With the trade dead line passed and our new acquisitions on board I thought now would be a good time to look at the construction of the roster and how we may deploy it come playoff time.

The Hitters

Acuna
Albies
Freeman
Donaldson
Duvall
McCann
Swanson
Inciarte

Markakis
Flowers
Culberson
Camargo
Joyce

Riley

So I really like our everyday lineup. I know it’s not guaranteed but I really hope to see Nick back by the end of the season. I’d like to see Duvall do enough to keep the job though. I believe the improved defense will help.

I’m concerned a bit with the bench. Flowers and Camargo have been rough and Joyce is slumping. I’d be interested in picking up Lucroy to replace Flowers and Cabrera to replace Camargo.

Riley I think ends up being the odd man out if the rest of the group is healthy.

The pitchers

Keuchel
Soroka
Folty
Teheran

Jackson
Greene
Meloncan
Martin
Newk
Fried
Swarzak
Gausman

As you can see there are quite a few questions about how to handle the pitching staff. The first one is what are we going to do with Fried? Would he be more valuable as a starter or a multi inning lefty option out of the pen?

Next we need to know the fates of Gausman and Folty. Ideally come playoff time I’d like to have both Gausman and Fried in the pen both for their stuff and length but to protect them as well. Of course if they’re not enough other arms to fill the rotation that discussion doesn’t matter.

I really like the potential strength of the pen but our rotation leaves something to be desired. I’m not too sure what we do about at this point though so I guess we cross our fingers and hope for the best.

What does everyone else think?