Cardinals Continue To Slow Play

Hey, I've left out a lot of the gambling metaphors so far this week.  You can only expect that to go so far.  (Besides, I've got my big year-end game this weekend, so that's starting to be on my mind as well.)  Slow playing—or at least slow acting—does seem to be what St. Louis is doing this week, though.

I don't know if it's big news, but it definitely counts as surprising that the Cardinals actually made a bid on Francisco Rodriguez before he headed to the Mets.  I don't figure K-Rod was all that excited about playing in the heartland anyway, but that may be the biggest indication of how the closer market has collapsed from its projected peak during the season.

It sounds like the big push would be to get Brian Fuentes, though numerous trade possibilities are listed in that article as well.  I wasn't all that excited about Fuentes during the season due to his high cost, but looking over his stats right now and it becomes clear why he's considered one of the top closers on the market.  If the Cardinals are really invested in getting a closer, something I'm not completely sold on right now, Fuentes isn't a bad choice.

Out of the trade possibilities, Matt Capps might be the most interesting.  He's young but has established himself as a strong closer.  I don't know what the cost in players would be, though.  Pittsburgh's management has never been rated as just the sharpest knives in the drawer, but I think they'd realize that's an asset they don't need to just give away.

Possibly the most interesting line in the story was the comment that the Cardinals are more likely to make a trade than sign a free agent before the Rule V draft on Thursday.  Whether that means either will happen, of course, is up in the air.  Strauss said in yesterday's chat that he thought there'd be movement on a pitcher last night.  If there was, it hasn't been reported yet.  Strauss chats again today, BTW.

Mozeliak is keeping his cards close.  Hopefully he doesn't overplay his hand.

UCB radio is on tonight!  10:00 CST.  If you aren't up that late, you can listen tomorrow at the site and we are working on getting it imported into iTunes for download.

And, if you are interested, check out this Cardinal off-season report.