I do enjoy tea leaves, and acorns which are bitter though even in their best state. I glad your trying to follow a line off reasoning CC. Things to note;

A collusion is acting together to an agreed end. The line of simply suppressing salary and market expectations is likely recognized by all owners as a collective aspiration. That is hardly the point here. There are factions within ownership. Selig is a representative of a very powerful elitist faction.

If you read the article with BD yesterday, it is easy to see who your GM is and how his mind works. He has got it going on here is ST Louis, more than you know. The stand alone offer that changed baseball came from Arlington Texas, just after W was elected. It has really changed baseball. Now that it has changed, containing and reversing that trend represents huge profits.
Your price of beer is never going back down, but payroll might.

I started writing about finance and Sachs/Gold boys here 2yrs ago. For a reason. Some of you might be able to follow the big picture……………….. What you can’t see so well yet, and I know this to be true, S&G made huge profits through the W years as a Hedge Fund and commodity trader.
Their private knowledge and financing of the junk derivative securities and knowledge of how it would end, allowed them to control and predict market fluctuation on the way to gargantuan profits…………….. most held off shore. Back to the point. BD was on that train. He is arrogant and opinionated, and his elitist qualities might easily be construed as racist. etc;

Bottom line………something happened in NY and Boston this year…………… and something is happening in St Louis too. Lets just watch. I know that BD plays hardball………winner has nothing to do with a baseball game. That’s just a favorable market condition.

He’ll be 23 in May, so there isn’t any time to waste. It’ll be interesting to see if he can handle PB right away.

Craig on the roster would be fun. He’d have to play now and then. Would it be MH to sit or AP. Some incredible theories could be spun from that.

M25, great point on the lack of power. It is really system-wide. It is on my long list of blog topics. Last season, only two players across the nine minor league clubs hit more than 15 home runs.

It’s fun to see all these names again.

Issue, BD knows the value of an ace up his sleeve. They will use the argument that it might endanger his future and further lessen the value of Hawksworth who is out of options. That logic would also piss off Tony and AP, which couched in logic may be the real point I’m afraid. You would think that there is no way Craig won’t make it. That would be a dead give away if they say they want him to have more at bats. That will rile up the boys too. I’m just wander how the hell are they going to keep Ruben on the team. I’m looking for a trade move if he can’t cut it.

Walt was running an old folks home, too many has beens. Under Mo, the Cards are getting younger.

Joe Nathans arm has been a work in progress for years. It finally broke down. I believe he may have decided to avoid the ice area himself, opting to be healthy for the next round of contract talks starting with the activation of his 2012 / 12.5 club option. A wise man.

Its nice Craig, Mather, and Stavinoha are hitting, unlike Greene, Gotay, and Jay. Mather might be able to serve as 4th OF. Craig or Stavinoha might earn a niche as top pinch-hitter.

Albert says he goes in to ST like he has to make the team. Lets take him at his word. Craig is out-playing him by a margin, so lets put him first at first on the depth chart. Challenge Albert to play his way back to the top. I’d go ahead and drop Schu to back-up status as well. As to our pitchers, they stink. I’m sure they are ‘working on stuff’.

My solution …………. buy out 2011 in a 5yr extension for 125 million. Let them negotiate the record setting years at that time. Everyone comes out looking good. Pressure off.

The real issues here are recognizing the dangers to AP. Greatness is a fragile thing beneath all of the posturing. When a mystery blogger broke the Khalil story, I remember them pointing out that not releasing him at that point could endanger his whole career. Management covered their ass with the “anxiety” diagnosis which obscured there culpability in trading for him in the first place. They strung him along as a testimonial to there compassionate nature. Right. The AP situation in its most profitable form to management is a bad season. In my estimation that’s a 100 million dollar reversal in his contract expectation. If they attempt to leverage him here by waiting, that goes right against his personal performance expectation. This guy is in trouble. If he can’t address this emotionally, his denial will lead him to a trade me posture, or to excepting the 10/200 life preserver with all the differed payment options still at play. BD/Mo have likely measured the nature of AP’s relationship to his Agent at this point. They are working to exploit this vulnerability. WC is not wrong here. I realize that this is not good news. My solution works in good faith for all sides.

Instead, maybe the day-nights could be used to create more off days which would allow more scheduling flexibility. I’m not sure how that could be used, but at least maybe we could avoid nonsense like the Cards/Cubs schedulig this year.

Imagine a Cards/Cubs saturday day/night DH at busch. Holy cow. I’d definatly have to take the train.

I’m OK with inter-league play as long as we don’t use the DH here.

If your watching Cardinal ball, Albert is trying to stay closed and drive the middle. He is. His pull double was the same swing with the right hand coming over on the off-speed, thus its unusual flight. His attempts to turn on something have been very jumpy, upper body much to fast. He isn’t here yet. He seems concerned about managing his spring and regaining his swagger. No sign of off field power as yet which is the real pathway out of his slump. He isn’t seeing many arms yet which is a concern………………………………I continue to be impressed with MM’s work with the everyone else.

Houston moves to NL West
Arizona moves to AL West

done

then we dont have a 6 team division in the NL Central and a 4 team division in the AL West

it could be much more complicated…but since the NL has an extra team why not do it?

Arizona travels basically the same distance around, they havent been around forever in the NL like the Astros so there is little history to deal with…

Houston is in the Central but is the farthest away i think (dont know the distance to PIttsburg)…im sure they woudlnt be too stoked to travel even more, but they already travel…at least this way they get to go to sunnier and more moderate temp places

i have always hated the fact the leagues arent balanced

Albert’s tone here is very revealing. This admission pretty much validates my earlier speculations about Lopez and the content of the first meetings. If I had to take a guess and a good guess it would be, Mo had one of his lackeys make that call. They are players.

RC knows that the problems he focused his attention on are not gone, their potential just transformed into new challenges for a growing boy. The good part is that they are not his problems now. They are now simply lessons taught, hopefully to be understood for their good intentions when the time is right. Sometimes babies are the best teachers. Lets hope for an inspired lesson plan from the “short one”.

I got to see today’s game before heading to the airport with the girls. Had to promise my brother I’d stand there and watch his kid get on the plane. My daughter and I got back a little while ago. Never did get to Saturday’s game.

Never saw so much bad pitching.

A different kind of prospect is SS Donovan Solano. Unspeedy and unpowerful, Solano is easy to overlook. But he fields and has risen to AAA; this spring he has had a few at bats and gotten hits. Solano is at least a useful asset for the system, though not beloved for potential.

The Baseball America articles may be less useful, given the specific context of the Cards. Since the Latin program got a new commitment in 2005, Sanchez, Samuel, and Castillo (plus Solano) have risen highest, so are mentioned. But the Cards were not recruiting bonus babies back in 2005, so the talent during this time frame is modest. The first priority back in 2005 was setting up infrastructure (scouts and coaches), and wooing buscones.

Lucena was from an even earlier era. The Cards were clearly underachieving in Latin America pre-2005, with Lucena the best of a lame bunch.

What matters now is whether the Cards are recruiting some good bonus babies. And whether some pleasant surprises emerge from the mass of low profile signees. The next couple of years should begin to make this much clearer.

I am in Palm Beach-ish, but in no position to try to keep up with a young lady. Sorry, bb!

“Fleischer visited Bright House Field last March for a media-training session with the Phils but was not asked to return this year. Instead, the team will hear from media consultant Lisa Levine today.

Phillies officials did not wish to comment on the change, but several players remembered Fleischer’s presentation as brief and underwhelming.”

This article says nothing. Was Ari’s agreement with MLB part of why he was doing media seminars?
The fact that it ended…..a yr ago……..just might have be an issue. No where does it say that he was hired by the Philles of fired by the Philles, just that he did not return as a speaker on media day.

Don’t get me wrong here………………Fleischer is an a—-le. He was hired by the Cardinals to do a job. He did. The way I see it, he accomplished exactly what he was asked to do…(by Bud and BD)…… and that was to end the debate about the assent of Steroid era players to the hall. It wasn’t intended to be cleaner than it was. Enough blood and tears were shed to drown Roger and Barry.
The larger implications still have to do with collusion law suit vulnerability. Bonds was the poster boy for both sides………. PU because he was so obviously mistreated and harassed……..MLB because he was obviously so unworthy…………….. That has now pretty much been resolved. Mark will drag the cross………rightfully so……….and all the others can either join in, or take their chances. The Union isn’t going to uses Bonds now in any collusion complaints. That’s a looser……………but they are looking for a candidate, of that you can be assured.

Remember those are top talent rankings, so don’t necessarily reflect system depth.

Most surprising to me is how drastically a team’s rank can change in one year. 29th to 7th and 7th to 26th as examples, and quite a few teams with big moves. I’m not sure I can buy that so many systems change that much that fast. In fact, I don’t buy it.

One question I have–would the Cardinals consider founding a baseball academy in the USA?
There is a tremendous amount of untapped baseball talent in the homeland.

However, all that being said, I still think that for the Cardinals (who will still sell plenty of tickets) and hopefully get a good hitting coach who won’t be a distraction, the rollout when just fine. The storm has passed and now its time to win some games. There will be a renewed interest near the start of the season, but nothing as crazy as the initial rollout, and there will be further talk when the Cards make the post-season, and if they make the World Series, you can bet that will be part of the story line, but at that point, it will be spun as redemption, unless the Cards face New York, but they have plenty of steroid allegations of their own. The real danger is if the Cards start the season worse than expected or if Pujols and or Holliday hit much worse than expected. I think that McGwire has the right approach and certainly embraces technology more than McRae did, so the proof, as they say, will be in the pudding.

Here is one blog entry about Dubya Bush as MLB commissioner. The idea must have been written about in leftist fantasies.

How many actually believe that its Tiger Woods who in hiring Ari, and not whats left of his sponsors and the PGA? Re entering for the masters?

Can’t believe some haven’t heard of W’s interest in being comish.

Your blog is provocative Brian. I like it.

Luke Gregerson was a relief pitcher for an NAIA team. He had great stats and they were legit, because he has a strong slider. He was a good find.
Pete Parise is another converted position player, one with a sinker; fine UDFA.
OF Derrick Shepperd had the body, so why not take a gamble? He did not pan out, but its still worth a roll of the dice, because you never know how much a guy can surprise. Every 7th Shepperd or Jon Edwards might develop into a good hitter, so the more you sign, the better.
Boggs and Sam Freeman had crummy ERAs in college, but have the arm strength to break wood bats. Degerman might have worked out, if he could have controlled his curve.

Jolly good fun.

The issue only has still more downside potential. The science has been ripped to shreds, several surface temperature data bases are cross-contaminated and unreliable. This is why Al tried to re-brand it as Climate Change and then Green Energy. They are trying to change the label, since they know the scientific foundation is junk. Republicans used to assume some small amount of underlying merit, however now its becoming a litmus test to laugh at the nonsense.

On another thread, Jumbo proclaimed global warming dead, but honest Al’s book is holding at 4000+. For comparison, The Hollow Earth by Raymond Bernard,ranks way down at 300,000+. I read it over the winter while Jumbo was wasting time with Twain, and can attest to its entertainment value. “…This controversial book claims that flying saucers not only exist, but that they are the vehicles of a super-race that lives in a huge, underground world whose entrance is in the earth’s North Pole.” So I would have to dispute Jumbo’s position, and side with Westy (as to global warming and Twain). Granted, maybe Al’s stature lends staying power.

A plus, go to, unhittable pitch seems important. Wainwright’s excellence seems built on a plus curve, supplemented by other pitches. This is why Rich Hill could surprise, if he can control that thing. Luhnow may understand this, since he keeps an eye open for knuckeballers, this spring Zink.