They save ~$13 before arb raises (-McLouth, KK, Moylan, AG, Linebrink and Sherril, + raises to McCann, Uggla, etc.). Arb raises (JJ, Prado, O'Flaherty, Bournshould just about negateall of that.
Noone will take Lowe. JJ and Hanson will be hard to trade given their injuries. Huddy ain't goinganywhere.Soit's trade one of the younguns, or stick with what you've got.
They'll dangle Lowe, JJ, and Hanson, as well as the young uns, and weigh their offers. One problem withtrading any of the young SPs is that we traded the only talent we had behind them in development (except i guess 1st round pick Gilmartin, but he's barely pitched any pro ball so far) to get Bourn. But absent an unlikely trade there,then it's the same as last year. There's no money to get Reyes, or really anyone. They'll take a hard look at Pastornicky inST, but they'd probably prefer to resign AG for a couple mil for one year. if he won't take that for some reason, there's a ton of FA vet SSs out there for next year.
Medlen may be arb eligible (Super Two). Beforethe last couple days i would have said theymight not keep him in that case, but now i think they would. By default he may be the RH set-up man, with C Martinez keeping long-man duties.
They have an option on Hinski for $1.5M that they probably take, and Diaz is signed for 2012 by virtue of the contract he signed with Pitt before the trade.
They SHOULD go to a 6 man rotation to start the year (it wouldn't be for that long, someone is bound to get hurt eventually),Beach and Minor as 5 and 6, with Vizcaino starting in AA, and Delgado and Teheran in AAA. but that's probably too extreme for the by-the-book Braves.
the bullpen can be filled out from within.no need for a FA. a RH set-up man would be nice, but with Medlen back it's probably better to spend elsewhere.
2013 probably will see huge changes. Subtract Lowe, Chipper,Bourn, JJ (gone one way or the other, hope it's a good year for a good haul), Hudson (probably resigns for a bit cheaper, he was alreadysigned at a discount), and you've got $50M to play with, and only CF to fill (Pastornicky at SS). Prado might not be back either, if they can get a 3B FA, but i don't see anyone good up for FA that year. Small raises due to Heyward and Hanson, Venters and Medlen and maybe O'Flaherty, McCann. Rotation of Hanson, Hudson, Beachy, Minor, Teheran/Delgado/Vizcaino, and you still have $30M for a LF and CF and 3B. If Uggla can play 3B as good/badly as he plays 2B, we may move him over there, as we have more talent there in the minors. Alot of the same talent can play CF, so i expect us to fill that from within and sign the best LF available, with most of the rest of the money going to early extensions for long-term savings.
Having said that, if they can find a way to package Lowe to get rid of most of his salary, then given all the salary room in 2013 and beyond then they can sign whoever they want (Reyes/Rollins?)