I'm starting to get just a bit worried about some of the Cardinals offseason decisions (or lack thereof) up to this point. While every other major National league contender (especially those in the NL Central) is out doing things to bolster their line up or pitching staff, we've kind of been sitting back on our asses doing nothing but letting players go. Since the end of the season, the Cubs have picked up a major addition to their lineup in first baseman Derrek Lee from the Marlins, and closed deals with all their major free agent and arbitration eligible players including pitcher Matt Clement, as well as brought up some new minor league pitchers with great potential. The Cubs are also showing interest in now free agent pitcher Greg Maddox. The Astros on the other hand have signed dominant starting pitcher Andy Pettitte (21-8 in 2003) from the Yankees, resigned Brad Ausmus, and Jose Vizcaino, as well as their manager and GM, and now rumors are abound that Roger "the rocket" Clemens is going to pop out of his 3 month retirement stint to play for them in 2004 (Both Pettitte and Clemens are Texas natives).

Now the Cardinals have made plenty of offseason moves mind you, but we seem to be losing great players and getting nothing in return. We've managed to lose all our power off the bench with Eduardo Perez going to Tampa Bay, and Miguel Cairo Headed to the Yankees, we basically gave Tino Martinez to Tampa Bay plus paid his salary for 2004 for them, lost Vina to the Detriot Tigers, and declined options on a whole bunch of other free agents. We have however resigned, Chris Widger, Steve Kline, Cal Eldred, and Chris Carpenter (a big sarcastic whoopdy-doo), and picked up Evan Rust, Brent Butler, and Steve Cox (who are these guys again, not MVP caliber pitching certainly). I can understand moving players or not resigning contract options to free up salary, but where is the big payoff? I suppose I'm going to have to be patient here. I trust old Walt Jocketty has something up his sleeve but I'm just not sure what. I've been hearing Greg Maddox's name tossed around a bit, as well as a both Ramon Ortiz and Odalas Perez. I'd probably be happy with any of those three as one of our top 3 starting pitchers especially if we could pull the deal off without dealing an everyday player. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. The winter meetings are underway as I type this and hopefully something good may come out of that. But certainly before we can do anything else, we need to give Pujols the "bling, bling"

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:36 PM