This.

Don't have a problem dealing Rasmus. Kid was a ****ing headcase and his PITA father didn't help matters. I don't think he would have ever met his potential here.

But the package they got for him is sickening, even if they sign Jackson long term and "Scrabble" turns out to be rock solid.

And that's the reason why I don't have a problem with Rasmus being gone. Some players need a change of scenery, and Rasmus might be one of those players.

Like I told someone else today, part of being an effective manager or supervisor in any role is the ability to manage personalities, and that extends to sports. We've seen for 15 years this asshole's inability to effectively manage different personalities. The only thing TLR does well is get bench players to perform. But he does that at the expense of more talented players. Even his biggest strength is an inexcusable weakness.

Jay, you can't take that pitch.

Here's the thing: the toxic environment was created by the manager. He did it for Ryan, for Rasmus, even back to Reyes.

The guy is a ****ing prick and a terrible manager to boot.

I dare anyone to compare Rasmus to a guy like T.O or Moss.

LaRussa wasn't the main reason why Ryan was traded, I believe. It was because other players couldn't stand him.

I could buy what you're saying, though. From the get go, LaRussa didn't get along with Ryan. Remember a few years back when he swung at a 3-0 or 3-1 pitch and LaRussa chastised him about it?

You'd be better off comparing him to John Elway, who was continually dicked around by Dan Reeves until the Broncos finally realized that the decrepit old bastard was undermining their franchise.

Ryan had a blowup with Carpenter once, but TLR's acrimony towards him was well documented.

Again, I think a lot of your memory is (understandably) colored by way that the organization publicly excoriates its ex-players after they leave.

I'd be an idiot to tell you that LaRussa didn't feud with Rolen and wasn't the reason why he was traded. I could be wrong on Ryan, but I read somewhere(and it wasn't from the Post-Dispatch or something that anyone in the Cardinals office said) that Pujols got pissed at him for doing an interview in the clubhouse or something like that. I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was something to that extent.

I disagree. I'm sure Rasmus wasn't the most popular guy in the locker room but thats not why you trade an underperforming high celing Rasmus, thats why you trade an underperforming it is what it is Ryan.

No way, this isn't on Larussa.

I've also heard that Ankiel and his family didn't talk to him in 2009. Take that for what ever it's worth.

Posnanski wrote this 9 months ago after we shipped off Ryan:

The Expendable Brendan Ryan


"(Brendan) Ryan became expendable for the Cardinals after they acquired infielder Ryan Theriot from the Los Angeles Dodgers last month. Theriot was billed immediately as the Cardinals starting shortstop, and they let other teams know that Ryan was available."

-- From Derrick Goold's story on the Cardinals trading Brendan Ryan to Seattle for a Class A reliever.

I wrote this on Twitter: I can rarely remember reading a baseball notion quite as comical as Brendan Ryan becoming expandable BECAUSE the Cardinals acquired Ryan Theriot. I'm sure that there are other reasons Brendan Ryan really became expendable -- most of these having to do with manager Tony La Russa -- but sure enough they keep pushing the Ryan Theriot thing.



"The reason that Ryan Theriot was traded for is we have a chance to win," La Russa told reporters.

"We didn’t try to get (Blake) Hawksworth off the club," La Russa told Tim McKernan about the Hawksworth for Theriot deal. "We had some right hand relief depth and we were able to use him to get a player that we really like in Ryan Theriot."

I have to admit: I don't fully understand why the Cardinals really like Ryan Theriot. He's a 31-year-old shortstop with a career 82 OPS+ (he did have a good on-base percentage in 2008) and a fading reputation as an adequate defensive shortstop. In fact, last year he hardly even played shortstop. The Cubs moved him to second base to make room for 20-year-old Starlin Castro. Then they traded him to Los Angeles, and the Dodgers did not play him even once at short even though their starting shortstop Rafael Furcal was hurt. The Dodgers preferred to put Jamey Carroll out there, though Carroll had not played a single game at shortstop in the big leagues in three years.

Brendan Ryan, meanwhile, posted the best defensive numbers at shortstop in baseball last year. He really is a defensive marvel. It's also true that he didn't hit a lick. His .223/.279/.294 line was abominable and probably unplayable. Maybe that reflects his true offensive value. But maybe not. The year before, he hit .292/.340/.400. The difference seems to have been an abnormally high batting average on balls in play in 2009 (.332) and an abnormally low BABIP in 2010 (.253). He may have been lucky in 2009. He also may have been unlucky in 2010. Maybe his true value is somewhere in the middle.

If he can hit something closer to what he did in 2009, with the way he fields he can be one of the most valuable shortstops in the American League. You know, unless Derek Jeter rebounds, there's an opening for best shortstop in the AL. You know who led league shortstops in combined-WAR in 2010? We are combining Fangraphs WAR and Baseball Reference Wins Above Replacement ... it was Oakland's Cliff Pennington. Ryan can certainly be a Pennington kind player. Seattle has been a team that has tried to win with a certain strategy -- with defense playing a big part -- and it seems to me that getting Ryan for a minor league arm could work out for them the way getting Frankie Gutierrez did two years ago.

Then again, Ryan might not hit at all and end up on the bench by mid-May. Nobody really knows. My point here is not that the Mariners may have made a good move. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. My point here is that the Cardinals traded for the veteran presence of Ryan Theriot (and they're paying him more than $3 million) and then believed this trade made Brendan Ryan "expendable." That just seems bizarre.

And we really may be getting to the point where Tony La Russa's year-to-year decision to manage or retire is badly and visibly hurting the Cardinals. Because it does not feel like that Cardinals are building a team as much as it feels like they are trying to cobble together one more winner for Tony La Russa.

Look: Brendan Ryan isn't exactly a kid, but he is two years younger than Theriot and has at least proven to be superior defensively. What Ryan Theriot offers is that sort of veteran comfort and general scrappiness that makes Tony La Russa happy. They signed soon-to-be 35 year old Lance Berkman when he is coming off the sort of year that makes you wonder if his terrific career is on a serious downslope. More veteran comfort. The Cardinals are sending out all sorts of weird vibes about what they think of their one gifted young everyday player, Colby Rasmus -- it's hard to wade through it all but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of love going on there.

There are other signs of one-yearitis -- uncomfortable signs, I think, if you're a Cardinals fan. Tony La Russa is one of the great managers in baseball history. He has won a World Series and two pennants with the Cardinals and guided the Cardinals to the playoffs seven division titles and more than 1,300 victories. But at this point, he does not seem especially interested in being patient or in developing players. He wants now. And who can blame him? He's 66 years old, he has been managing big league teams for 32 years, there's no great motivation to think about future years.

And I just don't think that sort of short-range strategy works much. The Kansas City Royals, at the end of owner Ewing Kauffman's life, were desperate to give him one more winner. This actually led to one of the most remarkable and stunning facts you will ever hear -- in 1990 the Kansas City Royals had the highest payroll in all of baseball. This was because the Royals had given absurd contracts to Mark Davis and Storm Davis, and they gave a big extension to Mark Gubicza. and they actually made 42-year-old Bob Boone one of the highest paid players in baseball and so on. Those financially reckless Royals.

Of course it didn't work. The Royals after winning 92 games in 1989 were dreadful in 1990, going 75-86 and finishing sixth in the American League West. They were sixth again the next year even after falling to seventh in total payroll. They lost 90 games in 1992. And in 1993, Ewing Kauffman died. The effort to get him one more pennant was noble. But it seems to me that you don't build winners with that kind of short-sighted strategy.

And now, it seems like the Cardinals are using that same strategy. The Cardinals have enough talent to honestly believe they can contend. In 2010, they had the best player in baseball, a generally hard-hitting outfield, a great defensive shortstop, got 96 starts out Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia (combined 2.79 ERA and 524-183 strikeout to walk) and had an often decent bullpen. But even with all that, they only won 86 games. And they have not won a single playoff game since winning the World Series four years ago. Now they've gone out and traded for Ryan Theriot in the hope that will help make them a winner. As a friend of mine says about anything: "It COULD work." I'm just not sure they're seeing straight in St. Louis these days.

Why do people think that other teams don't know what most Cards fans do about Rasmus?

Why would GM's line up to give a truckload for a guy considered to be a head case with an overbearing father?

Really at this point tell me who was going to give MORE for Rasmus?

Gawd Houston sucks

Don't know if they keep the stat, but we ****ing HAVE to lead the league in leadoff extra base hit that don't come around to score.

Jay is not a 5 hole hitter especially on his first day as the newly appointed starter in cf.

Cardinals are lucky right now, or the Astros are bad.

GODDAMN THIS ****ING BULLPEN.

****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****. ****.

I WANT THE LEFTY IN.

They're just trying to make the trade look better. **** me.

And Carp gets ****ed yet again.

****ing PFP, god dammit.

Not that Boggs should have been run out for another inning after getting his balls kicked in the previous one.

What? He had a no decision going anyway.

Cards better blow up the 'Stros bullpen next inning.

I'm talking about the lack of run support.

Don't **** this up, Freese.

TLR had arms in the pen, he just ****ed up management of it again.

Please don't bunt.

Theriot, please make up for your shittiness now.

Horton gets it, the ****ing manager doesn't.

Glad we had theriot in that spot.

Shocking.

At least Albert can't end the game on a DP.

Porfavor, Albert.

Good night, drive safe.

****.

Nasty slider.

Atrocious day. Just atrocious.

Crap for sure but this year we are beating the teams we should beat more often. Sweep the cubs and this loss is forgiven.

A day that will live in infamy.

Question for Cardinals fans:

He's clearly got the bat, but how is Rasmus' defense in CF? Defensive metrics haven't really liked him since his rookie year, but does that mean anything at all? I doubt I've seen him play more than 10-20 times in his career, so it's hard for me to judge this.

Maybe if rasmus blossoms into his potential. But until then..... Still 6 games over .500 and bullpen help on the way.

****ing sporadic.

One day he looks like Willie ****ing Mays, the next he's loafing/misplaying routine fly balls, letting balls that have no business getting to the wall past him, etc.

Can't remember exactly how it went down, but he was booed for his effort on a play during the last game I went to - 7/9 v. Arizona. You gotta **** up badly, or somewhat regularly for the fans in STL to boo you.

His defense hasn't quite lived up to his billing, IMO.

He makes some blunders, but at other times he can make really great plays.

Maybe if rasmus blossoms into his potential. But until then..... Still 6 games over .500 and bullpen help on the way. I think 88 wins takes this division.

Adam Wainwright isn't walking through that door, BRC. Jim Edmonds is not walking through that door, and Scott Rolen isn't walking through that door. And if you expect them to walk through the door they're gonna be gray and old.

Rasmus hit 270 with 23 bombs as a 23 year old, for chrissakes.

"Maybe if he blossoms into his potential". You don't have to see a maybe. It was right there in front of us before Tony started dicking with him and destroying his confidence.

Pujols doesn't take instruction from McGwire. McGwire ****ed up Ryan and he ****ed up Holliday back in ST of '09 when he was still in Oakland.

I don't care if Colby wants his dad to work on his swing, especially if his dad knew how to reach him and knew his swing. It's not exactly a coincidence that once he went back to his dad he started hitting ropes all over the field.

Jim Furyk won the ****ing Fed Ex Cup last year with a 15 handicapper as his primary swing coach, because that guy, his dad, knew him better than anyone.

I'll never understand why just about every team in MLB continues to trade for Edwin Jackson.

He has Ozzie Smith like ability, but his focus and effort produce results more consistent with Theriot.

It will be interesting (and, I'm afraid ultimately very annoying) to see how he does now that he's free from the clutches of LaRussa and McGwire.

Obviously a horrible trade, I'm just hoping it doesn't end up to be Mulder/Haren bad.

I hope it's worse.

I hope the kid's a 30/30 player as soon as next season. I hope this is the straw that finally gets this pathetic farce of a manager out of town.

Jocketty was the reason those early aughts teams won anything, LaRussa's the reason they didn't win more and he and his stooge Moe are the reason they aren't going to win much of anything else for a very long time.

This team is about the 8th best team in the NL (Philly, ATL, SF, AZ, Col., Mil, Cincy) and we just traded our best long-term asset in a win-now move, and brought back exactly nothing that will help us next season. We turned down legitimate long-term prospects from TB and got less for Rasmus than the Mets got for Beltran because we insisted on a schmuck like Edwin Jackson.

Still unbelievable.

On the plus side, I watched a couple episodes of Top Gear, knocked out a training camp in Madden and got through 2 chapters of Dance with Dragons while you fellas were watching that abortion.

Guess who had the better evening?

Personally I was playing Fallout New Vegas.

I haven't watched many games this year, primarily because I seem to be a kiss of death for them. Of the games I've watched, I think they've won two and lost twelve. Usually all I have to do is switch the channel and they start hemmorhaging runs.

I figure they've got enough problems with Darth LaRussa calling the shots that they don't need my bad luck on top of it.

Some mild rumors of Furcal. He is having a rough year but becomes a FA after the season. Assuming that he costs just a fringe prospect he is interesting.

It appears the Cardinals aren't going after Bell anymore, but they are looking for MI help.

Thanks, I figured it was something like that. I'd seen him make some great plays before, but I didn't know about the other stuff. Sounds like he has all the tools to be a star, but the mental side of the game isn't quite there yet. Perhaps he'll be better in that area now that he's getting away from the crazy TLR.

Then I think we can say based on past experience it's a done deal!

They got him with very little risk, but I wouldn't count too heavily on him reaching beyond his current levels. He fell into a funk this year after a strong start and was run out there quite regularly to the detriment of the middle of our order. His ability to adjust on his own and that will be a big if, will be the key to whether he reaches his potential or starts down the Corey Patterson path to "what could have been."

I get to see Correy Patterson make his Cardinal debut tonight!

He's still only 24 and moving to a great hitters' park. I'd be very surprised if his numbers don't improve with the Jays.

0 for 5 start tonight, though. I see Rzep was his regular self.

Went to the game. Scrabble looks like he has a bright future, whether it be starting or in the bullpen.

Good to hear since the latest was SD was looking for three players for Bell. Anything that gets the ****ing Riot out of the daily lineup works unless the Cards continue to pay out the ass for help this season.

**** the cardinals

Envy. Love it!

The impossible is possible! Theriot is playing 2B!

Looks like I have a good chance of seeing Albert's 2000th hit tomorrow afternoon.

Forgot to mention, Skip bailed Theriot's ass out after he missed a ball to his left at 2B.

Or not.

E-Jax was impressive tonight. But then again, it was against the Cubs.

I thought that too, until I saw that 6-7 guys in the Cubs lineup are hitting over .300 against us this year.

I don't know if I should laugh at that or feel sad that they are hitting that high against the Cardinals.

Dotel looked pretty good as well.

Unlike Corey ****ing Patterson.

**** you, Corey ****ing Patterson.

Rumor out there that they are looking at Furcal. If they can get him for a guy like Hamilton, I like it.

That was a cool moment with Albert on 2b. Moment like that I bet you don't forget. He could be treated like this generations Stan the Man if he resigns.

I don't know about that. Musial actually asked for a pay cut. There's nothing wrong with Albert asking and seeking a raise(which he'll get), but Stan was loyal to St. Louis.

Only 2 pitchers that were in the bullpen on Opening Day are currently in there right now.

Wow.

I know it's early but Rasmus is 0-8 with 5 SO so far in Toronto.

Another reason he isn't a 5 tool player besides his poor arm and questionable defense, he will never hit for average. Too many SO's.

Different era and different generation. Not an apples to apples comparison.

If Pujols resigns, he will be viewed as loyal. There may even be another suitor that offers more money and he stays. We shall see.

You see his face out there standing on 2B? He was about choke up and cry from the ovation he was recieving. That was some love that money can't buy. It's going to come down to Alberts choice, chase the money or feel that love for the rest of your days.

Saw a stat on Baseball tonight that Albert was the 5th fastest player to reach 2000 hits in baseball history.

Cards close to deal for Dodgers' Furcal

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/68...al-source-says

Depending on who the Cards give up, it's a low risk-high reward trade. I like it.

I also like this, depending on whom we gave up.

Really like this trade but have reservations until I see what they gave up.