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Next steps:
1) Add Jeff Baker to the bench to provide a solid platoon partner for Wong/Carpenter/Adams as well as a great bat off the bench against late-inning situational lefties. This name is unfamiliar to most, but look him up. In almost 900 career plate appearances against lefties, he's proven to essentially be Allen Craig with more power. This guy is a perfect solution to our lefty concerns and he's so far under the radar that he should come cheap. I've been banging this drum since August - the guy is a perfect fit. He's played 2b, 3b, 1b and some outfield.
2) Add Michael Morse to the bench to provide all-purpose power to the bench as well as someone capable of playing IF and OF (has played major league innings at 3b, SS, 1b and OF)
3) Trade Jay for a C or 3b prospect.
At that point you have a bench of:
Morse
Baker
Descalso
Robinson
Cruz
That gives you power, speed, defense, positional flexibility and a couple of guys that could even start for prolonged periods of time in the event of injury. If he could swing that, the Cardinals would have an outstanding bench.
Even after the Peralta signing, their team payroll appears to be about $15 million below last season's. That's plenty of money to get Baker and Morse on 2 year deals (that shouldn't hamstring us when the young kids are no longer cost controlled and are looking at their arb years).
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"If there's a god, he's laughing at us.....and our football team..."
"When you look at something through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags."
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