Stark County Looks to Future

After trading away the face of the franchise, Johan Santana, a week ago, Stark County Slither GM, Jason "Jake" Argue, has made it plainly evident that the team is looking to the future, "We absolutely love Johan and what he did for us these past couple years, but all the pieces weren't there and we have to move on." In return for Santana, Argue netted 3 top-notch prospects: centerfielder Chris Young, thirdbaseman Josh Fields, and left-handed pitcher Giovanni Gonzalez.

The move gives the Slither 4 young outfielders to look forward to; Corey Hart, who has played for the big club briefly, Jacoby Ellsbury (AA), who Argue acquired in the massive deal that sent fan favorites Morgan Ensberg and Craig Counsell to Dog River, Chris Denorfia, who will likely begin the year in AAA after spending the season on the Slither bench as a Rule V draftee, and Young, who will also begin the year in AAA. When one reporter pointed out that all four outfielders have primarily played centerfield Argue chuckled, "I didn't know having a ton of range in the outfield was a problem. If it comes down to it, maybe we'll move one of them to fill another need, but right now I see them all sticking with us. That's why they're here."

The move also addresses the system's lack of depth at thirdbase. Argue also discussed that topic, saying, "We drafted Mike McCormick last year to help us out there too, but he's still only 20. Josh gives us somebody who can step up maybe by the end of this year." When asked about the Slither's glaring hole at third this year Argue offered this comment, "We're signing Troy Glaus. End of story."

As far as Gonzalez is concerned, Argue got exactly what he was looking for. "We were looking for somebody that could potentially replace Johan as a top-of-the-line left-handed starter, we hope Gio can be that for us."

Additionally, Argue expressed that his major focus for free agency was too address the bullpen. "We struck lighting in a bottle with a lot of our guys this year. Jose struggled, but we're committed to keeping him around. However, we don't expect to have that kind of success year in and year out with the crew we had." So that means that the likes of Juan Padilla and stopgap Vic Darensbourg are gone, and Argue will look to add to the core of Brandon Medders, Eddie Guardado, and Jose Valverde. With the departure of starters Matt Clement (free agency), Mike Hampton (injury), and Santana (aforementioned trade), and Argue's stated displeasure with Mike Maroth, it is rumored that Ryan Madson will be given every opportunity to start this year. That leaves one more hole in the bullpen. "We expect Anthony Reyes to be ready to contribute sometime this year, and maybe Merkin Valdez as well, but Ryan and Adam Wainwright are the only other guys with experience starting that are going to be ready. With Ryan's experience in the bigs he's got a head start, so the plan is to use him to start, and bring in Adam to help in the 'pen. And Tyler Johnson and Boone Logan will be our lefty specialists to start, but we still lack innings back there."

Free agency has seen a flurry of activity, and Argue has been busy as well. He has already signed Doug Waechter to fill a spot in the rotation. "Doug will compete with Ryan [Madson] and Merkin [Valdez] for the 3rd, 4th, or 5th slots in the rotation, behind Ervin Santana and Carlos Silva. And then we can plug Anthony [Reyes] whenever he's ready." Argue also added a solid piece to the bullpen in Luis Ayala. "We know that Luis just underwent surgery and probably won't help us this year. But we look forward to having him around to help us two years from now." In a curious move, Argue also signed catcher A.J. Pierzynski, giving him a 4-year, 24 million dollar deal. "With Joe being so young we wanted a veteran to help him develop as a catcher. A.J. is a hard-working, tough player. We want that to rub off on Joe. For now, A.J. will be our DH, and get the occasional game behind the dish."

Stark County Slither Opening Day 25-man roster (tenative)
Lineup
C - Joe Mauer
C - Yorvit Torrealba
1B - Travis Lee
2B - Mark Grudzielanek
3B - Troy Glaus (obviously he's not signed, but Argue seems fairly certain, so why not?)
SS - Ronny Cedeno
LF - Carlos Lee
CF - Alfredo Amezaga
RF - Xavier Nady
DH - A.J. Pierzynski
4thOF - Corey Hart
5thOF - Matt Diaz
UIF - Omar Infante

Starting Rotation
Ervin Santana
Carlos Silva
Doug Waechter
Ryan Madson
Merkin Valdez

Bullpen
Bradon Medders
Adam Wainwright
Tyler Johnson
Eddie Guardado
Jose Valverde
David Cortes
Boone Logan