Now we have an entire winter to speculate on the moves the Cards need to make. What do they need to do? Walker is gone. Will Reggie be gone too? Will they bid on the services of Brian Giles?
What about the bullpen? Ray King's tirade ensures the exit that his poor performance made probable. The Reyes injury really was a big problem in the postseason. Tavarez just isn't as depenable as Reyes.
The real problem is when you play a team with three starters like Oswalt, Clemens, and Pettite in a short series you can't make any mistakes. You have to stay within a run to enable the offense to try to manufacture runs. When you're down three you can't give away outs to get one run. That's what happened to them Wednesday night. When they had two on nobody out they couldn't bunt the runners over and try to scratch out a couple runs.
There was no room for error against these Astros. The Cards didn't play error free and they lost. What can they do to improve for next year?
4 comments:
I'll start the speculating...
Besides Giles, the big Free Agents are going to be AJ Burnett and Johnny Damon (and Konerko who will be staying with the White Sox), both of which would look great wearing Cardinal red.
Damon could lead off, Eckstein would bat second and Edmonds could get back to either 3rd or clean-up. His less-than-stellar arm would work in LF. (Plug Giles in right and the OF is set...and ticket prices will immediately go up).
Burnett would be nice, but do the Cards think they can afford $10MM a year for another starter. Maybe, if they don't resign Morris.
Other less expensive option in the OF are Jacque Jones or Matt Lawton.
And don't forget Manny...
Dave, How much do you thing Morris is going to cost? Are the Cards going to get a hometown, stuck with me through the injuries discount?
I don't think Burnett is worth $10 mil.
And I sure would like to see them get younger in the OF. This team is getting up there in the average age department.
Pitchers like Clement and Milton went for $7-8MM last year. He should be in that range, but someone will overpay for him. Probably Boston after they don't sign Damon and they do trade Manny.
Morris will probably ask for $4-5MM. Not a bad price, but can his arm hold out? He's having a difficult time with consistency throughout a full season. Keep in mind...Anthony Reyes is ready.
I like the thought of Giles, but we still need another OF unless you want to hand the job to John Rodriguez (nice OBP, but too many Ks). I'd like to put Matt Lawton out there. Cheap and would fit as a #6 hitter. Doesn't help the average age thing though.
Grudz is a free agent...do you put Nunez on 2B or try to resign Grudz?
And now for something completely different...The biggest free agent on the market this off-season might be Brian Cashman. How the Yankees handle this situation will impact the signings for many other teams. Thoughts???
I'd make Nunez the utility guy who gets plenty of at bats and try to get a younger two bagger. You know Nunez will have extended duty at third sometime during the season.
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