A short stop with 85 Range 84 Glove 93 Arm Strength 91 Arm Accuracy 90 Durability and 95 Health 98 Makeup 29 years old with hitting attributes of 33 contact 52 Power 43 L 50 R 73 batters eye who hits between .200 and .240 usually but not much of an offensive contribution...

How much is someone like this worth per year? He is demanding 5.6 Million in arbitration and 6.5 to lock up long term.

It depends on your situation and alternatives available, but he's not worth either of those deals. I wouldn't want him for more than 1-2.5 or so per year, but again your budget, circumstances, alternatives, etc could alter that a bit.

This guy is the most ordinary SS ever, and he represents a quandary that I find myself in with similar guys. Basically, he doesn't really advance you towards a championship, but you can't find guys nearly as good as he is just lying around in the Rule 5 draft.

You released him already, which is OK. But the guy you brought up to replace him will hit a fair bit worse... I'd have arb'd the first guy and spent the season looking for a better option via trade or FA.

Dedelman - epic advice.

I was actually going to do that, but I really think he would have won his arb case and I'd of wound up paying him 5.6 mil. Which wouldn't have left me much in the way of remaining budget to fill a hole or two.

I know you are going to think I am insane, but since you have looked at my team, can I ask a HUGE favor? You will see that no matter what I am going to wind up with a good player on the bench. Would it be far too bold to try Cammack or Davis at SS or Center? My SS and CF suck at hitting BUT having good defensive players there have REALLY served my pitching staff.

What are your thoughts?

Dedelman - epic advice.

I was actually going to do that, but I really think he would have won his arb case and I'd of wound up paying him 5.6 mil. Which wouldn't have left me much in the way of remaining budget to fill a hole or two.

I know you are going to think I am insane, but since you have looked at my team, can I ask a HUGE favor? You will see that no matter what I am going to wind up with a good player on the bench. Would it be far too bold to try Cammack or Davis at SS or Center? My SS and CF suck at hitting BUT having good defensive players there have REALLY served my pitching staff.

What are your thoughts?

First of all, you don't really have a CF problem; Altuve is fine there. You can platoon Altuve and Feller for a modest advantage if you want to carry the roster spot.

You do have a SS problem. At least against LHP and maybe full time, you should just play the bat there and pretend not to care about defense. Peguero isn't a very good player; it would probably be best to play Belfiore (the "defensive" SS) at SS against RHP and rotate your good players around the defense to move Peguero out of the lineup (playing Santos, Ozuna, Noesi, Perez, Davis, and Cammack at some combination of 2B, 3B, LF, RF, 1B, and DH). Against LHP, do Peguero at DH, and rotate the 6 guys in parentheses above so they cover SS (I'd use Davis as the bad SS).

If you can find a platoon SS who hits LHP and has a good glove in Rule 5-- sometimes they're there-- grab him. And keep working on trading one of those 6 good players (the guys in parentheses), or a prospect, or SOMETHING, for a legitimately good SS.