But to me it's more reminicient of Z's first off-season. But I mean that in a good way. First big thing is to fix CF defense to make it elite again. Then a lot of dumpster diving for hidden gems. Z got bigger seasons than expected from Branyan and Griffey.
Z had a mess on his hands, bu there was some key talent. The main job was to change the culture from a horrible 61 win season.
We don't need to get a Branyan - we have Cruz. No Ichiro, but I'll take Cano and Aoki. Don't have a Beltre but we have a Seager. I'll take Seager and his Safeco friendly lefty bat. Hey, we have a Felix again! But man, I'll take 2-5 as is over the mess we had going into 2009: Washburn, RRS, Jabu, a raw Vargas. We had Bedard. But yeah, give me Walker, Karns, Paxton, Elias if I must choose between the two. Paxton is our Bedard. If he stays healthy, everything changes in a big way.
First base has the PCL's most productive guy of 2015 penciled in, with a platoon partner, and he's still young. Ketel over Yuni? You bet! - you bet I go with Marte.
No fat Griffey, LF looks productive - Guti/Smith > the recently departed Ibanez of 2008, mainly because we won't have the headscatching defense Raul offered - and no Balentien patrolling there. No Ichiro patrolling right next to young Guti, that's too bad...but we have an Aoki as Ichiro-lite, and Cano replaces a productive Lopez, and yeah, we are talking Cano and not Jose Lopez. No question marks there regarding production. And toughness at the plate.
Catcher is not Rob Johnson. Nuff said there.
Bullpen? Smith and Beniot and whoever else emerges from Furby and etc. to what else we add to the pile going forward. Bullpen is easy - Z always did it - often with smoke and mirrors. DiPoto will too.
That team won 85 games. I like what we're looking at by comparison right now by a lot. Everything else going forward into Dec. - March is gravy.