We could sign a free agent DH or LF/RF to bump Kielty from the starting lineup.

Melhuse could catch 100 games a year, his offense is above average for a catcher (look around the league, the level of offense for catchers is pretty pathetic)

if we are KEEPING these traded players?

If we hadn't traded huddy- which was perhaps the worst trade (by impact on the 2005 team) BB has made in recent times- and made the same deal for mulder- which was perhaps the best trade BB has made. Haren's performance last year was equal to or better than mulder's, at a fraction of the cost, and  has a much lower injury risk...combine that with calero and barton and I don't see why it's even worth imagining what it'd be like with Mulder still around. For the sake of the big 3 + harden and blanton, though, it is indeed a dominant rotation.

-Byrnes was too expensive to keep.

-Depending on how they performed, you could re-sign either Zito and Mulder at $11 million/yr, which only represents a slight increase in salary. Guessing they'd let Mulder walk after he posted a 4.00+ ERA (converted for American League from last year).

-Keep in mind that if Wolff raised payroll to, say, $66 million, they could afford a pretty decent bat.

-The offense would be pretty much the same actually, I mean Melhuse is probably better than Kendall offensively over 150 games. The only other change is Ethier instead of Payton.

-The rotation would be absolutely dominant. The bullpen would be ok but very thin.

-We would have been screwed when Harden and Hudson got hurt last year. Shows why Billy is valuing durability and depth in starting pitching this year.

-If we keep Zito and trade Blanton or Kennedy/Cruz/Saarloos, I like the 2006 team better. (And I like the team even more going forward)

-It wouldn't have been a complete disaster to keep those guys; in fact, we could have made a pretty serious championship run in 2005 and again in 2006 if the pitching stayed healthy. However, the variance in wins would be much higher; the roster above with the Big 3 intact has no depth and no insurance for injuries... basically no room for error.

Call me crazy but I think that if the A's trade Zito, they'll end up being better... simply because Billy always gets more value than he gives up in trades (it's simply way too early to call the Huddy deal bad)
Keeping Zito would be great, but from a practical (and financial) standpoint, I'm not worried about it at all... if BB trades him, he'll land a mother lode of talent.

Yeah, off topic... my mistake

Is there anything to back up that Melhuse would do good in a starting role? Better than Kendall even? Great backup cathcer, but it's tough to say what his offense would look like playing 100-120 or more games. I am not saying he would suck, I am geniunely curious. Maybe if he went to Colorado with Cruz (or Saarloos or Rhino) for Shealy though....