Cardinals sign All-Star Beltran

[Krawhitham]

2 years 26 million

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/cardinals-sign-all-star-beltran/article_d74d0942-2cb2-11e1-8aa9-001a4bcf6878.html

[UPRedsFan]

Crud!

[The Rage]

They can have him and his aging body. I wouldn't have paid him a dime over 5million. The best part is when he stays healthy and has a signifigent dropoff.

[joshua]

Damn. That's a tough pill to swallow. If the Reds didn't get him I at least hoped an AL team would. The Cardinals are right back in it. Is it bad to say I hope Beltran gets injured or falls off statistically and that Wainwright is never the same after TJ?

[mroby85]

Damn. That's a tough pill to swallow. If the Reds didn't get him I at least hoped an AL team would. The Cardinals are right back in it. Is it bad to say I hope Beltran gets injured or falls off statistically and that Wainwright is never the same after TJ?

I would be more disgusted with you if you wanted them to be healthy, and good but I may not be typical lol.

[LegallyMinded]

Beltran's a quality player, and I would have liked to see the Reds pursue him as a LF option, but I don't know that this is a crippling acquisition for the Reds' NL Central chances or anything. Beltran's defense in RF last year was almost as bad as Berkman's (-7.3UZR to -10.3), and his BABIP was 20 points over his career line. Bill James also has him projected for a .279/.369/.480, which is nice, but I wouldn't expect him to be the nearly 5-WAR player he was last year.

[takealeake]

He makes up for Pujols - not!

Not worried about him, he's due for a Ken Injury age type of year.

St. Louis got lucky to make the playoffs, where anyone can win, WITH Pujols. Beltran doesn't fill that gap.

[Red Raindog]

2 years 26 million

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/cardinals-sign-all-star-beltran/article_d74d0942-2cb2-11e1-8aa9-001a4bcf6878.html

I harbored a dream of having him for the Reds - but 2 years for $26 million?

I'm shaking my head here in amazement since he's 35 or so & missed so many games.

wow ---

[The DARK]

His addition means the Cards are still gonna be a real threat. Getting Wainwright back on top of this means that we'll probably be ranked #2 in most NL Central predictions. They're still a somewhat better team than us at this point. Allen Craig as a backup is a pretty nice luxury to have, and their rotation doesn't look too shabby.

That said, they're also prime candidates to go down in the flames of injury. Most of their impact players are either old (Beltran, Berkman, Carpenter) or fragile (Wainwright, Freese).

[Jefferson24]

They can have him and his aging body. I wouldn't have paid him a dime over 5million. The best part is when he stays healthy and has a signifigent dropoff.

Thought the same thing about Berkman last year. He sure proved everybody wrong.

Beltran will probably do better than expected.

[AintlifeGrande]

Well,what other good OF sticks are left to choose from now?

[Crumbley]

Adding Beltran and the return of Wainwright pretty well negates the loss of Pujols.

[NCCardfan]

Adding Beltran and the return of Wainwright pretty well negates the loss of Pujols.

It would be crazy to think that AP is replaceable.
It would be almost crazy to think that Berkman will do as well in 2012 as he did in 2011.
It would be nuts to think that AW will contend for the Cy Young on his first season back from TJ.

Freese is made of a material that is as solid as glass, but maybe he can ward off the injury bug.
Craig is out for about a month due to busting his kneecap in that cracker jack box in Houston, man I hate that stadium!

I think that CIN & STL are the teams to beat in the NL Central as it looks right now.

[brm7675]

When did an aging often injuried outfielder = Albert P? As for Wainwright, I doubt he is what he was for a while, it takes time to rebound from TJ, even in today's game.