Aaron Rowand should be our #1 target. Philly will be content with not resigning him because they feel Michael Bourn is ready to take over. Pence has done a good job in CF, but we have no outfielders ready to come up to the majors in the next 2 years. He made $4.35 million this year, and he'll probably demand 5 years $45-55 million (depending how much the Ichiro deal affects the market). He turns 30 later this year. Biggio and Ausmus will probably retire, which leaves around $9 million. I think we should resign Jennings. Not because he deserves to be back, but the pitching market is so thin and we can't get much for Jennings right now. If we let him walk, Purpura will not put the compensation picks to good use, and Purpura will get even more flack for making the trade. It's starting to look like Mark Loretta is the only guy Purpura may be willing to trade. We won't be able to get much for him. The Mets and Padres are frontrunners. If the Mets would do Loretta and Albers for Aaron Heilmann, we should jump on that. Heilmann has been a reliever, but he could be put back in the rotation. Qualls and Wheeler look like they're staying. If Wheeler could get Kelly Shoppach and Andy Marte from the Indians, that'd be nice. Marte used to be the top 3B in the minors, but since being traded by the Braves, he's really struggled. We can replace either reliever with Paul Estrada.
SD will trade Peavy. He's made it pretty clear he doesn't intend to go back to SD. And he's made it pretty clear he wants to play closer to his home in the deep south. Given all that, I can't imagine they're gonna risk getting nothing for him.
here is the list. asterisk means option for 2008 First Basemen Sean Casey DET Tony Clark ARZ Jeff Conine PHI Julio Franco NYM Kevin Millar * BAL Olmedo Saenz LAD Mark Sweeney SF Mike Sweeney KC Second Basemen Marlon Anderson LAD Craig Biggio HOU Luis Castillo MIN Damion Easley NYM Mark Ellis * OAK Marcus Giles * SD Mark Grudzielanek* KC Tadahito Iguchi CWS (if not signed to extension) Jeff Kent * LAD Kaz Matsui COL (if not signed to extension) Luis Rivas CLE Jose Valentin NYM Shortstops David Eckstein STL Cesar Izturis * CHC Ramon E Martinez* LAD John McDonald TOR Neifi Perez DET Juan Uribe * CHW Omar Vizquel SF Third Basemen Russell Branyan SD Corey Koskie * MIL Mike Lamb HOU Mike Lowell BOS Greg Norton * TB Abraham O. Nunez PHI Alex Rodriguez NYY (may void after 2007) Catchers Brad Ausmus HOU Paul Bako BAL Michael Barrett SD Gary Bennett * STL Ramon Castro NYM Wiki Gonzalez WAS Jason Kendall OAK Jason LaRue KC Paul Lo Duca NYM Damian Miller MIL Chad Moeller CIN Jose Molina LAA Josh Paul TB Jorge Posada NYY Ivan Rodriguez * DET Yorvit Torrealba COL Javier Valentin * CIN Outfielders Bobby Abreu * NYY Moises Alou * NYM Milton Bradley SD Eric Byrnes ARZ Mike Cameron SD Brady Clark LAD Jeff DaVanon ARZ Adam Dunn * CIN Jermaine Dye CWS Darin Erstad * CWS Kosuke Fukudome, Chunichi, Japan Luis Gonzalez LAD Shawn Green* NYM Eric Hinske BOS Torii Hunter MIN Geoff Jenkins * MIL Andruw Jones ATL Bobby Kielty OAK Rob Mackowiak * CWS Orlando Palmeiro HOU Corey Patterson BAL Aaron Rowand PHI Reggie Sanders KC Brad Wilkerson TEX Starting Pitchers Kris Benson * BAL Paul Byrd * CLE Shawn Chacon PIT Matt Clement BOS Bartolo Colon LAA Scott Elarton KC Josh Fogg COL Casey Fossum * TB Freddy Garcia PHI Livan Hernandez ARZ Jason Jennings HOU Brian Lawrence * COL Jon Lieber PHI Kyle Lohse CIN Wade Miller CHC Eric Milton CIN Odalis Perez * KC Joel Pineiro * BOS Kenny Rogers DET Curt Schilling BOS Carlos Silva MIN Julian Tavarez * BOS Brett Tomko * LAD Kip Wells STL Randy Wolf * LAD Jaret Wright BAL Carlos Zambrano CHC Victor Zambrano NYM Relief Pitchers Jeremy Affeldt COL Armando Benitez FLA Hector Carrasco * LAA Francisco Cordero MIL Rheal Cormier CIN Vic Darensbourg DET Elmer Dessens MIL Scott Eyre * CHC Trevor Hoffman * SD Jason Isringhausen* STL Todd Jones DET Jorge Julio COL Joe Kennedy OAK Byung-Hyun Kim FLA Scott Linebrink SD Rodrigo Lopez COL Ron Mahay TEX Trever Miller HOU Mike Myers NYY Joe Nathan * MIN Joel Pineiro * BOS Chris Reitsma SEA Mariano Rivera NYY Rudy Seanez SD Mike Timlin BOS Mike Venafro MIN Luis Vizcaino NYY Bob Wickman ATL Scott Williamson BAL Jay Witasick TB Kerry Wood CHC
i meant i hope astros pursue him as a free agent. can't imagine them trading for him when they probably wont be in the contention.
I agree with this. I just wonder what, if anything, we have that SD would take in trade. Perhaps Jennings and a prospect or two (not named Patton or Towles)? Also, is he signable?
dude if peavy really wants to come here i will personally polish his knob after every game. not really, but thats how excited id be. mike lowell has really rebounded since that terrible year in florida. gold glove caliber as well. he's getting old though and is past his prime. linebrink is a FA huh...they could use mike lamb. then we can trade qualls/wheeler. unless we cant resign linebrink that is. what do people think we can get for loretta and maybe a few prospects?
This is a good thread. It's time to rebuild, they need to make some trades before the trade deadline and throw out some dough for some free agents next year.
Should I take this as a yes? Of course, that is assuming that Roy is here next season (I still am not convinced that is a given). What do you think we'd have to give up in a trade, SD knowing he likely isn't coming back next year anyway?
As much as i'd like to bring the guy and his HR power back to Texas, i couldn't afford a bunch of new TV's. I could just imagine a few of the couple hundred times per year of him striking out, and then me being frustrated and throwing something at the TV.
i think roy will be here. he's super-high value...all-star player whose contract is below market value. not sure...and my understanding is he has one more year on his deal with SD. so it's possible they'd move him next season at the deadline.
To answer the original question, i really think it depends on whether we want to win or we want to compete playing .500 baseball. Since we have no immediate farm system help, i don't see us winning unless Drayton is willing to bust out the checkbook and spend around 150 million in payroll on next year's team. Someone is gonna have to educate Drayton that when you don't have a talented farm system to help the club, that's when you have use your check book if you really want to win. With the impact FA's probably wanting Barry Zito and Ichiro like contracts, it could get very expensive if we want to win the next few years. That's my reasoning for blowing up the team and rebuilding. No need to get in that debate here. I just don't see Drayton filling the holes with the $$$ it will realistically take to win. He'll probably sign a couple Loretta and Lamb utility type players that have been around the league to convince the average fan he's trying his best to win. Therefore, i have no idea who he will target since it's probably whatever Purpura is whispering in his ear. No doubt Purpura is telling Drayton what he wants to hear, (We have a great team that has just underperformed this year), so he can hold onto his job as long as possible. Then he can get one somewhere else when he inevitably gets fired since he'll have a few years under his belt.
it'd be great to get peavy. i like rowand, don't think he (or byrnes) is worth 9-10 mil per year.. (rowand is way too injury-prone for sure)
Two things: first, it's not an absolute given that the Phillies will let Rowand walk; second, yes please to Heilman, but I'd think twice about moving him out of the bullpen.
