ST. LOUIS — Outfielders Matt Holliday and Rick Ankiel and five other St. Louis Cardinals were among the 79 players who filed for baseball’s free agency on Thursday, the first day of the 15-day window for players to declare their intentions to enter this winter’s free agent market.

The union released the list of the 79 players who filed early this evening.

The seven Cardinals to file for free agency were: Holliday, Ankiel, 3B Mark DeRosa, 3B Troy Glaus, SS Khalil Greene, C Jason LaRue and RHP John Smoltz. While this mostly a matter of procedure and paper work, the act of filing for free agency does allow players to talk with all teams about possible offers. Only the team the player is leaving, however, can talk financial terms for the next 15 days. The Cardinals can, for example, negotiate with any of the above free agents, while the other 29 teams can only discuss peripheral things such as the length of the contract, the position the player might plate and good areas to live.

Two Cardinals who are eligible for free agency have yet to file: RHP Joel Pineiro and RHP Todd Wellemeyer.

It is expected that in the final player rankings Holliday will be a Type A free agent, the only one the Cardinals will have. Pineiro, Glaus and DeRosa are all Type B free agents. The “type” of the free agent designates how much compensation the Cardinals get if that player signs with another team. To secure the compensation, the Cardinals must offer each player arbitration. It’s obvious they will do so for Holliday, so that they either get him for a certain 2010 contract or get a first-round and supplemental first-round pick in exchange for him. Type B free agents reward the original team with a supplemental first-round pick, though it would be a gamble to offer arbitration to Glaus and Pineiro. DeRosa poses and intriguing arbitration option.

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