Kyle Lohse rumors have $70 million contract in the offing for unlikely Cardinals ace

Kyle Lohse and free agency rumors have a checkered past. Prior to the 2008 season, October rumors suggested he was set to command an (inexplicably) enormous multi-year contract. Then he waited too long, and the market dried up, and he signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals. After his great season in St. Louis the Cardinals, wanting to grab him before anyone else could, offered him the enormous multi-year contract he was supposed to get the year before—about two weeks before the stock market collapsed.

Now Lohse, coming off a totally unexpected 16-3, 2.86 ERA season at 33 years old, is hearing the big-contract bells again. The Cardinals have all but announced officially that they won't be resigning him, but if you believe the rumor mill—already spun up less than a month into the Hot Stove League season—other teams are all but lining up to offer him deals that will carry him through his age-38 season.

I'm skeptical, personally, that teams are willing to wager that much money on a guy who set career highs in so many categories this far into a basically average career. You know who else probably is? Kyle Lohse. After all he's gone through in free agency, it'd be hard not to be.