United Cardinal Bloggers: December 2008

The Top 5 Stories of the Cardinal Year

As we wrap up 2008, the United Cardinal Bloggers are taking a look back and giving their opinions on what the top five stories of the year were in relation to the Cardinals.  There was a lot that happened in the past twelve months and the lists are sure to be very different (but all well thought out and entertaining).  So check out the following blogs for their spins as well:

Cardinal Nation Globe
The Cardinal Virtue
Fungoes
La Beisbolista
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Play a Hard Nine
The Redbird Blog
Redbird Ramblings
Stan Musial's Stance

Coming up with the top five was a tough chore, but here are my selections:

1. The Contending Cardinals

Coming into the season, most everyone expected the Cardinals to be an also-ran.  There were even some picking them last, though expecting any team with Albert Pujols on it to finish behind Pittsburgh really seems to be a stretch.  The consensus seemed to be a fourth-place team and that's exactly what happened.  But the way it happened, that was the story.

The Cardinals came out of the gate red-hot, sporting the best record in baseball for most of the month of April.  Even through the summer, they were either atop the divisional or wild-card standings or very close to it.  It took a late swoon for them to slide out of contention, but the final hammer didn't fall until the last week of the season, something few would have predicted back in March.

2. The Bullpen Betrayal

The reason that final hammer did fall, though, could be laid at the feet of the bullpen, which ranked as one of the worst in baseball.

After a 2007 that led most to believe that he was back, Jason Isringhausen returned to his '06 ways, blowing save after save and finally hitting the DL twice, unable to reach the 300 save milestone he was aiming at.  Ryan Franklin took over the closer role but struggled as well.  Chris Perez was finally called up and had some initial success before blowing a couple of leads.

The only strong points in the bullpen were Russ Springer and the remarkable story of Kyle McClellan, but even McClellan ran out of gas down the stretch and allowed a few games to be lost. 


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No Hot Stove For St. Louis

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  It's not like you missed anything if you were out of the internet loop the last few days.  I know that Josh from Cardinals Best News Links insists there is some Cardinal news out there, but you've really got to look to find it.

Brad Penny is off the board, signing with the Red Sox.  I know a number of people were interested in bringing him into St. Louis and it would have been an interesting idea.  But Penny's health issues I'm sure scared off the Cardinals, as apparently Ben Sheets's have done.

The commish answered some more questions on his blog.  Thankfully, he doesn't think the Cards would go with Carpenter or Wainwright in the closer role.  He also terms Sheets as "another project", which seems a bit off-track.  Sure, Sheets has had injury problems in the past, but it's not like he's a Chris Carpenter, a Matt Clement, a Mark Mulder that is going to need rehab before he can ever play for the Cards.  As far as I know he's perfectly healthy now and ready to go.  It's even conceivable that he lasts the whole season.  That's not the definition of a project to me.

Speaking of projects, the UCB returns Wednesday with their top 5 stories of 2008!

Scraping for Cardinal News

Well, the Cardinals finally made a signing.  Just not exactly what everyone was looking for.

St. Louis signed Joe Thurston, a utility infielder that started out in the Dodger organization, and catcher Justin Knoedler as they continue to wait, with a hint of impatience, on Brian Fuentes.  Thurston may provide the necessary grit that's necessary for Cardinal utility players, though it remains to be seen if he's closer to Aaron Miles or D'Angelo Jimenez.

I read Joe Strauss's article to mean that the Cards may have an internal timetable and if Fuentes doesn't sign by that time, they'll move on to other options.  I still have hopes that they are at least in contact with Ben Sheets's agent and can make an offer there before he makes his final decision, but there's no indication that's the case.

I also found it interesting (if a potential nightmare as a blogger, having to continually spell these names) that the Cardinals had been in contact with a couple of Japanese pitchers.  Both of those pitchers sound like they'd be a fit in the Cardinal pitching philosophy and probably wouldn't be the big expense some of the superstars of Japan would be.

If you are a big spring training fan or if you are planning a trip to Florida around that time, the Cardinals have released their spring training schedule.  Now Christmas has another gift--it'll be exactly two months until the first spring training game!

Be sure to check out the Greater St. Louis Cardinals of All-Time from VEB yesterday. If nothing else, it's a nice trip down memory lane.

Also, if you have some time in the afternoons or evenings, be sure to check and see if the Cardinal Nation Ticker is running.  We had some discussions yesterday afternoon and you'll never know exactly when we'll turn up.  Along the same lines, UCB Radio has its last show of 2008 tonight, so listen up!  Tom from CardinalsGM is tonight's host, with scheduled guests Deaner from Cardinal Nation Globe and cards4life from Redbird Ramblings.

Winter Blahs

Being in Arkansas, it's fairly rare that I have to spend an hour trying to get my car drivable, but yesterday's sleet/freezing rain combo lasted well into the nighttime hours, so that was how I spent my morning.  How you Northerners do it all the time is beyond me.

Right now, coming up with blog posts is similar to that car de-icing.  You chip away, chip away and hopefully when you get some news, you are ready to go.  So consider this a chipping away entry as we wait to hear what the Cardinals are going to do next.

First off, if you liked yesterday's roundtable answers, check out all of the entries in one place.  There are some really amazing bloggers on the network that know their teams well.

Chet from 4thebirds has set up a new blog called Cardinal Nation Ticker.  Basically, it's a place to host some live blogs during the week.  I joined the crew last night as we talked about Brian Fuentes and whether he should sign, the bullpen in general, the outfield....you know, the topics that continued to get hashed about in our waiting period.  The next one is set for Thursday, so feel free to come over and join the discussion.  If you are needing some Cardinal talk before then, though, head over to CardsClubhouse and start talking!

Over at Bird Land, Derrick Goold has restarted the prospect voting.  Right now he's taking votes for number 19, so make your voice heard!

The news of the day seems to be Rafael Furcal going to the Braves.  Which is not nearly as interesting as what it means for Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson.  The Cardinals had talked about swapping an outfielder for one of those earlier in the winter, but with Khalil Greene in the fold and Adam Kennedy basically untradable, there may not be anything there.  Then again, those guys are cheap enough in salary to be able to have Kennedy as a bench/platoon guy, so maybe something will happen.

The Mike Cameron to the Yankees deal may not be happening (again).  If the Rick Ankiel for Ian Kennedy swap was anything more than internet rumor, it might flare up again.

You may have noticed that there's a player for the UCB Radio Show up on the right side of the blog.  You can listen there or, if you'd rather be mobile while listening, we now have it set up on iTunes.  Thanks to everyone that is working on that, from Tom at CardinalsGM who set it up to Chet who is doing a lot of hosting to Nick at Pitchers Hit Eighth who finally got it on iTunes.  Great work, guys!

Cardinals Continue To Slow Play

Hey, I've left out a lot of the gambling metaphors so far this week.  You can only expect that to go so far.  (Besides, I've got my big year-end game this weekend, so that's starting to be on my mind as well.)  Slow playing--or at least slow acting--does seem to be what St. Louis is doing this week, though.

I don't know if it's big news, but it definitely counts as surprising that the Cardinals actually made a bid on Francisco Rodriguez before he headed to the Mets.  I don't figure K-Rod was all that excited about playing in the heartland anyway, but that may be the biggest indication of how the closer market has collapsed from its projected peak during the season.

It sounds like the big push would be to get Brian Fuentes, though numerous trade possibilities are listed in that article as well.  I wasn't all that excited about Fuentes during the season due to his high cost, but looking over his stats right now and it becomes clear why he's considered one of the top closers on the market.  If the Cardinals are really invested in getting a closer, something I'm not completely sold on right now, Fuentes isn't a bad choice.

Out of the trade possibilities, Matt Capps might be the most interesting.  He's young but has established himself as a strong closer.  I don't know what the cost in players would be, though.  Pittsburgh's management has never been rated as just the sharpest knives in the drawer, but I think they'd realize that's an asset they don't need to just give away.

Possibly the most interesting line in the story was the comment that the Cardinals are more likely to make a trade than sign a free agent before the Rule V draft on Thursday.  Whether that means either will happen, of course, is up in the air.  Strauss said in yesterday's chat that he thought there'd be movement on a pitcher last night.  If there was, it hasn't been reported yet.  Strauss chats again today, BTW.

Mozeliak is keeping his cards close.  Hopefully he doesn't overplay his hand.

UCB radio is on tonight!  10:00 CST.  If you aren't up that late, you can listen tomorrow at the site and we are working on getting it imported into iTunes for download.

And, if you are interested, check out this Cardinal off-season report.

Cardinals in Vegas, Day 2

No deals done on the first day of the winter meetings, but a lot of talk going on.  Lots of it, according to Joe Strauss's latest article.

First off, John Mozeliak shot down the Burnett idea, which isn't terribly surprising given since the team doesn't really want to deal out too many long-term contracts right now.  Especially with one that may have some injury issues.  I know the talk is that they don't want to limit their flexibility with Carp, Wainwright and Lohse all signed long-term, but you'd have to think that continuity is fine if everyone is healthy and good.  It worked for the Braves in the '90s, didn't it?

Moving an outfielder is still on the priority list, but it looks like it won't be Ryan Ludwick.  Which makes sense in a lot of ways, mostly because every other outfielder in the system, it seems like, is a left-handed batter.  Problem is, like BrewCards noted in yesterday's comment thread, there are just so many questions around everyone else that it'll be tough to get adequate talent back for them.  I don't believe they'll move Rasmus (unless completely overwhelmed), people have to decide if Schumaker is for real and they can live with the lack of power, Ankiel is a free agent after this season, and Chris Duncan is coming back from injury.

Apparently the braintrust is rethinking the closer position as well.  Either they aren't convinced Perez and Motte can handle it even with a year of seasoning or they want to keep their options open now that the closer market seems to be coming back to them.  Getting a FA closer on a two-year deal (if they could) might open trade possibilities next offseason.

Adam Kennedy looks to be the starter next season at second base.  When you look at his numbers, they really weren't as bad as everyone seems to have in their head.  While an Orlando Hudson would be an improvement, there really isn't any way to get him if Kennedy is still on the roster, and there doesn't seem to be any mechanism for getting him off of it that works for the Cardinals.  He'll be a free agent, so maybe we'll finally get to see what the Cardinals were looking for two years ago.

Strauss talks today at noon from Vegas, so I'm sure he'll elaborate even more on these points then.

Apparently the Cardinals have been looking at Scott Downs from the Blue Jays and have considered sending either Ankiel or Joe Mather to the Braves.  A quick glance at Downs looks interesting, especially his last two seasons.  He's been playing in a tough division as well, so moving to the NL Central might even help.  I'm a little surprised the Cards would move Ankiel, especially for someone like Mike Gonzalez, but they've got to clear a spot somehow.  Looks like he'll be a popular chip, with the Yanks, Rays and Giants all asking about him.  (Isn't he a little young to be a Giant?)

In fact, the rumor of Ankiel for Ian Kennedy is a little intriguing.  Kennedy, who was actually drafted by the Cardinals in 2003 but didn't sign, has been a top prospect for a while in the Yankee organization.  And, while we all know that Yankee prospects have a heck of a hype machine, his minor league numbers backed a lot of that up.  He struggled this year in the majors, but he will turn 24 next week and still has a long way to go before he hits his prime.  He'd be a long term committment, but a cheap one.  If that's an offer out there, I think (even though I'm a huge Ankiel fan and would hate to see him go) that Mo should take it.

A reminder that the special edition of the United Cardinal Bloggers Radio Hour will be coming to you tomorrow night at 10:00 Central time.  Yours truly is scheduled to be a guest in the first hour.

Miller Down, Greene Next?

The Cardinals finally got Trever Miller to sign on the dotted line.  Which will be longer, the elapsed time the Cards spent on the contract or the elapsed time he'll be on the mound this season?

Honestly, though, this physical issue apparently played into the Cardinals' hand.  The initial reports way back when said that Miller was going to sign a two-year deal, but now it's just a one-year contract.  That's probably better for the Redbirds because relievers tend to get a little flaky and it's hard to trust them over the long haul anyway.  Plus, if something blows out, at least you aren't locked down long-term.

And, after days of no news at all, wouldn't you know you'd get Miller done and then apparently swing a trade for Khalil Greene.  I'm writing this close to midnight, so by time morning's light comes we may know if it's a completely false report or if it's actually a done deal, but let's assume there's some fire for the smoke.

I've said before that I'm not a big Greene fan.  That said, he's not much (if any) of a dropoff on the defensive side of the ball from Cesar Izturis and offensively he shows more pop.  Granted, he doesn't get on base that often and that's a strong concern.  If someone could work with him and get that average up into even tolerable levels, though, it'd make for quite an impact on the offense.

The asking price appears to be two relief prospects.  I was discussing this with Dustin of Whiteyball over at Facebook and he tossed out the names Worrell, Salas, Perodomo, Gregerson and Samuel.  Now, obviously I'm not Erik and I'm not the one to be asking about anything minors-related, but from what I know if it's Worrell/Perodomo, the Cards would be in good shape.  I don't think either of them are in the plans of the club so they might as well get something for them.

We'll see if this pans out, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was an accurate report and Greene would be in St. Louis before Mozeliak leaves for Vegas.

If you missed out on the UCB show tonight, definitely go take a listen when you get the chance.  Great discussion about all sorts of topics.  We're going to break our every-other-week routine and have a special edition next week since the Winter Meetings will be going on.

None? None At All?

So the Cardinals decided not to offer arbitration to any of their free agents.  As we discussed yesterday, the only options were Springer and Looper, really.  The case against Springer stems from his age and the fact that the right side of the bullpen has a lot of in-house options.  If they really thought Springer would accept the offer, then I can see why they didn't offer.

There really did seem to be no downside on offering Looper, though.  Do you really think he's not going to get multi-year offers somewhere else?  Even if he accepts, would it be such a bad thing to have a starter/reliever combo in the same person?  Right now you have Wainwright, Lohse, Wellemeyer and Pineiro in the rotation.  Your own pitching coach doesn't think we'll see Carpenter in '09, at least as a regular rotation member.  Does Mozeliak really have plans that will come to fruition this week for the rotation, making the offer to Looper such a huge risk?  Is the market really that slow for him?

It just seems like we've heard so much about building up the minors and gaining strength from the draft, so when the team turns down the opportunity to get more draft picks, it's a little strange.

It also looks like the Trever Miller saga is not coming to an end either.  Apparently something showed up on the physical that they didn't like.  As always, when it comes to the Cardinals and injuries, it's always a murky path.

I was talking to cards4life from Redbird Ramblings last night and the question was posed that, if two weeks from now the Cardinals are in the same situation, with no signings or trades, do you start getting restless and where does the blame lie?  He leaned toward DeWitt, which a sizable portion of the fanbase would, while I thought the blame would probably rest on Mozeliak.

Hopefully it's a moot point, though.  I still have a feeling that the Cards will be signing Renteria pretty soon and you'd think activity would pick up now that the arbitration deadline has passed and the Winter Meetings are next week.  Something's going to happen.....right?

My schedule has me out of the office the rest of the week (though that's always subject to change) so if I don't get a chance I wanted to mention again the next UCB show.  There should be plenty of discussion about the arbitration decisions and what comes next.  Should be a great night!