opposing point of view

we had him for half a year last year and I can say that while flip can hit a bit, I just wasn’t too impressed. Maybe he was affected by our injuries, maybe he’s simply a mercenery, perhaps he’s lacking in professionalism, but I was happy to see him go. He fit last year’s club like big sister’s clothes, sure they smelled nice but the style was all wrong.

Couple of thoughts on your thoughts. I think resources probably mean that, with the possibly exception of Kelly Johnson at second, the roster we have is largely the one we’ll go into Opening Day.

I don’t think Lopez will ‘come cheap’, in part because he won’t cost any draft picks. We got him cheap for 2009, as he was coming off a 93 OPS+ season. Now, he’s coming of a 111 OPS+ year, and is arguably the best free-agent option at 2B on the market. He certainly won’t be any cheaper than 2009.

At 1B, Carlos Delgado is a left-hander, and what we are more likely to be looking for, is a right-hander with whom we can platoon Brandon Allen. Having earned $12m last season, not sure how ‘cheap’ he would be either. I can see something of a pay-cut due to injury curtailing this season, but in 2008 he had an OPS+ of 127, so still seems to have a lot to offer.

As for pitching, I don’t see us adding anyone else. Even someone league average is likely going to cost $6-7m, and Arizona does not seem to have that much left in the piggy-bank. Adding someone else would certainly be nice, but I just can’t see how it could be done, unless we can convince someone to take Eric Byrnes off our hands and pay most of his salary.

And I don’t know a lot about Brandon Allen, Ryan Roberts, or Abreu
I just think though that there should be some good backup guys if they struggle or are injured. For second base maybe Kelly Johnson, and for first maybe like Doug Mientkiewicz or Kevin Millar

Thumbs down to the idea of getting Kelly Johnson

Carlos Delgado will NOT come out here…plus he’s over-rated and demands WAY too much $$$!!!

I think we’re certainly not totally done making offseason moves, but we probably won’t be making any big ticket free agent signings like you’re talking about. Yup, we’ve still got some holes, but on Josh Byrnes’ part, they’re going to take creativity to fill. Not money.

and I don’t think the diamondbacks necessarily need to make any big moves, they are a great team, just there are some holes, but they will still be competitive.

I have faith in Allen, and even if we were to sign a first baseman, I look for a RHH to platoon with him. To be honest, I like Garko. The guy has hit very well against left handers over his career. Shouldn’t be too expensive either.

if he were in the $4-5 million range; you’d have to consider opening up the budget a little further than you’d intended this offseason. Anything more than that is simply out of our price range, even though $6-7 mil would still be pretty reasonable for his potential numbers.