Here are the listsfrom CBSSportsline.
Here is ESPN’s list of available.
The idea is to build a team with the Free Agents and project how it would do. We’ll put it in the AL West to make life easier and it is the smallest Division*.
I’m will be working on my own and I will post it later.
C: Pudge & Varitek: *Neither are offensive forces any more but two solid catchers and Pudge is Pudge. *
1B: Adam Dunn, Dunn is not great defensively but he hits 40 Homers every year.
2B: Orlando Hudson & Mark Grudzielanek
SS: Orlando Cabrera * Middle infield appears to be the defensive strength of this team. Orlando to Orlando and hope Dunn catches it to complete the DP. *
3B: Joe Crede & Ty Wigginton (3b/1b) *When he is healthy, Crede is a solid enough player and Ty should be an adequate backup to first or third. *
*I like the offense of my outfield though I am not happy about the defense and at least I have the best DH in baseball. *
RF: Bobby Abreu
CF: Jim Edmonds & Ken Griffey Jr.
LF: Eric Hinske
DH: Manny Ramirez
*The Rotation is not terrible but the bullpen is a huge question mark. *
SP: Ben Sheets, Oliver Perez, Randy Wolf, Pedro Martinez, Jon Garland
CL: Braden Looper
RP: Eric Gagne, Dennys Reyes, Eddie Guardado, Jason Isringhausen, Tom Gordon
Long Relief: Kenny Rogers
C: J. Valentin, 33 Varitek was signed the other day, not that I would have taken him for a FA team. And I can’t stand I-Rod and his 4 walks a year. Valentin has a good glove, and comes cheaply.
1B: Ty Wiggington, 31 Not a lot of choices at 1B, but I’m sure Wiggy can learn coming from first.
2B: O. Hudson, 31 I don’t get how the O-Dog hasn’t been signed. Yes, 31 year old secondbasemen aren’t exactly in high demand, but his offense is above average for the position, and plays great D.
3B: J. Crede, 30 I’d need to sign a utility guy like Grudz or Wiggy to back him up when he gets injured (and he will get injured). His potential is good, but is risky.
SS: O. Cabrera, 34 Who’s left?
LF: M. Ramirez, 36 I’d actually rather have Manny show up in left halfway through the second inning than have Dunn out there! At least Crede would know to play a bit deeper for a few innings than to run into that tree trunk Dunn would be all 9 (or 7, since Dunn notoriously gets pulled after 4 PAs).
CF: B. Wilkerson, 31 He has some CF experience, and isn’t 40 years old (Edmonds).
RF: B. Abreu, 34 Wow this is an old OF, huh?
DH: A. Dunn, 29 Maybe being a DH would get him to the 9th a bit more often. And I have a giant man-crush on him.
SP: Jon Garland, 29 Not a great ace, by any means…
SP: Oliver Perez, 27 He’s not signed yet, is he?
SP: Chuck James, 27 Just a disastrous season last year, but hopefully he can get back to his 2007 level of averageness…
SP: Tony Armas, 30 Eat those innings…
SP: Pedro, 37 He’s going to play 15 games, and be average in half of them. Time to write up a highly incentivized contract…
RP: Chad Cordero He’s on one list, not the other - weird. I love this guy!
RP: Luis Ayala, 31 The Nats actually had a great little combo a year ago. Ayala’s underrated.
RP: Brian Shouse Everyone needs a LOOGY.
RP: Jason Isringhausen He’s not a quality closer anymore, but I bet he can be plugged in for 2+ IP of relief work every 3 days.
Hm.
2B - Orlando Hudson
RF - Bobby Abreu
1B - Adam Dunn
LF - Manny Ramirez
DH - Frank Thomas
3B - Ty Wigginton
CF - Jim Edmonds
C- Ivan Rodriguez
SS - Orlando Cabrera
C - Sal Fasano
IF - Joe Crede
IF - Alex Cintron
OF - Garrett Anderson
OF - Emil Brown
SP - Ben Sheets
SP - Oliver Perez
SP - Braden Looper
SP - Paul Byrd
SP - Randy Wolf
RHRP - Joe Beimel
RHRP - Keith Foulke
RHRP - Jason Isringhausen
LHRP - Will Ohman
LHRP - Dennys Reyes
CL - Juan Cruz
Let’s see. This isn’t a particularly good team. Dunn and Ramirez are plus hitters, obviously, and Abreu almost certainly has enough to do a nice job hitting in the two spot ahead of them. Orlando Hudson isn’t a traditional leadoff guy, but a .360 OBP, if he can manage it again, will get him 100 runs easily ahead of the next three guys.
The problem is the rest of the lineup. Cabrera and Edmonds are barely adequate players; Rodriguez and Thomas aren’t even that anymore. Ty Wigginton gives me a bit of pop but he’s a butcher at third base, and “a bit of pop” isn’t really going to cut it.
I like the pitching staff. If they’re both healthy, Sheets-Perez makes a nice 1-2 punch. Looper, Byrd, and Wolf can all eat innings and generate quality starts. The bullpen would be pretty solid: Ohman, Reyes, and Beimel would handle the bulk of the setup and high leverage innings, with Juan Cruz, who is a pretty good pitcher, getting to be the closer. We have Keith Foulke and Jason Isringhausen on hand to handle the rest of things.
Predicted record: 80-82, third place in the NL West.
Wanted to add that I avoided anyone that’s already been signed so far, that I know of.
Psst: storyteller - it’s the AL West, not NL, so you need a DH.
Why Ty over Crede?
Does anyone think Looper could return to closing and do an adequate job? That was my criteria.
Valentin may have been a better choice than Pudge. I need to look that over Munch.
I forgot to mention, I think my team can take 2nd in the AL West with a hope of beating out the unimproved Angels. Based on beating the A’s and M’s regularly I would hope they could eek out an 88-74 record.
He took Thomas as DH and Varitek has not signed yet.
Didn’t see that. And didn’t Varitek sign with the Red Sox a few days ago? Or was that just negotiations?
Offense
1 Bobby Abreu RF
2 Adam Dunn 1B
3 Manny Ramirez DH
4 Orlando Hudson 2B
5 Garret Anderson/Eric Hinske LF
6 Jim Edmonds CF
7 Orlando Cabrera SS
8 Joe Crede 3B
9 Jason Varitek C
Bench
Ty Wigginton
Alex Cintron
Moises Alou
Jacque Jones
Ivan Rodriguez
SP
Ben Sheets
Randy Wolf
Oliver Perez
Kenny Rogers
Pedro Martinez
CP
Juan Cruz
Bullpen
Will Ohman
Eddie Guardado
Brandon Looper
Rudy Seanez
Odalis Perez
Not yet on Varitek. They put a deadline on their offer of I think Sunday.
So Hawkeyeop, how do you think your team would do in the AL West?
C: Pudge, for the way he calls a game, and Sal Fasano for his mustache.
1B: Kevin Millar
2B: Orlando Hudson
SS: Alex Cintron
3B: Ty Wigginton
RF: Bobby Abreu
CF: Um…Jim Edmonds, I guess
LF: Manny Ramirez
Bench: Jacque Jones
Bench:Adam Dunn
Bench: Nomar Garciaparra
Bench: Juan Uribe
Bench: Joe Crede
SP:Tony Armas
SP:Ben Sheets
SP:Jon Garland
SP:Tom Glavine
SP:Oliver Perez
Pen:Joe Beimel
Pen:Ambirorix Burgos
Pen:Eddie Guardado
Pen: Will Ohman
Pen:Brian Shouse
CL: Juan Cruz
What do I win (other than the pennant)?
A complimentary AARP membership? 
Hmm. Let’s see. The top of the lineup will score a lots of runs, but the middle/bottom will be on the league’s worse. The lineup has only two really good hitters in Ramirez and Dunn. Abreu, Cabrera, and Hudson are all, at best, slightly above average hitters for their position. Anderson/Hinske could be a decent plattoon, but it could very bad as well. The rest of the lineup will be very painful. Crede makes way too many outs, and we would have to hope Varitek is the player he was in 2007, while Edmonds is the player he was in the last few months of 2008.
The infield defense would probably be about average. Very good at 3b (if Crede remains healthy), terrible at 1b, and okay up the middle. The outfield defense will be brutal even with Manny DHing though.
The bench is one of the better ones, but the lack of strong backups at ss and CF could be costly.
On the pitching side a lot of it will come down to health. When the most guaranteed part of your rotation is Oliver Perez, you are in trouble. Sheets will be great or hurt, Perez will likely be about league avg though our outfield defense will kill him. Wolf will be about the same if he holds up, Rogers a little below, and Pedro who knows.
The bullpen might be the teams strength with a lot of arms to choose from. I like Cruz as a dominating closer and Ohman should set him adequetly.
All in all this is not a good team and won’t be able to compete even in the lackluster AL West. I’ll say 72-90 and competing with the Mariners for 4th.
Am I allowed an unlimited budget?
C: Ivan Rodriguez and Michael Barrett. I think Varitek is toast.
1B: There’s really nobody good available. KEvin Millar, I guess.
2B: Orlando Hudson, Ray Durham
SS: Orlando Cabrera and Alex Cintron, giving me an all-Orlando double play combo
3B: Joe Crede
OF: Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn, Jim Edmonds, Bobb Abreu, Eric Hinske. Hinske is my 25th man. Ramirez DHs.
Pitchers: Jon Garland, Oliver Perez, Randy Wolf, Juan Cruz, and whomever else is out there. There’s not that much left available that isn’t sucky or old. I’d definitely like to have Ambiorix Burgos is his arm’s healthy. Dennys Reyes can be my LOOGY.
“Am I allowed an unlimited budget?” Yes and assume your team will be in Portland or Las Vegas. Besides this team would probably still be below the luxury cap and most of the players would be on 1-2 year deals with a few exceptions.
RickJay, how do you feel about Dunn at first instead? How do you think your team would do.
I see a lot of posters left Griffey off completely. Wouldn’t he at least make a good 4th outfielder or he is that far gone?
I forgot Griffey, I’d take him.
Dunn is an atrocious first baseman. He’s a bad outfielder but he’s not Manny-bad. At first base he looks really, really terrible, and the numbers are terrible too.
My team would probably do okay in 2009, then crash thereafter. We’d score a lot of runs this year but (probably) not prevent enough to make the playoffs. Team’s too old.
That and some kind of plaque from Denny’s.
Griffey can’t play a credible center field anymore, and I like other corner outfield options better though I guess I could take him over Alou. I pretty much think he is done.
But please pick it up before 6pm - some of us have to get home to go to bed.
Okay, I think I’ve figured it out:
C: Valentin - I’m just not willing to give up some defense where I can get it
1B: Wilkerson - He’s played 233 games there and done a fantastic job
2B: Hudson
3B: Crede/Wiggington
SS: Cabrera
LF: Manny
CF: Griffey/Edmonds - if this fails, then Wilkerson moves out here (232 games), Wiggy to first
RF: Abreu
DH: Dunn - he just can’t play the field anymore
Cabrera is the true weak link here, and I can deal with that. I might even switch Abreu and Manny in case the left side really falls apart, but doubt that’s a good idea.
I didn’t realize Dunn was that bad at 1st. So maybe I should put him in left and park Millar at first. Is Dunn better or worse than Jason Giambi? You make him sound worse. (Not that Jason is still a FA)
This was only for 2009 anyway. Let’s assume most of these old players get one year contracts and only a few get 2 or 3 years.
I took Griffey as my 4th outfielder as I think he can still hit fairly well and is my only backup option in Center.
BTW: I just realized that Bonds would technically be available. I didn’t seem him on any lists of FAs. I would pass on him though.