Thursday, December 09, 2004

Grading the Scrolls

Arbitration offers went down on Tuesday. Let’s see if the Cardinals took any of our advice:

The Auf Wiedersehens

Tony Womack

Tony Womack is a Yankee. Raise your hands if you saw that one coming. I’m not sad to see him go, because I doubt his ability to re-peat his last season at the age of 36 and with no prior history of performing like that. We should be thankful for his efforts and performance last year, but let’s not blow it out of proportion. He managed a career high OBP of .349 and rarely saw a walk. Cards fans no doubt will bemoan the loss of his legs in our never-ending quest to squeeze one more drop out of the 80’s glory, but he’s replaceable. I would not be comfortable with the Cards paying him $2M/year for 2 years.

Woody Williams

Woody Williams was not offered arbitration and subsequently signed with the Padres. I wish Gregory the best, and he should perform well in that Petco Pitcher’s Paradise ™. In the eerie department, the famed 2001 trade has now been completely reversed, with Woody returning to the friar’s haunt. (Sweet Ray Lankford returned home last year.) You can’t help wonder though if Kevin Towers, Padres GM, is trying to get back some of what he lost in hopes of balancing out what turned to be a ridiculously one-sided trade. Or he’s like the kid who gives away his Hypercolor shirt before it becomes popular, only to buy it back from his friend as the fad has come to an end. Hopefully for the Woodman he’s got a little pink to blue left in him.

Steve Kline

Steve Kline was not offered arbitration. He’s a little hurt by not getting a chance to come back, but the sure-to-come multi-year contract ought to cheer him up shortly. I wish they would have offered him arbitration—even if he didn’t sign elsewhere and you’re stuck with him, you’ve got a lights-out reliever. And Tony likes his relievers. But obviously, cost was prohibitive.

Ray Lankford

Lankford was not offered arbitration. He’ll probably retire a Cardinal, and that’s a good thing. Get Up Baby laments the exit of Lankford, however, I’m not as passionate about the whole thing. While I’m a big Ray fan, he doesn’t really have a place on the 2005 team. He is 37, struggled to stay healthy in 2004, and would be asked to back up our other aging outfielders with injury histories. The Cards need a legitimate fourth outfielder that can play almost everyday in the event that Larry is out for awhile, Jimmy gets the ouchies, or Reggie plays like he did in 2004 again. Ray isn’t that guy.

Thank You, I’ll Have Another

Cal Eldred

Cal re-signed for a reported $600K. I’m not crazy about having Eldred around for another season, but you can’t really argue with the numbers he put up last year. If that’s your worst guy out of the pen, you can’t complain too much. Sure, it’d be nice to start breaking in some of our young pitching talent into the bullpen, but Eldred is a known quantity, can still get outs, and can pitch several innings if need be. And don’t forget, he “has guts”.

John Mabry

John Mabry, Moneyball hero, re-upped with the organization that reared him for $750K. Obviously Walter was listening to us. Mabes can play (in the Tony LaRussa sense) 1B, 3B, LF and RF. And yes, he took a few throws as an emergency catcher last year. He’s versatile, which Tony likes, and he can hit with a little pop from the left side. As long as he’s not the backup plan if Matheny leaves, it’ll be good to have Mabry back.

Matt Morris

Matt signed a one-year deal with hopes to re-establish his value and play it into a big contract in ’06. He’s making more in a base than I had suggested, but it’s not a terrible deal—and it’s not like the free agent market is tame thus far. He will be taking down $2.5M in base salary with incentives that can increase the contract value to $7M. It appears the incentives are based on number of starts. I’d prefer they’d have been tied to innings pitched, but if Morris rebounds nicely, we should see a good return on our investment. If he doesn’t pitch at all, that $2.5 mil is pricey. If he pitches like he did last year (quantity but not quality) we’re on the hook for $7M. That's not as nice, and not the steal that it might seem. The best thing you can say for that is, “at least it’s not $12M”. However, I’m going to go with my gut and say Morris is better than last year. Fortunately, since it's not my money, I can afford to do that.

In Limbo

Mike Matheny

Our trusty backstop gets a little time to procrastinate to see if anyone wants to pay more than the Cards are offering (2 year deal) and give up a first round draft pick.

My guess is he stays and continues the role of Yaddy’s Daddy. Hopefully Tony will use them in a 50-50 sort of pattern to enable the kid to gain more experience while keeping Matheny fresh.

Edgar Renteria

Bernie Mikalsz on his internet board reports that Jocketty and Renteria are close on reaching a deal, though the Detroit Tigers are in on the bidding now. I don’t worry about Renteria jumping for the cash in Detroit unless it’s ridiculously more than the Card’s offer. It has been reported several times that Edgar likes being in Saint Louis and playing for this team. Remember his terrible 2001 campaign? Tony repeatedly had to reassure Renteria that the team wasn’t going to trade him. After the trade deadline and he knew he was staying put, he hit .323 in August and .303 in September, despite finishing the year at .260.

It looks like he’ll be back, and unless the Cards can either find a second baseman who can lead off or trade Reggie Sanders and acquire a left-fielder who can lead off, Edgar should be pushed into that role. Maybe it’s my memories of his .396 OBP of 2003 or his .333/412/533 line as a leadoff hitter in the World Series. But think about this lineup:

Renteria
Walker
Pujols
Rolen
Edmonds
Reggie
2Bman
Matheny/Molina
Pitcher

If the team can’t find a legit leadoff hitter for 2b or LF, they ought to convince Edgar the role should be his.

In other news, the Cards are after Tim Hudson. More on that later.

Posted by David @ 6:45 PM 1 comments

1 Comments:

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