Spending themselves silly
At first glance at the headlines of the Cardinals’ NL Central competitors signing big-name free agents, Cardinal fans might get a twinge of jealousy. But then the reality sets in that these teams have committed a lot of money to players for the decline years of their careers, essentially paying for their past performance, while the Cardinals are retaining some flexibility to spend wisely. Dan Symborzki puts it in perspective:

The winner in all of this? Walt Jocketty. Right now, the rest of the Central consists of 3 teams who are spending money to see who can out-retard every one else, a team that would sorely love to be retarded but is too cheap to do so, and the Brewers. Jocketty doesn’t need to re-tool the Cardinals – “Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, Scott Rolen, and Try Not to Sign Someone Who Should Be In AA” is the winning strategy in the division.

We’re not convinced that the Cardinals aren’t going to toss some suitcases of Benjamins at someone (most likely a starting pitcher) before March, but it’s refreshing to note their restraint thus far.

What are people making of the Soriano “deal”? As for the question of whether he’ll be able to play centerfield for the Cubs, John Donovan doesn’t think he’ll be making the Defensive-Spectrum Beaters anytime soon:

You simply can’t hide those kinds of deficiencies in center field, especially in Wrigley with its schedule of sunny afternoon games, its famed winds and the imposing brick wall. Yeah, Soriano has the speed to cover the extra ground, he has a strong arm and he’s proved to be adaptable. But his lack of experience in center means he’ll take his lumps. If he ever makes it that far, that is.

On a similarly pessimistic note, Zubin’s pal Rob Neyer was understated in his chat today:

Andrew (Indy): Cubs have gone silent for the past 72 hours. Any word on the pitching front for them?SportsNation Rob Neyer: Umm, I think once you’ve committed to spending $136 million on a guy with a .325 career on-base percentage, you probably *should* rest for a few days.

And in case you couldn’t get enough laughter at the Cubs’ expense, he later answered the hapless “Mike”:

Mike (Madison): Are the Cubs subject to a GM who is trying to up the value of the franchise to make it more attractive to potential owners, a GM feeling the heat, in that, he is the only one left bearing responsibility of a team with only 66 wins left year, or both? What do you think the organization’s motives are in regards to these contracts?

SportsNation Rob Neyer: The Cubs are subject to a GM who doesn’t properly value on-base percentage.

Mark Mulder, please call your office
Where will Mark Mulder land? It would seem anywhere but St. Louis, which would be fine with us:

• San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the Padres are talking to Mark Mulder’s agent about a one-year deal.
• Cleveland is “hot after” Mark Mulder, who seems on his way out of St. Louis.
• The AZ Republic says that the Diamondbacks have expressed interest in left-hander Mark Mulder.

Speaking of Mulder, JP at Reds and Blues raises the notion of the Reds “Beaneing” someone with Bronson Arroyo, as the A’s did to the Cardinals in the Mulder trade. (Warning: JP’s review of the Mulder trade may render it NSFW for Cardinal fans.)

On Wells
We didn’t mention much about the Wells signing yesterday, partly because of our indifference to it. But we’re coming to a conclusion, which will have been informed by this scouting report from Bucco Blog. The blog claims that Wells is “a wild dresser,” which we suppose is neither here nor there when it comes to throwing a baseball, but judging from this photo, he appears perfectly modish, almost as if he had just stepped out of a Dockers commercial.

Speaking of the Pirates, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports without apparent insincerity that they are among a dozen teams pursuing free agent Jeff Suppan:

“There are a lot of teams reaching out, a tremendous amount of interest in Jeff,” Suppan’s agent, Scott Leventhal, said yesterday. “And Pittsburgh is one of those teams.”

The irony, of course, is that Suppan might still be playing for the Pirates had they not traded him to the Red Sox back in 2003.

Just say “no” (as in “comment”)
With the slate of HOF nominees released this week, former Cardinal Mark McGwire has been a front-page story again. Naturally, Tony LaRussa has been queried for his views:

“I’ve believed in him from day one. I still believe in him,” the Cardinals manager said Tuesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

LaRussa is smart enough in a lawyerly way to know the importance of words, so his craftily-worded response is to be expected; note the not-so-subtle difference that the little “in” makes. Believing someone is one thing — it puts TLR “on the record,” so to speak, as validating McGwire’s claims (not that he’s made any). But to believe in someone is quite different, which could mean anything from hopefulness in a person to putting credence in the existence of something, like the Easter Bunny.

The more he speaks on the matter, the worse he looks, much like McGwire, only more articulate. Perhaps LaRussa should refuse comment and stick to his offseason job writing for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The starter market
The Cardinals are ready to deal for a starter, and it may simply come down to which one accepts their bid first. For instance, Randy Wolf, who signed for less money and fewer years, had an offer from them, according to the LA Times:

A source close to the negotiations said the Cubs and Cardinals made offers to sign Wolf for three years, with the deals ranging from $21 million to $24 million. The Diamondbacks had a similar offer on the table.

With a minimum of $21 mil/3 years to Wolf, it should be interesting to see what they offer to Suppan and Weaver, each of whom had a better 2006 campaign and has had a better career than Wolf and is approximately the same age.

Another comparable for Kennedy
A day after the Cardinals signed Adam Kennedy to a three-year, $10-million deal, Craig Counsell signed with division rival Milwaukee for two years and $6 million. Considering that the Defensive-Spectrum Beater will mostly play 2B when he does play (remember, the Brewers have 2B Rickie Weeks and SS JJ Hardy) and Chone Smith’s projections that put Counsell at .249/.333/.343 (compared to Kennedy’s .271/.340/.382), the Cardinals’ signing still looks like one of the best at the position this Winter. The never-panegyrical Rob Neyer was, of course, less than laudatory but still approves:

I don’t know if I’d say it’s great, but Kennedy’s a decent player and $3.3M per season for a decent player certainly isn’t a bad deal.

Our thoughts precisely.

Could you be more specific?
Kei Igawa: Yanks Win Bidding War — RotoWire headline

$136 million apparently wasn’t enough
Suite deal: Soriano’s filled with perks — AP headline

Looks like a Price Is Right bid
Yankees win rights to Igawa for $26,000,194 – AP headline

News you can use
Carlos Lee: News — RotoWire headline

Musical catchers

• Report: Blue Jays sign C Barajas – SportsTicker headline
• Zaun agrees to $7.25 million, 2-year contract with Blue Jays – AP headline
• Blue Jays: Barajas backed out after signing terms sheet – AP headline

Cardinals the Top Story
The Cardinals winning the World Series is currently leading Yahoo’s “What was the story of the year in MLB?” poll with 21% of the votes (Joe Girardi is second with 14%). Margin for error is 6%, or the total of votes cast for the poll’s trick option, “Baseball gets tougher on steroids.”

Maintaining the cycle of ignorance
So with three of five starters in the stable, does Wily Walt Jocketty sign Jeff Weaver or Jeff Suppan? If he wants to keep his job, he shouldn’t sign either, according to Tufts’s Alex Bloom and Evans Clinchy, authors of the “Top 10 Future Firings In Sports”:

6. Whoever ends up signing Jeff Suppan and Jeff Weaver. If anyone willingly takes on this pair of worthless arms, we’re going to vomit. Nobody, and we mean absolutely nobody, should be fooled into thinking they’re legitimate major league pitchers. Hey, even the blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.

Last we checked, Tufts was in Medford, Mass., a suburb of Boston. We’re not saying everyone in that part of the country is out of touch with the realities of baseball, but we suppose it’s not coincidental that in the same online newspaper, in response to the poll question “Is having ESPN in the dorms important to you?” Tufts students are currently demanding access to the East-Coast sports “experts” at a 65% Yes rate. We’re not sure what they’re teaching at the school, but it would seem they’re not much into free and open inquiry.

This entry was posted by Pip on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 at 5:33 pm and is filed under around the horn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.