Boredom Versus Disaster

The St. Louis Cardinals still haven't accomplished much this offseason. Lance Lynn rejected the qualifying offer, surprising no one. They tendered contracts to Wacha, Lyons, and Grichuk. They've made an offer to the Marlins to acquire Giancarlo Stanton, and the Marlins like it, but Stanton has little interest in playing in St. Louis, and he has a no-trade clause. The Giants are also in the mix, though there are of course rumors Stanton is hoping the Dodgers jump in. The Dodgers, thus far, seem reluctant to take on the kind of salary the Marlins would want them to.

I assume the Marlins will break first, since the new ownership apparently really wants out from under Stanton's contract. That won't mean a thing if the Dodgers aren't interested, though.

The Cards added 4 players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft: Tyler O'Neil, Oscar Mercado, Derian Gonzalez, and Austin Gomber. Which left one open spot, until they traded Aledmys Diaz to the Blue Jays for another minor league outfielder. Because they don't have enough of those. They could open up some more spots on the 40-man by removing dead weight like Mike Mayers, or OK but not essential types like Breyvic Valera.

As for Arizona, they lost to the Rams again last weekend, and fell to 5-7. They've been outscored by about 100 points, and are starting Blaine Gabbert. Their lead rusher is Adrian Peterson, still with less than 500 yards. None of their running backs average even four yards per carry. Larry Fitzgerald is the only one catching any passes. Nelson and Jaron Brown combined have fewer catches and yards than Fitzgerald. Whether that's because they're bad (probably) or because none of the Cardinals QBs are any good throwing downfield (also true), or because the O-line is too shitty for the QBs to even try throwing downfield (always true), the fact is. . . well, everything is bad.