This team COULD compete as early as 2010 if the young pitching comes through.

They have Wieters, Markakis, Jones, Guthrie, Scott, and Izturis signed for 2010 for approx $20MM total. I’m assuming they can fill out a bullpen with Ray, Sherrill, Sarfate, Johnson, and others for approx $8MM. They should also be able to fill the DH spot and bench internally or very cheaply for $2M or so.

That leaves 1B, 2B, 3B, and 4 starting pitching spots open. They should be able to fill the three offensive spots and one starting pitching spot with average free agents for a total of ~$45M, bringing the total payroll to around $75MM.

Then it all comes down to the young pitching, which will need to fill the other three rotation spots.

By my back-of-the envelope calculations, that team would win the following number of games depending on how well that young pitching works out:

600 innings of 3.48 ERA = 131 ERA+ => 95 win team
600 innings of 4.12 ERA = 110 ERA+ => 90 win team
600 innings of 4.54 ERA = 100 ERA+ => 87 win team
600 innings of 4.83 ERA = 94 ERA+ => 85 win team
600 innings of 5.64 ERA = 80 ERA+ => 80 win team