cardinals update

The Cardinals are having another tough off-season. But it was to be expected when you have a tight budget, no farm depth, dead weight, and a pitiful free agent market to deal with. So far Eckstein, Miles, Taguchi. Edmonds, and Bennett are gone. I hated to see Edmonds go, but I think the move is a good one for the team. To date they have added Izturis, Jimenez, and LaRue. Talk about dullsville. But on the bright side they are all low cost, short term contracts. They also got a Rule Five steal in Brian Barton.

Looking ahead to the 2008 season the Cardinals are going to need a lot of ifs to become reality. If Carpenter and Mulder come back in a productive capacity, if the young outfielders come into their own, if Kennedy and Izturis play to their career bests, if Rolen performs like Rolen should, if Wainwright, Pineiro, and Looper pitch like they showed they could at times last year, if Pujols' elbow holds up, then The Cardinals should be as good as any team in the central division.

Here is my off season suggestion for the Cardinals. Take the bulk of your "payroll flexability" and offer Prior and Colon big 1 year contracts with big club options for 2009. I'm talkin' 8 million a year (assuming their recovery is on track). The free agent market is so poor and the Cardinals can't compete in the trade market, so the best option is to take the high risk/high reward guys with contracts that don't compromise the team's future payroll. Admittedly, the Cardinals already have two high risk/high reward guys in their rotation, so adding two more might seem reckless, but you have to figure the more options you have the better your chances are of some of them working out. And by overpaying to get them to accept a club option for '09 you get an opportunity for a real bargain if they do end up returning to form.