A's Update

**Edit**1/28/08**
The A's have managed to sign their remaining 3 arbitration eligible players: Huston Street, Joe Blanton and Chad Gaudin. Each received 1 year contracts indicating their long-term prospects with the A's are still up in the air.

On the flip side to me this indicates that the A's have at least SOME hope for the upcoming season. I say this because clearly these 3 were not sold off, but were not signed on for extended contracts either. With these 3 1-year deals the A's have poised themselves to reevaluate the team for 2009 and see how soon their farm system will produce Major League caliber players.

Here's a 48 min clip from the A's Fan-Fest 2008 where fans got to ask Billy Beane, David Forst and Bob Geren.

**End**Edit**

As predicted - another veteran Athletic has been sent packing. This time Center Fielder Mark Kotsay:


Again, in return the A's receive a pair of young guys, RHP Joey Divine and RHP Jamie Richmond.

The interesting thing about this trade is that the A's picked up $5.325 million of Kotsay's remaining $7 million contract (including a $325,000 relocation bonus in the event of a trade). This further supports my previous theory that the A's aren't looking to save money as much as they are looking to get quality young talent on the baseball field and build for the future.

"Any time you're willing to pay a portion of the salary, it's because you like what you're getting back," A's assistant GM David Forst said in a conference call.

I like this move more than any other during this offseason.

Kotsay had some parting words for us A's fans in the wake of the trade news, I quote him here and echo his sentiment for the upcoming season:

"I wouldn't give up hope if I was an A's fan," he said. "Billy's a competitor. He's always going to want to win, and I don't think going toward a younger team right now changes that. So I don't think Lew's wrong at all (to think that the A's will be competitive in 2008). He believes in Billy, and so should A's fans."

"The possibility of being competitive is there. Obviously they'll need some things to go their way, but Billy knows what he's doing. I think A's fans would be crazy to jump ship, to be honest. I really do."

Though I've done so here - future moves by the A's during this offseason will be added as an edit to this post rather than adding a new post.

Let's talk A's

I was all for moving Scutaro - Always thought the guy was a scrub...


The Haren move, I understood, but didn't initially like all that much


Swisher, that hurt - gotta love his attitude and potential



These were my initial reactions, but as it all starts to sink in I realize that long-term, this is what's best for the Oakland A's. Half of the pre-trade roster was already comprised of Rookies and 2nd year players (i.e. Buck, Suzuki, Gaudin, DiNardo, Cust, Meyer, the list goes on...). A large portion of the other half was the players that had or have chronic injuries (i.e. Chavez, Kotsay, Crosby, Harden, etc.).

Scutaro, Haren and Swish were part of the few injury-free + established players in Oakland. In other words they are the few players that have value in the baseball market, the kind of value that allowed Beane to restock the farm system. Of the Nine players we received from the two big trades I would be shocked if we did not see 3+ studs by 2010. Looking at these prospects age and abilities, some of them are VERY good and could contend on the roster in the 2008 season. Others will need time in the minors.

Here are some quotes from Beane himself on the trades that also gives me reassurance:

"I got off the plane from the winter meetings, I said to David, 'Who are we kidding?'" Beane said. "We can't let hope be our strategy here. That's what we're doing. ... We can't waste another year. If this needs to be done, it needs to be done."

"Our status quo as we stood going into the season was mediocrity at best," Beane said. "That's my opinion. If anything we're taking a step back with the idea we have a chance to build something very good for a long time. ... The cost of indecision for us probably would be a bigger mistake."


In essence, what Beane is saying is that he could have pulled a couple more mediocre players in from the FA market and tried to contend in 2008, but look at the competition. You've got Anaheim poised to take the AL West and up-and-coming Seattle not far behind. Then you've got Detroit, New York and Boston all with dominant rosters. Do the A's seriously have a shot at the West or Wild Card? I think it would have been a longshot.

Another thing I've heard in various articles and discussions of these trades is the idea that Beane did these things for financial reasons. I don't believe this is the case. Beane had Haren and Swish signed for 4 and 5 years respectively and for affordable contracts. If he wanted to unload salary he would have moved Chavez and Kotsay.

Speaking of Chavez and Kotsay, why doesn't Beane offload them? Well, I think their current value is too low to get anything respectable in return. However, if either or both have hot starts and are injury free in the 2008 season don't be surprised if Beane moves 1 or both of them at or near the trading deadline. This goes for Harden too.

So, will this be it? I think not. I think we're going to see BOTH Blanton and Street get offloaded before the season starts and a lot more A's fans will be bummed about it. Both of these players fall into that established (enough) and injury free (OK, Street had an injury, but he's so young that it is not a major concern) category, meaning they still have the kind of value necessary to pull in a few more sweet prospects.

Another reason that I think this is happening now rather than next year or the year after has to do with timing on the Fremont Stadium. These moves (Haren, Swish and potentially Street, Blanton) will not serve the A's well at the Box office, there are going to be MANY empty seats in 2008. In fact, the team is likely to have a couple of AWFUL seasons in 2008 and 2009. However, even with playoff bound teams the A's have not done well in recent years in attendance at McAfee Coliseum. I think Wolff has decided to cut his losses and focus on the future and "Cisco Field" in Fremont. If the ballpark is approved and built, and these prospects produce in the same year (2011 anybody?), the revenue potential is huge.