St. Louis Cardinals Offseason: Ebb and Flow

You know, Cardinal news seems to come in bursts this offseason.  One week there's plenty to talk about, one week, well, scraping the bottom of the barrel comes to mind.

That's about the only reason the potential signing of a 38-year-old Korean pitcher would create a decent discussion.  Of course, the notable signing fee doesn't hurt discussion matters.  You know that low, low price of $101 is just prime fodder for the Bill Dewitt haters.  All in all, it looks like just a depth move for the Cardinals to sign Choi Hyang-nam.  Probably see him some in Jupiter, probably won't see him much after that.

Elsewhere, Kyle Lohse is really, really glad that he pushed to get his contract extended before the end of the year.  I can well imagine.  Do you think any other time Lohse would be paid more than Ben Sheets when they both were free agents?  And yet Sheets is still looking for work while Lohse has the security and piece of mind of knowing where he's going to play and for how much.  You know he's glad that he overruled Scott Boras and Boras probably is as well now.

To steal from a couple of other talented bloggers, Tom at CardinalsGM suggests that, with the resigning of Andy Pettitte, John Mozeliak really should give the Yankees a call and suggest a Rick Ankiel for Phil Hughes deal.  The Yanks are stockpiled on the pitching front and could really use a good outfielder.  I've discussed before the Ankiel for Ian Kennedy rumor, which might have a bit more likelihood of occurring, especially after the New York shopping spree. 

Either way, I agree that's a conversation the Cardinals really need to have.  Bringing in a young, talented, cost-controlled pitcher for an outfielder that, as much as I'm a fan, is a free agent at the end of the year and likely won't be back, plus one that you can replace from your outfield surplus, is really a smart decision and the way smaller market teams should be thinking.  Whether it'll happen before spring training games start, though, I don't know.  I don't figure it will.

Secondly, check out what Pitchers Hit Eighth has done with the Baseball-Reference Play Index.  He's studied the stolen base rate against Chris Carpenter and found that Carp tends to allow fewer stolen bases than you'd think.  Yes, he's had some good catchers behind the plate, but even when the catchers were less than Molina-like, runners had a tough time with him.  Just something to keep in mind if Carpenter stays on the mound a lot this year.

Remember the UCB blog swap on Friday!