First Real Post of the Offseason

It's hard to get into the offseason mindset when there is still baseball being played, but today we'll do our best to ignore the pesky distraction that is postseason baseball and instead focus on what in the heck the 2007 Phillies are going to look like. I sketched out a rough idea of 2007 payroll figures and here's what I've come up with thus far:

Catchers:

Chris Coste (C): .350*
Carlos Ruiz (C): .350

Infielders:
Ryan Howard (1B): .500
Chase Utley (2B): 4.500**
Jimmy Rollins (SS): 8.000***
Abraham Nunez (IF): 2.100

Outfielders:
Pat Burrell (LF): 13.000
Shane Victorino (CF): .350
Jeff Conine (OF): 1.450****

Starting Pitchers:
Jon Lieber (SP): 7.500
Brett Myers (SP): 5.000
Cole Hamels (SP): .350

Relief Pitchers:
Tom Gordon (CL): 7.000
Ryan Madson (SU): 1.400
Geoff Geary (SU): 1.200
Matt Smith (MR): .350

Miscellaneous:
Jim Thome: 5.500

16 players
58.900 million dollars committed

*I listed all of the players still on their original contracts at $350,000, my projected major league minimum. I’m not sure yet what the minimum will be in 2007, but I’m fairly certain it’ll be less than $350,000. So why did I set it there? Well, I’d rather be safe than sorry.

** I did my best to come up with accurate figures for the 4 arbitration eligible players on the above list (Utley, Myers, Madson, and Geary). Again, I tried to be conservative and give the players the benefit of the doubt salary-wise. I personally can not see any of the four arbitration eligible players making more than the salary figure I’ve estimated…but you never know. Howard’s salary is unofficial as well…he’ll get more than the minimum, but not by much. I settled on $500,000 because that’s the amount Chase Utley played for this past season.

*** Rollins is owed $7,000,000 in base salary in 2007, but the Phillies are also obligated to pay him $1,000,000 of his signing bonus as well.

**** Conine is owed $2,000,000 in 2007, but the Orioles are on the hook for $550,000.

I would imagine the opening day roster is composed of the following:

C, C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, IF, IF, LF, CF, RF, OF, OF = 13
SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, CL, SU, SU, MR, MR, X, X = 12

I’m not sure what the “X” stands for exactly…just a quick and easy notation for the bottom of the barrel bullpen guys. I suppose that it could either signify a long-man or a mop-up man or even just another “middle reliever” – all of this definition in the bullpen doesn’t really mean anything (they are all relief pitchers after all), but it’s somewhat useful (for me, anyway) within the confines of this exercise. I suppose labeling any of the relievers (with the exception of the closer, Tom Gordon) as “MR” would have worked just as well…I mean how do we really determine whether Ryan Madson is a “SU” or a “MR” if we are just making up the terms on the fly? Anyway, I’m sticking with the current system unless anybody out there has any objections. Hopefully a tiny bit of that made sense and didn’t just confuse anybody even more. Moving on…

The 16 players listed above are very likely to find spots on the 2007 roster of the Philadelphia Phillies. This means that the following spots are up for grabs:

3B, IF, RF, OF
SP, SP, MR, X, X

If we believe that the Phillies will have a $90 million payroll yet again (give or take a million here or there), then that means that the Phillies have roughly $31 million to spend on 9 remaining players.

As you may have noticed, I’ve omitted the players that have options for next year - Aaron Rowand and Jamie Moyer. I think there is a very good chance that both players could be back in ’07, but until the news is made official, they shouldn’t count against the payroll, right?

So here is the contract info. Now what? Well, I’ve been working on putting together an offseason plan for the Phillies and I hope to unveil it shortly. Expect multiple versions of the plan because I’m having a tough time trying to figure out my ideal Phillies offseason. I’m also hopeful that I’ll finish up my predictions for what I think the Phillies will do this offseason as well – I think it’s a pretty safe bet that my ideal offseason and what I think the Phillies will do will be quite different, but that’s what makes the whole thing fun. Until these big plans are ready to see the light of day, the goal here is to update this here site with any bits of news/rumors/juicy gossip concerning potential roster moves as frequently as I can. At the very least I like to think I’ve provided a pretty decent framework for any other enterprising Phillies fan out there who wants to formulate their own offseason plan…so what are you waiting for? Get to it.