I don't know what you guys are calling it now...rosterbation or whatever but here are my thoughts on what I think we should do.  Tim over at mlbtrade did his "offseason outlook" for us.  He predicts us to be around 80 million range after the arbitration cases.  Assuming we get a 90-95 million budget from ownership...we have 10-15 to play around with. 

I would love to get a Bay or Holliday but like many are saying, we just dont have the funds due to a few bad contracts.

What do you guys think about:

3B: Wait for Garrett Atkins to be non-tendered, then sign him...I know hes coming off of a bad season and all his good seasons are in Coors but I think he still has the potential for power and a rebound season.  Hopefully, we can snag him on a minor league deal or something relatively cheap. 

-With this move we shift Pablo over to 1st.

+Plan B: We would have Ishi/ Bowker and possibly Jesus Guzman to use at 1st if Atkins fails.

LF/RF: Marlon Byrd.  It is possible that this guy is just another Gary Matthews Jr. just waiting to happen, but maybe this is Marlon's chance to finally secure a starting job for 2 seasons in a row to get things going. 

-If not Byrd, I am a huge fan of Xavier Nady, however, I don't know if we have what it takes to land him here.  I'm unsure of what he will command on the open market.  If he can be had for a reasonable amount of money, I say get him. 

-With this move, we could leave a spot open for a 3 or 4 way competition between Andres Torrres, Natey, and Fredy with the possibility of Bowker.

Starting Pitcher: Brad Penny.  He seemed to get into a groove here with us so why not. 

Unfortunately, I think that will be about it for us.  Penny alone will cost somewhere between 4-8 million.  Also, if we do have any money left over, Sabean would be able to do his little waiting game plan and see whos left.  There should be some interesting low salary signings(O-Dog) and minor league contracts(Uribe) this year.  It should be fun.

I've been thinking about V-Mart and all, but have been pretty discouraged after reading that both BoSox deals have been shot down.  I've also heard that Shapiro will take nothing less than any team's top talent, and I think everyone on here as come to a general consensus that we do not want to deal any of Posey, Bumgarner, Angel V, or Alderson.  Without 1 of the 4, I dont think a deal would even get to started. 

So I started thinking about Shoppach.  I actually like the guy and realize that he is probably still worth a decent amount.  But by no means is he worth any of our top talent.  Now I know we want instant offense now, but he clearly has pop...he proved that last season by hitting 21 homers in 350 PAs.  He'd also be under team control for a number of years and I think this a kind of way to give us a real back up/ future catcher besides Posey who is probably at least a season or two away from the bigs...this is always saying that he sticks at catcher-I thought that there was some talk on him staying there or not. 

I also like Ryan Garko from the Indians as well but thats still up in the air.  Personally id rather have a tandem of him and Ishi rather than Aurilia.

The Giants don't have very many holes at a given position right now.  One could make the argument that Travis Ishikawa is not an everyday first baseman, but his defensive abilities seem to be keeping him on the roster.  Also, everyone knows that we lack power. 

So I got to thinking that Rich Aurilia is a hole in our bench.  Now, I do factor in his veteran know-how and what that brings to the club, but do you think that outweighs a 200 something BA?  I also realize that by fixing the pinch hitter/ defensive sub/ every now and then starter, is not to going to push us over the edge, but I do think it will help. 

What do you guys think about trading for the following hitters(1 of the following, not all): Julio Lugo(not really big on him at the moment), Willie Bloomquist, or Ramon Santiago.  All these guys shouldn't have a huge price tag and all are not starters, besides Lugo who is only filling the spot until Jed Lowrie returns.  All have been hitting pretty well, Santiago somehow has some pop this year and Bloomquist has shown some interesting speed on the bases this year.

What do you guys think?  I love Rich but we gave ourselves an out when we only guaranteed him the minimum salary this season.

I recently read a mlbtraderumors.com rumor from Nick Cafardo.  He listed that the Tribe maybe interested in Wigginton at third.  What do you guys think?  We have no apparent third basemen other than some guys that we suspect will battle it out in Spring Training or a free agent signing/ or trade.

I recently took a look at his stats and they look pretty good...386 abs...23 bombs...i think thats pretty good...now its questionable how he would handle full starting time, but, i think he would do quite well.

What would it take to get him?

Is it just me or does Sabean not believe in adding depth?  I was going over the signings today and a name that I had forgotten jumped up at me.  The Braves recently signed Jorge Julio to a minor league deal.

Julio is not the same guy as before, we all know that, however he still has a pretty live fastball and can strikeout a whole bunch of guys still.  I understand that we have a lot of guys down in Triple-A, but I'm sure Julio would be better than at least one of them. 

This has also been something that I have noticed Sabes has not done too much of...the whole minor league deal thing to add depth.  Why?

I'm sure all of you have heard Ozzie Guillen's rant about how Kenny needs to do something. 

Now that we know that Sabean is willing to deal the vets away, wouldn't now be a good time?  Idk, there could be a lot of issues that need to be worked out.

I think I would consider trying to entice them w/ Winn and Durham considering that they are hitting pretty well and playing decent D.  To be honest, Winn would be an upgrade over the now slumping Swisher(.201 BA) and Durham would be an upgrade over the tandem of Uribe an Ramirez. 

Why this makes sense: This would give Ozzie 2 solid bats to work with assuming that Durham will stay true to his .275 BA or above.  Winn should stay solid as well.  Another thing is that Durham's contract ends after this season, so they don't have to stay with him.  And Winn has an extra year however, he is pretty solid and could be a fourth OF next year if Swisher finds his swing sometime this year or next year.

Why this doesn't make sense: Alexei Ramirez just caught fire and could be on his way to getting into a groove.  Swisher can also find his swing as well however he will prolly only find his power swing as his track record shows.  Durham and Winn have pretty bad contracts, in a year's time they would add 15.5 mill or less considering that we are part way into the season, and 8.25 in futures.  Which is not exactly nice.

Any possible thoughts on this or ideas?  Who could we get back(I dont know the ChiSox's farm very well) or if this could work at all.