his line is .274/.328/.417/.745 with a .372 wOBA. I’ll admit an $11M/yr pricetag is pretty steep maybe if we could work that down to $9M with incentives bringing it up to $11M this would be a good pickup

but to be twice as bad as Duncan would make me think youre describing a tree stump, not a pro athlete

Figgins also is way overrated. He’ll be 32 in January and has a career wOBA of .337, making him distinctly a league average player.

A .337 wOBA makes him a little better than average hitter (actually, given that he has played his entire career in the AL, a switch to the NL might result in a healthy bump to his offensive production), however, we know that there is more to baseball than just hitting. Figgins, if we are looking to him as a third baseman, has a career 3.7 UZR/150 at that position. If you combine that with slightly above average offense and the positional adjustment, he is a 3 WAR player, which isn’t great, but a sizable upgrade over Thurston/Barden.

might command a 9-figure contract I think. No way we can afford him.

Franklin has a fairly inexpensive team option – can we offer him arbitration if he has an option year that we control? I’m not sure how that works….

I would probably take the risk of offering Franklin arby – he’s less likely to accept (IMO) than Springer was last year, and I can’t see him getting more than $4 or $5m; although that’d be badly overpaying, it’s maybe worth the risk of giving the guy a few mill more than he’s worth for the chance of getting a sandwich pick if he signs with someone else (I’m guessing no-one gives up a first round pick by signing a so-so reliever, if they’ve got an unprotected pick, but maybe someone who’s already signed a type-A or one of the teams with a protected pick might offer him something).

If Glaus wants to accept arby, that’d be absolutely fine (providing he’s healthy at the end of the year). I can’t imagine that he’d get any sort of major raise in his salary and his current contract is pretty reasonable.

even though he’s in his decline phase. If he’d take a one-year deal of the sort that Hudson signed, I’d be happy to have him back for 2010.

but I guess some people don’t like his style.

I don’t think it’s needed because we should have injuries to Mather, Craig, Wallace, and Freese next year.

And the starting pitcher thing has me wondering where Garcia is at on his recovery…shouldn’t he be throwing by now? While we’re at it I want full injury updates!!

probably one of the most underrated players in baseball in the last decade. Cameron, Rasmus, Ludwick would be an awesome OF. That said, I’m not 100% sure we really need an outfielder. I’d probably rather get a good, short-term 2B option, run a LF platoon, and spend any cash we have left on pitching.

but he will have 1 year left on his deal. Webb has an 8mill option, which the D-backs will renew unless they find a suitor for him.

They just don’t have the hitting to support him

Look at it this way. When the Yankees began the season without A-rod, Teixeira was off to a miserable start, as he was seeing breaking balls and that was it, because he didn’t have a proven bat behind him. When A-rod came back from injury, Teixeira’s numbers jumped up so fast that he became a top 5 hitter. Coincidence?

in the rotation, they will need to get a FA starter. THey will probably give a starting spot to a rookie, but no more than that if LaRussa is managing. I would like them to get a lefty like Bedard or Lee, but Jaime Garcia could be that lefty starter if he comes back next year. I think that a good fit would be Duchscherer. He would be cheap since he is coming off elbow surgery, and he is a non-overpowering pitch to contact pitcher who would work well with Duncan and has ace potential. I would also take a chance on Tim Hudson, also coming off elbow surgery. Elbow surgery has had much better results than shoulder surgery. Some are even better after coming off elbow surgery, and I would take a chance on ace-type pitchers coming off elbow surgery.

couldn’t resist—guilty pleasure.

ok first about 30 mil is coming off payroll this winter and we lowered payroll by 10 mil this year
so if things get better we should have 40 mil to toy with

The organisation have shown no inclination to raise payroll over the ~$90m it is now, and I don’t really see it happening next year either.

Also, we’re due to pay out over $10m in arbitration raises, bonuses etc. We really don’t have anywhere near as much as you think next year. We’ve probably got $15-20m to spend, and we need at least one middle infielder, at least one starting pitcher, one left-handed reliever, and possibly either a 3B or an outfielder.

In no universe do we have the money to get Matt Holliday as a free agent. He will likely cost $15m+ which basically spends our entire budget, so we’re starting two, possibly three, crappy rookies in the rotation, hoping that Wallace can be a major league 3B 18 months after he was drafted, playing Schu and the Ryan/T Greene/Barden/Thurston group in the middle infield, and finding another left-handed reliever internally or on the scrapheap.

And a team containing Holliday, Beltre AND DeRosa next year would probably cost us upwards of $40m in free agent contracts before you even start filling the other gaps in the team; ain’t gonna happen. Also, what’s happened to Ludwick in scenario 2?

per cots

$16M Pujols
$14.5M Carpenter
$9.19M Lohse
$4.31M Molina
$4.84M Wainwright
$2M Reyes

Franklin has a $2.75M option that will be picked up

Ludwick $3.7M, Duncan $.825M and Thompson $.650M all enter their 2nd year of arb, but I don’t see any as likely to receive much of a raise at this point. 2009 = $5.175 2010 = $6M?

Schumaker will enter his first year of arb. $1M?

Kinney could enter 1st year of arb. $.5M – one of he and Thompson should be non-tendered, so I’m not counting Kinney.

That’s $59.59M committed to 11 players with 1B, 3 SP, C, RF, LF, 1RHRP, LHRP, 2B? and CL spots filled up.

The rest of the roster (SS, CF, LHRP, 2RHRP, 1OF, 1CIF/OF, 3B, 2MIF, C, 2SP) will be prearb or free agents. We can assume that Ryan, Rasmus, Motte, Perez, and McClellan will all be on the team. One of the SP’s should be a rookie. At .5M a piece that adds $3M to bring the total to $62.59M. If we’re going to have a $90M payroll we have $27M to spend on (OF, C, LHRP, CIF/OF, 3B, 2MIF and 1SP). The OF, CIF/OF, and 2MIF, should be filled internally ($2M). The C and LHRP spot could be filled internally or for less than $2M each ($3M). That brings us to $67.59M leaving $22M to spend on a SP and/or 3B.

We may be better served to demote Duncan to 4TH OFer and sign a FA for LF.

Heck, AJ Burnett got more than that, from the Yankees, and Holliday’s a better player who will likely be courted by at least 4 or 5 suitors. No way he falls for that price. I’m thinking he’ll be wanting a 6 or 7 year deal, minimum, and $15m per. Maybe something like 7/$100m gets it done. 6/80, something like that.

If we pay Holliday we’ll have to fill our other needs (3B, 2B, SP) entirely internally, so we’ll have a couple of pretty huge holes….

Remeber he is an injured pitcher. We all know what it feels like to wait around for injured ace pitchers to come back (i.e. Carp, Mulder) …sometimes they don’t come back.

and he’s still pretty highly rated. Stumbled a bit this year (again) but it will take something substantial to get him. The Mets traded him for Ryan Church (an MLB-ready OF starter) and Brian Schneider (MLB ready catcher), and I’m not sure how much his stock has dropped since then. He was meant to be a big part of the Nats team this year but he had a bad start to the season and they’ve got a lot of OF options so they sent him down.

He’s still a year or two out from arbitration, I think, and still a pretty good prospect, possibly more ceiling than Craig and Mather and he’s done OK at MLB level in the past, although he might be further down his development curve. He’s more of a free-swinging BA/speed guy than a patient hitter, which, coupled with mediocre contact rates so far, has meant he’s not really put up the OBPs he probably needs to to keep in the majors. He has a bit of power, but he’s not really a power hitter. Bad glove in CF according to UZR, although I have a suspicion he might ultimately have the ability and athleticism to be a + fielder in the corners.

If the Nats have given up he wouldn’t be a bad move, but I think they’d want something for him. HOWEVER, his presence in their system makes Austin Kearns, who’s a better player right now (and who would cost no prospects at all really as he’d be a salary dump), available to us if we want him. He’d be the guy to get for ’09.

BABIP this year is .458. His ERA is over 12 but his FIP is only over 6 (heh). It’s weird how hittable he is now, and I expect that to not continue forever. He’s still under 30, which I didn’t realize. He’s actually striking out more batters than ever, but also walking more. I wonder what it might take to get him? He’s on a one-year deal right now, he’d be a nice pitcher to have if he can straighten things out.
Also, I think technically he’s from Taiwan? (Or as they like to think of themselves, “China.” What’s this “People’s Republic” thing all about, anyway?) The whole international talent market thing is exciting and it’s neat to see one’s team take steps in those areas. It seems like the Cardinals aren’t to active in Japan, Korea, or Taiwan, so that could be a cool way to make some noise.

I think on most measures he may be the worst pitcher in a major league uniform. So if the argument is that you get him and stuff him in AAA to fix whatever ails him, I’m all for it. To put him in our rotation would be Kip Wells cruel.

I think his BABIP is high because he is throwing like one of the old-timers in those all-star games. We could all have a passable chance of hitting a dinger off of him if given the chance.

He and Dontrelle would be good projects if you didn’t have to give up much but no way are they ML ready. I have expect they will both be cut loose before the end of the season.

in Wang and Figgins.

I love Figgins as a player and am curious what he’ll command on the market. I’d probably look up comparables, but unless there is a major shift in the economic climate, I’m not sure how accurate any discussion of comparable past signings would be.

Wang is the exact type of guy we usually go after, but seemingly cheaper and with more upside if he could return to previous form.