OFF-SEASON
With the signing of Johan Santana, the Silverhawks are back in the Top 10 of league payroll (9th) at $75 million. But when you consider that payrolls have simply gone down. At $75 million, the Hawks are within three other teams who are all spending between $1-3 million less.
We might run into a problem later when we're trying to sign our own players. But this is year six out of 10. It might soon become someone else's problem.
OFFENSE
1) S K. Pauk 2B
2) R M. Ramirez DH
3) R J. D'Antona 3B
4) R M. Molina CF
5) R H. Clerk LF
6) R G. Sachs SS
7) S L. Berkman RF
8) S M. Teixeira 1B
9) R O. Falcon C
Offensively, we've added to the top offense in baseball last year. With Ramirez, we're just adding to fray. The question is whether D'Antona can repeat his MVP performance of last season.
PITCHING
Santana's 17 wins added to our rotation makes the team even more fierce than before. We brought up
Ryan Sweeney from the minors, to see if he can hack it in the majors. It's a huge question mark, but there are a number of guys,
Brett Prinz,
Jared Hughes are both poised and able to serve in the 5th spot.
Brandon Puffer (5-7, 3.52 ERA 37 saves) was acquired from Cincinnati yesterday for
Virgil Destefano who simply didn't get the job done in the closer role last year. So we've upgraded there.
Starting Rotation
1) L J. Santana
2) R J. Foppert
3) R F. Rosario
4) R H. Garcia
5) L R. Sweeney
Mopup Reliever
1) R B. Prinz
2) R K. Wood
Middle Reliever
1) R J. Hughes
2) R J. Beckett
3) R K. Wood
Setup Reliever
1) R J. Hughes
2) R A. Alustiza
Closer
1) R B. Puffer