Free Agents 2006-07, First Glance
FOX Sports (via Baseball Musings) has posted a list of this year’s free agent crop. As of October 31 (players have until November 11 to file, so this doesn’t include, e.g., Barry Zito), it’s not an overwhelming list, and I can imagine several of these players being overpaid due to scarcity of quality at the head of the class.
This winter’s big prizes include DH Frank Thomas (limited to AL teams for obvious reasons), 1B Nomar Garciaparra, LF Barry Bonds, RHP Jason Schmidt, and 2B/LF Alfonso Soriano. All of those guys, with the possible exception of Soriano, come with significant question marks. Soriano may or may not have turned down a 5-year/$70 million offer from his current team, the Washington Nationals, so we’re not talking about bargain shopping here.
Following a smaller-market team, I tend to be interested in guys that might get overlooked and be available for a more reasonable price. Some of those include RHP David Riske, RHP Octavio Dotel, OF Craig Wilson, RHP Justin Speier, 3B/RF Aubrey Huff, RHP Tomo Ohka, OF Cliff Floyd, LHP Randy Wolf, OF Dave Roberts, 2B Todd Walker, OF Moises Alou, and LHP Steve Kline. They aren’t real difference makers, but could add some value to a contender (and if you’re not a contender in November, then you never will be).
There’s still plenty of time to file, so we’ll be revisiting this over the next several days as more names are added to the list. Meantime, for the hardcore among you (and if you’re reading this, you’re hardcore), there’s also a list of minor-league six-year free agents. This one can be a little tough to look at, as it tends to be a “who’s who” of guys who never quite made it (Jermaine Clark, Michael Coleman, Jed Hansen, Brandon Larson, Andrew Lorraine, Ryan Ludwick, Scott McClain, Chad Mottola, Michael Restovich, Matt Riley, Nerio Rodriguez, Donnie Sadler, Mac Suzuki, Dennis Tankersley, Jorge Toca, Chris Truby, Rico Washington, Ed Yarnall, Alan Zinter) or who did but who’ve since fallen from grace (Edgardo Alfonzo, Brad Clontz, Russ Johnson, Matt LeCroy, Kerry Ligtenberg, Jose Lima, Quinton McCracken, Dustan Mohr, Tim Redding, Luis Rivas, Ruben Rivera, Kelly Wunsch).
I know that’s a lot of names to slog through, but if you’ve played any kind of fantasy baseball over the past decade or so, there’s a real good chance that one or more of those guys has broken your heart at some point.
Anyway, I guess the real moral of the story is that there is no off-season. There’s only that part of the year when big-league games aren’t being played. We’ll keep a watchful eye on who signs where this winter. That, among other things, should be enough to keep us busy till Spring Training rolls around again…
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