Rosenthal On Cabrera, Cruz, Nady, Swisher

So if the A's bring in Nomar, is he going to get major time at shortstop?

I think the A's need to bring in Orlando Cabrera and Mark Mulder, and hope this team can get some luck and contend this year.

Then again this team needs to give development time to Buck, Sweeney, Barton and Cunningham.

Many forget that DeWitt wasn't scheduled to make his MLB debut until 2010 anyway. If he was as good as he was last year, imagine what an entire year at AAA will do for him.

Nomar would be interesting to see on the Yankees. It would be strange to see. Imagine if somebody told you in 2002 that in 2009 the Yankees would have Jeter, Arod, and Nomah on the same team. Weird.

nrmax: You're right. They were the three best SS in the game in '02. Never would of thought anything like that. I tell you, Nomar's career really took a turn for the worse over the years. He'll go down as one of those "shoulda, woulda, coulda's" because of his injuries.

In 2002, having Nomar, Jeter and ARod on the same team would have been insane.

Now Nomar's a bench/utility player, Jeter's a shadow of his 2002 self and A-Rod has admitted to steroid use. It would be like running into the prom queen at the grocery store and finding out that she's gained 83 pounds since high school and is going bald.

hilarious!

"Rosenthal again repeats this nonsense speculation about Casey Blake playing left field. Casey Blake has NEVER played left field in his entire pro career. Not only has he NOT played left field, Joe Torre has clearly stated that if the Dodgers don't sign Manny, that their starting left fielder will be Juan Pierre. Why do some sports writers continue to promote this ridiculous scenario?"

1. Casey Blake has played right field, which is just like playing left field.

2. Blake in LF/DeWitt at 3B will be MUCH more productive both offensively and defensively than Blake at 3B/Pierre in LF. When you're trying to win baseball games, you want your best players on the field.

He had a solid length of time where he was an elite player in the game, and he's always been a fantastic contact hitter.

Now Joel Guzman, there's a guy that you wonder what could have been. A big time slugger with 35-40 HR power from shortstop? That guy was supposed to be unreal. Now he's on a minor league invite with the Nationals.
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Yeah but Joel Guzman was never a somebody, so he would never be considered a "coulda, woulda, shoulda". If you had told me in 2002 that Nomar was going to be a utility player at age 35 looking for a job at spring training I wouldn't have beleived you. I mean from 1997-2003 he put up MVP caliber years as a SS. There was no doubt in my mind that he would be a HOF.

Unless someone is offering a can't miss package for Swisher or Nady, the Yankees need to hold on to them both. Anyone who thinks Damon and Matsui will play full seasons is crazy. Swisher and Nady will both get plenty of ABs.
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I think Damon and Matsui will be around for the whole year (Daon's never spent any major time on the DL), but it would be stupid not to prepare for them to go down. Not even so much because of injury "proneness" but moreso for their age.

"2. Blake in LF/DeWitt at 3B will be MUCH more productive both offensively and defensively than Blake at 3B/Pierre in LF. When you're trying to win baseball games, you want your best players on the field."

No doubt, Blake in left with DeWitt at third would be far more productive than the Blake/Pierre combo.

It's not so much about the offensive production as its about defense.

In center, Pierre's range can make him a decent defensive player, but his godawful arm makes him pretty mediocre in left field.

When you consider that Blake played a solid right field for Cleveland a couple years back, as well as the fact that DeWitt was fantastic defensively at third last year, I think it's a no brainer.

Not to mention the fact that DeWitt has substantially more power and patience than Pierre has.

"The list of prospect busts is huge."

Obviously. I was just pointing out that Joel Guzman is likely the biggest disappointment among recent elite shortstop prospects.

"Now Nomar's a bench/utility player, Jeter's a shadow of his 2002 self and A-Rod has admitted to steroid use".

I'm not sure many player are better at 35 than they were at 28....but even so, Jeter hit .300 with a broken bone in his hand last year. Not sure that qualifies as "a shadow of himself"!!

"And since Cunningham has the higher ceiling than Sweeney and has the highest ceiling for any young A's OFer, the A's have to be careful with his development."

Definitely agree. Sweeney has always been one of those guys that scouts always raved about his raw power during batting practice, but the power simply doesn't translate in games. He belongs on a corner because of his defense, but his lack of power would seemingly push him towards center.

Meanwhile, Cunningham is a solid top of the order kind of hitter that can provide some patience and speed, and he's got the ability to be much better defensively in center than Sweeney.

Developing Cunningham properly ought to get priority over the development of Sweeney.

And honestly if Nomar used PED's I wouldn't be surprised. And please no homers making dumb comments towards me. I basically think the vast, vast majority of players in the game were using some sort of PED during the late 1990's and early 2000's. Then again, baseball players have been cheating since day one.

"He was also on PED's. Now his body is breaking down."

Who from that time period didn't use roids/PEDs?

It's kind of a given.

"Ummmm......I wouldn't say the majority of them used. I mean even with the recent total of 104 players including Arod, that was only about 8% of those tested (1,200 +)."

You're right.

Majority didn't use, but with all the accusations coming forth, no reason to be shocked.

Kinda messed up saying he used 'roids when he has a known degenerative disease. It's like saying Lou Gherig was a crack dealer.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3926544&name=gammons_peter

Guys, check out this Peter Gammons article. It shows what I have been saying for a very long time on here and elsewhere....PED's of one form or another have been used in baseball since the 60's!! There IS NO "steroid era". That's a term created by the media to villify recent stars and sell news. The PED era is 1960-2009. If it's not steroids, it's HGH, testosterone, creatine, weight gainers, weight shedders, "greenies", speed, etc etc etc. On top of that you can go to GNC and pick out 2 dozens supps that have nearly the same affect as roids. You can bet that 85% of MLB players take SOMETHING to get an edge.

The article is interesting though...says that even Bob Gibson was taking something...that's how far back this goes.

Amphetamine use was rampant in baseball for decades, specifically the late 60's and 70's. Before that, guys had more old school ways of cheating, like doctoring balls and stealing signs.

Cheating will always be a major part of sports, people need to accept that and move on.

Majority didn't use, but with all the accusations coming forth, no reason to be shocked.
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I wouldn't be shocked by any name that legitametly came up now but we can't start accusing people who have never been associated with PED's. That's unfair.

Oh yeah, at the end of the day I can't/won't defend anybody. If someone came out and said Jeter used what could I really say, other than "I'm shocked"? Arod proved that you can use PEDs w/o going thru massive physical changes like Bonds did.

We can say anything we want. Oh scribbletone, always trying to make a mockery of everyone that doesnt share his views. Thats sad. Simply said, we pay to watch them play, we can question anything we desire. If they can't stand the heat, there's a door called retirement right around the corner. Atleast ball players get to retire.

The funny things is that you've got users like Brady ANderson who go from being weak hitters to power hitters back to weak and injury prone hitters and then you have guys like Arod who were great before and after using and then the "video game hulks" like Bonds and McGuire who were already great power hitters and then went superhuman on us as they got older. That's 3 completely different patterns that can mirror almost every good hitter in baseball (except the Bonds and McGuire scenario) and it makes it very speculative to try and figure out who used and who didn't.

I was listening to "Mike and Mike" this morning and they were discussing the Griffey press conference where someone asked him if he ever used and the M's press guy told him not to answer the question. It was later explained that he (the M's press guy) felt it was the wrong venue to talke about PEDs but still, it casts a bad light on Griffey. And I'm sorry if Griffey ever gets "outted" that would be the last straw for a lor of people.

Its funny watching mlb.tv's "all time games" they had this yankees/RS from 81 and the players were doing their own introductions, they all looked like they were tweaking so hard.

Baseball should just embrace its drug culture, its as engrained in its fabric as much as pine tar and rosin bags. There's no point in caring about roids anymore, the new policies are getting the job done so let it go.

How on earth is Bud Selig not getting any fingers pointed at him anyway? He basically created this monster, now he wants to penalize the guys who's lives were put in danger by chasing the dream? Its Selig who needs to be indicted and put in prison, not Bonds.

Did that royoswaltsteroids guy just bash the hell out of me and then agree with me? Huh?

And BlueSky-

Actually, the problem is that for a long time front offices overvalued Pierre's main skills (contact, speed) while ignoring that his lack of power or patience kills his value.

Yeah, Pierre's fast as hell, but he's posted an OBP between .327 and .331 each of the past five years while offering no power at all whatsoever. His defense is pretty good in center thanks to his range but he simply doesn't belong in left field.

Playing DeWitt at third and Blake in left would greatly improve their defense, as DeWitt is much better at third than Blake and Pierre isn't exactly a good defensive left fielder. Not to mention that DeWitt has more power or patience than Pierre has ever had.

By the way, I haven't been rude in the least in my comments. I simply disagree with lots of people because I'm big on numbers and logic. Dont get so defensive..

Yeah I mean if you take DeWitt over Pierre you get more runs created, a better OPS, better defense and more versatility.

"Pierre's contributions" basically means being small in stature and 28 net SBs a year while getting on base 32% of the time with zero power. He's maybe the most worthless player in MLB not named David Eckstein.

@melonis

I believe we follow the same team ;)

Yeah..

I really, really hate Bud Selig.

I wish MLB and MLBPA weren't ran by a bunch of old guys that struggle to embrace what's legitimately happening in the present. Not to mention the fact that they consider players from their eras to be martyrs, even though they were all sucking down amphetamines and weight loss pills like they were flintstones vitamins.

They oughta get some guys like Friedman, Epstein, Silverman, etc. that would actually help the game. I really believe that young guys essentially need to save this game from the older guys who let it become such a farce.

I'm not saying that a new commissioner would eliminate cheating, cheating is an integral part of sports and players will always try to find ways to get competitive advantages.

I just think some younger, more open minds would probably be a big benefit to this game. We've already discredited RBI's and W-L record, now it's time to fix everything else that's wrong, beside statistic analysis.

Too bad that will never happen though.

Keep dreaming melonis.

Why don't you try signing Clemens as well while you're at it..

Sadly, Bonds' career is done. His domination was simply astounding though. Three years with an OPS over 1.300. Four years with a .500+ wOBA. From 2001-2004 he posted consecutive OPS+'s of 259, 268, 231, and 263. He won four straight MVP's those years. And he was a Hall of Famer before his PED induced late career explosion.

Whether or not you like Bonds, whether or not you think he cheated, the man still posted arguably the greatest offensive statstics over an extended period of time ever.

"Athletic Domination-

Mmhmm, we do.

Bonds DH
Giambi 1B
Holliday LF/RF
Cust LF/RF

Yes, the defense sucks, but the Angels pitchers will cry. And I mean cry.

Posted by: melonis rex | February 23, 2009 at 04:51 P
M "

You might get a Ped contact high. So be wary.

BTW the Angels are going to punch holes in the the A's new lineup

Nomar=Juicer
Orlando Cabrera is a waste of money for the Athletics and pretty much any other team.He is not the missing piece for any team in contention and his stats don't compute out over league average replacement player to justify his contract. He better hope for an injury to Jeter or ? I wouldn't even have a second place for him