The hot-stove season is more like the barely-smoldering ember at the bottom of the stove season, all the guys with juice having either signed or been traded. That leaves us with lots of B- and C-list talent to talk about - like Nick Swisher, who was picked up by the White Sox in exchange for a bunch of minor leaguers. Or Matt Clement who will be bringing his Lincoln beard and dodgy shoulder to the St. Louis Cardinals, a team whose pitching staff has crumbled to almost nothing.

This is what it's come to for the Sox and Cardinals - trying to sell hope for the new season with guys like Swisher and Clement. Fans of these teams can't feel encouraged. Imagine being a White Sox follower: You're coming off a miserable year in which you finished 24 games out of first and only 3 games above the Royals. You think you have a chance to reload with guys like Miguel Cabrera or Torii Hunter or maybe even Alex Rodriguez. Then you watch those guys all go elsewhere (Cabrera to the Tigers, most horrifyingly). And what's your consolation prize? Nick Swisher and his .262 average and 78 RBI. Oh, but he's a good on-base guy. I'm sure all his walks will help the team compete with the Indians and Tigers.

And then you have the Cardinals, another team just a few years removed from World Series glory. Their #1 starter, Chris Carpenter, has had Tommy John surgery and will not be back until well into 2008 if at all. The best guy left on the team is Adam Wainwright, and after that? Braden Looper. Kip Wells. Joel Pineiro. And what do they add by way of repairing that tattered rotation? A guy who missed all of 2007 and most of 2006 before that, and who was notorious for fading in the second half even when he was healthy.

Cardinals die-hards will of course point out Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan's history of making big-time pitchers out of guys who were supposed to be second-rate. They made their bones doing that in Oakland with cast-offs like Bob Welch and Mike Moore, and in St. Louis they it again did with players like Carpenter and Jeff Suppan. Matt Clement though - that seems like stretching it. Then again, it's only a one-year contract with an option for 2009 - maybe you get lucky, and if not, no big deal.

The point is that the Cardinals need to do a lot more this off-season if they're going to convince fans they have a shot at even breaking .500 next year. Their biggest moves to this point have been signing Clement and Cesar Izturis and parting ways with David Eckstein and So Taguchi. And they've still got a disgruntled Scott Rolen to deal with. It looks dire for the Cards, pretty much anyway you slice it. Ditto the White Sox, who look to me like they'll be staring up at Detroit and Cleveland for at least the next few years.