These are comments I made Monday in response to follow-up questions from readers. Keep the questions coming, either in the comments field below or by e-mail: e-mails to rhummel@post-dispatch.com.

• I’m fully on board with pursuing a closer (preferably lefthanded, like free-agent Brian Fuentes). Failing to acquire a veteran closer from elsewhere, the club needs two lefthanded relievers of some ilk but I’m not sure I would trade prospects like Anderson and Freese to Baltimore for Sherrill, who had a bad arm toward the end of last season and, like Ludwick, has had just one big year in the majors at an advanced age (31). Holliday would have been a big get, but it wouldn’t have helped the other more pressing needs.

• Love Juan Pierre’s socks, but not his sock, especially at $10 million a year. And he can’t throw, either. Joe Torre didn’t play him. I don’t think Tony La Russa would either.

• Of Escobar and Johnson in Atlanta, I like Escobar more as a .300 hitter with power and speed. But he may be tough to get. As for Zobrist from Tampa Bay, I don’t think he’s the answer as a regular shortstop. I’d keeping pursing Escobar or Khalil Greene of San Diego until told I couldn’t get them.

• At second base, I don’t want to spend too much money to sign Orlando Hudson, who has been hurt the last two seasons when the D-backs needed him most.

• As for the bullpen, I’m a little nervous with bringing Izzy back as a mentor to Motte and Perez,  unless it’s a contract heavily laden with incentives and I can see in the spring that his arm is fine. If you could get Fuentes for just a couple of years (pipedream!), that would be the best way to go.

• As for a starter, the Cardinals need one more and Randy Wolf, the lefthander they haven’t had since Mulder in 2006, might be a heckuva sign. To rely at all on Carpenter would be foolhardy although I saw him the other day and he is cautiously optimistic pending another nerve test on his right shoulder to be done before the end of the month.

• The only way the Cardinals will trade Ankiel is if they perceive they can’t sign him before he becomes a free agent at the end of 2009. But, you also have to wonder if he ever again will play a full season.