I'm eager to see if Obama jumps on this bandwagon. That would be hilarious.

He is a Sox fan but it could very well happen. But any true Sox fan would rather face castration than the Cubs winning.

I know hes a Sox fan, which is why it would be hilarious. The Cubs are the only Chicago team he didn't/doesn't follow on twitter.

% chance that Heyward signs with the Cards?

Holliday is about at the end of the road.

Grichuk needs to be your CFER of the future, or what would work better is if Pham takes over in CF and Grichuk and Heyward are your corners.

Piscotty and Adams are the 1st baseman next year, with Piscotty taking the majority there, and some in left and or right.

Holliday, pham, grichuk, piscotty, heyward and jay would be the route I'd take.

If they aren't in on Heyward, I'd dip into the pitching market

He will still be playing in left field for another 2 years.
And just where do you think Holliday is playing?
He needs to work on recognizing breaking pitches. But we need his power in the lineup.
Piscotty needs to be the everyday 1B. He looked good over there scooping balls. Thats his position for the next 6 years at least.
FA pitching? We shouldn't spend money on that. We have enough pitching. We are going to need a SS in 2017 or at the latest 2018. If ours don't pan out, SS FA are damn expensive.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/kschwarb12">@kschwarb12</a>&#39;s home run just landed... in Oakland. <a href="https://twitter.com/Cubs">@Cubs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB">@MLB</a> <a href="https://t.co/62SVMxsQ9H">https://t.co/62SVMxsQ9H</a></p>&mdash; Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/Athletics/status/654075018222116864">October 13, 2015</a></blockquote>
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414 feet. Not even a HR in some ball parks.:Poke:

Probably going to need at least one starting pitcher I would say. Lackey and Garcia are free agents. Wainwright's health is a concern. Lynn melts down.

Wainwright
Martinez
Wacha
Lynn
Lyons?

Well think about the last 4 years.

Lynn in 2011
Kelly, Rosenthal and Miller in 2012
Wacha and Martinez in 2013
Martinez and Gonzalez in 2014

For the last several years, the key element to our post-season success has been that we've had a spare power arm on ready reserve that we'd been banking innings with all season and could call up fresh and ready to bail out the tired arms in September/October.

We just didn't have that this year. Lyons was our reserve arm and he's not a difference maker; just another 5th starter type.

Next year you have to hope that it will be Reyes and maybe Gonzalez again if he can avoid the injuries that wiped out his season.

You're absolutely right - they were just gassed. The injuries that would've sunk a lesser team simply took too much out of them by the end of the year. They couldn't bank those innings or keep anything in reserve. They didn't have the luxury of a soft division either so they had to keep the pedal down to stay on top of the division.

There's really never been a memorable regular season for me so it's hard to say I'll really remember much about this squad. But they sure were a unique squad. They took bullet after bullet and just kept powering through to win the toughest division I've ever seen.

I'm still oddly proud of this team. They represented the birds on the bat nicely. They just didn't have anything left to give at the end. Despite all that, they were still one key hit here or there away from taking this thing. They simply ran into the most powerful team in baseball when their bats were hot and they didn't have the fresh arms they'd had in the past to get them through it.

419. What ball park is that not a HR in?

We gave up less for Masterson.

DeRosa was a fine trade, the guy just got hurt.

I still put Moss at the top of the list. Pure panic move for a guy that didn't fit well and who's almost certainly going to be non-tendered. Nothing about that trade was justifiable.

Yeah - the Cards still have a lot of cost controlled players and at least have Heyward built into their present payroll structure at $9 million. So even if he costs $20 million next season, that's a palatable figure when you consider it's only adding $11 million to the Cards present salary and the Cards sold out every game for the 2nd consecutive year.

They have plenty of money to get it done. And the Cubs just beat them so ownership knows they can't backslide.

Honestly, they may have to re-sign Heyward AND make another major move somewhere. I'm not sure how; it seems like most of their positions are largely set for next year. But somehow I think they'll make a trade that we didn't see coming.

Why?

The Cubs have a market that allows them significant financial advantages over the Cards - that's inescapable.

The Cardinals are able to generate more revenue through simple attendance than most, but that's not what the compensation pick is for. The compensation pick was designed to address wild discrepancies in television revenue because MLB knew that they were fast approaching the 'have and have not' days before revenue sharing.

The Cards market is what it is.

The Cards are 2nd in attendance, 6th in market value, 6th in revenue and 12th in payroll. There is nothing small market about the Cards.