Wednesday, June 29, 2011

What to do with Joakim; Part 2

In my last post I talked about Joakim Soria and I exclusively talked about the Yankees as a potential trade destination. However, should the Royals field offers they are probably just one of several teams that would be interested.610 Sports host Bob Fescoe speculated that one of these teams that would also have interest would be the St. Louis Cardinals.

There are a couple of reasons why I believe the Cardinals should be examined is because they have only converted in 22 of 37 save opportunities. The Cardinals released former closer Ryan Franklin today. They do have Fernando Salas and he has pitched well since being given the job converting in 12 of 14 save chances. So it is extremely possible that the Cardinals could be totally comfortable with what they have which would make this entire article a waste of time. But the Cardinals also tend to have no problem trading their top prospects for immediate help.

The problem with this deal is that I can't imagine the Cardinals having enough to get the Royals to deal unless either Colby Rasmus, or Shelby Miller were included. Colby Rasmus has of course had some issues with Manager Tony La Russa last season and at one point many expected him to be dealt in the offseason.

It appears that Rasmus and the Cardinals have put the past behind them and I think it would be pretty surprising if the Cardinals dealt their young up and comer. But it is always possible that skeletons are in the closet or that the Cardinals are a bit frustrated with his .779 ops and premadonna attitude.

Shelby Miller on the other hand is often discussed as one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball. I think it would come as a real shock to the baseball world if he was moved. But if Miller was on the table, I'd really want the Royals to listen and it would make any deal involving him extremely difficult to turn down.

If either of these two blue chippers were included in the deal, it wouldn't take much for the rest of the deal to fall into place. Guys like Jordan Swaggerty, Seth Blair, Carlos Martinez could be discussed. What I am seeing though is that in order for the deal to be appealing on the Royals end it would require the Cardinals to give up too much of their young talent for it to make sense for themselves.

In addition the deal doesn't fit the Royals needs nearly as well as a potential Yankees deal would. If the Cardinals decided they were willing to move Rasmus the Royals could include Melky Cabrerra in the deal to fill the hole it would open up for the Cardinals. But unless the Cardinals were willing to deal either Rasmus or Miller, which I don't think they would be then I can't imagine a deal falling into place.

It is time for the Cardinals to hold on to their own young talent and I think they may finally be realizing this with Pujols's free agency looming.

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