Fire Up The Stove

The “hot stove” tends to fire up with rumors, discussions, and complete guesses to where players will land prior to Spring Training the following season. Generally speaking, these discussions will wait until the conclusion of the World Series before they start stirring real well. It appears that we are going to get started a little early this year, and the Cardinals are at the center of a few subjects already.

• The Cardinals have openly said that they would be looking to upgrade their middle infield spots and reports had them connected to Japanese short stop Hiroyuki Nakajima. Our good friends over at MLBTradeRumors have reported that he will not go through the “posting” process and, therefore, will not be available to any teams in Major League Baseball.
• Another name that holds interest in Cardinal Nation is Florida Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla. An arbitration eligible player that looks to make a payday to the tune of about $10 million a year through the arbitration process this year, Uggla may be slightly out of the Cardinals pay range. There has been some minor movement rumored on a contract agreement between Uggla and the Marlins, but with no details available, one has to wonder just how much actual “movement” there was.
• Colby Rasmus has found his name circulating already this off-season, which is not very surprising at all. It has been well documented the issues between Colby and manager Tony LaRussa as well as the common thought of one or the other not being in St. Louis in 2011. With the return of LaRussa, many assumed that meant Colby would be gone. John Mozeliak, however, has mentioned Rasmus as a cornerstone of the future of the franchise. The Braves, and most recently the White Sox, have been connected to interest in the Cardinal center fielder. How closely the Cardinals will listen to those offers remains to be seen.
• In former Cardinal news, Anthony Reyes has received his release from the Cleveland Indians organization after a disappointing season in 2010. Reyes will, most likely, be looking for a minor league deal from another franchise if he decides to remain in baseball.

Hot stove season is starting to heat up and we will do our best here at I-70 Baseball to keep you as informed as we can as the news rolls in.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
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