So obviously, we're all aflutter to talk about Soriano or Lee, Zito or Schmidt, yada yada yada... but odds are that we'll be lucky to sign even one of those guys.
SI.com had a decent (but not exhaustive) list/article of second-tier free agents who may turn out to be bargains.
So, who in that class would YOU like the O's to target? Here are a few of my thoughts...
Target Jose Guillen if/when/before Soriano and Lee fall through. The guy had a down year and has attitude problems, and will therefore be bargain-basement, but the odds that he could have a monster year are worth the chance in my book. My next second-tier OF choice would be Catalanotto, though I don't see any chance of a breakout year there, just reliabile mediocrity in LF for a change.
Frank Thomas or Nomar Garciaparra. I'd be happy to get either one of these guys to make our 1B/DH platoon much less embarassing than it was last year. Nomar doubles as an insurance policy if Mora falls all the way off the table.
Ted Lilly, Kip Wells, Randy Wolf or Vicente Padilla -- I'm not expecting huge things from any of those guys, but I'd take them as #4 or #5 and bump Rodrigo to the 'pen any day of the week (I only say to the 'pen because the FO is inexplicably unwilling to dump his sorry ass). Lilly would be my first choice since he's proven he can handle the AL East without completely imploding.
Lastly, laugh if you want, but I'd be thrilled to see the FO pick up Piazza. Part-time catcher, part-time DH, a similar workload to what he got in San Diego this past year but requiring less of his awful defense. To get 20 dingers out of that role would be awesome compared to what we've accepted the last few years (Gil, Widger, Fasano, et al).
So... what say all of you?
FanPosts are user-created content and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors of Camden Chat or SB Nation. They might, though.
There are 35 Comments. Load Now.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.