Really tough to figure out a good post for a day like today. The Warm-up is over, so the news flood is over. We’ve talked about most of the facets of the ’08 team already. Which means, when you can’t figure out what to say, find people that can (and do it better than you do anyway.)
Good discussion of what to do about Jason Isringhausen over at VEB today. I think most of us have just naturally assumed that Izzy would be let go at the end of the season so that the Cardinals could get the draft picks. But with him saying he’d like to stay in St. Louis, that’s not a slam dunk move. I like to see the home town guys stick around, but I don’t know if keeping him will be worth the price tag, especially if that keeps us from making a bigger move in the free agent market next year.
Also, the All-Time Cardinal Team Simulation is going on over there. You can use this handy-dandy page to keep up with the results and find links to the writeups.
Deaner faces a big dilemma, one that comes to most of us in fandom. Help the man decide what to do about his cap.
There were some unhappy fans due to Albert Pujols’s lack of interaction in his autograph line during the Warm-up. Tom at CardinalsGM asks if players owe the fans some niceness in those situations.
There’s always plenty to read at Future Redbirds. Erik has gone back and done a retro review of Yadier Molina’s minor league numbers inspired by Molina’s new contract. Kujo examines Molina as well over at Rockin’ the Red.
Dan at Get Up, Baby! hits a few of the highlights from the past week.
Mike didn’t take kindly to the news that Hal McRae would be wearing #15 this year. I can’t say that I blame him, unless it is supposed to be some sort of honoring-the-player thing.
I’ve added a couple of new blogs to the rolls. I Bleed Cardinal Red and View From the Cheap Seats. Check them out when you’ve got the time.
Tomorrow, we’ll see what some non-Cardinal blogs are talking about, so if you have a favorite baseball blog you want to lift up, post it in the comments and I’ll take a look.
C70 at the Bat 
From the comments at FutureRedbirds:
“Here’s a fun notion: take the bases saved by Yadi with his arm, and add them to his slugging%.
Like this. Yadi threw out 27 of 50 runners last year. MLB caught stealing avg. was 25.5%, or 27 of 106, so to speak. Therefore Yadi was 56 runners, or 56 bases above average with his arm. Add those 56 bases to his total bases, and what you have is an average DE-fensive catcher with a O-ffensive line of .275/.340/.526(!)”
I haven’t fully decided if this notion is even remotely plausible. Any thoughts?
Will you do the Cardinals preview for Diamond Hoggers in the weeks to come?
andujar–
I don’t think you could do that. Granted, he had a lot to do with it, but does that mean he’d be that much worse if he intimidated people into not running? Interesting idea and fun to play with, but I don’t think you can take it seriously.
Thenatural–
If that’s an invite, sure I will!
That’s the direction I was leaning. They are just too many moving parts to that notion…