P-D Thoughts on Furcal's value

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/round-two/article_95e1abce-0580-11e1-b140-001a4bcf6878.html

"The question is why we would want to move Lohse if we would have to pay to get rid of him."

It sort of comes down to whether you believe he can repeat.

If yes, you probably keep him. If not, then let's say you can move him, but you have to pay $4M. You save $8M, you get something in return and you replace him in the rotation with a better pitcher. That's win-win-win (if you guess right).

Put it differently, if we could have traded Franklin before the season, but had to pay the other team half his salary, but got a prospect in return, wouldn't that have been OK? Franklin was good in 2010, but sucked last year. If you think 2012 Lohse is 2011 Franklin, then you make the move.

Free Agents I'm interested in.

Albert Pujols -- duh!
Ryan Madson -- I really like this guy, he can setup or save, having him and Motte would mean that almost any lead in the 8th is a win.
We need a SS, the three I would look at are --Jimmy Rollins/Jose Reyes/Rafael Furcal

I wish there was some damned news on AP, sucks not hearing anything.

"I wish there was some damned news on AP, sucks not hearing anything."

Deep breaths Alz. He didn't come this far to sign quickly. Nothing will happen until the manager is in place, and I doubt anything happens before the Winter meetings which are usually mid-December.

Any news you here at this point is simply going to be speculation from "unnamed sources." You'll make youself crazy listening to that nonsense. Take it from a Mizzou fan who has been waiting for an official announcement that Mizzou is in the SEC, you'll be better ignoring the rumor ans speculation and simply waiting for the official announcement.

If it comes down to it, I would think that Cards have more tradable chits with MLB experience this year than they have had in quite a while.  We don't need to make trades to shape this team: just resign the guys we have and with the addition of Wainwright we are the favorites.  But Moz has the option to consider trades.

"After the performance he made down the stretch--throwing the final pitch in the World Series and all, and with arms like Salas and Sanchez already in the mix, I would think that finding a Plan D for closer is pretty far down the list, slightly lower than a back-up for Pujols in the event he resigns but then flounders, but higher than other contingencies such as, 'what if Carp breaks down midseason?'"

Snide commentary aside, I would hope that's not the mentality, considering none of those three guys has been a closer for an entire season.
As the Cardinals found out this season, a broken bullpen is a costly thing to fix.

With the addition of Wain-o, we can handle a Westbrook. I expect Garcia to continue to grow up, Lohse is serviceable, and Carpenter is apparently immortal.

I'm okay with our rotation. Our bullpen isn't awful, but another strong presence would do us wonders (Madson).

I don't think you can get Pujols and Reyes, but unless we plan on teaching Descalso to play SS, we're going to need to go get one, and the best options out there are Reyes/Rollins/Furcal. I'd hope for someone with a bat that's better than Furcal and defense that's better than Theriot, but it depends on the money we have.

"unless we plan on teaching Descalso to play SS,"

I certainly think that's occurred to them, and he did play there in a pinch a couple of times, maybe even once in the WS when they took Furcal out.
The point was made in the article (Bernie's, I think) that the Cardinals depend on 140 starts from Furcal at their own peril, both from an injury perspective and even if he doesn't get hurt how much he'll wear down over the course of the season.
Again, I hope one of the lessons they've learned is the value of defense at shortstop. It's fine to teach Brendan Ryan a lesson for bad behavior by sending him off into baseball oblivion, but if you're going to have those types of standards, you'd better have a plan that doesn't rely on the likes of Ryan Theriot as your everyday shortstop.

Only in our dreams.

Webstergrovesalum wrote:

possible to offer Lohse to the Rockies for Tulowitzki?

more possible than offering Lohse to the Red Sox for Ted Williams, or to the Yankees for the Bambino, but no more probable to have the offer accepted.

Last edited by Max (11/03/2011 12:30 pm)

alz wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

"promote Guillen to Manager"

Please tell me this was a typo

It was my thought at the time, I thought Pujols would stay with Guillen, but not without him. I was probably mis-informed when I heard that.

I hope you were thinking Oquendo and not Ozzie Guillen.

"I would rather see Zambrono on the mound"

I wonder who's going to end up with that putz. You know there's one manager out there who thinks "I can get through to him ..."
I hope it's the Reds.

Last edited by artie_fufkin (11/03/2011 7:54 pm)