One Last Poke of the Hot Stove

First off, thanks to all that read through the UCB blog swap entries yesterday.  To identify the writers, Erik from Play A Hard Nine wrote here, Pip from Fungoes wrote at Cardinal Diaspora, Nick from Pitchers Hit Eighth wrote at La Beisbolista, Ryan from Cardinal Diaspora wrote at Pitchers Hit Eighth, Sara from La Beisbolista wrote at Play A Hard Nine, and I wrote over at Fungoes. 

Good stuff all the way around (even if no one took a stab at guessing authors!)

Speaking of the United Cardinal Bloggers, we've added a new blog to our ranks.  Redbirds Row just went on-line yesterday but is eagerly looking forward to participating in some of our upcoming projects. Go over and take a gander at his site.

It seems that the thought of Manny Ramirez, one I laughed off a couple of days ago, has stirred up the coals of the almost-dormant hot stove. I guess the thought of one of today's greatest hitters being in the lineup with today's greatest hitter does get people dreaming.

I know Albert likes to think that Manny might take a discount to play in St. Louis and he'd love to have his friend on the team, but seriously, how much less would Manny take? I'm sure that the allure of playing with Pujols would be helpful, but how much?

Say, for just wild speculation, you could get either Manny or Ben Sheets for $8 million a year. Where do you spend the money? Because, obviously, the Cardinals aren't going to be getting both. (The Cardinals aren't going to be getting either, but stay with me for the purposes of filling up blog space.)

I could see the argument that, if you sign Manny, you could move two outfielders, say Rick Ankiel and Skip Schumaker, and get back the pitcher that you need instead of signing Sheets. What would those two bring, though, especially since the Cardinals already need to deal without Manny?

Teams would know that the Cards were in a corner and needing to deal, which might lessen what the outfielders could bring back.

Besides the fact that, if Manny would come down to those levels, you don't think a team like the Mets would offer him $11 or $12 million? I just can't imagine he'd love the one-paper atmosphere enough to pass up on a few more million. Couple that with his questionable defense (granted, we will have that anyway if Chris Duncan is out there) and it's a tough stretch of the imagination to even discuss it.

I'd love for John Mozeliak to be doing this kind of outside-the-box thinking, but I still think I'd rather have Sheets to shore up the pitching staff. That's the current need and should be the higher priority right now. Anything else is really a heat-induced dream from standing too close to the hot stove.