Lets trade for Albert Pujols

The headline is exactly what I meant to say.. Lets trade for Albert Pujols. Why, you ask. Well, he is only the best player in the league and the Cardinals are going nowhere. Last year, Albert's statistics dropped significantly from his 2006 season, but he is still one of the most feared players in the game.

2006- .331 AVG 49 HR 137 RBI
2007- .327 AVG 32 HR 103 RBI

That decrease in production is most likely due to the fact that he had absolutely no protection in the middle of that Cardinals line-up. Imagine what he would do in a lineup with Reyes, Wright, and Beltran. The question is, just how much will it take to acquire such a player as Pujols? Well, we might have to dismantle our entire farm system, send them a MLB starter, and maybe even a few MLB relivers. This is what I think a fair trade would look like..

METS GET:

1B Albert Pujols
SP Anthony Reyes

CARDINALS GET:

OF Fernando Martinez
OF Carlos Gomez
SP Deolis Guerra
SP Oliver Perez
SP Kevin Mulvey
MR Joe Smith
One other minor league player of their choice.

I think that would be a fair deal.. maybe we can get a lower level prospect out of them. We could also then trade 1B Carlos Delgado for a starter or a prospect or two...

Some of you may be saying to yourself that we don't have the money to pay so much money to so many superstar players.. well, Pedro, El-Duque, Delgado, and Perez will all be free-agents next year, and if we did not trade Oliver Perez, I think he and Pedro would be the only bets to come back. Also, Pujols is reasonably paid 16 million per season for the next 4 seasons.

If I wasn't living in fairyland and this deal could be made.. our lineup would look like this..

Reyes
Castillo
Beltran
Pujols
Wright
Alou
Church
Schneider
Pitchers Spot

Thats satisfying, but our rotation would be full of question marks...

Pedro
Maine
El-Duque
Pelfrey
Humber or Mulvey

That is a very young rotation. If this trade were to happen, Omar and Co. would need to try to sign a veteran, ala Bartolo Colon or Jason Jennings to round out this rotation and give it some kind of stability.




Thanks for Voting and remember that this is just an idea of mine. I doubt that this would ever even be talked about between Omar Minaya and the Cardinals GM. This is just me being bored and waiting for spring training to start. Please discuss your opinions in the comments section of this post.

Rolen headed North, Glaus back to NL

The Cardinals and Blue Jays are in the final stages of finishing a deal that would send 3B Scott Rolen to the Blue Jays and 3B Troy Glaus. I feel that the Jays want to rid themselves of Glaus because of his mentioning in the dreaded Mitchell Report... Scott Rolen had to go. He has never really gotten along with manager Tony Larussa, and the Cardinals need more protection in that lineup behind Albert Pujols. Heres the numbers...

Glaus:
2005 - 149 games - .258/.363/.522/.885 - 37HR's
2006 - 153 games - .252/.355/.513/.868 - 38HR's
2007 - 115 games - .262/.366/.473/.839 - 20HR's

Rolen:

2005 - 56 games - .235/.323/.383/.706 - 5 HR's
2006 - 142 games - .296/.369/.518/.887 - 22 HR's
2007 - 112 games - .265/.331/.398/.729 - 8 HR's

Glaus looks like the more consistent one, but Rolen has superior defense.

Edmonds to San Diego

According to MLB.com, the Padres has have acquired the 37-year-old Jim Edmonds for 25-year-old 3B David Freese. Freese was not named on the Padres top 10 prospect list by Baseball America. The Padres will pay $7 million of the $8 million due to him in '08. Last season Edmonds hit .252 with 12 home runs and 53 RBI in 117 games. Edmonds is a 8-time gold glove award winner and a four time All-Star. I think this was a salary dump for the Cardinals. I'm surprised to hear that they didnt get more in return for him. On the other hand, the Padres recieve a viable option in CF for the '08 season, and they don't have to give up much to get him. Overall this was a good move for both teams.