Transmogrified Tiger

LaRussa likes attention.

Well I'm not suggested they go get anyone they can get their hands on. Someone like Calero wouldn't be unwarranted getting a short extension if they put up a strong 2010. A 35 year old who has had marginal success in his career would be worthy of a extension? A reliever with historically strong peripherals coming off of consecutive great seasons wouldn't be a terrible candidate for an extension. But a mythical extension is beside the point really.

Well I'm not suggested they go get anyone they can get their hands on. Someone like Calero wouldn't be unwarranted getting a short extension if they put up a strong 2010.

Is this because you don't want him in the pen or because you think it's too early and/or you want to preserve the Cubs control over him? For me it's a little of both. If there's a decent deal on a reliever for 1 year, I'd go for it. Nothing lost really.

For better or worse, Pujols has been ranging far to his right long before Schumaker played 2nd base.

I don't think 312Sports is a terrible idea, but it would be nice if a snippet or quote of some sort accompanied the links that were provided. As for Dawson, good for him getting elected, too bad for all the people more deserving than him that still aren't in. I dunno, I don't have much interest in HOF debates anymore. I mean, even if you went to the museum every year, the players are just the one room(IIRC and if it hasn't changed since I went 10 years ago).

So you wouldn't have signed Holliday due to the payroll % spent on him and hopefully Pujols? Sure there's risk involved in committing those dollars for the long term, but I think Holliday is a risk worth taking. The Cards could just fill in with marginal players as they've been doing in years they didn't make the playoffs. They did pretty well in the years where they invested in the right players like Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen. IMO, the worst moves the Cards have made this decade have been the Mulder/Haren trade, the Lohse extension, and possibly the Carp extension (in terms of playing time missed). As far as long term FA participation, I'm not optimistic about production from our prospects in the immediate future, so that could hurt, but I have faith in the core. It's a nice deal for the Cardinals. Holliday's proven his worth, has no glaring red flags about his ability to live up to the contract, and should be well worth the money spent on him. My point in a previous post in the thread(which was discussed at length at GRB if memory serves), is that with as star heavy as the team already is, they might have been better served distributing Holliday's money and value across more than one player if they could. Maybe that wasn't possible this season(even with trade possibilities), and I don't mean to say that there's a right and wrong answer. But the reality they have now is a top heavy roster where they aren't getting much in the way of bang for the buck(Wainwright and Lohse countering each other essentially) save Rasmus. They get hit with injury or ineffectiveness to one or more of those stars, they won't have the financial resources to compensate, nor does it look like they have the resources on the farm to compensate. It's a similar gamble that the Cubs took before 2009, and the lack of depth(relative to 2008) came back to haunt them,among other things.

The deferred money makes it a better deal for the Cards, but it doesn't make much of a difference practically. 2 million a year isn't going to do much to change the decision making of a franchise with their payroll. Maybe it allows them to have a better utility infielder or something down the line, but they weren't dumb enough to tell Albert Pujols to buzz off because we're X short of our payroll threshold and he wants X+2 million.

We also have superior resources and a superior farm system. Same thing was said at the start of the last decade. Except they had a garbage MLB roster and didn't have a resource advantage. Seriously, say something positive about the Cubs. It's almost fun to like your favorite team.

We also have superior resources and a superior farm system.

This is the important thing. Even before Holliday, they were definitely a stars and scrubs team. Now they're committing a huge portion of their payroll to Pujols, Holliday, Carpenter, and Lohse. Only for 2010 and 2011. And the team is in good position to win the division those two years. Not really an issue. In 2012 they'll probably be paying 60 million for Pujols, Holliday, Lohse, and Wainwright. 75 million if they keep Carpenter.

Total BCS wins Boise State 2 Utah 2 ACC 2

Barring anything bizarrely unforeseen like the Cardinals trading Nick Stavinoha for Alex Gordon and Juan Cruz, smart money is that the Cubs are at least on par with the Cards, probably better.

So paying $9M for 1 year is smarter than paying $4.9M for 2 years. Fascinating. wtf are you actively try to be obtuse with every post you make now? i mean, seriously. assuming you're a rational person, there's no way you can make a post like that and not understand how pointless/irrelevent it is in regards to the post i made before it. but to answer your question, yeah. paying 9 mil to an above average player is better than giving 2/5 to a crappy player. (not that any of this has anything whatsoever to do with my original point.... which was all about contract length and risks). Hey you're the one that drew the comparison to Aaron Miles. I just pointed out the unintended hilarity in your "logic": <$5M spread over two years is apparently a bigger risk than $9M spread over one. Just stop and let that resonate for a moment, and maybe you'll crack up too. No one compared Beltre to Miles. The point was that 1 year deals made with surplus money are smart because there's little lost. If you signed a 2 year deal with what you have left over, you can still be burned by the second year. That's what happened with Miles. The team had much tighter budget restrictions in year two of his contract, and since he didn't meet expectations they were forced to eat money just to get him off the team.

This is the important thing. Even before Holliday, they were definitely a stars and scrubs team. Now they're committing a huge portion of their payroll to Pujols, Holliday, Carpenter, and Lohse. Considering their farm system is horrible, there's a lot of room for things to go very wrong for them if they get bit by injuries or ineffectiveness to a star or two. It's not a bad contract for the Cardinals, but considering the composition of their team, they might have been better off spreading out the value they got for that 17 mil(especially since they didn't get a steal on Holliday). This is nowhere close to true.

Byrd has been about a 3 WAR player the last 3 years, and Bradley provided 1 WAR in RF last year. UZR has Fukudome as about 3 wins better defensively in RF v. CF. Regress both of those to 2 WAR and consider they're replacing Bradley, and the move still makes them 3 wins better for 5 million a year. That's an extremely efficient use of resources, even if Byrd disappoints or Fukudome's 2008 defense was fluky. Marlon Byrd is more than just his last three years and Milton Bradley is more than just his 2009. So you're upset about how they went about getting the improvement? Bradley was likely to improve, but probably not beyond Byrd's level and definitely not to compensate the large difference in Kosuke's defense.

Byrd has been about a 3 WAR player the last 3 years, and Bradley provided 1 WAR in RF last year. UZR has Fukudome as about 3 wins better defensively in RF v. CF. Regress both of those to 2 WAR and consider they're replacing Bradley, and the move still makes them 3 wins better for 5 million a year. That's an extremely efficient use of resources, even if Byrd disappoints or Fukudome's 2008 defense was fluky.

I would love to see that. I think Bolt would win, but CJ could give him a fight. I doubt that will be close unless it's done in pads, or they give Johnson a head start.

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I feel much the same way. Fortunately, 3 of the top 4 South teams are home games this year, and I think there's 9 wins out there for us if they play like they have since the Oral Roberts game.

Marlon Byrd hits right handed.

Yeah, there's just way too much regression pulling the Cubs up and the Cards down at this point, even with Holliday. They aren't going to get 16 WAR out of their top 3 starters this year. In fact, I'll predict right now that one of Carpenter or Wainwright, if not both, don't make it to 150 IP.

With the Big 12 season about to be underway, here's how kenpom.com predicts the standings based on the season so far. Texas 14-2 Kansas 14-2 Mizzou 11-5 K-State 10-6 aTm 8-8 Baylor 8-8 Oklahoma St. 7-9 Iowa State 6-10 Texas Tech 6-10 Nebraska 5-11 Oklahoma 4-12 Colorado 3-13 Another evenly balanced year between the North and South. I bet OU does better than that with all their youth getting more time though. If this holds true, tadowdaddy loses his bet. And since they haven't started either, here's the SEC. East Kentucky 12-4 Tennessee 11-5 Vandy 10-6 Florida 9-7 South Carolina 6-10 Georgia 4-12 West Mississippi St. 13-3 Ole Miss 11-5 Bama 8-8 Auburn 5-11 LSU 4-12 Arkansas 3-13 Definitely East-heavy here. Swap UK with MSU and UK might run the table.

Kosuke Byrd/Baker Lee Ramirez Soto Soriano Theriot/Byrd Fontenot/Theriot Wow, we're going to give LHP nightmares this year.

Because the last 4 years he's averaged an .800 OPS to go with 50 steals at 80+% and elite defense. Again, this is a corner outfielder we're talking about. Sure, he's better than Fukudome, but not nearly as great as he's been made out to be. We should expect more than an .800 OPS from a corner outfielder. The stolen bases and the defense make him extremely valuable. He was a 5 win player last year, that's about top 5 for all outfielders.