What a roller coaster of a last few days. This is very, very, very, very good news.

A lot of people think Bonds got stronger last year as the season went on. It will be interesting to see if he has another bad first half.

I don't think we will, but signing Barry gives us a chance.

Let's see:

CF Roberts
SS Dreamy
1B Aurilia
LF Bonds
2B Durham
RF Winn
3B Feliz
C Molina
P

There is some decency in that lineup. And a tad bit of potential. Not much, but a tad.

Watching Barry break the record will be sweet as well.

Oh, and a great deal since he's clearly worth > 1.6 Pierres or Lil Sarges.

What the hell, people? At least this way we have a chance at a freak successful season. This lineup without Bondswould have gotten us nowhere fast and twice as grumpy for not having him...

Well, I was kind of hoping that a Barry's Back thread would just by default be a no pessimism thread because it's such good news. Oh well, mope away the half of you that are. I'mma sip (sip?) bacardi like its my birthday.

I never have any idea what 50 Cent is saying. Actually don't like him much, but that one line is pretty catchy. E-40 is the far better rapper.

And I don't have to hear about what hotel Bonds is in until spring training.

That said, I'm glad he's back, it's not my money.  This gives us a chance, at least, in 2007, with our rotation.  Now we need to strengthen the bullpen, but what's the math on the remaining payroll now, I count only $4M left of the original $85M that was quoted.  Even if the Maddux money were put into the pot, that is still only $10M, not nearly enough to pursue even a Lilly, let alone a Zito.  Plus we still need a LOOGY (unless we go with Taschner, Misch, or Threets, if he's recovered) and, really, another closer because hopefully we can unload Benitez onto another team for something.

The only way we can really spend a lot more is if the Giants take all their profits over the past 3-5 years and spend that too.  Plus, remember, all the extra draft picks this year, that will be around $10M, maybe more with the Dodgers picks now, getting hard to remember the picks we get with so many.

Or as someone above noted, he defers some of the money.  However, don't know how the new CBA, which, by the way, was approved by the players association today, works, but in the just past CBA, you cannot really defer that much money into the future, not like the deals Griffey, A-Rod, and Barry got.

Basically I think a team is limited to a max of $2M that can actually be deferred indefinitely to the payment date, with anything above that being held in an account specifically for that deferment, so that if a team should happen to go under (I don't think it has ever happened, not in the modern era at least), his deferment is protected and he won't lose all of it.  So we only get to save $2M this way, though there is some fancy stuff that happens with the dating, so you might be able to push some of it to next year, before you have to set up that account.  But I don't have time to read the CBA to confirm.

Plus now we have $16M more to spend in 2007 for free agents like, perhaps, Vernon Wells, Andruw Jones, or Adam Dunn, to name three.

Oy!

By the way, who's going to break the news to Barry that he isn't going to be playing for a contender?

We're getting younger next year. I swear. No, I'm totally serial. For real. Younger.

If the Giants land a 1B, shifting Rich Aurilia to 3B and Feliz to the bench, the line-up has hope.

If the Giants sign Zito, the rotation has hope.

If the Giants sign 2-3 new bullpen arms that work out, the relief corps have hope.

Don't see how the Giants have the $$$ to make this happen- maybe Benitez & Fransden for Sexton + $5m? Then Zito to an absurd back-loaded contract... the pen would still be in shambles...

Very happy Barry is back, but Sabean just got taken to the cleaners. Best line of this robust thread:

"Take that, mystery team!"