Quote:If you know the history of this team, they actually have and will spend money. The only reason we have money now is because all the bad contracts Caldwell cut last year and the fact we have no one to resign this off season.


Then the fact that the new CBA says you have to spend up I think 95% of the cap by 2015-2016 is why people are saying this. We have to spend money by the rules and the only people who we could acquire that are worth these dollar amounts are free agents.

 

We actually don't know this. The last regime that truly truly signed marquee free-agents was Coughlin/Huygue when this was a fresh and brand new franchise. Shack/Gene and JDR eras focused more on a mix of B-level free-agents (some with potential for breakout like Peterson/Heyward, and Sessions/Robinson for Gene)

 

The only thing we have to go by in believing that this team will sign free-agents is that it needs to because of:

 

a) CBA requirements

b) it needs to be competitive in year 3 for Dave/Gus to survive

 

That said, really elite players will rarely hit free-agency. So more than likely, we will be using most of that cap space for 2nd tier players like we have done in the past. Which is OK. This team needs solid veteran/experience starters. The key will be, and always be...will Caldwell's 2013 (Luke, Cyp, Denard) and 2014 class (Blake, Lee, Arob) step up their game and be the cornerstones of this franchise that they were drafted to be?

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