At the end of the 2008 season, agrand total of 171 players
entered the free agent market. As of this writing, just a hair less
than 90 percent of those are still available, as just 18 have signed
with a new team (Renteria, Rhodes, etc.), re-signed with their old team
(Blake, Moyer, etc.), accepted arbitration (Weathers) or retired
(Maddux, Mussina).
That means there are still more than 150 free agents out there on the market. So here's a thought experiment ...
Say a random, unnamed team (for the sake of argument, we'll call them Team AnoNYYmous)
learned from the comissioner that they were being forced to release
their entire big league roster. Given that situation, their unusually
magnanimous and filthy rich owner (again, randomly, we'll call him Hank
S.) decides to open up the team's coinpurse and just build the Best
Damn Team Possible by, literally, Signing Everyone He Wants To Sign.
How would that team look?
Probably something like this ...
C Pudge Rodriguez
1B Mark Teixeira
2B Orlando Hudson
SS Rafael Furcal
3B Joe Crede
LF Manny Ramirez
CF Jim Edmonds
RF Adam Dunn
DH Jason Giambi
Bench: Brad Ausmus, Rich Aurilia, David Eckstein, Joey Gathright, Garret Anderson
Or then again, maybe something like this ...
C Jason Varitek
1B Sean Casey
2B Jeff Kent
SS Orlando Cabrera
3B Ty Wigginton (tho hot corner is this year's weak spot)
LF Pat Burrell
CF Ken Griffey Jr.
RF Bobby Abreu
DH Milton Bradley
Bench: Gregg Zaun, Frank Thomas, Miguel Cairo, Nomar Garciaparra, Willy Taveras
And what to do for pitching?
Well, for the rotation, Stein ... er, Hank S. could build a
pretty fair semblance of an all-star starting staff in Bartolo Colon,
Jon Garland, Derek Lowe, Ben Sheets and a rehabbing Mark Prior.
And even not counting the retired Mussina and Maddux, he could go
another direction, stunt casting if you will, and "throw" together a
rotation of legitimate Hall of Fame candidates in Pedro Martinez, Randy
Johnson, Curt Schilling, Tom Glavine and Andy Pettitte.
Out in the bullpen, the stunt Hall of Fame staff has John Smoltz
setting up Trevor Hoffman, with Tom Gordon and Eric Gagne on the
outside of the Hall and in the far end of the 'pen. But the active
all-stars can combat that with Eddie Guardado and Juan Cruz setting up
Brian Fuentes, while Brandon Lyon and Guillermo Mota are also around.
So that's two complete pitching staffs -- and maybe the best is still
out there in a third option? How about a rotation with Paul Byrd, Ryan
Dempster, Freddy Garcia, Carl Pavano and Brady Penny, with a bullpen
featuring Randy Wolf, Julian Tavarez and Kent Mercker, leading to
Trever Miller setting up Takashi Saito? Okay, that's not better than the above, but it is better than fully half of the big leeague staffs currently out there.
So what do you say, Bauxites? Who's missing? How would your team do in the 2009 AL East (to pick a random division)?
Build your perfect 25-man roster -- and let us know how much of Hank S.' money this will cost!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20081216005851326