Offseason Outlook: Oakland Athletics

Is it bad that when I saw Pennington, I immediately thought Billy Beane had somehow traded with Bill Parcells?

I'd much rather go after Edwin Encarnacion then Kouzmanoff. He's younger and has just as much power if not more then Kouzmanoff

"I think Jack Cust and a mid a guy like Henry Rodriguez could get Kevin Kouzmanoff."

Why would the Padres trade for Jack Cust when they practically handed him to Oakland a year or two ago? Maybe for a good pitching prospect and one of the plethora of 2nd base prospects the A's have would get a Kouz deal done.

Wouldn't mind seeing the Mets take a chance on Huston Street. Have to think F-Mart and Daniel Murphy would be untouchable though, and I'm not sure a package around someone like Mike Carp would be enough, so it might be hard to find a match.

Sign Giambi & Furcal.

Trade Cust for Kouzmanoff.

Trade Street, Crosby, reliever for Uggla.

1B: Barton/Chavez
2B: Uggla
SS: Furcal
3B: Kouzmanoff
C: Suzuki
LF: Cunningham
CF: Gonzalez
RF: Sweeney
DH: Giambi/Chavez

Playoff team right there.

Cust is "a solid left fielder that is a Kevin Towers type of player"? Solid as in immobile? Frozen? Opposite of liquid or fluid? Yep, that he is.

As for Kouzmanoff vs. Encarnacion? Man, that's kind of a crapshoot. Kouz walks about as often as he homers, which is pretty uninspiring. But he's also a plus defender and has hit better outside of Petco over his career so far. Encarnacion is two years younger and has more experience, and seems to have improved his zone judgement and power this season. But he's an absolute butcher at third.\

As for Chavez, he's gotta be viewed as a non-entity until further notice.

1. On the EE v. Kouzmanoff debate. EE is younger, and appears to have more power (although Great American Ballpark could have some influence on that). It would depend on the prospects required to get him.

2. Cust in LF is a DH with a glove.

3. Trade Street. There is no need for him on the A's; there are others who can get the job done. Sweeten the pot if necessary...Street should be the #1 trade chip; hopefully involving a 3B/SS prospect.

4. Trade Crosby. Don't hope for much in value, again, if the deal is right, the A's might have to sweeten the pot.

5. Put Anderson, Cahill, and Carter off limits. The A's have built a great farm system, the cornerstones don't need to go anywhere.

6. Eric Chavez doesn't exist anymore. Disregard his existence until he returns healthy.

I also think they should sign one of Rafael Furcal or Orlando Cabrera if Crosby is traded.

No way Billy Beane trades for Mike Jacobs and his .289 OBP. A Giambi retrun might work out.

AriGoldisaG- Cahill, Anderson, and Carter are definitely off limits. I would think of dealing Anderson IF and ONLY if it were for a non-rental star (i.e. Dan Uggla). Cahill? This does sound like homerism, but no. Cahill isn't worth more than Uggla, I just don't want to see him do well for another team.

I think a Prince Fielder deal is in order. I see him as more attainable.

I like uggla but if cantu is putting up close to thirty bombs in that stadium it might be scary playing in a different stadium. Also going from ellis to uggla on the defensive side would not help young pitching. Anyone remember the all star game?

For the record I read that the A's tried to get Donald in the Blanton deal by including Alan Embree but the Phillies declined. Cardenas was the Phillies top infield prospect, and probably top prospect overall.

I personally think the A's should trade Crosby for whatever they can get. He's not great, but hes a good defensive SS and better offensively then a lot of other defensive SS's out there. He's hit a lot of doubles this year, and knocked in his share of runs. He'll make a good 1 year stop-gap for somebody. Then the A's should make every effort to sign Furcal. Excellent defensively and a leadoff type hitter which is something the A's lack. Unless the A's go out and sign a real impact type OF'r like Manny, Raul Ibanez, or maybe Abreu I just as soon the A's go with the current core of young guys between Buck/Sweeney/Gonzalez/Cunningham. The A's definitely need some power, and young power at that so I say trade for Dan Uggla. Yes his defense is bad, but Chavez is done at 3rd so stick him there or at 2nd and give Cliff Pennington a shot next year to play the other position. Send Florida Gio Gonzalez, Vince Mazzaro, Corey Brown or Sean Doolittle and one of the better relief prospects like Demel/Lansford/Bailey. The a's get two solid bats to add to their lineup, and avoid losing their "top guns".

Sorry about the multiple posts, doin this from work so i'm not 100% with it! I also just wanted to add that Street has only given up 57 hits in his 66 innings this year. The guy is still good and if it wasn't for the fact that the A's have 2-3 other guys who are ready to step in as closer I would root for the A's to hold onto him.

I'd pass on Uggla. As it was mentioned before, he's a below-average 2B defensively, and will affect the A's staff regardless of the age of their pitchers.

But what scares me about Uggla are his post-ASG numbers.

Pre: .286/.374/.605/.979, 23 HR, 59 RBI
Post: .227/.341/.405/.746, 7 HR, 27 RBI

He'll also be a FA in two years and will probably command more than he's worth, because I'm pretty sure we've seen his peak.

I bet you're going to be hearing a few rumors about the Indians and A's trying to match up on a trade.

2 of their 3 needs this winter are closer and a mid-rotation starter.....Oakland has both that they're willing to part with in Duchscherer and Street. Tribe can part with Laffey and Barfield to start (who Beane was rumored to like). Barfield would be as good if not better than bringing Ellis back. He's got 3 maybe 4 years til he's a free agent as well. Tribe would then throw in some prospects....Scott Lewis has come on strong, or David Huff as far as pitchers. Hitters include top 3B prospect Wes Hodges (who could be ready sometime in 2009) as well as a few OF/1Bs. I'd say they could have Marte. Francisco or Choo could be thrown in to sweeten the deal as well....

the duke has value. He is going to be very affordable next year and he is going to be healthy. He is pitching this week. duke is a two time all star and would fill the brewers need. duke and street for fielder is market value. forlife61 get a clue. fielder will be get a huge raise next year which hurts his value, also players like him overweight dh type do not age well. Fair trade both ways. If the brewers insist they need a young pitcher they could have smith, eveland, or braden in the deal. These guys will have no value to the a's after next year.

gio, mazarro, and dollittle for uggla is poposterous. the a's would give mazarro up for bay, they are not going to give all three for uggla. mabye one gets moved along with lower prospects or a second base prospect such as weeks.

1st off: Kouz v. Encarnacion

Kouz is a slightly better hitter for average, but one of the worst defensive 3rd basemen in the league. Encarnacion has his problems offensively and is rather streaky, but is very good defensively.

Encarnacion in a landslide.

2nd: If the A's do make a trade for a bat, it will only happen if they are able to offload Street's contract and possibly Duke's as well. Most likely candidates: Duke- Colorado; Street- NYM

3rd: If the Marlins will give Uggla, they will want one of the A's top 5 prospects, if not 2. They drive a hard bargain and usually get what they are looking for. I would give Gio, Henry Rodriguez, and Patterson to get it done if they'd take it... but I doubt that'd get it done.

If I'm the A's I hold on to Cahill, Anderson, Mazzaro, Simmons, Carter, Doolittle, and Cardenas unless I'm getting a truly premier player in return. Like Hanley... not Uggla.

thegoods24: this is the trade i would assume would always happen. It's going to be real hard for a new gm to come into philly and not want to pull the trigger on it, and it will be impossible for beane to forget moneyball for a minute and realize that bringing a local, premier player home, will be too difficult to say no too. That franchise needs to be energized and j-roll is the guy to do it. If anything beane will possibly even overpay for rollins, if he became available. As a phillies fan, it will be hard to watch Rollins go, but we have a whole outfield and most of a pitching staff to think about and Ryan Howard is not going anywhere.

Know ID yuh

I agree Crosby is serviceable at short. When you take a look at the overall contributions offensively and defensively at SS, Crosby comes out slightly above average... that doesn't mean there is not more room for improvement there than at other positions on the field.

The reason SS is a position so commonly looked to by A's fans for an upgrade is two-fold. As I'm sure you know, A's fans' frustrations with Crosby have reached a boiling point with his seemingly stubborn refusal to alter his approach at the plate and take the ball the other way.

The other side of it is when you view the entire offense and the personnel, 3rd and SS are the easiest spots to upgrade.

1st has Barton locked in as the starter and Chavvy his backup. Barton will be given every chance to prove he is the answer there... and if he fails Carter, Doolittle, and Everidge are close to ML-ready.

2B has Petit, Pennington, and Patterson knocking on the door with Cardenas and Weeks the future of the position. OF has a slew of ML-ready prospects and young major leaguers all ready in place. Catcher and DH have Suzuki and Cust entrenched as starters for the forseeable future.

3rd is a no brainer with Chavez's move to 1B/DH, Hannahan's bat underwhelming at best, and no real prospects to speak of that are close to ML-ready.

So that's how we get to Crosby. The closest projectable shortstops are in single A, and we've already established that Crosby leaves something to be desired at the plate. Crosby is a slightly above average SS, but if they have the opportunity to bring in Rollins at a price that won't kill the farm system, I'd do it.

Other than showing the ability to draft and nurture good pitching why is Billy Beane lauded as being such a great GM? I think he's destroyed the team. Is the city/franchize so strapped that they can't afford a team with a 60-80 million dollar budget?