Throw the kiddies into the fire in 2010

I would love to see more of our younger prospects get a chance in the bigs....and they might turn out alright from what we've seen. An outfield quartet of Clete, Clevlen, Raburn and Grandy would be pretty good I think. Make Maggs the DH, put Inge, Santiago/Everett, that one kid to replace Polanco, and Cabrera in the IF, along with Avila backing up Laird at catcher.

Sure this might not be the best hitting group ever assembled--but it's not like we were this year. And this would be much more the NL-style club I think Leyland wants (and for that matter, Dombrowski came up with the Expos and Marlins). The few times Clevlen came up to the bigs he smoked the ball and he has a hell of an arm. We know Clete and Raburn have some potential as well. I know it makes Maggs overpriced at DH, but who cares? He'll probably be overpriced regardless and heres hoping whatever affected him the 1st half the season he figured out permanently (whether it was family or just slowing down, he obviously seemed to adjust by the end).

Trade Guillen for whatever you can get, maybe a reliever or some draft picks, etc. Much as it pains me, see if Rodney wants to come back for a fair price before he gets some ridiculous offer (it seems he was paying attention to Todd all those years--keep it exciting and get the job done in the end). Oh, and send (is he under contract?) Marcus Thames somewhere he might be able to play and win at, he's been a good sport all these years and I would love to see the hammer get 500AB somewhere.

Don't know/care much about the pitching, it's always kind of a crapshoot, but what does everyone else think? Go for youth or try to ride it out with what we have or do some lateral performance changes?