He would have got more in FA.

We are set up nicely. Loshe, Westbrook come off the books and we will have around $110 million in salary to spend. We can pay wainwright next year without hamstringing the team. With this one game and out playoff system coming, having a stud is essential.

Hate the new system. You're really hamstringing a team that has to have a must win game. They have to burn their ace while the other team gets an extra day or two of rest.

That's more or less the point of it, they've talked about wanting to reward the division winners more.

If by "division winners" you mean bloated payroll big market teams, then yes, I agree, that's why they're doing it.

Personally, I like it when the scum of New York and Philadelphia piss down their multi-million dollar legs and watch somebody else in the World Series.

Sure, its still not as dumb as determining home field in the WS on the ASG. Bud loves him some dumb decisions.

Then make sure you win the division. Thats the point. Put more worth into winning the division.

They just can't have the Red Sox missing out on the postseason either.

Yankees are so confident with the new system in place, they're going to drop their payroll to $189 million. The new Steinbrenner is going to pocket a billion from the Yanks every five years.

Should we worry? From bernies column..............

* Go ahead and send me to the penalty box for two minutes for overreacting, but this neck stiffness with Chris Carpenter is troublesome. And with Joe Strauss reporting this morning that Carpenter left camp to get examined by a local doctor ... sheesh. The anxiety level just went up a bit. This could be absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. It could be something else. But the Cardinals put in a program for Carpenter this spring to limit his throwing, just to be on the safe and smart side after his laborious 2011 season. It makes a lot of sense. But in reducing Carpenter's workload, the Cardinals signaled at least some internal concern over Carp. That is duly noted. And excuse me if I'm a little reluctant to accept the Cardinals' attempts to downplay the situation. We've been through this before.

* Including the postseason Carpenter worked 273.1 innings last season and threw 4,155 pitches. (For means of comparison, that was 775 pitches more than Jaime Garcia.) Over the last two years including the postseason, only Roy Halladay has pitched more innings (522.1) than Carpenter (508.1) And only two pitchers, Justin Verlander (8,047) and C.J. Wilson (7,961) have thrown more pitches than Carpenter (7,704.)
I'm not suggesting the Cardinals keep Roy Oswalt's phone number on speed dial, but still ...

Carpenter threw his ass off last year, this should've been expected.

Then again, I'm not too concerned about it just yet. There's little indication that this is likely to be a game-changer, though it could be a sign of things to come. I've battled a bad disk for years and they're annoying as hell, but ultimately can be managed. If that's what he's looking at here, it can be addressed.

We'll be lucky to get one more full season out of him, IMO. But it's not like he hasn't done enough for us.

I'm kind of wishing they'd pulled the trigger on Oswalt, though.

5tb game in Philly. WS win on 3 days rest. He has earned a place in Cardinals lore. He's earned the right to stand alongside the Cardinal greats on Opening Day till the day he dies or as long as he desires.

We are damn lucky to have Miller ready to take his spot in the rotation next year.

Don't tell me they let Carpenter towel himself off.

Season has started. Furcal leading off and Loshe on the mound.:shake:

Freese picks up where he left off.