Joel Pineiro News

Monday's midnight deadline for free agents to accept salary arbitration offers has come and gone with only three of the original list of 23 eligible players agreeing to remain with their respective clubs through at least next season.

Back in June, when the Cardinals felt there wasn't enough momentum to pull off a trade for outfielder Matt Holliday, they pounced on a deal for infielder Mark DeRosa, seeing him as a suitable, affordable alternative.

Brad Penny's late-season pitch seems to have paid off. Fresh from an impressive showing in the final month, Penny was close to a $7.5 million, one-year contract with the St.

I was chatting with a high-ranking official from a major-league club yesterday, and he reiterated the conventional wisdom already out there: No one expects the free agency market's big three - Jason Bay, Matt holliday and John Lackey - to sign any time soon.

They'll probably lose him butA it's aA good idea to accumulate draft picks. It was an easy call on Troy Glaus ; no one has any idea if he'll be fully healthy and viable and the Cardinals couldn't risk that he'd accept and stick them with a big salary for 2010.

The Cardinals finalized their first free-agent additions of the winter Monday, but the decisions looming today will determine whether the club wants to gamble on potential subtractions.

Lincecum is one of the best and most electric pitchers in the game and had another fantastic season.

Let's face it : for some of us the baseball season never actually ends, particularly for us Phillies fans this year after a defeat in The Big Dance Contest by The Evil Empire.

The Mets have talked a good game about spending money and retooling this offseason.

Do you think Jeff Suppan wakes up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night thinking "I am why the Brewers cannot win..."? I doubt it.

Yes, the Cardinals paid a big price to muscle up for the stretch run last season.

Let's get to a discussion of the NL Gold Glove voting from a St. Louis perspective: * Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina deserved to win the NL Gold Glove for the second consecutive season.A A And this should be Molina's 4th in a row, but at least the NL managers and coaches who do the GG voting have finally caught on to Yadi's brilliance.

As few mistakes as Adam Wainwright made on the mound in 2009, he made even fewer in the field.

As general manager John Mozeliak and his staff begin the task of building the 2010 Cardinals, they have an interesting challenge before them.

Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan has arrived at an answer for the most immediate question confronting his starting rotation this offseason.

Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak was already in a poor mood when he got the call.

Ken Rosenthal posted a new rumors article over at Foxsports.com yesterday, and now that the Cardinals have been eliminated from the playoffs, he is speculating that Albert Pujols could become a free agent when his contract runs out after the 2011 season.

Sam, a reader of MetsBlog, sent in an e-mail that said: "I'm surprised I haven't heard anything about Joel Pineiro .

Somehow, it was perfect Rick Ankiel should be the one to make the last out. a It was perfect on so many levels for Swingin' Dick to be up there, taking his hacks as the last chance of the 2009 season, that it almost seemed scripted.

John Smoltz expressed a strong interest in returning to the Cardinals for 2010, but many of his free-agent-to-be teammates were less sure about what the future may hold for them.