Though the A’s aren’t going to discuss possible deals with their free agents until the season ends, Susan Slusser previews the club’s decisions at the San Francisco Chronicle:
- Josh Willingham has said that he'd like to return to Oakland, according to Slusser. The 32-year-old, who established career highs in homers and RBI this year, projects as a Type A free agent in our latest rankings.
- Michael Wuertz told Slusser that he has recovered completely from the thumb injury that sidelined him in August. The A's have a $3.25MM option ($250K buyout) for Wuertz in 2012 and MLBTR's Tim Dierkes gets the sense that they'll decline it.
- Harden likes pitching in Oakland under pitching coach Ron Romanick so he could re-sign there this offseason if he’s healthy and the A’s are interested. Harden doesn't project as a ranked free agent, so compensatory draft picks won't be a consideration.
- ESPN.com's Buster Olney explains that MLB remains desperate for a solution to Oakland's stadium issues, more than two years after establishing a committee to study the situation.
Let’s Go Oak – Land!!!
Willingham may as well return to Oakland. I’d be hesitant to give up my top pick for him. Looks like he might get hit by being just good enough to be a Type-A.
Yeah. Shame also in a way. Hammer having one of his best seasons in an abysmal park, 32yo and a Type A FA.
he is not, nor never has quite lived up to the billing of the fearsome slugger most (like me) thought he would be when he came onto the scene with the Fish. Sure injuries hampered him some, but it’s more than that with him. parks he has been “stuck” in have not helped either.
If Beane really wants this guy, offering up arbitration is more than likely going to guarantee his winding up back if he wants to stay. that salary of 6m this season, his being horrible defensive OF (unless he has vastly improved since leaving the Fish), age, seems to get hit with those nagging injuries all the time.. he is just one of those types of ball players.
Not that i dislike him either, actually he is one of my favorites and have wanted him patrolling (or used to) LF at Fenway for years, but the sox never could get him.
Hope if the A’s do wind up with him next season he can stay healthy and finally put up the monster season he has the talent for.
Funny that Willingham had those career highs, since he’s actually moderately down from his normal rate stats. BR has him as only a 1.8 WAR player when you subtract for his subpar defense. Unless Oakland feels they can get him to pull that OBP up, I bet they let him leave and take the type A pick instead.
I’m hoping they sign him and have him DH.
1. weeks 2b
2. Green CF
3. Willingham DH
4. Carter LF
5. Taylor RF
6. Allen 1B
7. Sizemore/someone else 3B
8. suzuki c
9. Pennington SS
I’m hoping Choice can find his way to the big club next year, move carter to 1B
sizemore/parker?/cardenas, and josh donaldson has toiled around a little in sacramento at 3rd
If that’s your projected lineup then we are in deep sh$t..
It’s a longshot, but hopefully after Neukom is out as the Giants’ CEO, the A’s will see some headway on moving to San Jose.
Neukom plans to return to fighting Dr. Proton and the Rigelatins.
If MLB was truly desperate for a solution to the A’s stadium issues, they’d have told the Giants to STFU and deal with it a long time ago and gave the A’s their blessing for a move to San Jose. Instead, the City of Oakland got another chance, and here we are, sitting on our thumbs waiting for them to release an environmental report that should have been out by now. If MLB wants to get things rolling, they need to pressure the City of Oakland to release that report. Why isn’t it out yet? Is there something in it that states Oakland is not a viable location for a stadium? Let them go to SJ already.
Actually, this could have been resolved a long time ago if the past two a’s ownership actually worked/talked with the city of oakland to get something situated. The fact that a’s ownership refuses to talk with the city of oakland makes progress extremely difficult. The city is holding their cards tight because they know if they release anything w/o a complete scenario outlined, ownership will find more holes to falsely show that oakland is not viable (which is absolutely not accurate).
You forget that the City of Oakland has screwed the A’s over and over again. Jerry Brown chose against them in Uptown, and the City always seems to pick the Raiders over the A’s. Mt. Davis anyone? How about that study they jumped on for a football stadium in the south parking lot/Home Base site? Remember when Wolff wanted to do that? The city had no interest.
A’s ownership hasn’t refused to talk to Oakland. The City decided to work with the MLB only. This could be changing, since Wolff and Quan had a meeting. Maybe the ice will break. I agree that not having a complete scenario could be damaging…. but why is it taking so long? The America’s Cup Draft EIR was released seven months after the agreement to use the SF waterfront as the next site, and it is something with WAY more scope and impact than anything in the small Victory Court area.
Someone (MLB) needs to pressure Oakland for that EIR, so we can either move forward with San Jose or start to figure out how and who is going to pay for a stadium in Oakland…. which is the real question. It certainly is not whether they can tear down some buildings and put in new freeway ramps.
“You forget that the City of Oakland has screwed the A’s over and over again”. That’s quite a myopic and loaded statement. Jerry Brown’s decision (which was unfortunate) took place a LONG time ago. The fact is, the A’s haven’t been working with the city since then and pointing to any issues that took place 15 years ago is a bit misleading. There are new officials in place and new economic issues. For the last several years, since Lew “researched” a location (only to find ONE that he knew would be impossible to use) the A’s have removed themselves from working on an Oakland location – deciding instead to secretly talk with other communities (including spending over $20 million on a failed Fremont park). In addition, the team has encouraged fans to stay away from attending games by consistently talking down to them, complaining about their horrible ballpark, closing down the most affordably priced seating in the park, cutting fan fests, refusing to celebrate the rich history of the A’s in Oakland, just to name a few.
The city is working directly with MLB because ownership has already stated they are “done”. Again, more has been done than the public realizes, but sadly the secrecy needs to be kept in place because the city knows that ownership will sabotage efforts to stay in Oakland whenever they get the opportunity.
from what i’ve read i agree that ownership has tried everything they can do to get out of oakland. a’s fans don’t care where the team is, we just want a new stadium. build it in the same location… why not try and transform the area like the giants did with ATT park and many other teams have done with their stadiums.
sure its ghetto around the stadium, but they can help change that and make $ while they’re at it.
Whaddya’ expect from a state that cares more about some gooney bird than it’s residents?