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Got here without the frames? Click here.12/14/2005: "Mueller Time Out"
Bill Mueller is not the Cardinals second baseman of the future, and that sound you hear is Jason Marquis exhaling. As it turns out, he never would have been an option, given the Cardinals' bizarre hard cap on second baseman salary--the deal with the Dodgers is reportedly two years for $9.5 million, and apparently that wasn't even the richest offer he got. Mueller would have been a big offensive upgrade, having put up an OBP-heavy OPS of .799 or above for three of the last four years. But on defense... well, he would be a 35-year-old third baseman who's suffered numerous injuries playing second base. He played all of 29 games at the keystone during his stint with the Red Sox, and he didn't much resemble Mazeroski out there. For $10M he isn't a bad option at third base, but if you expect him to play 100 games at second without the double play or Jason Marquis's tire iron taking its toll on his knees it's overpaying a bit.
Javier Vazquez isn't a Cardinal, either, and I'm a little less mellow about that. If the thing holding up the Vazquez/Quentin deal was really money, the Cardinals missed a valuable opportunity to upgrade at two positions. And when you consider that Carlos Quentin would be on a rookie's salary, the Cardinals would really just be paying $5M each for a starter and an outfielder. And that money won't get you Adam Benes and Craig Griffey, nowadays. The Chisox had to give up a solid reliever (former Brewer Luis Vizcaino), an enigmatic starter who may be drawing a Great War pension (Orlando "El Duqué" Hernandez), and one of their best prospects, outfielder Chris Young. Not an awful deal for either side, and seemingly engineered only to put me in a bad mood.
The calm before the hoped-for storm, apparently--the big news is that the Cardinals' current stew of mediocrities is the projected solution to their second base predicament, as per Walt Jocketty. This plan worked in 2004, when Tony Womack, Hector Luna, Bo Hart, Marlon Anderson and Marlo Thomas all battled for the position, but you can't always hope for a random productive season from a member of the Womack class. I'll throw down the gauntlet early, so he has time to prepare: if Aaron Miles puts up a .735 OPS as a starter, I will sponsor his B-Ref page and babysit his children for the rest of my life. Just an incentive.
[More site news: the site design is progressing swimmingly--yeah, swimmingly--and the days of frames and horizontal scrolling and a stolen Mark McGwire picture atop the page will soon be over. Try not to cry too much. Then it's on to the next site project, provided I... er, maintain interest.]
