Update: HOLLIDAY A CARD 7yr/120 million, p178

[stlouie_lipp]

I sat back last night and watched the 2009 NLDS again and I still can't get over this (as well as the strikeout in the first inning of the first game):

Why would you do that to yourself?

[Jmodene]

Because even bad Cardinal baseball is better than no baseball at all...?

[JL21]

Matthew Leach's mailbag says...

Please update the fans on the latest with Matt Holliday. Since he has worked with Mark McGwire in the past, will he be more interested in the Cardinals with McGwire as hitting coach?
-- Monti S., West Point, Va.

This was, unsurprisingly, the No. 1 question in my mailbox this week, and unfortunately there's not much to report right now. The last thing I was told, some preliminary feelers had been issued, but the Cardinals simply didn't expect any movement imminently.

History tells us that unless Holliday gets directly involved -- a la Kyle Lohse last year, an unusual situation -- this is not going to be a fast process. Scott Boras' history is to take his clients, especially his top clients, onto the open market.

As for McGwire, I am of the opinion that his hiring will not have any significant impact on whether Holliday returns.

My guess is that Holliday will be wearing a different uniform in 2010, but one way or another, we are not likely to know very soon.

[epinephrine]

wow, people are still asking questions about this. ok. you leave me no choice.

[JL21]

It's easily the biggest story of the Cardinals' off-season. In fact, it's probably the biggest story of their last three off-seasons. People are going to be asking questions about it from now until he signs somewhere. This is what happens in the baseball off-season.

[epinephrine]

I just don't know what there is to ask that hasn't been addressed 5 billion times. I feel bad for Matthew Leach.

[JL21]

Again, this is what happens in the baseball off-season. There will be billions of rumors, billions of links, and .001% of them will be true, maybe another 10% will have a kernel of truth. It's Mathew Leach's job to answer those types of questions.

[Michael]

Baseball message boards live on nuggets like that. The status of Holiday is huge.

[Radio_Bugtussle]

I'm tuning everything out not directly attributable to Holliday or the Cardinals.

There will be plenty of wishful thinking in various newspapers and blogs. At least some of that information will have been planted there by Boras as part of his pathetic "negotiate through the media" gambit.

[Bo Hart]

From Joe Strauss' chat today:

The Cardinals need a power presence behind Pujols. Beyond Jason Bay, there are few alternatives to Holliday in this year's free agent market. Chairman Bill DeWitt recently denied that the club has made Holliday an offer; however, there are suggestions that the Cardinals discussed a 6-year, $96 million framework with Holliday's agent, Scott Boras. That, obviously, is nowhere near the "Teixeira money" (8 years, $180 million) that Boras was talking about during the NLCS.

http://www.stltoday.com/discussions/spo ... 309932/all