Since I've already solved the Pirates problems, now I have to solve the leagues. Just kidding, but have you ever wondered why baseball not only has less teams than the 3 other major sports, but also has 2 fewer teams in the AL? Expansion might not happen for a while just because it is so hard to fill the seats for as long of a season as it is, but adding 2 more teams might help with parity, plus will even out the leagues and allow for a restructing of divisions. The biggest problem with having 4 divisions like in football is that it would add one more round to the playoffs, which already extend to the beginning of November. They could just start a week earlier?
AL East
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays
AL North
Minnesota Twins
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
AL South
Texas Rangers
Tampa Rays
Memphis Wildcats*
Kansas City Royals
AL West
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Portland Bears*
*Expansion teams
NL East
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
Washington Nationals
NL South
Atlanta Braves
St. Louis Cardinals
Florida Marlins
Houston Astros
NL North
Cincinatti Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago Cubs
Colorado Rockies
NL West
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
Arizona D'Backs
San Francisco Giants
How much fun would it be for the Pirates to be in a division with the Mets, Phils, and Nats???
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
My plan for the 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates
If I could be GM for a day…
The Bucs’ Brass have said they would spend up to 50M on the MLB roster if the prospects were ready and they felt they had a core that could win. Well, I think it is safe to say that they will be ready next year. So, here is what I would do:
Not going to get much in a trade for Church, Duke or Dotel, so give them away for cash considerations. Duke makes about 4.5M, Church 1.5M, and Dotel about 3.5M. I think you could get 5M back from that bunch.
Release Andy LaRoche, Jason Jaramillo, Ryan Church, Brendon Donnelly, Bobby Crosby at end of the season.
Sign Jayson Werth to a 5 year deal for 45M. He currently makes 7.5M/year and I imagine he is in for a raise at least to 9M per, especially if he decides to come to the Pirates who would have to overpay.
Sign Brandon Webb to a 3 year deal for 21M. He currently makes 8.5 so I think we could get him for 7M/year with incentives, following his injury year.
Sign Javier Vazquez to a 3 year 33M deal. He currently makes 11.5M but with his age I bet we could get him for 11M per year plus incentives.
Sign Eric Hinske to a 1 year, 1M deal. He always plays for winners, at least in the second half of the seasons. Can play multiple positions and can pinch hit.
Sign David Ross to backup Doumit for a 1 year, 1.5M deal.
Trade for Ryan Theriot. He makes a very affordable 2.6M this season, so we could probably trade a prospect and cash to the Cubs to attain him. I’ll project spending 3M for him.
Call up Danny Moskos and Chris Jakubauskas (who deserves a second chance after the head plunking he took) and pay them league minimum.
Adding the current salaries, plus the 5M in cash we could get, plus the new salaries, the Pirates would be spending only about 45M on their 2011 roster. That still puts them second to last in the league in team salary, and gives them 5M leeway to spend at the trade deadline if they are actually in contention. My 2011 roster would look like this:
Starting Lineup:
CF Andrew McCutchen
LF Jose Tabata
RF Jayson Werth
1B Garrett Jones
3B Pedro Alvarez
2B Neil Walker
C Ryan Doumit
SS Ryan Theriot
Bench:
2B/OF Delwyn Young
IF/OF Eric Hinske
C David Ross
SS Ronnie Cedeno
OF Lastings Milledge
Pitchers
SP Brandon Webb
SP Javier Vazquez
SP Paul Maholm
SP Ross Ohlendorf
SP Brad Lincoln
RP Jeff Karstens
RP Chris Jakubauskas
RP Joel Hanrahan
RP DJ Carrasco
LP Javier Lopez
LP Danny Moskos
CL Evan Meek
There it is. I didn’t fact check on the 2011 salaries of the current players, but rather went with their salaries for 2010. Therefore, the final number might rise slightly but I doubt it would pass 50M. Seems like it would be relatively easy to do, and who wouldn’t like that 25-man roster? Especially in the NL Central?
But…alas.. I am not the Pirates GM. Thoughts?
The Bucs’ Brass have said they would spend up to 50M on the MLB roster if the prospects were ready and they felt they had a core that could win. Well, I think it is safe to say that they will be ready next year. So, here is what I would do:
Not going to get much in a trade for Church, Duke or Dotel, so give them away for cash considerations. Duke makes about 4.5M, Church 1.5M, and Dotel about 3.5M. I think you could get 5M back from that bunch.
Release Andy LaRoche, Jason Jaramillo, Ryan Church, Brendon Donnelly, Bobby Crosby at end of the season.
Sign Jayson Werth to a 5 year deal for 45M. He currently makes 7.5M/year and I imagine he is in for a raise at least to 9M per, especially if he decides to come to the Pirates who would have to overpay.
Sign Brandon Webb to a 3 year deal for 21M. He currently makes 8.5 so I think we could get him for 7M/year with incentives, following his injury year.
Sign Javier Vazquez to a 3 year 33M deal. He currently makes 11.5M but with his age I bet we could get him for 11M per year plus incentives.
Sign Eric Hinske to a 1 year, 1M deal. He always plays for winners, at least in the second half of the seasons. Can play multiple positions and can pinch hit.
Sign David Ross to backup Doumit for a 1 year, 1.5M deal.
Trade for Ryan Theriot. He makes a very affordable 2.6M this season, so we could probably trade a prospect and cash to the Cubs to attain him. I’ll project spending 3M for him.
Call up Danny Moskos and Chris Jakubauskas (who deserves a second chance after the head plunking he took) and pay them league minimum.
Adding the current salaries, plus the 5M in cash we could get, plus the new salaries, the Pirates would be spending only about 45M on their 2011 roster. That still puts them second to last in the league in team salary, and gives them 5M leeway to spend at the trade deadline if they are actually in contention. My 2011 roster would look like this:
Starting Lineup:
CF Andrew McCutchen
LF Jose Tabata
RF Jayson Werth
1B Garrett Jones
3B Pedro Alvarez
2B Neil Walker
C Ryan Doumit
SS Ryan Theriot
Bench:
2B/OF Delwyn Young
IF/OF Eric Hinske
C David Ross
SS Ronnie Cedeno
OF Lastings Milledge
Pitchers
SP Brandon Webb
SP Javier Vazquez
SP Paul Maholm
SP Ross Ohlendorf
SP Brad Lincoln
RP Jeff Karstens
RP Chris Jakubauskas
RP Joel Hanrahan
RP DJ Carrasco
LP Javier Lopez
LP Danny Moskos
CL Evan Meek
There it is. I didn’t fact check on the 2011 salaries of the current players, but rather went with their salaries for 2010. Therefore, the final number might rise slightly but I doubt it would pass 50M. Seems like it would be relatively easy to do, and who wouldn’t like that 25-man roster? Especially in the NL Central?
But…alas.. I am not the Pirates GM. Thoughts?
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