Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus (Update: Finalized!)

[Cronos]

Assuming this deal is going down, I'm pretty satisfied with this. I figured the dramatics by Rolen and TLR would force us to get very little back for him, and Glaus isn't a bad catch. As has been mentioned, power is clearly much better, defense is clearly significantly worse. This has probably already been talked about, but in case it hasn't: any chance Glaus' defense could be better on regular turf vs Astroturf?

And I know it was 3 years ago and may have just been a onetime power upswing, but his only year in the NL produced 37 homers(Arizona, '05).

Besides, as someone else in the thread mentioned, Glaus should be licking his chops in going from AL East pitching to NL central pitching. Visibly drooling, for that matter.

[indyredbird]

Isn't Glaus a cheat?

[Bo Hart]

Bearing the other rumors in mind, I think this was a really good trade. I'm surprised people are so pessimistic.

You can't just ignore the fact that Rolen wanted out or the fact that he's a serious injury risk.

[picasso]

Bearing the other rumors in mind, I think this was a really good trade. I'm surprised people are so pessimistic.

You can't just ignore the fact that Rolen wanted out or the fact that he's a serious injury risk.

Most non-GRB sites I've read (even other repectable Cardinal Sites-non STLToday) view this as a slight push for the Cardinals.

[cardsfansince82]

I actually like this deal. It's a moot point whether you think Rolen will have a bounce back year or not. Him agreeing to go to Toronto makes it pretty clear that his deal with Tony was bad enough that he had to go, one way or another. Is he a better player overall than Glaus? Almost certainly. But we get a major league quality hitter in return (which is more than you can say about half of our roster as it is). I think people are overestimating Rolen's trade value at this point. Would you rather: 1. have Glaus and save some money and 1 year 2. get another reclamation project pitcher a la Capuano and eat some salary 3. get a mid level prospect or two that may never pan out and eat some money? I'll take Glaus.

[Ace]

Isn't Glaus a cheat?

Hmmm..

You know now that you mention it, I think he is. We can't have cheaters on the St. Louis Cardinals right? We'll have to get rid of Rick Ankiel while we're at it and dump TLR because he drove intoxicated. Albert's gone too, he lied about his age. I saw Molina at the mall one time and I sneezed... He didn't say bless you. Get him out of here.

[EastonBlues22]

Why are sabr people usually pessimistic?

It's all a matter of perspective...the people who are "optimistic" about this trade are the ones most pessimistic about Rolen's health.

What grounds do have they to be pessimistic about his health? They are not medical professionals, and have zero access to his medical reports. They've seen him put out an average season right after his main injury...which included his trail off at the end. That might be pure random variation, or it might mean that the joint weakened over the course of the season. Either is fine...an injury to a joint like that is going to take more than a few months of rehab to return to full strength and no one should have expected Rolen to be 100% for a full season in 2006. The fact that he put up an average season post-surgery (especially the first year back) is actually a wildly encouraging sign in the grand scheme of things.

He (stupidly) thought he could play through some soreness in 2007 and his condition and production degenerated accordingly as he "tweaked his mechanics" to compensate. That was dumb, and it showed. Still, there was no additional structural trauma that needs to be overcome, and really the outlook for 2008 isn't nearly as bleak as most people are making it out to be. What, exactly, occured between 2006 and 2007 that makes people think that Rolen is only going to get worse from here on out? Nothing...it's simply reaction based upon one year of (relative) suckiness that was obviously skewed by poor decision making on Rolen's part. I can't emphasize this enough: there was no additional structural damage, and thus there's no reason at all to believe that his ceiling is anything below what he did in 2006 simply because of what happened in 2007. It's unlikely that he'll ever be a 150 game per year guy with a 135 OPS+ again, but 140 games of 120 OPS+ is hardly a remote possibility.

It's not a smart move to trade a clearly superior player with such an obvious chance at rebounding for a guy who's average year is barely equivalent to a bad year from Rolen. You have to be absolutely convinced that Rolen is done to like this trade, and there simply isn't enough objective information available to us as fans to support that conclusion at this point.

[cards2468]

Should it concern us that Glaus is on the Mitchell Report?

[indyredbird]

Isn't Glaus a cheat?

Hmmm..

You know now that you mention it, I think he is. We can't have cheaters on the St. Louis Cardinals right? We'll have to get rid of Rick Ankiel while we're at it and dump TLR because he drove intoxicated. Albert's gone too, he lied about his age. I saw Molina at the mall one time and I sneezed... He didn't say bless you. Get him out of here.

Well if people on this forum are going to get on Bonds and Clemens, shouldn't Glaus be scrutinized?

[Ace]

Isn't Glaus a cheat?

Hmmm..

You know now that you mention it, I think he is. We can't have cheaters on the St. Louis Cardinals right? We'll have to get rid of Rick Ankiel while we're at it and dump TLR because he drove intoxicated. Albert's gone too, he lied about his age. I saw Molina at the mall one time and I sneezed... He didn't say bless you. Get him out of here.

Well if people on this forum are going to get on Bonds and Clemens, shouldn't Glaus be scrutinized?

And Ankiel?

Apples and oranges IMO. Bonds and Clemens are being scutinized so much because of all their baseball accomplishments and being two of the best players of all time.