Redbird Nation

Very interesting post in Redbird Nation regarding the Cardinals' front office asking bloggers what they thought the Cardinals should be offering to shortstop Edgar Renteria.

The initial conclusion is 5-years at $10 million per year.

The post draws heavily from this post in The Hardball Times (which I was going to link to this morning anyway). The author of the Hardball Times post was Doug Pappas and his Doug's Business of Baseball Blog is one of the blogs I planned to add to my blogroll today.

Getting back to the Redbird Nation post - as a Red Sox fan this interests me because Renteria is our Plan B if Nomar goes free agent and signs elsewhere. Five-years at $10 million per year? The Red Sox would do that or top that in a heartbeat. My guess is that the Cardinals were probably hoping the sabermetric folks would lower the salary expectations to about $9 million per year. The sabermetric folks would be able to both justify what the front office offers and provide them with cover (with sportswriters and fans) in case the $9 million per year was rejected and Renteria signed elsewhere.

Renteria is a free agent at the end of the year and although it makes sense to try and figure out what a player is worth from the front office's perspective - it makes more sense to the player to let the market determine the player's value.

Next off-season the Red Sox will be setting the bar with their offer to Nomar (my guess is $12-13 million per year). Garciappara may see what the Dodgers have to offer - if they trump the Red Sox offer then that puts the Red Sox into the bind of needing to get a replacement like Renteria. (Although the Red Sox may opt to move Pokey Reese to short and then go after a second baseman like Jose Vidro because top prospect Hanley Ramirez is about ready for the big club.) Also don't count the Mariners out of the shortstop bidding.

It will be interesting how this plays out. (Don't you just love baseball? What other sport has you wondering who will be playing where next season even before Opening Day?)