I wonder if we had gotten Alomar and he had retired, that Walt might have pulled the trigger on getting Polanco. He can't cost that much; I mean, the Phillies don't want him, and there has to be some kind of minor leaguer we can flip for him.

I think Alomar could have been a good platoon second baseman, but since he's a switch hitter he wouldn't have been used that way.

Yeah, LaRussa wouldn't sit Tony F. Womack against lefties, so I couldn't see him sitting a switch-hitting HoFer for Bo Hart or Mark Grudzielanek.

I really wonder about Polanco. He looked like the best, or maybe second-best, 2B available and he couldn't get a better offer than an unimpressive arbitration-related haul? OK, maybe he had an incompetent agent (now his former agent, since Polanco has fired Katz), but there were teams with both cash and needs, and they didn't exactly pursue Polanco relentlessly. While it could've been simply the comp pick, it just seems to me there's something else going on here.

Assuming problems with the middle-infield, I'd like to see the Cards go after Polanco, Guzman, or another solid, if unspectacular middle-infielder.

Is Seabol really good enough yet? Plus, wouldn't it make more sense to play him at SS and keep Rolen at 3B? Or just put Luna at SS?

The last time Rolen played short, he was a sophmore in high school. Yeah, he was great at it, but he's not pulling a Cal anytime soon. Although last year when TLR pulled that shift, Scotty turned that double play just like he did back at good ol' Jasper High School in the early 90's.

"Is Seabol really good enough yet?"

How much better is he going to get? Isn't he 30 now?

Ever since a ghastly game last September against Houston where Luna started at short and had two errors, I'd feel better about Luna at 2B and Eckstein remaining at short. And I think it's more likely that Eckstein will be inadequate at the plate and adequate defensively than the other way around.

Eckstein should put up passable OBPs, especially now that he's away from Mickey Hatcher. But he might have the weakest shortest arm since, gee I don't know, Phil Rizzuto? There's obviously reason to believe Eckstein's range is deteriorating yadda yadda yadda.

With Rolen I'm thinking less Cal Ripken and more Mickey Stanley. I know Rolen hasn't played shortstop in forever, but I suspect Rolen-Seabol would be a lot better defensively (and offensively) than Luna-Rolen. When I look at Abe Nunez, I see Mike Gallego. What other options do the Cardinals have if Eckstein can't play short?

I covet Polanco too. Of course, the reason we didn't get him, or any other team for that matter, is that he was a type one free agent, meaning we would have lost a first round draft pick for signing him. That pick was the whole reason that the Phillies offered him arbitration--if they hadn't offered, someone would have signed him without the draft hit.

Now David Bell is hurt and Polanco slots in at third for them, so they are unlikely to trade him cheaply, and with Ankiel not working out we don't have the extra starter the Phillies need anyway. Polanco would be a huge, huge, huge upgrade to the depth and flexibility of this team.

Regarding the Rolen switch to SS, I think it could work, but will never, ever happen. He's got a reputation with many as the best third baseman ever. I don't think even Tony would tamper with that, especially not when the payoff is getting Seabol into the lineup.

Well, there goes our chance of getting Joe-Mac. He just signed with the cross state boys to be their Mr. Irrelevant.

And not to get too excited about this, but the Cubbies lost another pitcher in Borowski. They might as well just end the season now and hand us our pennant.

I see that the A's returned Tyler Johnson to the Cards. Perhaps in a year or two he'll be the tough lefty out of the pen.

There was a lot of anguish when he was exposed to the Rule 5 draft but, as usual, it looks like Jocketty knew what he was doing.

in jocketty we trust.

just to get the panties of the guy in the cubicle over from me all in a bunch, i read him the spring training lines of haren, calero and barton (you can get 'em from the A's site). he's all "see! this was a dumb trade! haren was young, and calero's awesome, and barton will be a perennial allstar!"

yes, that's all may be true. but then i looked at baseball-reference for some career numbers. calero = good. haren = could be really good, already ok, but hasn't overwhelmed YET. barton = probably really good someday. mulder = already for sure really really good really, in the AL, no less.

walt, i believe in you. i believe in the anthony reyes and adam wainwright and brad thompson future. i believe in the mark mulder now. i believe in the 'not good, but not too bad either, for the price' middle of the infield.

just don't ever make a mistake, and i'll keep believing.

PS - i would've included the hyperlinks in this comment, but apparently they're turned off. can't say i blame you guys for doing so, but it does make the comments less information-rich.