My prediction: We sign Robert for a total of $65 mil. Yours?

[MinorLeagueGuy]

Is there a deadline of sorts or is this just getting close to happening?

Can't happen til tomorrow at the earliest. He doesn't sound like he wants to wait around though. So by Monday we should hope to see a press conference scheduled.

[Tim]

I trust Mo will make a good decision.

Mo isn't the one I'd be worried about

Who are you worried about?

Robert deciding to play with Abreu and Moncada

[go birds]

abreu is 30...i doubt they ever play together.

there are plenty of cubans in our system that im sure Robert would like to play with though....if thats what important to him

[MinorLeagueGuy]

abreu is 30...i doubt they ever play together.

there are plenty of cubans in our system that im sure Robert would like to play with though....if thats what important to him

Young ones too

[MrCrowesGarden]

Since Holliday, This team has been reticent to pay the price to acquire a superstar, whether that's in the form of dollars or prospects.

Which superstars have they been reticent to pay the price for?

David Price would be the one that stands out most to me. I know some will disagree, but I don't think you can say you went all in when you get beat because someone went more all in. Didn't try at all on Scherzer. Hell, part of the reason I was so gung ho on signing Fowler is that I figured Cespedes and the $$$ he'd command is such a non-starter for the Cardinals.

[dmarx114]

I trust Mo will make a good decision.

Mo isn't the one I'd be worried about

Who are you worried about?

Robert deciding to play with Abreu and Moncada

Well, that's out of Mo's control. No sense in worrying about that.

[vinsanity]

Since Holliday, This team has been reticent to pay the price to acquire a superstar, whether that's in the form of dollars or prospects.

Which superstars have they been reticent to pay the price for?

David Price would be the one that stands out most to me. I know some will disagree, but I don't think you can say you went all in when you get beat because someone went more all in. Didn't try at all on Scherzer. Hell, part of the reason I was so gung ho on signing Fowler is that I figured Cespedes and the $$$ he'd command is such a non-starter for the Cardinals.

I know "second place" is a meme around here but doesn't that at least mean they weren't reticent to pay Price? They weren't reticent to pay for Heyward, first in prospects and second in cash. They didn't try for Scherzer and that was a missed opportunity. They did nab Fowler.

By my count, with Heyward twice, they weren't reticent 4 of 5 times to nab an All-Star in prospects or dollars. They just lost half of those races.

I'd agree they are reticent to overpay for top talent but that is more of a credit than a criticism, to me, and I'm highly critical of the FO.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Since Holliday, This team has been reticent to pay the price to acquire a superstar, whether that's in the form of dollars or prospects.

Which superstars have they been reticent to pay the price for?

David Price would be the one that stands out most to me. I know some will disagree, but I don't think you can say you went all in when you get beat because someone went more all in. Didn't try at all on Scherzer. Hell, part of the reason I was so gung ho on signing Fowler is that I figured Cespedes and the $$$ he'd command is such a non-starter for the Cardinals.

I know "second place" is a meme around here but doesn't that at least mean they weren't reticent to pay Price? They weren't reticent to pay for Heyward, first in prospects and second in cash. They didn't try for Scherzer and that was a missed opportunity. They did nab Fowler.

By my count, with Heyward twice, they weren't reticent 4 of 5 times to nab an All-Star in prospects or dollars. They just lost half of those races.

I'd agree they are reticent to overpay for top talent but that is more of a credit than a criticism, to me, and I'm highly critical of the FO.

I think my point on Fowler was misunderstood. He's not a star, but I wanted him because we needed help. I would've absolutely preferred Cespedes to Fowler, but I never got my hopes up for Cespedes because I knew there was no way the Cardinals were going to even bother. So you could count that as a missed opportunity in my opinion. The Heyward points are fair, although I wonder if there was ever really any competition for his services in the trade market.

Paying vs. overpaying is I semantics, I suppose. I don't want to go back to this well too often, but I would have zero problem if David Price was in a Cardinals uniform making the money he is with the Red Sox. If you really believed the Sawx when they said they would outbid everyone for his services by $30 million, then why not up your offer by that much and call their bluff?

I've said it before, but it's still true in my opinion: Mo-- and by extension, the entire team-- plays by a very rigid set of rules wrt talent acquisition. It's often fiscally responsible, but there are drawbacks. Most notably, if it means going beyond those rules to "win", he-- and they-- do not.

[vinsanity]

Paying vs. overpaying is I semantics, I suppose. I don't want to go back to this well too often, but I would have zero problem if David Price was in a Cardinals uniform making the money he is with the Red Sox. If you really believed the Sawx when they said they would outbid everyone for his services by $30 million, then why not up your offer by that much and call their bluff?

I've said it before, but it's still true in my opinion: Mo-- and by extension, the entire team-- plays by a very rigid set of rules wrt talent acquisition. It's often fiscally responsible, but there are drawbacks. Most notably, if it means going beyond those rules to "win", he-- and they-- do not.

It is very semantical and I didn't think you meant Fowler was a super star, but that still makes them 3 of 4 by my count on the names you listed.

The second point I do entirely agree with. I think we just disagree where we'd like to see them stretch a bit. You'd prefer David Price, I'd prefer the "marginal upgrades". Justin Turner, I wanted Drew Storen, those types of acquisitions that annoy me more.

So I think we agree they should "stretch" a bit more to sign some players. My point was the superstar reach failures get overblown because there are fewer chances so the misses are more memorable. Tho the results of the missing the likes of Barry Zito, Jason Schmidt, Albert Pujols etc. are often ignored as well.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Paying vs. overpaying is I semantics, I suppose. I don't want to go back to this well too often, but I would have zero problem if David Price was in a Cardinals uniform making the money he is with the Red Sox. If you really believed the Sawx when they said they would outbid everyone for his services by $30 million, then why not up your offer by that much and call their bluff?

I've said it before, but it's still true in my opinion: Mo-- and by extension, the entire team-- plays by a very rigid set of rules wrt talent acquisition. It's often fiscally responsible, but there are drawbacks. Most notably, if it means going beyond those rules to "win", he-- and they-- do not.

It is very semantical and I didn't think you meant Fowler was a super star, but that still makes them 3 of 4 by my count on the names you listed.

The second point I do entirely agree with. I think we just disagree where we'd like to see them stretch a bit. You'd prefer David Price, I'd prefer the "marginal upgrades". Justin Turner, I wanted Drew Storen, those types of acquisitions that annoy me more.

So I think we agree they should "stretch" a bit more to sign some players. My point was the superstar reach failures get overblown because there are fewer chances so the misses are more memorable. Tho the results of the missing the likes of Barry Zito, Jason Schmidt, Albert Pujols etc. are often ignored as well.

Would've loved Turner. That one bothers me that we just said "well he likes LA so why try to convince him otherwise", and could conceivably be called a star too.

I do try to take ownership on the players I wanted them to sign when they bust. I was absolutely all over signing Alex Gordon when Heyward signed with the Cubs, and obviously that would've been awful.