This is my prediced 2007 lineup, this is all by my opinion so if you disagree please reply what you think whether its against mine or not. Anyone else have guesses or people they would like to see the reds acquire this offseason please reply.
Bronson Arroyo, Rheal Cormier, Jason LaRue, Javier Valentin, Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr., Juan Castro, Scott Hatteberg, Ryan Freel, and Eric Milton are currently the only reds players signed through next season. This leaves several key players in need of an extension so to start i would:
Resign: David Ross, Brandon Phillips, Edwin Encarnacion, Scott Schoenweiss, Kyle Loysh, Aaron Harrang, Bill Bray and Gary Majeski, Todd Coffey.
Im really unsure if any of these trades would be realistic but in my opinion i would:
Trade:ADAM DUNN to the Detriot Tigers for JOEL ZUMAYA and JEREMY BONDERMAN. Bonderman had a comparable season to Aaron Harrang this year posting a 4.08 ERA while going 14-8 with 202Ks'. In 87 innings pitched Zumaya posted a 1.94 ERA with 97 strikeouts, a very solid rookie year. To make it even better he is only 22(Bondermans 24) and can reach around 101 mph. Not sure if it would be enough for the Tigers so we could always add in someone like matt belisle ..... or cash considerations. Either way Detriot really needs some solid offensive players with power like dunn so we could get lucky?
ERIC MILTON to the Chicago Cubs for KERRY WOOD. This has already been mentioned on redzone forum and i dont see why it would hurt. Already would have a rotation of Harrang, Arroyo and Bonderman + Loysh somewhere in there so whatever damage wood could do, our rotation would still have a major upgrade, and with any luck though Wood could go back to his old form and have a breakout season. Id say it would be realistic to sign him to a 2yr./ 4M yr. deal with some incentives. Whether he does well or not we would take a major break of salary that would make this well worth it.
JASON LARUE, CHRIS DENORFIA, PROSPECT? to Houston Astros for ADAM EVERETT, WILLY TAVERAS. This would definately be a boost for both teams. Astros have Ausmus but other that no reliable catchers, there infield of biggio, berkman, huff, ensberg,brunlett, and lamb wouldnt take much of a beating letting go of everett( other than defense). Taveras would contribute to speed giving the reds three solid baserunners in freel, phillips and taveras. Once again if moneys the issue just throw in 3M or so and we'd still be better off without LaRues salary.
JON COUTLANGUS, RAY OLMEDO to New York Mets for OLIVER PEREZ. Yes I am well aware you all are already bashing me just in the thought of wasting two perfectly good prospects for a more or less proven failure. Just the glimpse back of perez past potential and sucess has driven me angery that the pirates gave up so easily on him. Even if not in the rotation he would definately have the ability too and could temporarly be placed in the bullpen while he proves himself worthy to be a starter.
With the assumed 75M payroll salary the reds will have to spend next year trading off Dunn, Milton and laRue gives us another 25M to work with, now take out the 15M in salaries from the players we recieved. That 10M left is used to resign mostly Harrang maybe a few others.That leaves the 15M left originally, mostly from the TV deal. That leaves 15M left. Yeah thats right 15M! Why else would i make a big deal about 15M other than the fact that we have 5 starters already as well as a closer and shortstop. Looks like we can get another power bat to replace dunn in left then...
Free Agents:
left field options are Carlos Lee, Seung- Yeop Lee( Yomiuri Giants coming over, had great year batting .322 with 28 homeruns, would have to move him to left from first though), or Alfonso Soriano. All quite costly but just because we got some money to waste why not try Alfonso Sorianowith a 4yr./40M dollar deal...
Jose Guillen-2yr/2.5M
Chad Bradford-1yr/1M
That leaves us with the following line-up:
C- David Ross
1B- Scott Hatteberg
2B- Brandon Phillips
SS- Adam Everett
3B- Edwin Encarnacion
LF- Alfonso Soriano
CF- Ken Griffey Jr.
RF- Jose Guillen
Bench:
-Ryan Freel
-Javier Valentin
-Juan Castro
-Willy Taveras
Starters:
Aaron Harrang
Bronson Arroyo
Jeremy Bonderman
Kerry Wood
Kyle Loysh
Bullpen:
Oliver Perez
Bill Bray
Gary Majeski
Scott Schoenwiess
Rheal Cormier
Todd Coffey
Chad Bradford
CLOSER-Joel Zumaya
Id say the only bad thing about this line-up would be the lack of prospects so schoenwiess could be designated along with valentine to make room for Votto/ Bailey when the time comes