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Just looking at our finances, we have a fair amount of budget space to work with, and are losing absolutely zero of our important contributors to free agency, and the only players we are losing were dead weight anyways. It's a very inexperienced, very cheap team I am working with, and I love that. $46,120,000 available to use on free agents and $52,890,000 to use on extensions. We are stuck with some offers already made by Guthrie *sigh* so I'll have to work around. He offered Mandel 1 year at $10.2 million, which isn't awful for him. He also offered 26 year old LF Jay DeVault 5 years at $24.6 million. DeVault spent most of this year injured, but in his 20 starts he went 29-76, with 5 HR, 10 RBI, 6 walks, and 17 strikeouts. He had shown promise in his prior seasons, but injuries limited his ability to stay on the field. I don't want to commit 5 years' worth of money to him just yet. Another guy offered a contract I'm not a fan of is 30 year old 3B Brett Razey. Razey was paid $1.38 million last year, and has not produced much since debuting for Louisville in 2005. In 92 starts he slashed .221/.281/.373 with 7 HR, while striking out 25% of the time. He provided very not impressive defense. Not bad, but not impressive either. I'll let him go to arbitration as well. Skyler Judd was offered a 1 year $1.5 million deal, which I'll happily let go through.
11/05 - LF Jeremy Gower emailed me his response to Guthrie's offer of $650,000 for next year, and he is not pleased. He wants more money, and looking at his numbers (.784 OPS, 31 BB and 33 K in 192 PAs, to go along with about league average defense), I'm very willing to increase that offer. Another player Guthrie offered a contract to, 3B Miles Drainville, was outright pissed and says he will play elsewhere next year. Looking at his line (.220/.318/.327), I think I'd be okay with that. He does offer plus speed and an above-average glove though, so I don't think I'll let him go, seeing as we still have 3 more years of control on him.
We have also withdrawn arbitration offered on 29 year old catcher Mark Becker, who posted -0.7 WAR in just 23 starts. Very impressive.
Looking at the upcoming free agents, I have found 2 so far that I wish to pursue. The age listed is their age for next season.
Franklin Trevino (29, RHP) - Trevino was traded from Seattle to Minneapolis/St. Paul at the deadline, and in 94.2 innings (13 starts) with the Saints, he had a 2.38 ERA, along with an 0.96 WHIP and 87 Ks to just 22 walks. Overall on the year he was 14-8 with a 3.03 ERA and 189 Ks in 225.2 innings (33 starts). This was certainly his best season yet, and we hope that he could continue it if we sign him.
Ethan Chambers (29, 3B) - Chambers was brought up in 2004 by the New York Empire, and has consistently been a solid offensive player since. Outside of his steller 2007 and 2008 seasons, where his OPS was .958 and .903 respectively, he has been about an .800 OPS hitter that will hit about 20-25 homers 2010 was certainly a down year, with his OPS at just .748. On the bright side, his strikeouts were down from 134 in 2009 to just 93. He is also an above average to average fielder with an elite arm and decent running speed. Though not the greatest base stealer, he has consitently gotten 11-16 stolen bases a season since 2007.
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