DBAHO

I'd like to get some opinions on who you guys think will be in the Barons' rotation next year (especially you Rex ). I found this little snippet before, Now McCarthy could start off the season with the Knights, and Honel, Wing and Malone might not even be there. Guys like Villacis, Bull etc. probably have a good chance as well.

Adkins has been a pleasent suprise this year, he's got a nice future in the pen. Cotts has been pretty unlucky, and still needs to work on his control a lot, but his potential is still there to see. Gload has been a good grinder guy of the bench who doesn't complain bout his role and is happy to be where he is today.

That's why I get sick to my stomach when people want us to use all of our free agent money on signing a Carlos Beltran, instantly thinkin 1 big name will take us to the promise land. Didn't they watch Pay-Rod and the Rangers for the past few years.

Possible options could be Brad Wilkerson or Frank Catalanotto IF we don't pick up Everett's option, or we trade Carlos.

He's making $2,300,000 this season, I think he may get up to $4 million next season.

IMO, you can add Ben Davis to that list as well. But all 6 other postitions are certainly up in the air for next season for sure.

The Pedro Stakes are down to 3 teams; 1) Red Sox 2) Yankees 3) Giants

If we deal one of Lee or Konerko, I think we will get a deal in the works of what happened with the J.D Drew trade last off-season. Drew went to the Braves for Jason Marquis, Ray King and Adam Wainwright. If we could get that type of deal for one of them, then I'd be all for making the deal, then we could possibly use Crede and Garland as trade bait to fill even more holes. Sabean's always willing to trade prospects, and if they miss out on Maggs, they could certainly use Lee or Konerko. Matt Cain or Jesse Foppert would look very nice on the southside.

I think Ozzie's quote here of Garland pretty much sums it up;

No love for the Cowboys? I think Mike Zimmer does a great job, and we've got some great players in Glover, Ellis, Dat Nguyen, Terence Newman, and the hard hitting safety in football, Roy Williams.

Here are our salary figures for this season. Magglio Ordonez 14,000,000 Paul Konerko 8,000,000 Carlos Lee 6,500,000 Billy Koch 6,375,000 Frank Thomas 6,000,000 Esteban Loaiza 4,000,000 Mark Buehrle 3,500,000 Jon Garland 2,300,000 Scott Schoeneweis 1,725,000 Timo Perez 850,000 Cliff Politte 800,000 dl-Kelly Wunsch 800,000 Shingo Takatsu 750,000 Sandy Alomar Jr. 700,000 Mike Jackson 500,000 Damaso Marte 500,000 Juan Uribe 350,000 Aaron Rowand 340,000 Dan Wright 340,000 Miguel Olivo 320,000 Willie Harris 318,500 Ross Gload 302,000 Jon Adkins 301,000 Neal Cotts 301,000 All up it's about $65 million I think. Contract's that finish are Maggs, Jose's, Koch's, Loaiza's, Shoe's, Perez's, Jackson's, and Wunsch's. We hav a $1.5 million option on Politte and a $2.5 million option on Shingo. Thomas has an $8 million option to come back for next season. All up the amount of contract's that come off the books including all ones with options is about $41 million. Now let's subtract the options from that figure. Thomas - ($8 million) $33 million left Shingo - ($2.5 million) $30.5 million left I don't think we'll pick up Politte's option for $1.5 million, unless we can't find anything better in the free agent market, so we'll leave him off for now. Now there are numerous pay raises to kick in for next season. Here they are, Konerko - ($8 million to $8.75 million) $29.75 million left Buerhle - ($3.5 million to $8 million) $25.25 million left Garland - ($2.3 million to $4 million) $23.55 million left Lee - ($6.5 million to $8 million) $22.05 million left Marte - ($500,000 to about $2.5 million I think) $19.55 million left Also there will be new contracts from new players that we must take on, Contreras - ($6 million) $13.55 million left Davis - (I'm assuming if we resign him to about $2.5 million) $11.05 million left Everett - (If we pick up his option of $4 million) $7.05 million left Ok I'm assuming payroll could go up by about $10 million with the increase in attendance for this season, and the new t.v deal. So we have about $17.05 million to $20 million approx. to spend this offseason. This could be how we spend it, Odalis Perez ($6.5 million deal for 4 years) Mota ($3.5 million for 2 years) Corey Koskie ($3.5 million for 2 years) Omar Vizquel ($4 to 4.5 million over 2 years)

You jump on the bandwagon very quickly Ace.

That looks badass. Graphics wise I'm not sure if it's goin to be top notch, but gameplay wise it looks pretty damn good.

I remember watching that last year, drivers like Aussie Mark Webber were "this close" to hitting him. :headshake

With Maggs, Jose's and Koch's salary coming off the books this season, that's an extra $20 million in payroll available. With the new t.v deal as well, we should be able to spend about $25 million this off-season. $4 million of that could go to Everett IF we pick up his option. Some money will go to Garland I think, because he'll be arbitration eligible. So that's back to about $20 million. A front - line starter should cost about $7 to $8 million. A top reliever about $3 to 4 million. So that's half of our available spending money gone there. A lead off hitter like Frank Catalanotto perhaps would cost about $3 million, and a clean up slugger could be Maggs if we offer him a $7 year deal, that could be upgraded to $10 million IF, the Sox makes the playoffs and he reaches some clauses.

Giants wouldn't suprise me at all, I've said numerous times before I think they'll either get Pedro Martinez or Maggs this offseason.

They've actually got some nice young relievers in Montreal with Chad Cordero as well.

Pavano is wanted badly by the Red Sox and Yankees, I'm worried it could become a bidding war between those two. I'd offer $8 million over 4 years for him though, but I think he might get more than that. However we shouldn't put all of our eggs into one basket. There's plenty of other top notch starters like Odalis Perez that we could certainly go after.

Just make sure u don't hav a window seat if you are afraid of heights. I'm afraid of heights too (standing atop of a 10m diving board scared) but now flying up in a plane scared.

He signed a 4 year deal, but that can be voided after 1 year, if the Marlins can't build a new stadium which it doesn't look like they'll do. Someone will give him a nice contract because he's been very consistent of the past few years.

It would be good for him, but not for us. We don't another Kip Wells on our hands just because we weren't patient.

6 K's for Matt, he's still got a long way to go though.

Room for 1 more.