LOOKS LIKE YOUR JAYS MIGHT BE ABOUT TO WAKE UP.....

Charlie, I was hoping so. Looks like Kuroda may have put them back to sleep again.
I see where your young outfielder, Tavares has been tearing it up down on the farm. Albert who?

Charley, Canada's team has lost five in a row to a decimated Yanks club in Death Valley (Yankee Stadium). If they manage to climb out of this hole, it will make the original Yanks, managed by G. Washington look like front runners.
Fortunately, I had years of rooting for the Expos to harden me to the reality of life as a Jays fan. Where have you gone Andre Dawson?
To escape the reality of watching Colby and JP swing for the fences at pitches a foot-and-a-half outside the strike zone or Bonafacio faking a bunt every time up and taking strike one, I occasionally escape reality, somewhat, by trying to figure out the best all-time teams for each franchise, factoring in what I've seen and what others have written.
This is what I've come up with for St. Loo. What do you and other Red Bird rooters like Whitey and Dick (he's the only one who might have actually seen Frank Frisch and Diz player ) see as errors or omissions?

1b -- Albert -- Johnny Mize can back him up -- great pinch hitter with a sour attitude. Always liked Keith Hernandez, particularly in the field but Pujols is also an outstanding glove man and since I've got Whitey managing, he'd only get rid of the cocaine cowboy -- again.

2b -- Frank Frisch. They traded Rogers Hornsby for him. That says enough about Frisch's ability and Hornsby's attitude. Rogers can ride the pine with Mize and pinch hit or DH in inter-league.

3b -- Ken Boyer -- can't think of anyone else close.

ss --Ozzie -- ditto. Maybe Marty Marion as back-up in case Oz gets injured. He was a lynch pin of some great Cards teams in the '40's.

lf -- Lou Brock. Very good hitter. Great base runner. Got better as games got bigger.

cf -- Curt Flood. Some baseball men rated him as a better defensive cf than Mays. Jim Edmonds can back him up -- very good glove, more power. Or Terry Moore who was Flood twenty years earlier. Always like Willie McGee as well. He kind of got lost in the shuffle of some of those very good Ozzie-led teams.

rf -- Stan the Man -- moved him from left. Never saw Musial play anywhere but left or first base, but read where he played other outfield spots early on, including center. Enos Slaughter can back him up. He was a good, part-time o.f. with the Yankees when I saw him, but they say that in his prime, he was the real deal.

c --Yadier Molina, Ted Simmons. Molina much better defensively. No slouch at bat. Simmons, great hitting catcher, smart but not in Molina's league catching and throwing.

sp -- Bob Gibson, Dizzy Dean -- both automatic. John Beasley was ace of those great 40's teams. Don't know much about him but that should be enough. Who else to round out rotation? Wainwright, Carpenter?

rp -- Bruce Sutter. Can't think of many others. Barney Schultz in '64 but he was kind of a one-year wonder.

manager -- Whitey. (Herzog, not Turner) . Would put LaRussa in running, but we've been getting along so well that I won't. Red Scheondinst, maybe.

LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE DONE YOUR HOME WORK....BUT I THINK ALBERT DONE US A FAVOR BY LEAVING RIGHT NOW HE IS 67 TH BATTING AV AND STARTING TO LOOK OLD AND CRIPPLED WITH 8 MORE YEARS LEFT AFTER THIS ONE I KINDA FEEL SORRY FOR LA...OUR FARM LOOKS WELL STOCKED RIGHT NOW AND THEY SEEM TO BE ABLE TO GET A FEW VETS WITH A LITTLE LEFT FROM TIME TO TIME LIKE BELTRAN ,BERKMAN AND LARRY WALKER...

Free agency is always a big buzz and often a big bust. Teams are forking out a hundred mill for what a player has done, not necessarily what he can do.
Must have been a lot of pressure on Card front office to keep Albert. Ditto for the Rangers with Hamilton. Both moves look pretty good at present.
On the contrary, teams have forked out huge bucks for foreign players like Darvish and Cespedes who are in, or approaching their prime. Barring injury or whatever, it sure looks like they got market value, or more.