SB-Nation 2015 off-season simulation: Conclusion

Welcome back to the SB Nation off-season simulation with President Hatfield and VP D-Russ.

On Tuesday, we blew up the Rays. You knew that already, and it served as a thought experiment. Many have said Evan Longoria - our beloved face of the franchise, who would like to retire with the Tampa Bay Rays - should be traded. His $100M contract, the second long term extension he'd signed under-market value, is apparently too much for this small market club.

So we traded him for the best offer we could find.

In the simulation that meant to the Red Sox, sorry we're not sorry but we simply went for the best get, and Dave Dombrowski treats prospects like their beads at Mardi Gras. The return from that trade led to a subsequent deal with Toronto sending Drew Smyly and Desmond Jennings away - again, players some think should be dealt for their injury concerns - and netted even more prospects, and a mystery box: 41-year old knuckle baller R.A. Dickey.

The result was nine players in the Top-100, using the ratings and grades from mlb.com:

Deals within the division never happen in real lift, but it was quite fun to give it a go in the simulation, and particularly to rob those two clubs of their prospects.

While we're at it, the 50-grade future value prospects now delve the list of top-10 worthy pieces 18-deep:

And because part of the argument that the Fake-Rays did at least acceptable in this exercise is based on prospects acquired, here's the rest of the notable names:

Look where Justin Williams is on this list! Moving on.

The Major League Roster

We had a payroll cap of $84m, and a goal of settling in at $70m. Thanks to the division rivals coffers', we were able to pick up $35m in salary relief, which dropped the roster salary all the way down to $64m.

We are not anticipating a 2016 World Series, but we believe this roster follows the Ray Way of being 'competitive enough' inside the division. We're thinking the Wild Card is in reach, and  there's a possibility of catching fire the rest of the way.

A quick thought about the batting order probably looks like this:

And because no team is complete without a Spring Training roster, the following player all accepted invitations to compete for a job with these Fake-Rays.

I would be happy with all of these invitations in real life too!

If our focus is on 2018 as the year we arrive, it's only fair we provide projected rosters as well.

And that doesn't include contributions from Burch Smith or the other myriad prospects highlighted above.

This is a stacked group of prospects at rock bottom costs wherever we could find them.

Be honest. How did we do?