Royalties & Cardinalate

In about 70 days, Ricky Ankiel will be part of the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster and that fires me up. Though I’d be thrilled if Mellow Matt Morris is ready, if he is not then Ankiel will begin his 2005 season as one of MLB’s best buys as a starter ($400,000). Though no one anticipated that Ankiel would enter arbitration, agents can be problematic, so his new deal is welcomed. If Ankiel had gone to arbitration, who knows what would have occurred. There is not a valid precedent for his situation at all. Anyway, it is still challenging to fathom that Ricky has not had a full season since 2000. Seeing him pitch live is a genuine thrill, so I look forward to it.

Though it is very beneficial that Carlos Beltran moved on to the Mets, part of me wanted to see Beltran vs. Pujols for the next 10 years. Factoring in Adam Dunn, the NL Central would have had three of the NL’s most powerful and effective hitters until the 2010s arrived. Would’ve been memorable, but it is not hard to find reasons to be elated about Beltran’s move otherwise.

I was (kind of) watching a segment of Bull Durham recently when I noticed Kevin Costner reading a newspaper with this headline: Hard-hittin’ Whiten. However, Mr. 4-12 did his mind-boggling feat in 1993, with the movie having been released in 1988. Kind of odd.

For some reason, the thought of hearing Danny Mac call the Eckstein- Grudzielanek-Pujols DP does not resonate as colorfully as a Renteria-Vina/Womack-Pujols DP. I will get used to it quickly, but can an announcer spit out ‘Grudzielanek’ before belting “to Pujols . . . double play!” It might be more of an “Eckstein fields it, over to Grudzielanek . . . inning over.”

I hope most fans realize that M-Grud came $7 million cheaper than Ed Gar. But that saved money will seem perceptively substantial only if Mark Mulder has a good season. The problem is that the Redbirds are a severe ground-ball staff and Eckers is not very quick to the ball. The chatter in Redbird Nation is that Ecky is acute at positioning himself and with Rolen’s expert range, the defense at SS not much of a concern. I sure hope so, but, man, Renteria had a laser-arm and always got to balls in the hole. Womack had poor range and could not throw well, but was sure-handed. I do not think we will miss him though (fluke season?) and it will be fascinating to see how he does in NY. I have no clue why the Yankees signed him, except that they have a history of signing supposed aging winners (Tino, too, again).

But my ramblings to this point are merely a way to avoid what truly is dominating the consciousness of Cardinals fans. Bert’s foot hurts. Alberticus’ recovery from plantar fasciitis was all smooth until last week, when he complained to the media that he has pain in his left foot again - several weeks after undergoing a non-invasive procedure. There will be no surgery, but it will be a lingering issue because, as Pujols said, “It's something that I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go through again this year, because it's too late to do surgery."

I hope that means we have to deal with these kinds of results: .331. .415. .657. 46. 51. 133. 123. Playoff stud. I hope.

Dude over at www.go-cardinals.org pointed out that “only Joe Torre and Bobby Cox remain from when Tony took office. Not bad company.”

Agreed. Give TLR a break. After all, he loves cats and dogs.

Doh!

First 2005 Royals fantasy dispatch has been posted

Rapacious: excessively grasping or covetous

That about sums up the Royals. In today's Prospectus newsletter, Joe Sheehan runs through some of the rubble left behind after the carnage of the free agent season. Here's my question: should our rapacious Royals swoop in and gnaw on the leftovers?

Throughout the off-season, I've been preaching about the current need for fiscal responsibility, the offended sensibilities of Mike Sweeney aside. This is not a time to inflate payroll with mediocre (or worse) veterans. Go young. Real young. And see who can play once and for all. This is why I bristled over the signings of Eli Marrero & Jose Lima.

At the same time, I've always been an advocate of small-market clubs bringing in a neglected veteran with something to prove and inking them to a short-term deal. I applauded the Juan Gonzalez deal last season. Sure, it turned out to be a disaster and perhaps the probablity of that happening was high, something like 75%. What if Gonzalez had stayed healthy and motivated? A 290/350/560 season would have been a bargain and would have provided the Royals with the kind of production that they could not have found within the organization.

The names on the remaining free agent list that arouse my interest are Magglio Ordonez and Esteban Loaiza. If, as Sheehan says, Loaiza 'will be lucky to get a million dollars', it seems to me that the Royals should investigate. The last time Loazia went into a season so highly motivated, he won 21 games with a 154 ERA+.

While Loaiza's 2003 season was almost surely an outlier, when it comes to pitching, are the Royals really prospecting for career years? If they get an upper echelon performance from a starting pitcher, it'll come from Zack Greinke and, possibly, Runelvys Hernandez. No, what the Royals need is league-average pitching. It seems to me that Loaiza would stand a moderate chance of accomplishing that. Better than Lima. A $1-$1.5 million for one-year seems like acceptable risk to me.

On a different scale, Mag's case is a little different because no matter what, signing him would mean a pretty good hike in payroll. Because of his injury last year, Ordonez is not going to get the $80 million package that he had been angling for. Prior to last season, however, you could chalk up a 315/380/550 for him and his playing age will only be 31 this season.

Like Gonzalez last season, Ordonez might be coerced into playing for a one-year, medium-price deal in hopes of having a big year and landing that big payday at last. If you could get reasonable assurance that Ordonez will be healthy and if you could get him for $7-$8 million on a one-year contract, it might be worth considering. If the Royals mature quickly and surprise all of us, they will still need another big bat. They won't be able to find one with Ordonez's upside during the season. The only player you'd be displacing would be Abraham Nunez (a non-prospect in my book). A Long/Marrero - DeJesus - Ordonez outfield would be solid.

The Royals were wise to stay out of the free agent orgy of the last six weeks. But now the party's over and there are some bargains to be found. If the Royals added Loazia & Mags at the prices quoted here, the payroll would still be under $50 million. I think it's worth a look.