Hello everyone, I hope everyone has a great holiday season!

Amidst this busy time, I had a chance to read a couple of recent ESPN articles and think they could have relevance to the Indians for next season.

The first one, located here, is from Buster Olney's blog.  It talks mostly about Sabathia getting a large amount of money at some point, but the downtrodden economy is slowing down any moves by all teams from being made.  It also goes on to mention that guys like Bobby Abreu and K-Rod will likely not get as much as was expected just a few months ago.

Therefore, my question is, would it seem more realistic that we could pick up a guy like Fuentes, Abreu, or even K-Rod, being that the dollar amount mentioned for K-Rod is now "only" $10-$11 million/year, something that the Indians could probably afford if they really wanted to go that route (though I question whether K-Rod can remain healthy with that violent delivery of his and whether he can maintain good enough command with such a delivery long-term)?   

Granted, those dollar amounts may not turn out to be true, but they seem more realistic than just a few short months ago, and if K-Rod will only get that much, Fuentes probably would be under $10 million/season - would he be the better option over Hoffman or would it be better to try instead for Hoffman, even if he is only here for one season? 

And it seems Abreu might only get $8 million/season - again, the Indians could come up with that amount of cash if they wanted to - would you want Abreu for that or do you think he wouldn't be the best way to spend our money?

The other ESPN article involves the Mariners signing Russell Branyan to a 1-year, $1.4 M contract (so much for him coming here).  However, that article also mentions that there are GMs inquiring about both Putz and Beltre - my question is, could the Indians be one of those teams, and if so, what would be a reasonable package to acquire both of them, and would you do it?