With the Winter Meetings starting next week, the next couple of days figure to be a very busy time for the Cardinals. There will be rumors flying, and since it can be hard to decipher fact from fiction coverage surrounding the Winter Meetings has little backbone to it. It’s truly a crazy time of year for baseball fans to try to keep things straight. In Cardinal Nation, Joe Strauss’s article and tweets were once again the story that has Cardinal Nation buzzing, so let’s cut to the chase.

                -Strauss stated that John Mozeliak and other members of the front office have expressed their concern on how much to offer Holliday since Pujols will need an extension sometime soon. I am sure John Mozeliak did say that, but I also think others are blowing this out of control by questioning why the Cardinals didn’t realize that in the first place. I don’t think the front office was naive enough to think that Holliday would come cheap, and it’s not like the fact that Pujols’s contract will expire after 2011 is breaking news either. The Cardinals knew that it would be expensive to keep Pujols and Holliday, and why it’s a big story that they might not be able to afford both isn’t exactly shocking news. All the Cardinals ever said was they would make an aggressive attempt to sign Holliday, and they very well might. They never stated that they were going to bring Holliday back at any cost or would be the highest bidder.

                -Strauss said that the Cardinals might be interested in bringing Derosa back if Holliday walks to split time at third and in left with David Freese and Allen Craig, which I don’t think would be a bad idea. Signing Derosa and having a three man rotation for two positions would be a better option than signing two players like Miguel Tejada and Xavier Nady. Tejada and Nady would be pricey, and I think the best way to spread around the dollars this off-season is to bring back Derosa then put the rest of the dollars into pitching. The offense wouldn’t be the strength of the team, but it would be a better offense than most of last year where Joe Thurston, Rick Ankiel, Khalil Greene, Chris Duncan, and an injured Mark Derosa took a lot of plate appearances.

                -Speaking of pitching, according to Matthew Leach the Cardinals could have some interest in Vincente Padilla. Padilla has a live arm and a sinking fastball, which could be a good match for Dave Duncan, but he also comes with some serious baggage and a poor reputation in the clubhouse. Personally I’d much rather see someone like Jon Garland brought in than Vincente Padilla. Consider their Bill James Projections for next season:

 

	Innings	Walks	Strikeouts	WHIP	ERA	FIP
Padilla	141	51	97	1.42	4.66	4.68
Garland	216	64	109	1.38	4.33	4.56

 

Basically, Garland is better in every category except strikeouts, which he offsets by posting a lower walk rate. If the Cardinals are going to spend money on an innings eating #4 type starter next season, I’d rather have Garland, who is a better pitcher than Padilla and doesn’t come with the negative reputation.

                -Derrick Goold believes that the Cardinals could enter the bidding for one of the high risk pitchers that I’ve discussed, which is an idea that I am obviously on board with. It’s hard to say what pitchers are healthy from a fan’s point of view, but if the Cardinals were able to get 140-150 innings from a guy like Sheets, Harden, or Bedard, it would probably end up being a very nice value to the club.

                -By my next post Wednesday, I’m sure we will have a clearer picture of what John Mozeliak is going to do this off-season. Eventually the club will have to decide on what side of their parallel tracks off-season plan they are going to follow, and it will be very interesting to see how it all shakes out.

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