A's Rumors: Abreu, Cabrera, Barton

Is "Moneyball" taking a backseat??

Where would Abreu play for OAK? Aren't they already overloaded with OF like Holliday, Travis Buck, and Cust?

"Is "Moneyball" taking a backseat??"

Why would you say that? From what I've seen, Abreu and Giambi are two of the most patient hitters in baseball. I don't know the official stats, but I know both take a lot of pitches and walk a lot.

"Where would Abreu play for OAK? Aren't they already overloaded with OF like Holliday, Travis Buck, and Cust?"

If they trade Barton, that frees up more time at 1B for Giambi (not sure if that's a good thing or not), and more time for Cust to DH and Abreu can play the outfield.

arley beat me to it but that would be the answer. don't think they really want cust in the of.

Dillon DFA'd. One more reason to hate Giambi:

You will never find a classier act than Joseph William Dillon. Busted his hump to get back to baseball after a good Texas Tech career and injuries - posted 1.000+ OPS numbers but ultimately got labeled as a four-A ballplayer.

Maybe he was, but he played it the right way. If he had juiced like Giambi who knows what kind of MLB career he'd have had? I hope he catches on with somebody.

dillon is a local bay area guy, if he clears waivers he'll be back with A's

I read moneyball, and its also about making smart draft picks for a cheaper price, and developing them. What has the Oakland farm system produced lately? Swisher, Daric Barton, Dan Johnson, Bobby Crosby, Joe Blanton, and Jeremy Brown are just some of the "smart" picks that have failed.

Barton is an awesome fit for the Orioles.

They need a 1B, preferably young considering they have nothing but Snyder in their system, and Barton would be a nice future piece for them.

I'm not sure who the A's would target, but maybe something like this could work:

Daric Barton for Radhames Liz and Billy Rowell

Orioles get Barton, A's get a potential long term 3B and a young pitcher.

gosox-

Swisher and Blanton are far from failed draft picks. Those were total successes.

And then we can look at the guys they landed by trading those two: Gio Gonzalez, Ryan Sweeney, Fautino De Los Santos, Adrian Cardenas, Josh Outman, Evan Spencer

I'd call that a success.

Also, the A's got Barton from STL in the Mulder trade, they didn't draft him.

To scribbletone-

I know the A's didnt draft Barton, but they picked him up when he was a low minors prospect, so I consider that developing him under their own system. If you consider Nick Swisher a success, why is he on his third team (maybe a fourth very soon) in approximately a year? And I still hate the A's for grabbing De Los Santos and Gonzalez from the Sox.

Moneyball is about finding out what undervalued and exploiting it.

Right now decent players such as Giambi are undervalued, so they signed him, and they will continue to sign low priced players who are worth more than their salary.

Moneyball will never die.

"Dillon DFA'd. One more reason to hate Giambi:

You will never find a classier act than Joseph William Dillon. Busted his hump to get back to baseball after a good Texas Tech career and injuries - posted 1.000+ OPS numbers but ultimately got labeled as a four-A ballplayer.

Maybe he was, but he played it the right way. If he had juiced like Giambi who knows what kind of MLB career he'd have had? I hope he catches on with somebody."

Agreed. We should all hate Jason Giambi because he is an infinitely better baseball player then Joe Dillon. When did people as a whole become so damn clueless?

"Can Cust play CF?"

That is even funnier then the guy who asked if Nick Swisher could play 3B the other day. Not laughing at you Jeff, just laughing at the idea of Cust trying to patrol that huge CF.

to scribbletone

obviously your idea of a "total success" for a baseball player differs from mine. I dont think billy beane is calling nick swisher and joe blanton "total successes."

cust would be better at SS

I promise you Beane would call those successes.

Have you ever gone through the list of first round picks?

Managing to get a key contributor is in itselfna success, because the draft is such a crapshoot.

You need to think of this solely in terms of value, and based on that Beane did great.

He got a couple solid MLB years from each of them, then traded them for a very nice haul of prospects.

As for Gonzalez, I don't quite get moving him either, but the A's are trying to win next year and they still have three solid young OF in Buck, Sweeney and Cunningham, even if none has the potential of Gonzalez.

"As for Gonzalez, I don't quite get moving him either, but the A's are trying to win next year and they still have three solid young OF in Buck, Sweeney and Cunningham, even if none has the potential of Gonzalez."

I think what made Gonzalez tradeable over the others was that while he has the highest ceiling, out of the 4, he's the least likely to reach it. Gonzalez has been more about tools than results in the minors (and in the majors last season). The trade could easily have been completed with Cunningham IMO.

"Can Cust play CF?"

Cust can't play LF.

Ha, ha, ha. His batting gloves are even a defensive liability.

You must be a fan of the Hawk, gosox, because you are clueless.

if I remember correctly, Beane had mentioned that defense was undervalued a year or two back, and they were looking at that, now that OBP is a mainstream stat. which doesn't quite balance out with all the 1B/DH types on their team, but I believe I remember that quote fairly correctly. His protege in Toronto seems to have taken that to heart, however. Also - remember when he had an unhealthy attachment to Terrence Long? Sometimes Beane, like God, works in mysterious ways!

if they got o-cab, though, that infield defense would be pretty awesome, at least, if Chavez is healthy, and also LF with Holliday.

Oh, I get it...
You're still ticked that the Sox essentially traded Ryan Sweeney, Gio Gonzalez, and Fautino De Los Santos for Jeff Marquez, Wilson Betemit, and Jhonny Nunez (and one really crappy year of Nick Swisher.
So you take out your frustration on the evil genius that fleeced Kenny Williams... sore loser.

I wasn't measuring the A's against the Sox, or Billy Beane against Kenny Williams. As a matter of fact, I like some of the moves Beane has made. The Sox tried to emulate him with their high OBP approach last year with guys like Swisher, but it did't exactly work out. The only time I was satisfied with my White Sox was after they won the world series in 2005. And in regards to blaming two years of losing seasons on injuries, get over it, because injuries are part of the game that every team deals with.

"Melonis didn't point out that the two losing years were ravaged by record setting DL stints and rebuilding."

I didn't want to start a whole another Pandora's Box type argument over injuries.

Looks like I just posted the same comment twice, sorry. 1quik6 might get real upset.

Crede isn't great, but the guy had 17 hr thru 350 AB's last year, and anytime a team has to replace crede with juan uribe as the full time 3B means trouble.

"i think if a team breaks their own DL use record 2 yrs in a row...there's issues there and not the results that was expected"

Seriously.... I wish Beane would have traded Larry Davis about three years ago.

whats the problem? only being satisfied if you're team wins world championships (which isn't too often)?
I thought this thread was interesting, thats why I cared enough to post my thoughts on it.

I like the A's a lot..

But a good staff is going to punch holes up and down the lineup

Giambi
Buck
Holliday
Cust
Crosby

are strike out prone..
and Buck has a chance too get better but the others will most likely only K more..