Quick Thoughts

I hope you all had and are having a wonderful holiday season but most of all I would like to wish my dear, loyal readers a Happy (belated) Festivus! Last year I even went so far as to create a Festivus song which I highly recommend you all read to really get in touch with your inner Festivus.


Anyway, onto baseball...

The St. Louis Cardinals signing of ex-Giant/Met/Astro/Royal/CF now RF Carlos Beltran for 2 years and $26M is nothing short of a fantastic addition by the Cardinals. Allen Craig was pencilled in as the starting RF for 2012 but he may miss some time as he recovers from offseason knee surgery and in his place, the Cardinals are getting a guy who quietly had a 151 wRC+, essentially meaning he was over 50% better than the average hitter at the plate. Yeah, pretty, pretty good. It's silly to ask who will replace a guy like Albert Pujols, but adding Carlos Beltran to the mix, a full season of Rafael Furcal at SS over Tyler Green and a healthy Adam Wainwright will certainly help. Whle Beltran would benefit from some at bats at DH in the American League and with any thoughts of Beltran playing in CF needing to be quickly dismissed, the fact is  Cardinals are getting one of the better hitters in the league on a short, reasonably priced deal. Nice play.

When I heard the Nationals traded 4 of their top prospects to the Oakland A's for starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez my initial thought was that it wasn't a smart move by the Nationals. But then I quickly realized the Nationals traded 3 pitchers (TNSTAAPP) and a catcher (Derek Norris) who has been slipping in recent years for a proven starter in the majors. Oh, and Gio Gonzalez will now be the 3rd starter in what is shaping up to be a very impressive Nationals rotation. Regardless of how you feel about Gio's control issues (he has most walks in the majors over the last two years) a rotation with Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann and Gio Gonzalez is nothing to sneeze at. It's really a shame they still owe Jayson Werth $116M, because the Nationals really have the building blocks to a contending team.

As far as the Oakland A's side is concerned, while it's not a bad deal by any means (they certainly got more in return for Gio Gonzalez than they did for Trevor Cahill) I'm not sure I love it for them either. Maybe I'm being delusional by thinking of the rumors that the A's were asking for Gio (Jesus Montero, Manny Banuelos and more) and comparing it to those unfair expectations, but you would still like to get more quality than quantity in a deal like this. However, the A's still have a solid defense and a lot of foul ground to help out their rotation, and if any of the starters they acquired (AJ Cole, Brad Peacock and Tom Milone) work out, the A's would be acquiring a Gio replacement with everyone else being considered gravy. 

Since the free agent frenzy during the Winter Meetings, not much has been said about free agent first baseman Prince Fielder. Yes, we hear the same rumors, rumblings and grumblings about teams like the Nationals and Rangers still being interested in Fielder, but those mostly come from Scott Boras' mouth AKA Jon Heyman. At this point it seems silly to even guess where Fielder will end up as none of the rumored teams really make all that much sense, at least not at the ~$150M+ pricetag that Prince will command:

• Texas Rangers: Prince is definitely an upgrade over Mitch Moreland but with Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton currently not signed long term and Michael Young without a position, is signing Prince Fielder a smart move?
• Chicago Cubs: It's really hard to get a read on the Cubs right now. Currently Theo is doing a great job bargain shopping (David DeJesus) but it's unclear if he's willing to cash it all in this year. Fielder's contract will be more manageable when Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano come off the books, but replacing bad contracts with another potentially bad one isn't a shrewd move Theo likes to make.
• Baltimore Orioles: Their entire roster (especially the rotation) is too far behind everyone else in the division to rationalize spending on Prince.
• Seattle Mariners: Another team that is hard to get a read on. On paper this kind of makes sense, but it reeks a little too much like the Nationals signing Jayson Werth to gain some respect, and we can see how that's served them so far.