Sean's Sports : Message to Wild Bill: Bring It On!

Message to Wild Bill: Bring It On!

After Wild Bill Smith dealt Garza, Bartlett, and Morlan to the Rays for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, and Jason Pridie, our offense just got a lot better. Here's a fun little post about what our offense could look like next year. We could field some reasonably solid lineups.

Possible 2008 Opening Day Lineup (if no more trades are made):

SS Casilla
C Mauer
LF Young
1B Morneau
RF Cuddyer
DH Kubel/Monroe
2B Harris
3B Buscher/Macri
CF Pridie/Tyner

Not bad ... definitely an improvement over last season. However, a Santana trade could acquire Coco Crisp or Jacoby Ellsbury, Melky Cabrera, Brandon Wood, or even the coveted Andy LaRoche and Matt Kemp.

Option 1, LaRoche + Kemp:

SS Casilla
C Mauer
LF Young
1B Morneau
RF Cuddyer
CF Kemp
DH Kubel/Monroe
3B LaRoche
2B Harris

Option 2, Ellsbury:

CF Ellsbury
C Mauer
LF Young
1B Morneau
RF Cuddyer
DH Kubel/Monroe
2B Harris
3B Buscher/Macri
SS Casilla

Option 3, Wood:

SS Casilla
C Mauer
LF Young
1B Morneau
RF Cuddyer
DH Kubel/Monroe
3B Wood
2B Harris
CF Tyner/Pridie

Option 4, Cabrera:

SS Casilla
C Mauer
LF Young
1B Morneau
RF Cuddyer
DH Kubel/Monroe
CF Cabrera
2B Harris
3B Buscher/Macri

Option 5, Crisp:

SS Casilla
C Mauer
LF Young
1B Morneau
RF Cuddyer
DH Kubel/Monroe
2B Harris
3B Buscher/Macri
CF Crisp

The point here isn't to set a lineup in stone, and we're obviously jumping the gun a little bit (since there is no Santana deal at this time). But look down these lineups and say you don't feel at least pretty good about our offense in 2008.

Another thing to note here: We need to acquire both a CF and a 3B. But if we can only get one, we'd be better off acquiring a CF than a 3B, since we at least have someone who might be MLB-ready at 3B.

Another thing #2: We have to hope Kubel can play DH. Previously, all the news has been that Kubel can only hit when he plays in the field. However, that's been from Gardenhire's mouth, which he also said about Rondell White, Justin Morneau, and Joe Mauer. And White can't hit no matter what, Morneau hit a HR every time he DH'd last year, and Mauer bats .500 when he's the DH. And Kubel's OPS as a DH was .885 vs just .745 as a LF in 2007. So it's likely that Gardy was just spewing the company line, which is that the DH spot isn't a real position. Now that we have enough hitters where our DH has more than one career home run, Kubel might be allowed to hit from the DH spot. And I continue to believe he's about to turn a corner in his career (think Cuddyer in 2006).

If nothing else, Wild Bill is making this an exciting winter.

Posted by Sean Schulte at 2007-11-28 23:32:46