Who knew that the MLB rumor mills would be so well-stocked so late in the Hot Stove League season: The St. Louis Cardinals are still in the Roy Oswalt hunt, which seems to have come down to the Cardinals—already stocked with former Astros—and the Texas Rangers. What else it might come down to: The Cardinals' ability to trade Kyle McClellan, whose contract they recently tendered at $2.5 million.
↵This, I guess, is the peril of paying real money to pitchers you aren't certain you need: Eventually, even $2.5 million at a time, you run out of real money.
↵That the Cardinals failed to consider this at the time probably has more to do with the market's weirdly complacent reaction to Roy Oswalt than it does the Cardinals' fondness for throwing money away and then trying to trade back for it—I'm sure the Cardinals do value McClellan, it's just that they weren't expecting to find Roy Oswalt hunting for a one-year deal all the way into 2012.
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