it couldn't be that these guys are all "better" than their major league counterparts because they've not been given enough of a chance to fail at the big league level, could it? i suppose, but the fact of the matter is, for the combined estimated 18 mil that your getting out of the vets, you could get slightly less to better production out of your cheap in house options. While i'm not going to go and say that there is a 0% chance that ALL of these young guys will fail, is it a stretch to say that we'd be better off? You have murton who's already produced at the ML level, Cedeno whos tearing up AAA who could definitely do better than Izturis, Soto who has also had success at AAA that couldn't be any more of an anomaly that Kendall and Hill have been in 07', Pie who is our young stud that needs to go through the growing pains that could show some flashes, but will inevitably pay off more in the long run in his development than having pagan as your 4th of with mediocre offense. Petrick who had done good in limited time on the ML squad, and has been great in 07' in the minors, should definitely outpitch Eyre if given extended time. The ruling is out on Piggy though, but I think you will agree with me that you'd like to see him pitch on the ML team more than Ohman. nobody's arguing that Hendry isn't a moron who wastes money. I think Murton can probably outhit Floyd. Cedeno could probably outhit Izturis, but could he outhit Theriot? I'm not so sure... and feel free to check Cedeno's numbers this month, which show a regression in his plate discipline to more "normal" levels for him. Pie you're talking about needing to go through "growing pains", but when you have a hot team that is very much in the playoff race, is that the appropriate time to call him up and watch him flail away at bad balls? Eyre is worthless, I won't argue that. And no, I wouldn't like to see Piggy pitch more than Ohman, because Ohman has been a fairly solid lefty reliever for two years now, whereas Piggy's stuff (to me) screams "Kirk Saarloos" - a guy who can get minor leaguers out, but whose stuff is too fringe to be effective against major league hitters.