[MattStewNYY]

Senators Complete Busy Winter, Prepare for Spring Training

It was indeed a busy winter, and although some of the big names of the game were locked up prior to the off-season, for instance, Pedro Martinez resigned with Boston shortly after the World Series. Obviously, we went into the winter meetings, and this big ordeal, with pitching and the left side of our infield in mind. We made several signings and two trades to try to sure things up, one trade that was probably particularly surprising.

First off, the signings:

Donnie Sadler: Donnie was a quick, one day signing, and isn't goign to play a big part on the team this year other than pinch running and the like. We're going to be relying on a bench of speed, defense, and smallball ability this year, and Donnie is going to be a key part of it, with his ability to pinch run. He has great instincts.

$440,000, 1 year deal

Pokey Reese: Late in the game, Pokey was a guy who we went after, after losing out the bidding war for Doug Mientkiewicz(will talk about later). Pokey has incredible range at 2B and SS, but we made a few good deals, and he went through spring training as a 3B, his range and fielding percentage there aren't great, but they're existant, and with his infield ability and professionalism, we're glad to have him start everyday at 3B for the Washington Senators. He did bite us with the length of the contract though -- Pokey isn't a big hitter, and we'd obviously like to expand and improve at the position later, so the 4 year deal could be a problem, but who knows, maybe he'll surprise us?

$1,250,000, 4 year deal


Chris Carpenter: Chris Carpenter was a guy who wasn't on our radar for the first two weeks or so of the signing period, we had been focused on Brad Radke and Derek Lowe, but with negotiations beginning to cool down with them, we put in a bid for Carpenter. Carpenter is a positive on two accounts: 1) he's cheaper than Radke or Lowe, and 2) his 2004 season was better than Radke and Lowe's. If we're going to make a run at the playoff's this year as I hope to, and extend my contract, he's going to have to be key as my #2 or #3 starter.

$5,000,000, 3 year deal

Cory Vance: Vance was a sleeper signing that is going to round off our rotation to open up 2005. He's a 4 star blue prospect, and was ranked highly among our scouting team. We think he's a real smart pitcher with a lot of fire, and can do some work in the trenches for us. We got him for two years, so we're certainly looking forward to seeing him build himself and grow as a pitcher.

$750,000, 2 year deal

Ramon Ortiz: Ramon Ortiz is the X-Factor for this pitching staff this year. He's going to get the occasional spot start and work in the bullpen a lot. He's a guy who throws one hell of a damned fastball and can eat up innings for us. He's another guy though, who we had to eat up some years for to get to come aboard.

$1,500,000, 3 year deal

Trever Miller: Trever Miller is listed as only 2 and a half stars, but make no mistake, he can deal. He's a lefty, and he can throw the baseball damn well. He's going to be a key to the middle of our bullpen this year, and could win us/lose us 5 to 10 games. Another sleepy pick for us, but with his 8 stuff/7 control/7 movement, he was worth the money.

$1,500,000, 3 year deal

Odalis Perez: Odalis Perez excites me because of his versatility. He's going to start the year out of the Bullpen, but he's got tons of talent and will probably work his way into the rotation before everything is said and done. He's a proven lefty, which we need, and he can just throw until the cows come home. We had to dish out a little to get our hands on him, but yet again, we feel it was well worth it.

$4,250,000, 3 year deal

Two Trades



Washington gets:
Michael Restovich

Minnesota gets:
Luis A. Lopez
John Labandeira

We feel that Michael Restovich is a complete player. He's got big hitting skills, and will be the 3rd hitter in our line-up. Luis A. Lopez is a decent 3rd basemen, but with Reese in there, we don't have a lot of need for him, and he's eating 2 Million in Salary. Labandeira was a hard guy to swallow giving up too, he's a middle of the road Shortstop, but Restovich is going to lockdown Right Field.

Washington gets:
Jack Wilson

Pittsburgh Gets:
Shawn Hill
Seung Song
Endy Chavez

Jack Wilson is a guy we, to be honest, really needed to square up the left side of our infield. To be frank, in the free agency period, we flat failed at picking anybody up for over there. Hill and Song are both solid, 4 star prospect pitchers, but we have a lot of pitching right now, and they are getting near the time when they'd be moving to a level where we couldn't afford them anyway. Endy Chavez is another guy who was in the logjam that was the Outfield battle, but he was simply the most expensive, and the least talented that Pittsburgh would accept.

Free Agents We Missed Out on

Derek Lowe - We were in the Derek Lowe sweepstakes from the very beginning, and as each two or three days seemed to go by, his price demands raised. We were fighting with the Cardinals for him, and to be fair, that's a money war we simply would not win. On the bright side, ex Cardinal Chris Carpenter is now a Senator, so from a league standpoint, we can call it a wash.

Brad Radke - Brad Radke was in the same boat as Derek Lowe. We kept giving in to his demands for more money, and he kept pushing it. Eventually we had to cut off negotations.

Aramis Ramirez - We made a longstanding bid for him at 3B, but we just got beat out by Cleveland, and we started to turn our attention to Doug Mientkiewicz. Eventually, Cleveland came up with Ramirez anyway.

Doug Mientkiewicz - We had Mientkiewicz locked down for about 5 days, but for some reason he kept holding off, and we weren't really sure why. Come to find out, he was dealing secretly with Toronto, who once going public for him, put up a hell of a fight with us for him. We weren't going to let him go easily.. he was our guy for 3B and 1B when Nick wasn't playing, but with 5 days left to go, Toronto threw out an uncany 8.9 million at Mientkiewicz, and that bluff we called. He's a Blue Jay, and a rich one at that. We'll find out if it's worth it.

Final Payroll: $58,606,373.00



2005 Washington Senator's Opening Day Roster

So I don't know exactly how this year is going to turn out. I think we have a solid enough base to contend for the NL Wild Card. The division, I don't know. We'll see how things pan out....

[] = 1 star

Rotation
RHP, Livan Hernandez [][][][]
RHP, Claudio Vargas [][][][
RHP, Chris Carpenter [][][][
RHP, Clint Everts [][][][][]
LHP, Cory Vance [][][][]

Bullpen
RHP, Ramon Ortiz [][][
LHP, Joe Horgan [][][]
LHP, Trever Miller [][][
LHP, Odalis Perez, [][][]
RHP, Rocky Biddle [][][][]
RHP, Matt Childers [][][][]
RHP, John Patterson [][][][][

Line-Up
1B, LHB, Nick Johnson [][][
SS, RHB, Jack Wilson, [][][][]
RF, RHB, Michael Restovich, [][]
2B, SHB, Jose Vidro, [][][]
LF, LHB, Brad Wilkerson, [][][]
CF, LHB, Termel Sledge, [][][]
C, LHB, Brian Schneider, [][][
3B, RHB, Pokey Reese, []

DH (WHEN NEEDED), RHB, Moises Alou, [][][

Bench
OF, Moises Alou, [][][
OF, Matt Cepicky, [][][]
C, Paul Hoover, [][]
IF, Clay Bellinger, [][]
IF/OF Donnie Sadler, [][



I think when you look at my team, two things are going to be crucial for me to have a winning team this year: 1) The ability of the 3 - 7 guys to hit. The only one that's really a sure thing is Jose Vidro. Now these other guys all have talent; their ratings reflect that. Everything does. Whether or not they can translate that over to the field is another story, and that's going to be a big thing for us this year. 2) The Bullpen. Biddle is off and on and Childers and Henderson are going to be key. Can Henderson be a reliable, dare I say, even dominant closer? I hope so, because the options otherwise are skewed and uncertain. It could make for a confusing season out of the pen, and I absolutely WILL NOT do bullpen by committee. It doesn't work.

So. This should be interesting.