't much of a spot for him anyway, and since he was going to be eligible for arbitration, it's best to get it out of the way now.  Thompson did have highlights as a Cardinal and he'll always be remembered, but it was time to part ways.

Finally, Joe Strauss indicated that there have been discussions between the Cardinals and Scott Boras.  It sounds like it was more of a presentation of an initial offer rather than real in-depth negotiations for the rights to Matt Holliday, but it's a start.

With the World Series over, things should start heating up soon.  Mark McGwire will probably talk next week, if I was to guess.  I know that they'd held off making him available to the press until the Series was done.  Probably early next week, maybe the week after.  (The cynical would guess the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to minimize some of the talk, but I doubt that'll happen--or it'd work.)

15 days from now, the free agents have to file.  I think we'd all be shocked if the Cards were able to keep Holliday before that time, but it's something to keep an eye on.  I know they want to use this exclusive window as much as they possibly can.  The winter meetings will be held Dec. 7-10 in Indianapolis, so there will probably be a lot of talk leading up to that.

The offseason is here!  Let's see what the Cardinals do with it!


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