A Tale Of Two Cities

Yesterday, following Twitter, there was the suggestion floated that Cliff Lee might be looking at an unnamed team in a “place he loves.”  Following on that with some discussion at this weekend’s poker table, when around a third-hand report (which, being that Lee is from Arkansas, wasn’t surprising) of Lee hoping last year that the Cardinals would trade for him made the wheels start turning.  What if St. Louis was laying low in the weeds?  I started thinking of options and working out ideas for a post, knowing the chance was slim to none.

Glad I didn’t get too far on that one.

As you know by now, that place Lee loved was Philadelphia, who signed him to a contract last night and put together the best rotation (on paper) since at least the Braves of the early ’90s, though this is a more accomplished group than those guys, I think.  Avery came up and starred early, then flamed out.  All of these guys have put in the time at the bigs, though Cole Hamels is still pretty young.  Couple that rotation with the offense that they still have…….

Before the 2010 season I thought you could make the case that St. Louis and Philadelphia were the top two teams in the league and one of them would be the NL reps for the World Series.  I don’t think you can quite compare the two as evenly now.

Rumor has it, though, the Cards did put in the last piece of their puzzle, as it is being reported that they’ve signed Gerald Laird for backup catcher.  Then again, there is some doubt to that report, so don’t run out for your Laird jersey just quite yet.

If it’s true, though…..ugh.  The Cardinals talked about adding offense in that slot, but he really isn’t much different than Jason LaRue in that regard.  I don’t see that this will encourage the Cards to sit Yadier Molina more often and I don’t see that this is an improvement over Bryan Anderson.  I know the receiving issues with Anderson, but still, paying Laird a million to do what he usually does seems to be a reach.

Couple of great links for you.  First off, you have to check out CardinalsGM today with their take on the Brendan Ryan deal.  Fair warning, you may have a certain song stuck in your head the rest of the day.

Secondly, the United Cardinal Bloggers have been diligently working since the end of the season to put together a review of 2010.  Now, the fruits of that labor are available to you.  You can find The Year In Cardinal Baseball at the official site in a PDF format.  You can save and download it for your later reading or you can dive right on in.  Lots of great writers collaborated on this and it is well worth your time to check it out.

UCB Radio tomorrow night with Josh of Pitchers Hit Eighth so be sure to tune in then.  Maybe by then we’ll have confirmation on the exciting Laird news!