Anyway, the deadline for MLB teams to offer arbitration to their players passed this afternoon, and our boys in Red and White declined to extend the courtesy to top free agents Jason Isringhausen, Russ Springer and Braden Looper.

The lack of an offer to Isringhausen, a Type B Free Agent, comes as no surprise given his recent injury-plagued history, and Springer, despite being a Type A Free Agent (meaning the team would have been compensated with 2 draft picks had he been offered arbitration and then signed with another club), just turned 40 years old and was pushed out by the glut of returning righties in the bullpen (Chris Perez, Ryan Franklin, Jason Motte, Kyle McClellan and Brad Thompson to name just five).

Not offering arbitration to Looper (Type B) does come as a slight surprise, however. He made $5.5 million in 2008, while throwing almost 200 innings and going 12-14 with a 4.19 ERA. He’s not a guy that’ll put the team on his back and win them a ring, but he was serviceable as a back of the rotation guy. (According to the Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss, he’s currently looking for a 3-year deal and would likely not have accepted the team’s arbitration offer.)

Nonetheless, there’s an inherent risk in offering arbitration to a player, since his 2009 salary will ultimately be determined by an unbiased third-party and not market forces. This means that a club could be on the hook for a lot of dough if they lose the arbitration hearing (see: Howard, Ryan).

This was certainly a major concern to Cards’ GM John Mozeliak:

“The big thing for us is we want to remain flexible and also look at what we feel might be the best way to improve this team.”

“The one thing that I was cautious about was, if we decide to offer arbitration, there is a chance they might have accepted. Especially if you look at the pace of this market to date.”

Moving on to news nearly as shocking as A-Rod backing out of his Kabbalah counseling with Madonna, the Cardinals declined to offer arbiration to Ron “Walk-double-single-3-run triple” Villone, Juan Encarnacion, Felipe Lopez, Cesar Izturis and Mark “Damaged Goods” Mulder

(Personal aside: Man, I could NOT be more happy to see Mulder gone. What a painful saga to watch unfold. I mean, good grief, had no one in the Cardinals organzation heard of a “sunk cost” before? You think maybe someone could have looked it up sometime between 2006 and now, possibly? No? Ok, that makes sense. Just keep running him out there because you made the investment. Anyway, good luck to Mr. Mulder in finding a new Bar Napoli and a bevy of jersey chasers each night in his next town. Not that I’m bitter about that situation or anything…)

Finally, in yet even more unsurprising news, another minor leaguer was suspended 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance (Methandienone). This time the player was Cardinals’ middle infielder Wilfred Vivas, who played on the team’s Venezuelan Summer League club last season. Vivas the 68th player to have been suspended this year under the minor league drug program (40 of whom have played in the Venezuelan Summer League – red flag anyone? Selig? Mitchell? Do I sense another committee in the the league’s future?)

Alright, that’s it from here. Things should really start picking up over the next couple of weeks as the arbitration hearings start setting the prices for free agents and we move towards the Winter Meetings. The Cardinals have 4 spots left to fill on the 40-man roster, and have shown some interest in Andy Pettitte (and to a lesser extent Randy Johnson) of late. The deal with Trever Miller remains hung up over “health concerns” that materialized at his physical.

So, who do you think should fill those final spots? After all, the Astros just signed Mike Hampton to a 1-year deal, so we have to keep up with the mediocrity, right? I wonder if Mike Maroth or Kip Wells is still available?