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| Friday, February 28 Updated: March 2, 5:08 PM ET Assembling the best team with a $30M limit By Jayson Stark ESPN.com |
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CLEARWATER, Fla. -- "You know what would be a great job right now?" an American League GM mused a couple of weeks ago. "To be general manager of an expansion team with a $30-million payroll." OK, let's get this straight: That did not mean this man wanted to be the general manager of the Devil Rays. Here's what he did mean: In this winter, in a rampaging buyer's market, you didn't have to be George Steinbrenner -- or even Carl Pohlad -- to put together a very competitive team with very few dollars.
If you were, in fact, the GM of an expansion team in this economic climate, that would mean you had no long-term contracts already on the books, no $12-million players to eat up your payroll or to try to dump. It would mean you could start at zero and build a whole team from scratch. So we decided to try it. We asked the GMs or assistant GMs of five teams to put together a 25-man roster that would come in with a payroll of no more than $30 million. The only rules: Everybody had to be a free agent this winter. And everyone had to sign one-year contracts for under $2 million. (We allowed options for a second year and assumed all players still unsigned would be guaranteed under $2 million). "It's not that tough," said one GM, "if you have some common sense and a little creativity. The only problem is getting the guys to sign." Hmmm. All right. We'll make this enticing. We'll put our team in a place everybody would want to play. Like, oh, Maui. So we'll assume they'll all sign with us, no problem. Here's our 25 men, now that we've assembled all the votes:
1B: Brad Fullmer ($1 million) OK, so they're not the '98 Yankees. They're a little old. They're a little slow. You could argue we need another right-handed bat off the bench (in which case we substitute Todd Zeile or Shane Spencer for Daubach, Vander Wal or a relief pitcher). You could argue we need another left-hander in the bullpen (in which case we sign John Halama or Mark Guthrie). But we'll tell you one thing our team is -- cheap. Even if we apportion $5 million to our three unsigned players (Lofton, Finley and Rogers), our payroll is $24.575 million. Which means our team not only makes less than $30 million -- it makes less than A-Rod! One of our GMs, in fact, put together his first 24 players for under $20 million -- giving him payroll room to sign Pudge Rodriguez. Of course, he also wanted Earl Weaver to manage, so he might not have been taking this game 100 percent seriously. But whatever, here's what we make of this:
"You know what?" said one of our GMs. "I bet you'd have a better shot at .500 doing it this way than Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee or Tampa Bay. And what would be even better is, next year these guys would be all gone -- and you could do it again." Granted, this is no way to build a dynasty. But it's fascinating. It's fun. And we'll be happy to accept any and all consultant fees from teams that want to try it some year, as soon as all their contracts expire. "Actually, I think there's already a league where they do something like that," laughed one GM. "It's called Rotisserie."
Miscellaneous Rumblings
So this will be a huge spring for scouts trying to spot a useful non-roster arm or a decent non-roster bat for somebody's bench. Particularly in a spring when the list of pitchers not on big-league rosters includes the likes of Juan Acevedo, Julian Tavarez, Robert Person, Jamey Wright, James Baldwin, Mike Jackson, Rudy Seanez and Graeme Lloyd. "With all the non-roster pitchers out there, I don't think 'B' games are enough to get them all innings," said one pro scouting director. "You might be seeing some 'C' and 'D' games. "There are so many non-roster guys who have had some big-league success, you've got to really target those guys this spring. To me, it's more important to see those guys than the established guys. It doesn't matter who's on the 25-man roster this spring. It's who's competing, who might get lost in the shuffle, who you might be able to claim on waivers." The Reds (who have 33 pitchers in camp), the Pirates (34) and even the Devil Rays (40) should have a ton of scouts keeping them company over the next month. And nobody will be a bigger scouting target than Acevedo, who doesn't figure to make the Yankees unless they can make at least one deal.
"If you're going to sign a guy like Ray Durham," Alou told Rumblings this winter, "one thing you want him to do is run. If you don't want him to run because Barry is coming up, then why did you sign that guy?" Good point. If Bonds hits third, every Durham steal would be an open invitation to walk Bonds, unless Rich Aurilia also were to get on. But if they hit Bonds deeper in the order, it provides more opportunity for Durham to do his thing, gives both Aurilia and Jose Cruz a chance to drive him in, and still can offer Bonds a chance to swing the bat (well, theoretically).
"I actually think they might be better than they were last year, and they went to the World Series last year," said an American League GM. "I thought Brian Sabean did a really good job reassembling his club. The thing he's recognized is, he has a star (Bonds), and he's trying to take advantage of that star. He's built his team around the star. He's taken that window of opportunity to win with that star player and tried to build for that window. "You have to. Barry's not going to play forever. And when he's gone, that chance to win with him ain't gonna come again -- because a player like him ain't gonna come again."
"Winning is the only thing that really sells," LaMar said. "It doesn't matter what we tell the fans. There's only one thing we should ever try to sell. And that's winning. So we're not trying to sell anything here anymore. We've positioned ourselves to get better and start putting a winning team on the field. We're past trying to sell tickets through words." If, in fact, this team truly is positioned to get better, it won't be this year. But they have zero players signed beyond this season. So the plan is that by next year, they'll have spent a season developing the Carl Crawfords and Rocco Baldellis and they'll be ready to sign some veteran impact players to supplement the young studs. Once they look like a real team, that will be the true test of whether this market can support a team. "No matter what it looks like," LaMar insisted, "this is a baseball area."
Then baseball could recruit some of those great athletes it's always losing -- kids who have realized they're not going to make it as point guards or wide receivers -- and teach them to play baseball. Thrift has been promoting this idea for years. But there now is talk of actually trying it -- with academies in Atlanta and Los Angeles.
"All of a sudden," said longtime coach John Vukovich, "Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell don't have to do more than what they did last year to help us win. They've just got to do the same thing -- because we added some people. And Randy Wolf and Vicente Padilla don't have to pitch better -- because we added some people. "By adding the people we did, it takes some of the pressure off those guys. It allows them to grow into what we think they can be."
Thome, Burrell and Abreu combined for 109 homers, 319 RBI and 299 runs scored last year. That's way more than the middle of the Braves' order (86 HR, 278 RBI, 263 R for Chipper Jones, Gary Sheffield and Andruw Jones) or the middle of the Mets' order (87 HR, 249 RBIs, 222 R for Cliff Floyd, Mike Piazza and Mo Vaughn).
If they sign Kenny Lofton, they'll have a respectable player at every position on the diamond. (Lofton, Brian Giles and Reggie Sanders in the outfield. Aramis Ramirez, Jack Wilson, Pokey Reese and Randall Simon in the infield. Jason Kendall catching.) They have the makings of a good rotation, fronted by a now-healthy Kris Benson. Then come Josh Fogg and Kip Wells, with Jeff Suppan and someone from the Julian Tavarez-Jeff D'Amico-Rolando Arrojo-Ryan Vogelsong smorgasbord to round out the group. And only nine teams in the big leagues had a lower bullpen ERA last year. "I don't know if they're a .500 team yet," said a scout who has seen them this spring. "But they're getting there. They're ahead of some of these other teams that are rebuilding."
"I get the feeling they want to see more power from the guy," said one NL executive. "I don't think they're convinced he's going to be a 35-to-40-homer guy or a 120-RBI guy. But my reaction to that is: So what? He's a good player, and he's a good guy on a club." How many 35-homer third basemen were there in the big leagues last year? How about none. (Eric Chavez led all third basemen with 34.) Lowell hit 24. But guess who tied for the major-league lead in extra-base hits by a third baseman? Yup. Mike Lowell, with 68 (tied with Chavez, Scott Rolen and Tony Batista). The Mets are the team most commonly connected with Lowell trade rumors. But they don't seem to match up, unless they show more interest in dealing Aaron Heilman and Jose Reyes than they've show in the past.
"Their roster is like a Chia pet," laughed one NL scout. "It just keeps on growing."
Now, one rookie-of-the-year season later, manager Carlos Tosca is saying: "He has a chance to win a Gold Glove. He's going to be a real above-average defender. He's athletic. His hands are good enough. He has plenty of range. And he's very instinctive." Hinske committed 15 errors by May 29 -- then made just five more the rest of the season.
"I watched him making throws across the diamond in workouts," said one scout. "He definitely doesn't look as restricted as he did last year."
In the past, the NL East teams have always played six interleague series (18 games) apiece. But since their designated interleague "rival" division this year is the four-team AL West, only one team (the Expos) will play all six interleague series. As ESPN's foremost schedule dissector, Judson Burch, points out, the other four NL East teams have very different schedules: Phillies: Seattle, Oakland, Boston, at Anaheim, at Baltimore and an "extra" series at Cincinnati. Braves: Baltimore, Texas, at Oakland, at Seattle, at Tampa Bay and an "extra" series vs. Pittsburgh. Mets: Seattle, home-and-home vs. the Yankees, at Texas, at Anaheim and an "extra" seres vs. Milwaukee. Marlins: Oakland, Anaheim, Tampa Bay, at Texas, at Boston and an "extra" series at Milwaukee. Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com. |
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