Wednesday, November 29, 2006

moving not treading

regarding yesterday's bunch of signings: i like them. they are all good money deals for the redbirds. true, adam kennedy is signed for more than last year's 2nd base spending limit which cost us grudzielanek (god knows i've misspelled that), but in the end, we'll have spent less this coming year than in 2006 on 2nd base due to the junior spivey-as-million-dollar-minor-leaguer added to luna (at minimum), gollum (at slightly over minimum), and jabba the second baseman (pro-rated, but 1mm+).

kip wells for 4mm a year is fine with me. he projects to be a good duncan fixer-upper, with a new coat of paint and maybe new curtains. most groundball specialists can succeed as #5 guys with the cards, thanks to the emphasis on infield defense (and the dumb luck of the best hitter in the game, possibly of all time, also being one of the best first basemen in the bigs today).

1 more year, 162 more chances to utter the phrase "gary freakin' bennett?!?"

eli marerro is a fan favorite, and as far as i'm concerned, we can sign virtually any old body to a minor league contract. let him compete for a spot. it worked for the imperial spiez, did it not?

start out on the (relatively) cheap, build from there. i like it, walt.

Friday, November 03, 2006

a little further celebration

two more quick thoughts...

i kinda hope we do sign jabba the second baseman, if only so i get to use that nomenclature again. on the other hand, if we don't resign strikeout machine hamlet as a fourth outfielder, i will be satisfied to have only called him that this one time, so long as someone other than my wife recognizes just how freakin' clever that is.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

free agents! free all contractual prisoners!

stl free agents already filed (and opinions where warranted):

ronnie belliard - i like his glove, i like his offensive potential. this may be the year ownership decides to pony up on spending at second, but it's worked for them to do no such thing for four years in a row, so who knows? ron-ron will probably price himself out of a lot of teams range this go round.

gary bennett - say it ain't so, gary, say it ain't... ok, i really don't care in the slightest.

jason marquis - bye. best of luck, headcase.

scott spiezio - if we can afford this super-sub i can see going for it. if not, well, the soul patch was fun while it lasted.

the corpse of jose vizcaino - thanks for that one homer, jose, and for giving eck a few minutes to heal.

jeff weaver - i don't think our other jeff will be back next year. call it a hunch. therefore, i want to keep this jeff. his stuff is better; it's just a matter of control. working with duncan again can only help, and if he needs to know, i might know a guy who knows a guy who can get him some good weed.

i've heard a rumor on mark mulder as well. if this is true, and he doesn't accept an incentive-heavy deal from us, i will truly wash my hands of him, the ungrateful bastard. if he does, welcome home, mark. we always knew you'd be great again.