Right now our offense is hitting on all Cylindars since Plouffe at 3rd and Revere in RF started hitting. Right now I feel our offense is a little "Piranha" heavy as we have 4 "piranha's" in the lineup any given night if not 5 or 6 (Span, Revere, Dozier, Carrol, Casilla, and Mastoianni) We also have 4 versatile solid power type of hitters Morneau, Willingham, Doumit, and now Plouffe with Parmalee trying to join the crowd. And we have 1 all round high average Mauer. If Parmelee could make his way to the starting line up consistantly then we could have a CF (Span or Revere) available to trade for SP. The bullpen has been lights out as we can say we have 6 guys who have done an above average to great job so far this year. (Burton, Burnett, Capps, Deunsing, Perkins, and Swarzak after you subtract out his starting stats you will see his era in the pen has been pretty good) 1 below average Gray and 1 with the jury out Manship. We also have several prospect ready to come up just in case Slama, Oliveros, Guerra. And these guys are under team control for the next 2 to 3 seasons, and they are cheep comparitavely speaking. One other great thing about our pen is that they make the game a 5-6 inning game for the starting pitching instead of 6-7. The rotation is where the main issues on this team lie. Lucky for us Bill Smith traded a relief prospect for Diamond against our better judgement and PJ Walters has filled in well too. Now if Liriano can continue his turn around and Blackburn is healty enough to give the team 5-6 innings a start. Like I said earlier with the bullpen giving the team a chance if the starters can go 5-6 innings makes it easier for Blackburn who got a win after getting lifted after 5 innings vs giving up 3 runs in the 7th against Baltimore in his first start of the season. We can get by with an average rotation. There are several pitchers available to consider. Joe Saunders of Arizona is available and has about 4 million left on his contract this year. Az wants to bring up their top pitching prospect in Bauer. I bet the salary relief would lower the asking price. Milwood should be available from Seattle after the all star break since he just help pitch a no hitter. I am sure there are other Plus Pavano could come back from injury. There is also a hitter available on the trade market that could hit 20-25 HR drive in 80-85 RBI with a .760-.820 OPS at a cost of 4-5 million per season for the next 2 years and may not cost much in prospect but Soriano of the Cubs is available and he just hit 3 HRs at our ballpark so he can hit here. I think that is cheep for Cuddyer type production. We are currently 2.5 games out of 3rd and 8.5 out of first place where the White Sox have 2 great starting pitchers and 3 who have era's near or over 5.00. I believe with a little reinforcement and not a major overhaul, we can get back in the race and compete this year.
