Worthless and Weak

My plan for the 2004 Boston Red Sox.



Plan A:



We let Derek Lowe, Orlando Cabrera, Ramiro Mendoza, Scott Williamson, Mike Myers, Curtis Leskanic and Terry Adams walk. Bye-bye



We have the following players signed for 2005, with their salaries (in millions):



Curt Schillling 12.5

Johnny Damon 8.5

David Ortiz 5.25

Trot Nixon 7.5

Tim Wakefield 4.67

Keith Foulke 7

Byung-Hyun Kim 6

Kevin Millar 3.5

Alan Embree 3

Mike Timlin 2.75


Kevin Youkilis and Lenny DiNardo are ours at $300,000



The salary total for those players is $61.27 million.



Now, I estimate that we can sign the following players for the following salaries (keep in mind these are estimates, or perhaps guesses):



perspective free agents:



Pedro Martinez 15

Jason Varitek 9

Pokey Reese 2



which brings the total to $87.27 million



Arbitration eligible and other players:



Doug Mirabelli 1.2

Gabe Kapler 1

Mark Bellhorn .75

Bronson Arroyo .75

Dave Roberts .975



Which brings us to $91.95 million



Now, you may be thinking to yourself, where are Bill Mueller, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Manny Ramirez?



Well, this is where things get complicated. If we can get prospects for Mueller, we exercize his option and trade him, if not, we don't, either way he's gone.



We then trade Manny Ramirez to the Mets for Cliff Floyd. We then flip Cliff Floyd and Doug Mientkiewicz to the Rockies for first baseman Todd Helton. I think that both teams will bite for this trade, we might have to give a prospect or two or eat a million or so dollars for the Mets to bite, but I don't think this is too unreasonable. I think the Rockies are willing to trade Helton for a song.
Since Helton is making $12.6 million next year, our payroll climbs to $104.55 million.



We sign Matt Clement for $10 million, brining our payroll to $114.55 million Which is $12.15 million less than this years opening day payroll. Which gives us the following lineup:



CF: Johnny Damon

2b: Mark Bellhorn

1b: Todd Helton

LF: Kevin Millar

DH: David Ortiz

C: Jason Varitek

RF: Trot Nixon

3b: Kevin Youkilis

SS: Pokey Reese



The only thing I don't like about that is the lack of a big right handed bat to bat cleanup. But, we might be able to bat Ortiz Cleanup and put Millar fifth, Nixon sixth and Varitek 7th. Either way the line-up is going to score a lot of runs.



Our starting pitching looks like this:



SP: Curt Schilling

SP: Pedro Martinez

SP: Matt Clement

SP: Bronson Arroyo

SP: Tim Wakefield



A very good rotation. Better than this years, imo.



Our bullpen is again solid,



CL: Keith Foulke

Setup: Mike Timlin

Lefty: Alan Embree

RP: Byung-hyun Kim



Well, if I may say something here. Byung-hyun Kim was a good pitcher with a career ERA 37% better than average. But he is not a starter! He cannot start, his effectiveness wanes when he goes through the order more than once. Use him as a 6th or 7th inning guy. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program.



RP: Lenny Dinardo



Depending on how Kim and Timlin do, this has the potential to be an above average bullpen.



Finally, our bench:



c: Doug Mirabelli

of: Gabe Kapler

of/ pinch runner: Dave Roberts


All we need now is a utility infielder, a left-handed bat, and we have a roster spot open for a rule V pickup.


Plan B:



Same as before, but we package Kevin Millar with Manny Ramirez to the Mets and get prospects in return (as they don't seem to eager to hold onto them), maybe aaron Baldiris (since he's being blocked by David Wright), or Mike Jacobs or somebody, and then send them to the Rockies, and get the Rockies to eat a bit of Helton's Salary (hopefully more than a bit), and then use the saving to sign Carlos Beltran, which would give us the following lineup:



LF: Johnny Damon

2b: Mark Bellhorn

1b: Todd Helton

CF: Carlos Beltran

DH: David Ortiz

C: Jason Varitek

RF: Trot Nixon

3b: Kevin Youkilis

SS: Pokey Reese



Incredible lineup, although not as much money left to sign quality bench players. But you'd be improved a lot on offense, and more on defense. If it costs us $14 to sign Beltran, we'd end up with $125 million, plus whatever it takes to get a couple of bench players.


(a variation on this is signing Magglio Ordonez to play left, he won't be as good, but much cheaper).


Plan C:



Trade Millar to the Mets without Ramirez, for prospects which we would send with Meintkiewicz to the Rockies for Helton, with the Rockies eating a bit of Helton's money. If we can get them to eat 4-5 million per year, then if we don't exercize the option on Embree, that would bring us up to only 131+ million in payroll. And give us a lineup of:



CF: Damon

2b: Bellhorn

1b: Helton

LF: Ramirez

DH: Ortiz

C: Varitek

RF: Nixon

3b: Youkilis

SS: Reese



Which I figure will score about 975 runs.