What to Do with 30 Million Dollars

Greetings and welcome to my brand-spanking new Reds blog. We currently boast a readership of, well, let's not talk about that right now, but we're growing! That's the idea. GROW!

The Reds just finished their 400th miserable season in a row, and, as always, there's talk of competing next year, but the question is, is it possible?

Supposedly, the Reds are going to have a payroll of around $85 million next year. Currently, everyone under contract plus Encarncion's arbitration raise, brings things to $50 million dollars. Figure $5 million for roster fillers and you're left with about $30 million to play with.

The Reds are doing pretty well with starting pitching, and I'm not believer that you pay big money for relief pitching, so let's assume that most of that is going to beef up the offense (last year's big problem). Right now, the Reds are set at 1B (Votto), 2B (Phillips), CF/RF (Bruce), and 3B (Encarnacion). The leaves half the lineup to deal with.

Catcher: The Reds are not going to sign a free agent catcher, they might roll with Hanigan, who showed promise last year, or they might trade some pitching (Bailey?) to Texas for one of the 8 million extra catchers they have. Based on what I've heard, Teagarden sounds like the real catch (no pun intended), but who knows. The point is, whoever the Reds have catching will probably bat 8th, and is not coming from the free agent pool.

Shortstop: This is an interesting conundrum. Keppinger can't field, and last year, he couldn't hit. Gonzalez seems iffy. There's been talk of signing Furcal. Except for last year, Furcal has been durable, so I'd could get behind that if the doctors sign off. How much would he cost? He was getting paid $13 million by the Dodgers, but I'm guessing he'll take a slight paycut given his last two years (one bad and one hurt) and the current state of the economy. Say 3 years at $10-$12 million per year. If they don't sign Furcal (and I wouldn't fault them), they are pretty much saying they're willing to wait until 2010 on a Shortstop as they have a couple of good prospects moving through the system.

Outfield: I really don't see them signing two free agent outfielders, so it's probably safe to assume that some combination of Dickerson/Freel/The Field will be entrenched in center. As long as they post an OBP of around .340 collectively (a pretty reasonable expectation), I will have no complaints. So, really, what they are looking for is a leftfielder. In my opinion, the best thing they could do is sign Adam Dunn, but that's not happening. Burrell is Adam Dunn from the right side, so I don't see that either. I could, potentially, get behind Milton Bradley. He's a switch hitter, so he'd balance the lineup a bit and he'd be moving to a weaker league. He can definitely rake, it's just a matter of whether or not he can stay in the lineup. If they sign him, which is a big if, I'd guess they could get him for about the same the same as Furcal, put him down for $10-$12 million (maybe a hair more) per year for three yeas.

Other options:

1. Go Young: They already are. Whoever is in the minors isn't ready, so if they're trying to Win Now, they won't go this way.

2.  Encarnacion has problems throwing. This is well known, there has been a lot of talk about moving him to first base, so do it. Move Eddie to first, send Joey to left, and trade for Beltre and most of his contract (which Seattle is trying to get rid of anyway). Sign Furcal, and all of a suddent your lineup looks something like this:

1. Dickerson/Freel CF

2. Furcal SS

3. Votto LF

4. Bruce RF

5. Encarnacion 1B

6. Phillips 2B

7. Beltre 3B

8. Hanigan/Random Texan C

That, my friends is not bad. Everyone in that line up will get on base at an above average clip until you get to Phillips and Beltre who still have some pop. Catcher is a crapshoot, but that's the case for a lot of teams.

Take out Beltre and replace him with Bradley and your (healthy) lineup looks even better:

1. Dickerson/Freel

2. Furcal

3. Votto

4. Bradley

5. Bruce

6. Encarnacion

7. Phillips

8. Hanigan/Random Texan

Both of those situations look great. They'll both score runs. The second one will score more, but the first one provides better defense. Personally, I'd go with the first one because of all the young pitching. Either leaves them with $4-6 million to blow on relief pitching if they want. In conclusion, the Reds should totally make me their GM.