The Holtonian

Stokin the Hot Stove

OK, Hot Stove talk time.

I'm very annoyed and mad with my cardinals. Mostly the cheapy owners. I'm sorry but when you get so close to the WS you take the next year to get anything you need to get over the hump. Thats what the Red Sox did the year before they got beat by the Yanks, they went out and loaded up with some extra beef.
Now when the birds got swept in the WS I understand not bringing back renteria, especially in retrospect, but even then it was sensical to let an overpriced shortstop go.

But I'm sorry right now we have one outfielder... one. I mean is edmonds going to be the lone outfielder? We don't have a second baseman. Gruz was happy in St. Louis and really enjoyed playing in one of the best baseball cities in the U.S. and frankly after last year he's worth what he's asking or possibly something close to that. Maybe a little less and just do a bunch of incentives.

And whats with letting Reggie walk? I mean he's a fan favorite and has been a work horse for the team since day one. That's just poor management in my opinion.

The whole Burnett thing was over before it started. If you want to go after the biggest free agent on the market you have to be able to put the most money on the table. Frankly I don't care too much about not getting burnett. But now its a matter of getting something to get Marquis out. Marquis is a goof ball who doesn't seem to want to work hard or have much focus and control.

Frankly what I would love... LOVE... is if the cards went after Manny. I mean we need an outfielder, in my opinion we need an outfielder more than a pitcher. Jocketty seems to think we need another pitcher... well we could use a speed pitcher but if we had more offense then Mulder, Carp, Supp and whoever else should be able to cut it. But if some pressue could be pulled off Pujols it would help the offense immensly. I'm not expecting too much from Edmonds anymore than solid defense. His hitting seems to digress more every year. I say still keep him don't get me wrong he's the second greatest defense center fielder in the NL right now, Andruw's first. Rolen's coming back from a season that wasn't and might have trouble coming back. To have instant offense from manny would be great.

Plus I think Manny might like STL. He's a guy that seems to not be happy whereever he is but the low key STL city and supportive no matter what fans might be a nice change to the cut throat Boston ones.

Another annoyance is I've heard Jocketty offer Wainwright as trade bait... don't use our best farm guys for bait to get something. I'm not turning on jocketty he still does magic that I can't even fathom, but I'm still conviced that trading Harren was a mistake. I like Mulder but not for the price of the future, send something else. Because basically they traded a fast ball pitcher for a ground out pitcher (a great one no doubt) but now we have no relief, and no fast ball pitchers. A harren would have come in handy last year to groom for a starting fastballer.

And the Whole Florida Fire sale thing is rediculous and ticks me off how the cardinals didn't jump on any of it. Frankly its all Florida and for some fishy reason they're trading/sending things to the Mets... i'm sorry but that makes zero sense. You don't trade of your best players to a division rival regardless of your financials or moving possibilities. I think something behind the scenes went on there, maybe the marlins dude is a closet met fan.