Here's the latest on the Cubs and here's a look ahead to the Cardinals' offseason. Now for some notes from the rest of the division…
- Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan says he expects to remain with the team in 2012, though the commitment depends on their next manager, his responsibilities and his family situation, according to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- Pirates GM Neal Huntington explained that the Pirates declined their options on Chris Snyder, Ryan Doumit, Ronny Cedeno and Paul Maholm because he’d rather use those resources to “see what's out there," according to Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus breaks down the Astros’ top 11 prospects and Jarred Cosart, George Springer and Jonathan Singleton lead the pack. The Astros acquired Cosart and Singleton from the Phillies for Hunter Pence and they selected Springer with their top pick in this year’s draft.
One of the few who said it then, and I will still say it now……we gave up way too much for Hunter Pence.
The Astros system got a lot better this year.
I didn’t realize the Phillies gave up so much for Pence, they’re lucky he doesn’t have an injury history.
I really think the Pirates should bring Cedeno back. There really isn’t much out there, and so help me god if Yuniesky Betancourt is the Pirate’s starting shortstop next year.
Cedeno fits the Pirates till they bring up someone from the farm to replace him. (i think the closest is 2 years away, correct me if im wrong) not to mention he had the Cubs number last year.
I understand the concept of ‘opportunity cost’, and it’s not like Huntington and co. are breaking up the ’27 Yankees here.
However, given Huntington’s track record in the free agent market, I will be very surprised if he can obtain starting-caliber players at SS, P, and C using the resources saved by declining the options of Cedeno, Maholm, and one of Doumit/Snyder.
for the pirates they need to sign derek lee at 1b (although i would prefer using the money on prince but the FO is cheap so they would not want to do that), jimmy rollins for ss, and grady sizemore to place rf. then go after edwin jackson and jon garland for the rotation and broxton to sure up the bullpen.
ss rollins
rf sizmore
cf mccutchen
1b lee
2b walker
3b alvarez
lf tabata/pressley
c mchendry or free agent (shoppach/barajas/hernandez)
SP
Jackson/garland
Karstens
McDonald
Morton
Correia
bullpen
Hanrhan, Meek, Broxton, Moskos, Resop, McCutchen, Lincoln
looks good on paper minus sizemore is RF. leave presley there with tabata in LF and Cutch in CF