Yesterday, following Twitter, there was the suggestion floated that Cliff Lee might be looking at an unnamed team in a “place he loves.” \u00c2\u00a0Following 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. \u00c2\u00a0What if St. Louis was laying low in the weeds? \u00c2\u00a0I started thinking of options and working out ideas for a post, knowing the chance was slim to none.<\/p>\n
Glad I didn’t get too far on that one.<\/p>\n
As you know by now, that place Lee loved was Philadelphia, who\u00c2\u00a0signed him to a contract<\/a> 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. \u00c2\u00a0Avery came up and starred early, then flamed out. \u00c2\u00a0All of these guys have put in the time at the bigs, though Cole Hamels is still pretty young. \u00c2\u00a0Couple that rotation with the offense that they still have…….<\/p>\n 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. \u00c2\u00a0I don’t think you can quite compare the two as evenly now.<\/p>\n Rumor has it, though, the Cards did put in the last piece of their puzzle, as it is being reported that they’ve\u00c2\u00a0signed Gerald Laird for backup catcher<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0Then again, there is some doubt to that report, so don’t run out for your Laird jersey just quite yet.<\/p>\n If it’s true, though…..ugh. \u00c2\u00a0The Cardinals talked about adding offense in that slot, but he really\u00c2\u00a0isn’t much different than Jason LaRue<\/a> in that regard. \u00c2\u00a0I 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. \u00c2\u00a0I know the receiving issues with Anderson, but still, paying Laird a million to do what he usually does seems to be a reach.<\/p>\n Couple of great links for you. \u00c2\u00a0First off, you have to check out CardinalsGM today with\u00c2\u00a0their take on the Brendan Ryan deal<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0Fair warning, you may have a certain song stuck in your head the rest of the day.<\/p>\n Secondly, the United Cardinal Bloggers have been diligently working since the end of the season to put together a review of 2010. \u00c2\u00a0Now, the fruits of that labor are available to you. \u00c2\u00a0You can find\u00c2\u00a0The Year In Cardinal Baseball at the official site<\/a> in a PDF format. \u00c2\u00a0You can save and download it for your later reading or you can dive right on in. \u00c2\u00a0Lots of great writers collaborated on this and it is well worth your time to check it out.<\/p>\n UCB Radio tomorrow night with Josh of Pitchers Hit Eighth so be sure to tune in then. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe by then we’ll have confirmation on the exciting Laird news!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, following Twitter, there was the suggestion floated that Cliff Lee might be looking at an unnamed team in a “place he loves.” \u00c2\u00a0Following 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t