Here's my plan for the 2007 Phillies, and i'll start with the players who WILL be in Philly next year:

1B Howard
2B Utley
SS Rollins

OF Victorino

SP Myers
SP Hamels
SP Lieber

CL Gordon
SU Madson
MR Geary

That's it, those are the only players 100% certain of coming back. Certain meaning their contract is secure, they're of alot of value to the club and they're not wanted out by fans. The above list dosn't include Abe Nunez because his status is uncertain, he probably won't start and if he could possibly be moved he will be. For instance, if we sign Aramis Ramirez Abe Nunez could well be traded, demoted or released.

Back to the certainties, I listed 10 players which leaves 15 spaces available on the 25 man roster. Of those 15 spaces, 1 will be a starting catcher, 1 will definatley be a starting 3B, 2 will be starting OF's and 2 will be SP's. That adds up to 6, leaving 9 places on the roster. Of those 9, 1 will be backup catcher, 2 will be reserve IF and 1 will be reserve OF. That leaves 7 more bullpen spaces. So basically, the Phillies have to address the following positions;

C
C(R)
3B
IF(R)
IF(R)
OF
OF
OF(R)
SP
SP
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP

Now you're the GM, you're Pat Gillick, and you can make those 15 decisions. Think about the salary cap, and how much space the Phils have, and think about how realistic certain trades would be. I mean, at one point during the season on offical site in the mailbag section one chump tried to trade David Bell for David Wright ! I know no one's that idiotic, but try and keep it as real as possible and at the end of this thread we could mix and match ideas and come up with a grand master plan that we can all pray unfolds during the off-season.

Thanks for reading,
Fred.