Trade deadline idea

Major League Baseball news shows, newspapers, Facebook, Twitter, online shows and now obviously blogs are all talking about the hot topic of the trade deadline. The non-waiver trade deadline is Wednesday at 4 p.m. (EST) which means in order for a team to trade for another player it has to be completed by this time.

The basics of a trade is that in order to add a player that may or may not improve the team you have to let go of a player that may or may not help the team in the future. With that said you have to give to get which seems simple enough. Or is it that easy? If I was a general manager of a MLB team that is a seller, a club wanting to rebuild, I would be loving the possibilities of what I could acquire for the future. If I was a general manager of a MLB team that is a buyer, a club wanting to improve now, I would be a nervous wreck trying to decide if I should cut loose some good players for hopefully a player or players to make the team better for the playoff run.

For the past few days and even weeks the rumors have been linked to the Cardinals making a trade for a pitcher or a shortstop and were even reported to have visited a tryout of a former closer trying to make a comeback after recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Here is my two cents on the factors to trade or not to trade and if we even need to consider a trade.

I have heard it said many times and I have even said it a few times myself that a team cannot have too much pitching. Yes we have some good young arms mixed in well with Adam Wainwright and Jake Westbrook in the starting rotation, however we are missing one starter and we have a couple of guys struggling now. A trade for a starter would and could be the shot in the arm we need to reach our goal of a World Series championship. I mean anything less isn't the goal a team sets at the beginning of a season. Now the hard part is to figure out the best arm and some good trade bait. I have my own theory and the more I think about it the more it would not work. My original thought was to do a three team trade, which is kind of rare but they work, with the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox. The Tigers need a closer and we have several good quality power arms that could be enticing to them. From the looks of the White Sox they are a seller and are trying to ship out Jake Peavy so if they were in the market to get a player of their liking from the Tigers this trade might work. The problem with this idea is that both teams are in the American League Central division and they may have some reservations trading in the same division.

So this brings up my next thinking outside the box theory that is only a trade involving the Cards and the White Sox. he White Sox was once rumored to be in the deal that would send Peavy to the Boston Red Sox for a third base prospect. Then again the rumor mill is full of speculations and just plain and simple guessing by blog writers and twitter tweeters. So I will jump in this too by saying I think the Cards should up the ante so to speak and offer hometown hero David Freese, which would be a quality upgrade for the White Sox at third base, for LHP Chris Sale. Yes this would not be a popular trade for the die hard fans of St Louis but in the business side of the deal we would get a good young left handed starter who is only 24 years old and has an extra year on his contract than does Peavy. Sale was an all star this year and would fit nicely in the rotation behind Wainwright as a number two or number three starter. He has a lopsided record of 6-10 due to the poor run support, however he owns a 2.69 ERA with 149 strikeouts in 137 innings this year which is better than Peavy who is 8-4 and has a 4.28 ERA with only 76 strikeouts in 80 innings pitched. It is no secret that Freese has struggled this year and the way Matt Carpenter has handled filling in at third base it would be reasonable to think that if Freese isn't traded now he has a good chance of being traded this offseason.

Time will tell if John Mozeliak, general manager, will make a trade or not and if so how big it will be. The bad part about being a GM in this situation is if he pulls the trigger and makes a trade that doesn't work he is the bad guy or if he doesn't make a trade and we fall flat and miss the playoffs he is the bad guy for not doing anything. What would you do if you were in charge? Do we keep who we have now and hope we can fill the rotation from within the organization or do we go after a veteran starter to help?