Free Agent Outfielders

and i'm not an expert and probably am dead wrong on these guys.  but i'd almost rather go with what the rangers have this year and hope there is a good free agent class next season (no idea who is avail). wouldn't wanna sign any of these guys to more than 3 seasons.

the byrnes contract is gonna make these guys pretty damn pricey too.

not into any of them.  if i HAD to choose one, it'd be Andrew Jones.

hunter - he's good for 22-28 homers and 15 stolen bases.  6 straight gold gloves.  put up pretty good career numbers in a  slight pitchers park. has taken advantage this year with great players in his lineup (mauer,morneau, castillo, cuddyer) and is having a career year...in a contract year.

Jermaine Dye -  i like him better than hunter, though he's 33.  can't stay on 1 team.  career year LAST year, a down year this year, but he'll still get 30 homers.  plays hitters park. he's good for 25 homers.  an average to slightly above average fielder.  other than his homers and rbi, is having a real bad year.

jones - 9 gold gloves.  not a great fielder anymore, but still an asset in the field.  as far as i can tell, atl is a neutral park.  never been 1 to hit for average, his average is abysmally low this season.  he SHOULD be good for .260/.340/.500.  30+ homers.  gets high strikeout numbers, but can talk a walk too. good enough speed to also get some doubles.

rowand - played his whole career in parks that favor hitters.  is posting career highs across the board...in a contract year.  seems to be good for 16 homers and 10 sb.  somebody is gonna jump all over his career year and overpay. until this year, his career high in walks was 32.

patterson - just no.  good for stolen bases, keep him as a pinch hitter....no.

bradley - only if he can be had for sosa money and is the 4th outfielder.

dont know what to compare those numbers to, and how theyd translate to the MLB.....

This is what DJ Cahill had to say about building a winning team:

• You overpay for Greatness
  
• You promote from your farm
  
• You fill in with one year contracts what you can't cover with your farm and with greatness.

I think there is a lot to be said for this approach.  Since these players are not "Greatness", nor do they come from the farm system, you then need to find a player who will accept a one year deal.  All of these players, with the exceptions of Bradley and Patterson, are on the wrong side of 30.  They will be looking to cash-in their last chance to reasonably expect a long-term deal (four to five years).  Given his injury history and his temper, I think it would be easier to convince Bradley to take a one year deal.  He is making $4 million this year, and a contract of $4.75 (or more) with bonuses based on PA's and performance.

That may be too much, but I would rather pay more over the course of one year then a decent amount over several years.  This is especially true when you consider that none of these players really fit into the long-term plans of the Rangers.

Or Fukudome.

But we went from a .223 to a .308.

First option, lets use that ammo to trade for an outfielder.

It doesn't have to be a CFer, athough that would be ideal. I don't think its unreachable.

If we could land a stud young corner boy (props to the Wire), that would be almost as good. We could live w/ byrd or Murph or even kenny part deux if we could score a quad-tooler at a corner.

That's the way to go. FA this year is a 4 to 1 losing proposition, in my middling baseball mind.

Maybe my metaphor is wrong, though. Perhaps we dumped this:

http://www.atlanticfirearms.com/programming/expand.asp?Prodid=393

And popped this bad boy in:

http://www.atlanticfirearms.com/programming/expand.asp?Prodid=394

Chris Young. It could happen...