..we no longer have this hanging over our heads.We can all move on to scrutinizing other team needs now that 3rd base is locked up.We should also be fine at 1st with Davis and Tejada will man SS.I like Murphy at 2nd and Captain "Kirk" Neiuwenhuis (seriously,this guy will be our team captain one day) should improve out in LF,although I'm not sure how well he hits lefties.That leaves C,CF,RF,SP,RP.I think with a couple cheap yet effective signings these spots can all be filled and we can at least have a .500 team out there that may even surprise us in the end.

I do not mean to rain on your optimism, lord knows that we could use a bit more of that around here, but I am not seeing it. Even with our infield effectively set this year, it isn't as though our infield is any better than our competition's...We are going to trod out basically the same team as last year, meanwhile the rest of our division, Miami notwithstanding, are much improved. I just do not see where we are a better roster than last year; and with no money to spend and expected regression, somewhat, from Dickey (if he is even here) I expect us to be at best what we were a year ago.

I really think that Nieuwinhuis is the difference maker here.He's a free swinger but very gritty and while he didn't play for most of the season last year ,he showed alot of guts and some promise.I would love to see him get the starting job out there in Left.Valdespin was also a bright spot and could really spark our club off the bench.A decent CF with speed to lead off for us and I think we'll be able to put up/manufacture some runs.The big question mark will be our pitching.