JJ Hardy has sold himself to me after this year. I had figured that the 26 homer year from last year was probably a career year for him, and he'd still be a solid bat, but lucky to get to 20 again. Well, I am now of the opinon that he should be one of the key players to build around over the next five years along with Braun. He has given outstanding offensive production from the shortstop position for two years now, and he's still rather young. Although he hasn't proven to be quite as good defensively as he was made out to be, he is still very solid, even above average there. As to Escobar, I'd like to see him start out at AAA next year for the first 2-3 months, just to try to get a little more polished offensively, and have him move to 2b. Since the right side of the infield is the weakest, I'd rather have the stronger range there, as he would be able to still get balls up the middle that would be just out of range of Hardy at SS, and also cover a little bit for Prince's range deficiencies. Start off the year at 2b still with Weeks/Durham splitting time, and bring up Escobar sooner or later based on how they perform. At 3b, they'd have to decide whether Branyan is going to be able to be counted on to be a platoon with Bill Hall. If not, (and I am leaning towards not, as he has had a tendency to get injured with the Brewers), I would hope to find a 3b similar to Koskie to bring in. I don't really know who is out there who would be similar to Koskie, good LH bat with very good defense. At 1b, I think we should keep Prince for at LEAST for 2009, and I think we should keep him in '10 as well, and then trade him in that off-season. He is the only all around slugger we have on the team for OBP and SLG combined, and think that without him to anchor the lineup, our offense will struggle mightily. Hardy and Hart have been able to carry a good OBP (though Hart has been off of that this year), but neither are the masher that Prince is. Braun is a monster bat, capable of hitting .300, and having a great SLG, but he hasn't proven to be as good at taking walks, so I don't think he can be counted on to be the anchor yet either. I hope he gets better over the next couple years before Prince is gone.