Unfinished Business

Just wanted to jot down a few things I still don't understand about this off season as I spend a Sunday afternoon watching random games and thinking Rob Dibble needs a muzzle.

1) How did the Cardinals not sign Orlando Hudson when his price continued to drop? I know Hudson made sense for a great deal of teams, however St. Louis seems like a perfect fit. The Mets owe Castillo $18 mil over the next 3 years, the Indians apparently refuse to move Asdrubal to short and he alone wouldn't make the Padres contenders. St. Louis however doesn't have a 2B, they have a pitch to contact staff and the Cubs are more vulnerable then people seem to realize. Adding a legit top 10 2B and another .350 plus OBP in front of Pujols could easily gain the Cards another 3-4 wins. While this wouldn't have closed the gap completely, it would give them a much better chance should Bradley/Harden/Zambrano get hurt/under perform thus giving the NL central an opening.


2) How the Mets didn't go out and sign another lefty relief pitcher the day after the Phils signed Ibanez. When the team that has won the division two years in a row by a grand total of 4 games gives you such a blatant tactical advantage you must grab a hold of it. Signing any one of Trevor Miller, Will Ohman or Joe Beimel would have done the trick. For $2-4 million the Mets could have guranteed that Ryan Howard would never face a righty late in a ballgame against them and considering he's hit a combined 241/329/498 vs lefties from 06-08, that would be a great strategic advantage. By comparison he's hit 299/416/653 against righties over the same span so throwing Putz against him might not work out too well. Combined with their failure to add a corner OF bat to the Tatis/Murphy/Church rotation when at least 6 better options existed shows just how the Phils have been able to run them down two years in a row despite the Mets having a better core in Wright/Reyes/Beltran and Santana. Of course the addition of Sheffield may help alleviate the lack of OF offense, but I remain unconvinced.

3) The entire Cubs off season. Yes they are still the best team in their division, yes they have more lineup balance and yes they have the best NL rotation on paper but I still feel they are weaker than last year. First, out of all the OF options they chose the guy who has never played more than 141 games in a season and has played in less than 100 3 of the last 4 years. He only played 20 games in the field last year and has only topped 500 AB's once in his career. Combine him with Rich Harden and you now have major injury risk on your team. Secondly assuming Fukudome and Fontenot will be able fill 2B/CF is not the greatest idea, especially after trading away the best super utility player in the game for almost no return and sending Ronny Cedano away to Seattle thus robbing them of the depth they had at MI/RF last year. Thirdly trading Jose Ceda away for Kevin Gregg, the definition of league average Todd Jones type closer is non-sensical. Having Marmol as a muli-inning closer would expand the advantage gained by having one of the 5 best relief arms in the league. Instead the Cubs opted to follow the mass published managers manual. The Cubs are still the best team in their division and possibly the league, I just feel as though they've left themselves more vulnerable to injury or underperformance than last year.

4) The Reds refusing to learn from their past mistake and signing Willy Taveras. After the performances last year from Votto, Bruce, Cueto and Volquez many people see the Reds as the major sleeper team in the NL this year. However, with the OBP sinkholes they will have from Taveras, Phillips, Hernandez, whoever their SS is and the P spot, not to mention the very real possibility of Jay Bruce not becoming a superstar this year, you have a team that is going to struggle to score runs. Taveras has speed to burn and is above average in CF defensively, however putting him at the top of this lineup is just going to exacerbate their problems in getting people on base and runs across the plate. Signing Jim Edmonds to platoon with Jerry Hairston to cover CF or moving Bruce to center and signing any of the corner OF bats on the market this year would have greatly increased this teams chances of winning. Nick Swisher could have been had at relative little cost in terms of players and would have fit perfectly on this team as a switch hitting on base machine that can play a passable corner OF. Instead they have the RH version of Corey Patterson and come June will probably be wondering when Drew Stubbs will be ready.

The above moves and non moves have left me a bit confused and (I believe) the mentioned teams in a weaker position to contend. Oh and Robb Dibble's consistent use of "us" and "we" while referring to a team that didn't exist when he played is somehow hilarious and not infuriating. Until next time.