By the Iron_Throne

Ben Jacobs, of the Hardball Times, has finished his three part series ranking all thirty major league teams for their ofseason moves.  He starts off by skewering the Tigers, Nationals, and Diamondbacks for foolish spending, and progesses through the vast middle class of teams who didn’t really do much of anything this offseason.  As one of the few teams that made headline moves, the Cardinals check in at number four, a rating that seems a little high given what he has to say about their moves this offseason.

First of all, he’s one of the few commentators outside of the traditional media that sees Mike Matheny’s departure as anything but a positive.  Of Molina’s big promotion, he says:

Matheny can't hit, but he's regarded as an excellent defensive catcher. Molina has only received 135 at-bats in the majors, and he hasn't shown much offense in the minors. It's hard to imagine somebody being a worse hitter than Matheny, but if Molina isn't a better hitter and is a worse defender, this loss could hurt St. Louis the most.

His opinion of the Mark Mulder trade is rather wishy-washy, as he sidesteps judging the trade’s long term value and merely comments that:

I think Mulder will be good enough to help the Cardinals this year, which means they'll be willing to deal with giving up three nice young players even if they do develop. With Mulder coming and Woody Williams going, St. Louis should have a better rotation.

He admits to being a Red Sox fan, but despite this he is rather even-handed when writing of Renteria siging with his team.  He points out that Edgar didn’t have too much of an offensive contribution to the Cardinals last season, and makes a vain swipe at justifying the contract with Boston says that they “are not the A's, who have to find bargains in order to be able to compete.”  Of Eckstein however, he magnanimously concedes that he “won't be nearly as valuable as Renteria, but he may provide more value considering his cost.”  And he is surprisingly positive about the acquision of Grudzielanek believing he is going to be “cheaper, and likely to be better” than Womack would have been. 

Overall, the sense you get from these articles is that most teams did very little this offseason to help themselves for 2005, which allows the Cards’s mixed bag of the winter that was to be rated so highly.