Trade Deadline

Well, the trade deadline has come and gone; all I've heard about for the last 2 days is the Cardinals need to make a move. They didn't and now people are complaining.

"The owners won't add payroll." - Bull. They would have taken on payroll if there would have been something worth adding.

"They over-value their prospects." - Possibly, but most teams were asking for a lot for the players they wanted to trade.

"It's an insult to the fan base that they didn't make a trade." - No, an insult to the fan base would have been to make a trade just to make a trade. Why give up a piece of the future for something that doesn't upgrade the team?

"They needed to add a hitter." - No, the team that's in the top 5 runs scored doesn't need a hitter; they needed pitching.

"Why didn't the add a starter?" - Because the starting pitching isn't the biggest issue. If I remember correctly, the starters didn't give away 3 of the 4 to Milwaukee. We needed a closer and a lefty reliever; the market didn't have a good (or even fair) deal on those, so a deal wasn't made.

I'm fine with not trading for anyone. If you look at the rumors, the only guy that moved that we were tied to was Jason Bay, and he wasn't a necessity. Grabow, Ohman, Sherrill, Fuentes, Street, and Putz weren't moved - either due to the team not making them available or asking for too much. We didn't lose out on anyone.

Do remember that we can still make a trade; waiver deals can happen all the way through the end of the season (but the player must be on a roster by Aug. 31 to qualify for the post season). A good target is Jarrod Washburn from the Mariners; he's due $10MM next season and will be a salary dump (if the Mariners realize that and don't demand an arm and a leg).

Everyone's heard/said this, but we have upgrades from Carpenter, Wainwright, and Jaime Garcia too. If Carp is healthy, he'll be worth more than anyone we could have traded for. Wainwright needs to go to the rotation; he's one of the few starts we have that can eat innings. Garcia is better than Flores, plain and simple; he'll help stablize the left side of the bullpen.