Valascus

Ha...they can have him. I am starting to think their recent pitching acquisitions will not help them much this season. They will still be reliant upon a healthy Prior, Wood, and Zambrano. Lilly will be pitching in a park that is ill suited for left handed pitchers due to the ease that homeruns come for right handed hitters. He is going to do very poorly at home. We all know about Marquis. He is a hard headed punk. Dave Duncan tried his best to teach him to maximize his abilities, but Marquis simply would not take to his teachings and wanted to do things HIS way. Yeah...that got him far. Look forward to seeing him next season and watching the Cards pound him into the ground.

I have never caught a body, but one of the reserves I fish on was part of one of the most infamous crimes in St. Louis history...made even worse because it was never solved. I am talking about the Angie Housman case. Her body was found mutilated on Busch Wildlife Conservation Reserve. I remember talking about that with one of my friends while we were night fishing there. That will give you the heeby jeebies real quick. They never did crack that case, and that poor little girls killer is still unknown and remains at large to this very day. That was back in Nov. of 1993. http://p076.ezboard.com/fmissing87975frm83.showMessage?topicID=21.topic

Sorry bouch, but I gotta disagree with ya on Pettitte's effectiveness. He will go back to his beast form with NYY for a few reasons. 1)He will be reunited with a very familiar coaching staff that knows exactly how to get the most out of him. 2)He will actually have an offense that will put runs (a lot of runs) on the board for him, giving him a little more margin for error. 3)He won't have to pitch anymore games in Minute Maid Park, which is one of the most rediculous hitters parks in MLB. So expect a drop in his ERA. This looks like a prety good signing for the Yanks to me. Now for the Cards most recent signing. Springer is a good pitcher, but he is a RELIEF pitcher. He will provide the late inning bridge we need to get to whoever the closing duties may fall upon. I's nice to see the Cards bolstering the bullpen, but we need STARTING PITCHING...bad. Names that are still being thrown around are Miguel Batista, Jeff Suppan, Mark Mulder, and possibly Jeff Weaver. Other than that the Cards options are dwindling to the point where Jocketty admitted it was time to start looking for "undervalued" pitchers. Great...that's just what we need...another Sidney Ponson. I don't know about any other Cards fans on the board, but I am tired of us always seeming to have to pick our pitchers off the scrap heap just because the ownership doesn't want to pony up any dough. Now I know it worked with Jeff Weaver and that Duncan has a penchant for reviving pitching careers, but I, quite frankly, don't want to base a title defense on the prospect of questionable starting pitching. Where is all this money the ownership claimed that we would have from the new ballpark? How about money from selling out almost EVERY home game? Or how 'bout the money that they have made since they bought the franchise for $150 million dollars and have since watched it boom into a $350 million dollar franchise? Or maybe they could use some of the money they saved from tax breaks they got for the new park? Unfortunately it seems like the Dewitt Group is more concerned about lining it's pockets than building a World Series title defense. Walt is an excellent GM. One of the best. But he constantly seems restrained by the salary cap. The Dewitt Group always wants a winning team, but wants it done on a tight budget. Give Walt a little more wiggle room and lets see what kind of team he can come up with for crying out loud. Same song every year...and this year it may bite us in the rear. The Cubs have made some noteworthy deals. They may or may not work out. If everything clicks for the Cubs, look out. All I know is the Cards are going to have to do better than 83 wins this time. All right...I'm done ranting...at least for now.

Ruh Roh Rorge...Manny had better start concentrating. The Yanks have just signed Andy Pettitte to a one year $16 mil deal with an option for '08. It has been highly speculated that wherever Pettitte decided to go Roger Clemens would follow. Look out for the Yanks if they get both of them. The AL East, which is already a tough division, is starting to look like it's gonna get tougher. The Evil Empire strikes again.

I agree with everything that has been said here about Yo-Soft. I use the #6 line recommended by RW. It is an excellent line that I have used ALL YEAR while bank fishing. The only break offs I have had were from hang ups, not fish. I fish some pretty gnarly areas in the shoreline cover dept. and do get hung up pretty regularly, but this is where the abrasion resistance of this line shines in my opinion. The line rubs against wood and sometimes rocks and still holds even the most energetic fish. A good example of how good the line is occurred while I was fishing backwaters of the Mississippi River over the summer with some friends. I had accidentally cast a Rapala DT-6 over a laydown and the line was draped through the branches pretty well. As I eased the crank towards the laydown to try to work it back through the branches a fairly large drum (in the 6-7 lb range) struck the bait. He immediately made a hard run directly for the bottom while the line was still firmly entangled in the branches. We eased the boat close to the laydown while I took up the slack in the line, with the fish fighting pretty hard to get free. The line never snapped. I was able to land the fish and retrieve my crank. After checking the line we continued following the shad schools. No more than 30 mins later I had hooked into this beast of a drum on the same line. Didn't trim off the parts that got entangled in the branches...I had just retied. He was easily 10lbs and fought much harder than the first making two hard runs to the bottom. The line did not give...something else did. The back treble on my DT-6 bent way outta shape during the fight with the fish. The line held beautifully. Now like RW said, I use a 6'6" BPS Bionic Blade MH rod that is rated for line weights between 6-17lbs that is paired with a Shimano Spirex SR2500RE. I have the drag as close to one third the breaking strength of the line as I can get. That particular rod, reel, line combo has done well for me. And the line has NEVER broke of from a fish. That being said, I think it is pretty important to pair the line you want to use with the correct rod that is made to handle said line. Makes the line that much better of a tool for you.

I wouldn't be so sure on that Burgos deal, Muddy. Yeah the kid has a live arm and can SOMETIMES hit 100 on the gun, but he has absolutely awful control. Have you ever seen the kid pitch. If he is on he is alright, but more often than not it seems like he struggles to control that arm. Hopefully the Mets Pitching staff can do something with him.

That's good, great, and grand. Glad Bonds will not even get a look at Cards red...but...who do they plan to get to play left field then? I like Chris Duncan...but he is a defensive NIGHTMARE. I guess left is even less an issue than the pitching. I am starting to lose sight of good pitching possibilities for the Cards...well good ones that they can afford. On another note...the Mets are considering trading for Danny Haren. That could be an interesting move. Here is the article: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6249552 It could be a dangerous move for the Mets though...they get younger pitching, but it will cost them Lastings Milledge AND Aaron Heilman. Trading two younger guys for one younger guy doesn't seem to make a ton of sense to me. BUT...Haren is a good, young, durable pitcher. I am still waiting for the announcement of the Mets picking up Zito. Zito will be touring the NY area next week. If the announcement comes, I expect it will be sometime a day or so after next week.

I must admit, I am one of those people too. I usually go outside to check things out, but usually leave the door open so if things get hairy I can make a hasty retreat.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061201&content_id=1749025&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp There ya go Muddy. Sometimes offseason stuff is hard to keep track of. I get irritated with myself when I miss stuff. Yep...the Mets most definately have him back.

I have done exactly what troutfisher said. I sat out on Halloween night after all the Trick-Or-Treaters had called it a night and guarded my property with my friends paintball gun. Nailed some would be TP-er's and eggers. Needless to say their retreat was quick. Better than what was used in the olden days...a shot gun full of rock salt. My folks told me about those days. Ouch...

I am not a fan of the dropshot or the c-rig. I just think I haven't been in a situation for the dropshot to really shine yet, but both rigs are extremely boring rigs to me. Painfully slow fishing it seems to me most of the time.

I am going to say I am wrong on Glavine. I think in an earlier post I said he wasn't going to be back with the Mets. Glavine has already resigned with the Mets. He signed a 1 year deal with them on 12-1-06. Oops...duh. Don't know how I missed that. :-[ But, despite the Mets retaining Glavine, I still think they should move on Zito. That would give the Mets Martinez, Zito, Glavine, El Duque, and Tracshel. I have also heard that they have considered moving Heilman to the rotation. I think doing that and either using Tracshel or El Duque as trade bait for quality relief would be a good move seeing as they would lose Heilman outta the pen if they did that and have already lost Chad Braford. Now...I know trading starting pitching for relief pitching sounds nuts, but wher else do you propose the Mets improve? They already boast an obscene amount of offense and defense with their everyday position players. They have a decent bench. If they pick up Zito, Martinez returns from his rehab in good shape, and they do move Heilman to the rotation they will have a formidable rotation if they are healthy. The only place I see some holes is their middle relief bullpen. Am I wrong here? :-/ On another note, there is NO WAY the Cards end up with Bonds. It is reported that Bonds is requesting a contract in the range of 2 years $40 MIL!! That is ludicrous. There is no way ANY GM in their right mind would come anywhere close to a deal for Bonds of that magnitude. If Bonds remains stubborn and doesn't back off that price a little, he will find himself unemployed in the baseball world, I think.

The Crawford idea would be great...except that the D-rays want premium young pitching in return, which we just don't have to give up. Crawford is still a developing player, but he is a bonafide 5 tool player. He will have a big big future in the bigs as long as he doesn't screw it up by doing anything stupid. I don't think he is the fastest player in the bigs...I think that title goes to Jose Reyes. That dude just flat out has wheels...one of the most dangerous players in the game. If anyone get's traded from the D-Rays it will be Rocco Baldelli. Not as nice as Crawford but a decent player nonetheless. I would pass on him though. Baldelli will end up a lead off hitter for someone. I don't know what the Cardinals could do in the trade market. There is not a lot out there at the moment...and the stuff that is ut their has a steep asking price. If the Cards traded for any position I think it would have to be a pitcher. The team that has the most trade possibilities in the starting pitching dept. is the Chicago White Sox. They have a surplus of starters and have been shopping Javier Vazquez, Mark Buerhle, Jose Contreras, and Freddy Garcia. I think it would be great if the Cards could find a way to make a trade for Mark Buerhle work. He is a St. Charles native and has expressed interest in pitching in Saint Louis in the past numerous times. I am not sure what the Sox are looking for in return though and knowing our luck it would be something we don't have to give up or can't afford to. As far as whisperings I have heard about the free agent market, the Cards have shown interest in Octavio Dotel, Mark Mulder, Luis Gonzalez, Dan Kolb, and Jeff Suppan. If they land any folks from that bunch I hope it is Dotel and Gonzalez. I would like to possibly see Suppan back, but I think it will cost us too much. I am not impressed with Kolb and Mulder will not pitch until mid season, and who knows how well he will pitch. I got got pretty tired pretty quick of watching Mulder get lit up game after game for anywhere between 6 to 8 runs. As far as Bonds goes, I am kinda thinking he is doing a lot of posturing to try to get the Giants to resign him. I think in all reality the Giants are the only team that could get away with signing him. Hopefully that's all it is. I hope we land Gonzo so it takes Bonds completely out of any equation, no matter how unlikely, for the Cardinals.

My biggest problem with a c-rig is the overall weight of the rig. I have one H action rod that I think could take the amount of stress casting a rig that heavy, but it has a baitcaster on it, which I am still in the process of learning. Can you even throw a c-rig effectively on a spinning outfit? My spinning outfit is on a MH rod that is rated up to 5/8oz. I dunno if that is stout enough to do it. So, until I learn to use my casting gear effectively, I'll stick to learning my spinnerbaits on my spinning gear. Once I getthatcasting down though, then the c-rig will have to come out to play...

Could you imagine Bonds breaking the HR record in Busch? Ugh...what a horrid idea. I wonder if the Club would honor his "achievement" by putting his name somewhere in the stadium and his home run total or something of that nature like they did with McGwire? God I seriously hope none of that ever happens. I don't want the Cards to be connected with Bonds in any way, shape, or form. They would forever be the club remembered for signing him to the year that allowed him to break the record. I hope he doesn't get signed at all. But that is probably wishful thinking.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6244784 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Oh my God...I hope that doesn't happen. Ever...We don't need him here. That would be the most horrific thing to happen here EVER. It didn't sound like it was going to happen...but the fact that Walt even thought about it disturbs me.

Wow...so nevermind about Schmidt. The Dodgers have landed him. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6242312 The Dodgers simply outbid us. They offered him 3 years $47 mil. I think we offerd him 3 years $35 mil. Oh well...it sounded good but I figured that would happen. The Cards very rarely make much of a splash on the free agent market. But...that does help set the market for pitching.

Sorry Muddy...it looks like the Cards are ponying up some dough for Jason Schmidt. I don't think we will have the money to help the Mets pay for Zito. Apparently the Cardinals are among the final three teams that are under "very strong" consideration for Jason Schmidt. The other two teams are the Dodgers and Mariners. I can't see the Mariners being able to get him, so I believe our only steep competiton, and it'll be steep, will be the Dodgers. They just ended up with some cash they didn't think they were gonna have when Drew and Lugo got signed by the Sox. Could you fellow Cards fans imagine a 1-2 punch of Carp and Schmidt? They are saying our rotation could look like this: 1. Carp, 2. Schmidt, 3. Kip Wells, 4. Reyes, 5. Wainwright, Looper, Miguel Bautista, Mark Mulder, Jason Suppan. It appears to be some combination fo those pitchers if they land Schmidt. That would be a pretty good rotation. Definately stronger than the one we had last year. On top of that the signing of Kennedy makes the team stronger offensively. I daresay that the Cardinals could indeed be a stronger team than they were last year. Hopefully Walt can make it all happen.

I totally agree on J.D. Drew. That dude is a schmuck. He is a big sissy when it comes to injuries. "Ow, ow, I stubbed my toe...better sit this one out and collect a huge sum of money for not playing." J.D Drew just proves how inflated the baseball market is for offense (it's also rediculous for pitching). If Drew is making Pujols money now...imagine what Pujols will make when his contract is up :o !!. Drew is making that kind of money despite his many stints on the DL, despite only posting one year with more than 30 dingers and one year with over 100 RBI (and they weren't even the same years), and despite being a poor leader and team mate in the clubhouse. It has also been said that Drew can't handle the big market scrutiny he will get in Boston. I will say LA is a big market...but nothing compared to Boston. Just another example of how Boston overpays to come in second every year, great job Theo! On another note Boston signed Julio Lugo to a 4 year $36 mil contract. This makes much more sense for Boston considering the loss of Alex Cora. Lugo plays a pretty nifty defense, gets on base, and puts up good offensive numbers by shortstop (which is where Boston will deploy him) standards. He will help an already potent Boston offense. They did overpay for him too, but I think he makes much more sense than Drew does.

No, No Muddy, you didn't come on too strong. I will disagree with you on Zito being a good fit in New York though. He is a very durable dude and will give the Mets a chance to win everytime he goes out there. I can give you a couple of good reasons he will win more than 15 games if he becomes a Met. 1) He will be moving from the American League, which is much tougher on pitchers, to the National League, which is easier on 'em. 2) The Mets are going to produce a lot of run support for him giving him a larger margin for error than he has EVER had in Oakland. 3)As mentioned in the column, Shea is great park for helping keep righty power hitters at bay. This will help Zito tremendously leading to less longballs and a drop in his already respectable ERA. The fact of the matter is, if any team wants to improve their pitching via free agency, it's just gonna be expensive...no matter who the players agent is (though I will say Boras is a scumbag). If the Mets want to keep a certain level of talent in their rotation, then it's gonna cost 'em. If you look at all the Mets options for starters via free agency (very few good options) or trade (even fewer good options, if any available), Zito is their best bet. Now...the money situation. Consider this, Glavine will be leaving this offseason. That is money that the Mets will not have to pay giving them the room to sign Zito. Now lets consider Zito's track record. Career Totals: 102W and 63L, giving him a career wining percentage of .618. He has never pitched less than 200 innings (except his rookie year) and has NEVER been on the DL despite his high innings pitched. He has a career ERA of 3.55 in the AL, and that number will very likely drop while pitching in the NL in Shea's confines. He has a decent, not great, but decent walk(560 career walks) to strike out(1096 strike outs) ratio (about 2 strikeouts per walk), but that is expected with his style of pitching. He is not overpowering, but when his command is on he has some of the best breakin' stuff in the biz. Last year he was 16-10 with a team that is far less offensively than the Mets. Expect that number to bump up a win or two. Considering what is available on the market I would pay the money for it. Better than paying a bunch of money for unknown quantities such as Mark Mulder, or overpaying money to "decent" pitchers such as Ted Lilly, Gil Meche, or Jeff Suppan.

I didn't say it was a good deal...I just said I agreed that Zito and the Mets were a good match.

That is one greedy-gut frog. That is a huge lure for a frog his size to attack. Never caught a frog, but I have come up with a snake while using some white grubs on a jighead. I just cut the line there...wasn't about to deal with that.

Link ain't workin'... ...try that one. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2687475 Boy...that is more than a little disconcerting. :-/

I barely ever...and I mean barely ever touch a spinnerbait. Just not a bait I seem to have any confidence in. I C-rig about as often as I use a spinnerbait...maybe less. But if I had to choose between those two, I would say the spinnerbait is something I should focus on.

I would agree with that assessment of Epstein. He's just another big market moneyball GM with Yankee ***...he wishes he could spend that kind of scratch. I agree with that list, maybe not in that exact order, but some semblence of that list. I'd add the GM of the Chicago White Sox, Kenny Williams to it. He constructed a pretty nasty rotation for a budget even lower than the Cardinals have. I judge a great GM by a few things. 1) How much money does he have to spend to build a winning team. 2) How good is he at helping keep his players happy, content, and staying put.