Pretty meh offseason so far. Classic Sabes. They're already looking like they'll exceed payroll just re-signing Huff, Ross, Burrell, and the other arb guys. The offense does look better with Burrell there. We lost some power with Uribe leaving, keeping Burrell could make up for the 9 HR we lost from swapping Uribe for Tejada. Projected lineup: CF Torres 2B Franchez C Posey 1B Huff LF Burrell RF Ross SS Tejada 3B Panda/DeRosa Not sure how the bottom half of the rotation will be ordered but it will be those guys. The lineup actually looks improved and we're keeping the 2010 team's ability to have power from 1-8. Left side of the defense looks awful. Realistically we had no money to pursue a big name guy. Tejada is a slight downgrade over Uribe but he can still hit for a SS and hes nearly on par with Uribe defensively at SS and as good as Renteria was. Letting Uribe go for that money was the right move- its just too much and too many years. We pick up a comp draft pick for letting him go and pick up another shortstop who can hit on a short term deal. I don't think we'll pick up another starting quality SS like some think. It'd be nice to have someone who can come in as a defensive sub at SS/3B (if its a SS then move Tejada to 3B). If Panda drops weight hes not horrid over there but we saw how valuable it was to have two skilled defensive players on the left side in the world series. I've actually heard some fans toss around Eric Chavez' name and its not looking so nuts after the Tejada deal. I'd be very much in favor of picking him up on a minor league deal and if he makes the club he gives us a good defensive 3B and a lefty bat (something we also need more of). If he sucks then just let him go. At any rate I guess its hard to complain about bringing back most of the team that won a WS- and somehow they look better on paper now than before. But we're relying on guys who had career years last year or guys to return to form after slumps/injuries. We'd be lucky if Huff has another great year, Burrell continues to produce like he did when he came over, Tejada improves from his 2010 campaign (he hit .313 in 2009), Panda returns to 09 form, DeRosa is 100%, Belt can make an impact, etc. Its a lot of "ifs"- some oughta pan out but several could likely fail. In the end I don't think we ever had a shot at any big name guys but keeping the vets on short term deals frees us up to make major in-season improvements like we did last season.
