Max wrote:

windwalker wrote:

Max wrote:

above average hitting and a perennial gold glove sounds like a candidate for the all-star game

Yes it does, but it doesn't sound like Brendan Ryan. "Well, gee, he hit about .260 in September" isnt compelling reason for excitement. I'm not saying you release him, but if you're serious about getting better, that guy cannot be the starter you pencil in for 2011.

Well, August and September, but that was all in way of saying that .292 in 2009 might not have been the aberration. 

In any case, it sounds like Moz is in over his head.  This Berkman move is horrible.  Unless they think he can be converted to back-up catcher I don't see how this improves us.  He certainly is not appreciably better than Ludwick at the plate, and he may well be appreciably worse.

Well, now that Ankiel is no longer in the picture, we might give Berkman a try at third base.

On paper, the roster is the direct responsibility of the GM.  As with any other mangerial job, the person with the assigned task will face competing interests.  Sometimes those will come from very powerful sources, and no doubt Mozeliak often feels pressure from both DeWitt and La Russa.  But at the end of the day, Mozeliak must carry the responsibility for the personnel that La Russa has to work with. 

If the game has passed Jocketty by, as you wrote, then it is beginning to look like Mozeliak simply was never ready for it.  The list of trades that, while not flat out terrible, we got the poorer end of continues to grow.  The list of poor FA signings that do not lead to production on the field, and even worse, lead to embarrassing pictures of Cardinal millionaires taking beachside strolls with elbow jewelry while on rehab, is getting to be too much.  This is my reading of what I am reading, TK, and I predict that it is only in need of a tipping point to get people talking openly about firing Mozeliak (other than people who don't count for much, like me). 

If we started to make the list of Mozeliak era roster moves that cost the Cardinals $5-7 million per season, and that produced very little, and added up the guys who he traded away and who are now somewhat productive elsewhere, I think it would be embarrassing, to say the least, for Moz.  Does it start with Khalil Greene?

Last edited by Max (12/05/2010 11:05 am)