... and then the ChiSox came to town, and we stopped hitting

[TTown]

hehe, I always liked Raul. But I can't argue those WAR numbers.

On a completely different topic, in 2010 Casey Kotchman hit .217 with a .280 OBP for us. In 2011 for Tampa Bay, Kotchman hit .306 with a .378 OBP.

WTF?

Here's a weird one: he hit .217 in 2010 in 125 games 414 ABs. In 2011, he hit .306 in 146 games (500 ABs), but he had 3 more RBIs with us (51) than he had with Tampa this year (48). Go figure.

[Zyme]

Star means contract option:
http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2001/0 ... -2012.html
Catchers
Rod Barajas LAD
Henry Blanco ARI
Ramon Castro CWS
Ryan Doumit PIT
Ramon Hernandez CIN
Jason Kendall KC
Gerald Laird STL
Jose Molina TOR
Yadier Molina STL *
Dioner Navarro LAD
Jorge Posada NYY
Ivan Rodriguez WAS
Brian Schneider PHI
Kelly Shoppach TB *
Chris Snyder PIT *
Matt Treanor KC
Jason Varitek BOS

Those are your catchers who are expiring.

Of thoses, I would not mind bringing in is Y Molina and Jason Varatek. One has solid defense (weak bat, but a great arm) and a great bat (but not great defense).

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2001/0 ... -2012.html

[Zyme]

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key ... utput=html

Basically, though baseball doesn't have a true cap, you can look at the salaries being paid and extrapolate:
* 2011: $ 94,623,191
* 2010: $ 91,143,333
* 2009: $ 98,904,166
* 2008: $117,666,482
* 2007: $106,460,833
* 2006: $ 87,959,833
* 2005: $ 87,754,334
* 2004: $ 81,515,834
* 2003: $ 86,959,167
* 2002: $ 80,282,668
* 2001: $ 74,720,833
* 2000: $ 59,200,000

Basically what we are looking at is something in the range of 90 to 95 million in total funds for next year. We have 35.11 million coming off of contract (making for . This does not include arbitration for Aardsma, Vargas, League, Ray, Wright, Rodriguez, or Kelley. Given none had spectacular years. I cant imagine us losing more than 5-7 million for all those players at most (and much less if no arbitrations offers are extended. That leaves something around 28-30 million left to play with this offseason.