Livan, we hardly knew you

I wish the Brewers would stop anally raping me with hope ...

Oh fuck ... sorry man.

 

The day ... the music ... died.

 

I think Soriano gets about 5/$75 million.

Kearns and Lopez are arb eligible and it will cost about $4.5-5 million for the both of them. So if you keep Lawrence you are up to about $48 million for 9 players. The Nats probably have to make a hard push for Tony Armas Jr. because Lawrence is the only veteran starter (besides Armas) that they will be looking to keep from the current roster (others may stay but they are flotsam and jetsam). I'd look for them to carry a payroll about $65-70 million next year which should be enough to field a decent team. Besides the rotation (and signing Soriano) - the big question seems to be centerfield. Is Ryan Church or Alex Escobar going to be the answer?

 

If you play around with the numbers, you can do $13 or so for Soriano, and still have $15-$20 million or so for three starters, assuming a $65-70 million payroll next year.

The offense will be fine. Just platoon Church and Escobar in center, and that's about as deep a lineup as there is in the NL -- not that that's saying much.