Bye Edgar

first of all, would it be so awful it the cards opened the season with a rotation of

carpenter
marquis
haren
suppan
morris

we've seen worse. remember garret stephenson? bret tomko? the immortal bud smith?

that rotation would be competitive but would probably not get the cards back the series. but jock'ty can still find an ace during the season, when the has-been teams start dumping their good players.

that leaves the leadoff spot as the primary issue to address. cabrera does not cut it ---- career obp of .316. polanco is better --- career .339, with the last two years at .352 and .345. then there's bob alomar --- career .371 obp, has held steady the last three years at .333. . . . they could do a lot worse. alomar's 37 years old, will not tie up long-term dollars, and is probably the best value out there.

they could get both alomar and polanco for renteria's dollars, and still have some money left over to add pokey reese as insurance. for that matter, i wouldn't object if they brought in alomar to leadoff and reese to play ss, and dropped a bundle on matt clement for the rotation. that would leave them in a position to assemble a package from suppan / marquis / haren / ankiel for another top-flight pitcher (randy johnson, maybe??).

there are still options out there.