The non-tender list

Okay, here's a list of all the players who were non-tendered this week:

Baltimore (3): Kurt Ainsworth, rhp; Eric Byrnes, of; Eddy Rodriguez, rhp.

Boston (2): Chad Bradford, rhp; Wade Miller, rhp.

Chicago (4): Jon Adkins, rhp; Felix Diaz, rhp; Willie Harris, inf; Timo Perez, of.

Cleveland (1): Jose Diaz, rhp.

Kansas City (2): Shawn Camp, rhp; Ken Harvey, inf.

Minnesota (1): Grant Balfour, rhp.

New York (1): Wayne Franklin, lhp.

Oakland (1): Hiram Bocachica, of.

Seattle (3): Cha-Seung Baek, rhp; Ryan Franklin, rhp; Jamal Strong, of.

Tampa Bay (4): Joe Borowski, rhp; Lance Carter, rhp; Trever Miller, lhp; Michael Rose, c.

Texas (1): Nicholas Regilio, rhp.

Atlanta (2): Jim Brower, rhp; Wes Obermueller, rhp.

Cincinnati (2): Ramon Ortiz, rhp; Joe Valentine, rhp.

Colorado (2): Jose Acevedo, rhp; Ryan Spilborghs, of.

Florida (1): Joe Dillon, inf.

Los Angeles (3): Michael Edwards, of; Brian Myrow, inf; Jason Phillips, c.

Milwaukee (2): Jeff Bennett, rhp; Dan Kolb, rhp.

New York (2): Wayne Lydon, of; Tyler Yates, rhp.

Philadelphia (1): Endy Chavez, of.

Pittsburgh (1): Josh Fogg, rhp.

St. Louis (4): Bo Hart, inf; Mike Lincoln, rhp; Mike Mahoney, c; Scott Seabol, inf.

San Diego (3): Dewon Brazelton, rhp; Craig Breslow, lhp; Miguel Olivo, c.

Washington (4): Alex Escobar, of; Junior Spivey, 2b; Rick Short, inf; T.J. Tucker, rhp.

Several interesting names on the list.  Ainsworth was a hot prospect a few years ago, and was one of the guys that the Orioles got from the Giants for Sidney Ponson in 2003.  He missed the 2005 season with rotator cuff surgery, but is someone who would be worth a look as an NRI.

Chad Bradford and Wade Miller, folks here have talked about.  Bradford probably isn't a good fit because someone is going to give him a major league deal, and the Rangers already have 7 guys in their pen set.  Plus, Scott Feldman and Wes Littleton are already on the 40 man roster, and there are only so many righthanded sidearmers one team can use.  Miller, I'd like to get in on, though.

Ken Harvey is a lefty-masher who would be a worthwhile platoon partner for David Dellucci, if the Rangers are going to send Jason Botts back to AAA.

Jamal Strong is an interesting non-tender by the Mariners.  Strong is an outfielder who was considered a pretty good prospect in Seattle's system a few years back, but whose star has faded the past couple of years.  He's an okay defensive centerfielder who has zero power, but good speed and on-base skills.  If I'm the Rangers, and I can pry something of value away from the Yankees for GMJ, I'd think long and hard about picking up Strong as a 4th outfielder/platoon partner for Laynce Nix in CF.  Or, in the alternative, you could go with a Dellucci/Wilkerson/Mench outfield, with Botts at DH, and Strong as the 4th outfielder and replacing Dellucci against lefties.

Lance Carter, Jim Brower, Mike Lincoln, T.J. Tucker, Joe Borowski, and Joe Valentine all fall in the "mildly interesting bullpen arm" category.  With the acquisition of Otsuka, you aren't going to want to give any of these guys a guaranteed deal, but any of them would be worthwhile NRIs to give you some bullpen insurance.

Dewon Brazelton and Alex Escobar are both busted former prospects with tons of tools and zero results.  I wouldn't count on either of them ever doing much, but if you could grab them on an NRI, stick them in AAA and see what happens, there's always a chance you could end up catching lightning in a bottle, and have Escobar turn into Jose Guillen, or Brazelton morph into Jason Isringhausen or something like that.