The Chris Moeller Archives

I want to tell you about my friend, Walt Jocketty

Cardinals' General Manager Walt Jocketty reminds me of Harry the Hat on television's "Cheers." In the early 1980's, when Gussies, Whiteys, and astroturf decorated Busch Stadium, Harry, played by Harry Anderson, would wander into Cheers and politely separate the bar patrons from their wallets. (He was not yet assigned to the bench of New York District Court.) Harry referred to Norm, Coach, Cliff, and company as his "pigeons," and Jocketty has pigeons of his own.

On Saturday, Jocketty politely separated the Oakland A's from the best left-handed pitcher under 40 years old in all of baseball. Mark Mulder will take the ball in Houston on April 5th, wearing the 'birds-on-bat,' and giving the Cardinals their first All-Star caliber southpaw since John Tudor, and their first lefty "hammer" since Steve Carlton.

What makes Jocketty's maneuver most impressive is that he did it in a financial market that has gone haywire once again. Fiscal sanity, it seems, lasted all of one year in baseball. In the '04-'05 offseason, teams are dropping astronomical dollars on mediocre talent like Jaret Wright, who got $7 million a year from the Yankees and didn't even pass his physical on the first trip to the MRI.

Walt understands that the free agent market, while furious and exciting, is bad economics. By nature, that market is an "auction," and auctions produce inflated values. A mid-market team like the Cardinals cannot be giving $8 million a year to a Matt Clement. They couldn't even land a Tim Hudson by trade, after teams with deeper resources entered the bidding.

What he did, instead, was pursue a stealth attack on a hurler that most of baseball didn't even know was available. Walt finalized the deal on family vacation during an 8 hour flight to Hawaii. A GM feeding frenzy for Mulder never developed.

Only Curt Schilling has more wins than Mulder over the last four years (74 to 72), and no left-hander has more since the start of that 2001 season. Not Randy Johnson. Not Barry Zito. Not Glavine, Leiter, Milton, Pettitte, or Donovan Osborne. Mulder will have baseball's premier offense behind him, and he holds a career record of 65-4 when his team scores four or more runs. He's only 27 years old, and will earn a more than reasonable $6 million next season. The Cards hold a club option for '06 at $7.25 mil. That leaves financial flexibility for Walt to rebuild the Cards' middle infield for the last year of the old ballpark.

All that being said, this trade is not a repeat of Jocketty's last trade with the A's. Mulder is a premier baseball talent like Mark McGwire, but Dan Haren, Kiko Calero, and Daric Barton are not T.J. Mathews, Eric Ludwick, and Blake Stein. Haren showed all of baseball what he could do last year, pitching lights-out in September and October. Kiko Calero is an established big league reliever with nasty stuff, and Barton was chosen the 2nd best prospect in the Midwest League this year by Baseball America. The trade will pay some dividends for the A's, but Jocketty couldn't pass this up.

Mulder is only three years older than Haren, and already established. Calero is traded from a position of strength- right-handed relief, and Barton is a catching prospect caught behind Yadier Molina. Barton put up offensive numbers similar to those of Albert Pujols at Peoria (.313 with 36 extra base hits), but his defense is considered highly suspect. Those offensive numbers become quite ordinary at other positions.

Saturday's trade creates a five man rotation for the Cardinals (Mulder, Carpenter, Marquis, Suppan, Morris) in which each man won at least 15 games last year. I wouldn't want to be a NL Central Division club facing those arms and those odds, having to already erase 13 games in the standings.

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That reminds me, are you a fan of the Chicago Cubs? If so, I want to hear from you. I live and work among many Cubs fans, and yet I don't see them anymore. I haven't heard a peep from a Cubs fan since July. It's highly unusual. If you're out there, how are you? Are you still following baseball? Will you be going to games next year? How did you spend the beautiful autumn we enjoyed in the Midwest? Please drop a line. I want to make sure you're still around, and that you're OK.

posted by CM @ 1:24 PM