Me too. I don't even think he'd be that much of a reclaimation project. He just needs to get away from Pittsburgh.

APRTW wrote:

But then again DeWitt doesnt believe in 6th starters.

Listening to what Moz has said this offseason, I get the feeling that this has changed, and that the team is willing to build some depth into its starting rotation, given the question marks about durability that hang over much of it.

I wouldn't object to them signing him with the invitation to compete for one of the starter slots.

Max wrote:

I wouldn't object to them signing him with the invitation to compete for one of the starter slots.

Exactly. Lohse insurance.

forsberg_us wrote:

I have no problem with Duke, but I suspect someone will sign him as a starter.

they might but the free agent class is full of project guys.  He could slip through the cracks.  He made 2.2 million last year.  That is more then I would expect the Cardinals to want to spend on him.

The link leads to a story on the Rams.

In any case, I wonder if the quote was taken before Duke suddenly became available?  I won't be surprised if the Cards pass this by, but I thought it was interesting that, needing a lefty and a back-up 3rd baseman, those things became available.  In the WJ era, it seemed to me that the effectiveness of of dumpster diving was in quantity more than quality.  If you needed a second baseman, invite 2 or 3 past-prime veterans, along with what ever else you have around, to Spring training and sort them out into piles of Junior Spivey's on the left and Tony Womack's on the right.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I'm very excited," Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan said. "It's great to go into spring training with our rotation set. And now we can concentrate on getting the relievers established in their roles."

Yeah, let's just pencil in all five guys for 30-35 starts apiece. Durability is never an issue wth starting pitching.

If that's all it takes to get him excited, I wonder when his wife finds time to do the cooking or hold down a paying job.

Sounds like we're in almost as good of a shape as we were last Spring.

Last edited by Mags (11/22/2010 11:36 am)

"It's pretty much a stream of consciousness on multiple topics."

Hey, no one can break down sack percentage better than Bernie.

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"It's pretty much a stream of consciousness on multiple topics."

Hey, no one can break down sack percentage better than Bernie.

Sack percentage?  Is that the ratio of number of White Castle hamburgers that Bernie can fit into his mouth as compared to the number that fit into the bag you get at the drive thru?

That was about as PG-13 as you could have taken that. Though I can imagine that watching Bernie scarf down a dozen burgers or so would probably be as disturbing as anything in Dawn of the Dead.
Just keep your hands and feet away from his mouth and you'll be fine ...

forsberg_us wrote:

Max wrote:

The link leads to a story on the Rams.

In any case, I wonder if the quote was taken before Duke suddenly became available?  I won't be surprised if the Cards pass this by, but I thought it was interesting that, needing a lefty and a back-up 3rd baseman, those things became available.  In the WJ era, it seemed to me that the effectiveness of of dumpster diving was in quantity more than quality.  If you needed a second baseman, invite 2 or 3 past-prime veterans, along with what ever else you have around, to Spring training and sort them out into piles of Junior Spivey's on the left and Tony Womack's on the right.

Actually it leads to "Bernie's Bits" which is Bernie's regular Saturday column.  It's pretty much a stream of consciousness on multiple topics.  The quote from Duncan is in the paragraph that begins by discussing the Ted Lilly contract.

Yes, dare I say I am familiar with Bernie's Bits?  But I am accustomed to seeing them labelled as such.  That looked like a story on the Lambs and I was too lazy to check otherwise.

I thought I saw two buried headlines:

1. Pujols is gonna ask for $300 for 10 years?!?  That was what i was expecting prior to the Howard contract.  If Pujols sticks to that, it is over.  He will go elsewhere.  He can probably get it, and thereby prove he deserved it, but I think the chance DeWitt coughs up that much is damned close to ZERO.

2. Bernie puts a few stories together to start the beginnings of a major swat at the Cardinals player development system: "The Cardinals have left their young outfielder Daryl Jones exposed for the Rule 5 draft? Wow. I shouldn't be surprised. This is yet another lesson: Be careful and don't believe the hype about the Cardinals' prospects. The organization does a swell job of marketing these guys to the media. Unfortunately, the marketing of the players has been superior to the players' actual talent. But I will say this: John Vuch, the Cardinals' new player-development director, will play it straight. He'll weed out the non-prospects and won't try to play spin doctor. In a related note: Mozeliak's job isn't easy right now; it's going to be hard for him to make trades when other teams obviously have such little interest in the "prospects" down below.   Put this together with the 'we didn't have enough prospects to get Westbrook without making a three-way deal' story, and I think this is as close as we can expect the St. Louis sports journalists to get to calling the Luhnow Era a failure.

Last edited by Max (11/22/2010 1:51 pm)

Ouch, this is a bad deal if Duke gets 6 million.