Worthwhile Free Agents

Affeldt could be interesting on a 1-2 year deal, but he's supposedly got a four-year offer in hand, and there's no way I'd want him on that kind of commitment. Too much downside risk.

Kim would be a decent NRI to fight for the #5 spot in the rotation, I guess.

McPherson is a decent choice, but it'd be too aggressive to project him as anything more than an Eldred-style backup 1B. He's never going to get on base, and his back probably won't let him be useful at 3B anymore, but as a Branyan-type bench bat he might be helpful. (Branyan and Tony Clark are available too, FWIW.)

It's hard to make predictions like this, since there are a lot of guys who'd make one kind of sense or another IF the price were right.

Among ML guys... I'd kick the tires medically on Jennings, Clement, Lieber, and Koskie, think hard about Cameron at something like 1/$6 or 2/$10, build some system depth with younger NRIs (like Jerry Gil, Ben Johnson, Heath Phillips, and Darrell Rasner), and maybe try to catch lightning in a bottle with John Thomson.

If we could get someone like Estrada or Barajas to push Paulino cheaply enough, then maybe, though I like a trade involving Marte for a young C better as an alternative.