Cardinals/Marlins Offseason Dance - Stanton Says Nope

[MrCrowesGarden]

No player— even the ones who don’t want to play in St. Louis— will ever say that. Sorry I want to know more.

[Socnorb11]

The funny part is that if you look at the article that dmarx linked, and read the comments............. Blue Jays fans sound exactly like whiny Cardinals fans.

"Always have the 2nd best bid"
"Nobody wants to play for the Blue Jays"
"If they really wanted him, they should have topped St. Louis' offer"
"Blue Jays should have upped the payroll......... that's what you have to do if you want to compete"


Gold.

[MrCrowesGarden]

That's much better than rationalizing away why it's actually good your team didn't sign a superstar player. I'm sure it will happen next year with Harper.

[Diddy]

What players have the Cardinals not signed despite having the highest contract offer?

Heyward, Jason

They also apparently had to go $18 million above the Blue Jays to get Fowler. That's not a million or two.

Maybe I missed it, but what is your source for this stuff? Posting it on a message board doesn't make it true.

dmarx linked to an article that the Blue Jays offered Fowler 4/64. The Cardinals first offer was in that vicinity. It took another year to close that deal.

Comparing rejected offers to what he took doesn’t really make your case.

[MrCrowesGarden]

What players have the Cardinals not signed despite having the highest contract offer?

Heyward, Jason

They also apparently had to go $18 million above the Blue Jays to get Fowler. That's not a million or two.

Maybe I missed it, but what is your source for this stuff? Posting it on a message board doesn't make it true.

dmarx linked to an article that the Blue Jays offered Fowler 4/64. The Cardinals first offer was in that vicinity. It took another year to close that deal.

Comparing rejected offers to what he took doesn’t really make your case.

Because you're not looking at it the same way I'm looking at it. 4/64 wasn't rejected when the Cardinals were offering that ballpark amount. It was rejected when the Cardinals upped their offer to 5/82. I wonder why it took that much. I wonder if the Cardinals made a 4/68 offer and that was rejected (I don't know.)

[Popeye_Card]

That's much better than rationalizing away why it's actually good your team didn't sign a superstar player. I'm sure it will happen next year with Harper.

The Cardinals will not be pursuing Harper in any way, shape, or form. Might as well say we will come in 30th place in the Harper sweepstakes.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Oh I know they won't. But I expect he will sign with the Cubs and be extremely good with them; erstwhile, there will be an "I'm glad that contract's not on OUR budget!" post.

[go birds]

cards will offer $200 mil for harper and say they tried

then raise ticket prices a couple bucks

[misterManager]

There's an obstinance in the arguments that our front office really tries but comes up short and it's not their fault. Teams are moving forward. When/If Stanton (who we were originally talking about somewhere in here) or a FA go to the Phillies or the Red Sox or the Cubs this offseason, to play under managers who are doing this thing with a front office as business partners (and using their heads more than their gut), and we miss out, that argument will only be more obstinant. If the Heyward situation didn't exist then I would listen to any and all arguments along this line, but the guy took less guaranteed money to play for a rival after the best year of his career and a playoff run. And he specifically cited culture issues. That's a closed book IMO. There's fire under the smoke, guys.

[Blakesly]

I'm sorry, but when did this place become such a cesspool of negativity? I've been following this site since right after the series win in '06, and while there have been some touch and go moments over the years, I always thought things were pretty reasoned here. But now....

Go Birds, the only thing I ever read from you anymore is these drop-in comments about how the Cardinals have never done anything right, will never do anything right, and probably the most successful franchise in baseball over the last 15 years or so is filled with idiots and con men who are clearly never going to compete ever again because they, what? worked the long con of being the most competitive for a decade and a half just so they can coast forever now?

And Mr. Crowe, you've done nothing this season but scream about the Cardinals being cheap, and making the second best offer for everybody, and they never do anything to try and win. So they went out last offseason and signed the two free agents they most wanted, making the best offers of any team, and here you are posting in an increasingly irrational way that the Cardinals shouldn't have to make the best offer to sign players. So do you want them to sign players or not? And if the answer is, "Yes, I want them to sign all the star players but I think they should be able to do so without offering more than other clubs!" then maybe you should really think about what you're arguing for.

The thread started out about Stanton, but has turned into nine pages of people complaining about how awful they think St. Louis is, how there's nothing to do there, how the franchise can't possibly win because they won't ever make the best offer, and they made way too good a best offer for the last players they signed, and on and on and on.

What the hell happened to this place? Two down years can't possibly be THIS bad, can it?