The Ball Drops Tonight

It's officially New Year's Eve, and it would seem appropriate for me to start blathering on about one of those 2009 Top 10 lists. Unfortunately, a nagging head cold - or perhaps more aptly put - a throat cold has sapped me of a lot of my energy and time this week.

That doesn't mean I don't have something to get off my chest, so to speak. The St. Louis Cardinals need to get on with things and just sign Matt Holliday already. As much as I'm concerned about some of the chatter, like "8 year deal" and "more than 18 million a year", the simple fact is that it's not my money to spend and I honestly don't think the Cards can seriously compete for playoff position next season without Holliday's bat in the lineup unless there are significant changes in the grouping of players that are expected to return. And while I don't think it probably makes a lot of sense for a 37 year old outfielder with limited defensive skills to make 20 million dollars, I think the Cards brass and The Devil Himself need to sit down and negotiate something that works while keeping in mind that it's pretty much been the Cards bidding against themselves all along. I think most teams realize that Holliday is a known quantity and most do not want to commit a lot of money to anyone at this point, but St. Louis certain has a stash of dollars earmarked to someone and they haven't really dipped into the pool for anyone not named Brad Penny this offseason. Let's just get this over with. I'd be fine with 5 years and 90 million, but what do I know?

By the way, tonight's card is sponsored by Bud of First Day Issue fame. His package was one of 4 (!) that I received in my stuffed mailbox yesterday. The rest of his package is going to get kicked to the queue as I usually attempt to post about trades/packages in the order in which I receive them. Side note: I was prepared to offer up an image of a certain unfortunate occurrence involving Holliday in the 2009 NLDS in lieu of a baseball card to post, but fortunately Bud's package came through at the last minute.

Happy 2010, everyone. This is now the future somehow.