So It Goes

The St Louis press has been harassing the Cardinals' organization over skipping uber-prospect Rick Porcello in the 2007 draft due to concerns about meeting his demands and signing an initial contract.

I have given this some thought over the years since, and formulated this comment to the story posted here:

stimpy66 wrote: June 18, 2009 7:22AM
Saying this leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, but I have an argument to support NOT signing Porcello then. Coming after the MV3 years(the trading of prospects for higher priced veterans), and Pujols' & Carpenter's well-earned big contracts, the Cardinal management did not have the big dollars to sign an unproven prospect. They HAD to spend to rebuild the minors from the bottom up. They had to cap payroll increases because of the financial limitations of the market. They did not have any track record of success with identifying good talent that would blow out an elbow or shoulder before they made the bigs. They spent the cash for Portello to supply the minors with servicable supply of young, talented (but not superstar-level)athletic players that TLR could plug in as he wished. The success of that pipeline has supplied one possible superstar talent (Rasmus), and granted the club the ability to make high profile risks in this year's draft. Porcello did not blow out an elbow, Mark Mulder did. Danny Haren did not. Shift those around and the Cardinals dominate for a long time. So it goes. I think the depth of the minors allows the club to pay Pujols, Ludwick, Carpenter?, and upgrade the bench and bull pen with lower cost effective players. I think the Cards are set to be competitive - with a few years of being exceptional - for the length of Pujol's next contract. What more can you ask for in St. Louis?