November 25, 2006
Off-Season Activity
By
Amanda
Posted at 11:16 am
What the heck is up with the Cardinals? They know that they still have to play next year, right? The only moves they've made this off-season (besides 40-man roster shuffling stuff) are 1) re-signing Scott Spiezio (ick) and 2) signing your friend and mine, Randy Kiesler, to a split contract. The blogs are not buzzing. Even the official Cards site seems to be mired in the post-World Series euphoria.
All the better for us, I guess.
In other parts of the world, some teams are doing things. Here's a report on the money spent by teams on this year's free-agent signings. I think you'll be surprised at how relatively low the average age of the Reds' free-agents have been.
Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty, has developed stage fright after his team won it all in 2006. In Baseball Prospectus, The Week In Quotes for Nov. 7-13, Jocketty is quoted as follows:
“Look at the White Sox. They thought they got better when they got Jim Thome and Vazquez. And they didn’t even get into the playoffs.”
“We did the same thing after 1996, when we were one game away from going to the World Series. I really made only one change, and the next year was something of a disaster.”
Yep, that’s right, Walt. Good thing you didn’t make two changes, or you might have finished in last place – which your team only missed by five games in 1997 anyway, thank heaven the Cubs were around to keep your team out of the cellar. Never mind that you used 13 different starting pitchers, and your shortstop was Royce Clayton. Don’t mess with success, Walt. You’ve resigned Edmonds. Just leave it at that.
HMZ
Oh yeah, I didn’t mention Edmonds, did I? I understand why Cards fans love him, but if I were one of them, I’d be kind of scared that bringing him back was one of my team’s few moves. He’s not as young as he once was, and they don’t exactly have the option of moving him to first.
Maybe they’re doing what the Yankees are doing, waiting until after the deadline so they don’t have to give up draft picks.
Scout.com is having a free preview weekend. Their usually subscriber-only content can be seen by all, at least for today.
You can even read [url=http://yankees.scout.com/2/220185.html]Bubba’s scouting report[/url] (from early 2004, the last time he was considered a prospect). 🙂
We should have let sleeping dogs lie, I guess.
Adam Kennedy, three years, $10 million. New second baseman. Completes their everyday lineup.
Kip Wells, one year, $4 million. Fills one hole and leaves them two bricks short of a full load in the starting rotation. Article in the Cinci Post says they’re talking to some of the free agents on the market.
HMZ
The Wells signing was great and Adam Kennedy is an above-average defensive 2B who can get on base (well, can get on base considerably better than Alex Gonzalez) and flash a little speed. Also a good signing.