Minnesota and Oakland

From the man himself:

On his pregame radio show, general manager Dave Littlefield defended the club's plans to allocate a reported $13.3 million in revenue sharing. "It's a balancing act. We're funneling money to both [the minor-league system and the big-league budget]. We're going to continue to invest in our minor-league system. We've got to balance the short term and the long term. There's a great deal of frustration over the last decade [on the fans' part]. They'll be back when we get to winning." But there will be no quick fixes anytime soon, he added. "It's going to be a rare circumstance when we get the above-average free agent. We've got to have our young players grow to become above-average players. The model is out there that I point to continuously: the Minnesota Twins and Oakland."

If I was DL's assistant, I'd recommend that he says that he hopes the fans will be back when the Bucs return to winning. He's right but he's in a position where he doesn't want to be seen as taking anything for granted. The fans are impatient.

I gave the idea of using the whole $13M to sign seven Cabrera-type prospects from Latin America, and while I'm sure this isn't how they will use the money, the more I thought about it the more attractive the idea seemed to me. Even better would be using the money to sign five such prospects and the world's greatest set of scouts. The first round of the draft is too useful for taking college starters, and the Bucs should not bank on having a #1 pick anytime soon.