I don't really agree that he's better than those guys... Renteria is better than Eckstein, unless you ignore the rest of their careers and focus on this year only. Cabrera's numbers are very close to Eckstein's, which makes the contract that Cabrera got from the Angels even more stunning. What a brutal move by the Angels, in all honesty. Not every player has... but many have. Womack last year, Nunez this year, Carpenter, Tavarez, there has been luck involved. But I think Jocketty has been very good at finding players (mainly veterans) who are undervalued in the free agent market. Sanders at $3M per year was a bargain. So was Grudz at $1M this year, and Suppan at around $3M, and even Eckstein at $3M is a bargain when you consider that other FA shortstops like Renteria and Cabrera got 3 times as much money. I've been saying this all along... the Cards' domination of the NL Central the last 2 years has been a combination of good management and good luck People just forget that I acknowledge the first part of that. There is a facet of the game were one cannot deny the Cards have been extremely fortunate the last two seasons - SP, their top three SP have missed how many regular season starts as compared to the Cubs?