Nomar Garciaparra, A's Agree To Terms

Glad to see that Nomar is going to sign somewhere. I've said before even with all the money these guys have made it'd be strange to see someone turning down $1 million or even a few hundred thousand given the state of the economy. He's not going to be able to make money like this after he retires, might as well make as much as he can now. And Oakland could be a good team this year, you never know. Could be a good way for him to end his career.

Japhe, your right that is crazy.

Giambi, Cabrera, and Nomar are decent ball players... but Tex alone puts up what those 3 do offensively. Not to mention play gold glove D

then you throw in a CC Sabathia...

maybe you can make the argument they will be "more improved" than the yankees, but thats only because the A's were horrible last year, and the yankees were still a contender.

I am not a yankee fan, just a realist.

I think O-Cab, Nomar, and Giambi alone would have made this team a dark horse contender for the AL West. Add Holliday and a tighter bullpen (plus Devine and Ziegler having more experience), and I think we'll compete until the last days of the season.

Hell, I will be happy with 81 wins, putting up decent runs per game, advances in a possible new ballpark in San Jose, and our next big three (MAC - (Mazzaro, Anderson, Cahill) getting some time on the field to mature and make 2010 a championship caliber year. I don't think that's asking for too much.

Starting pitching is still a worry. Duke would have led the league in ERA if he qualified, but Eveland, Braden, and Gallagher have to prove themselves.

Oh, and I predict that with Giambi, Holliday, and Cabrera in the lineup, Cust is going to turn into Jim Thome in his prime. 40HR, .400 OBP, 100 BB and 180 SO.

The As have a great lineup on paper (Potentially) with Giambi, Holliday, Cabrera, Cust and Chavez. Since the Angels did not resign Tex or Manny or a big slugger, the hitting for both teams is much closer, but I still think the pitching edge belongs to the Angels, but at least the As will compete. I like the Nomar signing, a good player and good guy for the bench at this point.

AL west*

JPG - Cust had 33 HR, 77 RBI, .850 OPS, and a .375 OBP last year on a TERRIBLE team that only scored 600 runs TOTAL.

Granted, his defense is sub-par, he's not a great fantasy pick and he strikes out way too often, but calling a guy who made $410K last year and had those numbers a bust seems uneducated and just silly. Cut his strikeouts by a quarter, and he's got Carlos Pena numbers with a higher OBP and 1/15th the price.

"I know this sounds crazy but I think the A's had a better off season then the Yankees and spent a small percentage of what they did to do so."

I'm an A's fan, and I'm going to say that the Yanks still had the best offseason, far and away. They stockpiled on their needs going forward in a buyer's market, so they don't have to get desperate in next year's mediocre talent-wise market. In terms of '09, the Yanks GREATLY improved their team. However, things could get ugly for the Yankees going forward if those contracts don't work out so well. But right now, easily best offseason was the Yankees.

Even though the A's raised payroll from '08 levels more than the Yanks did, since the Yanks had so many contracts coming off the books.

The A's have just as good of a chance of competing as the Phillies do. They have a relatively soft division, and a much improved team, where the Phillies have pretty much the same team, will be contending with much improved Mets and Braves, a very tough young Marlins team, and even an improved Nats club. Plus, they weren't even necessarily the best team in the division last year. Another reason is he knows this is the end of the line and he probably doesn't want to spend what is possibly his last year getting harassed and boo'd in Philly all year if things don't work out perfectly.

Another reason why he probably chose Oak.**

Nrmax88, i agree with everything you said about the Phillies and the NL West, but I still like the Angels much more than I like the Athletics for the division. They're not going to be struggling a bit in my opinion.

Yes, the Angels did lose Teixeira, but they were still the best team in baseball before they got him. Add in a healthy Juan Rivera, Bobby Abreu, and a full year for kids like Brandon Wood and Kendry Morales. Say what you will about K-Rod, I don't think we was that important to the team's success. Shields and Fuentes will be more than fine pitching the 8th and 9th innings. Now they've had another year for their young arms to develop, so I think they will be just as good, if not better than the 2008 Angels.

I don't follow the A's but I think they should be able to contend in the AL West. They seems to me that they are going to be able to score some runs. But do they have any decent starting pitching after Duscherer?

1. Aybar - SS
2. Howie Kendrick
3. Bobby Abreu
4. Vlad Guerrero
5. Torii Hunter
6. Mike Napoli
7. Kendry Morales
8. Juan Rivera
9. Figgins - 3B (Yeah, Scoscia is that dumb)

I just don't see this team scoring enough runs. Saunders-Weaver-Moseley is very questionable 3-4-5 Rotation, and the back of their bullpen is much weaker.

I just don't see the A's competing with their lineup. I know Holiday, Giambi, Cust looks good on paper given their track record but I do not see them meshing well at all. Giambi and Cust are one dimensional types of hitters that will stop any momentum in the lineup. Watching Giambi last year was maddening and even though he had 30 Hr's and 90 RBI's the team would have scored more if he were on the bench. I can't imagine how bad the lineup would have suffered (even though his were right where he wanted them) if we not only had Giambi, but another player similar to him in Cust batting back to back most likely.

Their is a reason the Custs and Adam Dunns in baseball were on horrible offensive teams. Its because they can't function in a GOOD lineup.

When you are in a crappy lineup losing most the time you can hide from the blame of not being a complete hitter. But when you place these guys in good lineups and actually watch them you realize how many things they do wrong and how they only have one thing in mind (long ball).

"When you are in a crappy lineup losing most the time you can hide from the blame of not being a complete hitter. But when you place these guys in good lineups and actually watch them you realize how many things they do wrong and how they only have one thing in mind (long ball)."

You mean like Jason Giambi was in the *good* Yankees' lineup? He was a powerhouse, end of story. And he's also a three-true-outcome hitter.

Their is a reason the Custs and Adam Dunns in baseball were on horrible offensive teams. Its because they can't function in a GOOD lineup.

Your right. Ryan Howard, Carlos Delgado, and Prince Fielder have no reason to be on their respective teams either.

minn/rays both had mostly inexperienced, unproven rotations overall. lets be honest outside of hamels the phillies rotation was very mediocre innings eater types.

not say it'll happen with A's but its not impossible, duchscherers health is a concern though. also having a loaded bullpen will help some too.

as for the angels, i still say they hang onto too many of their prospects without playing/establishing them.
but i think their biggest problem is they are just too freakin' NICE: nice players, nice stats, nice prospects, nice family atmosphere ... too much nice becomes vanilla.
they need more bulldogs (like lackey). they should have brought eckstein back.
their nice red uniforms are starting to look pink.

Things that are not true:

1. The Angels were the best team in MLB last year.

2. Giambi, Dunn and Cust are bad at hitting and their teams would be better off without them.

Some straight up stupid posters in this thread, omg....

stupid move

And Boom goes the Dynamite....

The Angels have essentially the exact same line-up as they had last year before the trade deadline in which they still owned the best record in baseball.

Pretty much its Bobby Abreu in for Garret Anderson, which is an improvement.

Kendry Morales in for Casey Kotchman, which at this time is a step back, but Morales can improve.

And a healthy Juan Rivera playing in place of Gary Matthews Jr., which is a big plus.

The pitching is where the Angels took a bit of a hit, but if they were to get a healthy Kelvim Escobar back, he'd more than balance out the loss of Garland.

And acquiring Fuentes over K-Rod, at this point, is a step back, but we'll have this season to see how this works out.

if gallagher/braden/gio suck

bring in group 2:

outman/ed gonzalez/j. williams/mulder (if signed)

if they suck bring in group 3:

cahill/anderson/mazzaro/simmons

if all of them suck by then, A's wont be contending so it wont matter

or beane will use some prospect depth to trade off for a temporary innings eater type

so to recap they have about 7-10 potential options at some point to try out in this sp revolving door

Congrats to Nomar! Im personally glad that a class act like he is gets the opportunity to play another year. I hope that he finds a good match with Oakland and that he can find that spark that he lost due to injury. Best wishes to Nomar for a phenomenal 2009 season!