Oakland A's Offseason Thread

A's had their run.

From 99-06, they were .500+ for eight straight seasons, second longest streak in franchise history only behind the 9 year streak from 68-76. It took three bad years until 80 to get to BillyBall but that was basically one and done and it took another 8 years until 88 to have a .500+ season again as they did have a .500 season, 81-81 record in 87.

Doubt it'll take another five years from now to become a contender again.

Heck even date back from the "bash bro era" to the "big 3 era"....there was a 6 year period from 93 to 98 where the A's played some of the worst baseball, and certainly the worst baseball in my life as an A's fan...add to that it was during the time of the coliseum being turned into the mess we now see today, that was as depressing of a time as you could get. But then it changed in 99 with a 87 win season and then the 2000 season we all remember.

A's have the built up pitching with Anderson, Cahill, Braden, Gio and a potential dominant and deep pen not only now but in future seasons.

What they lack are hitters but they got a potentially nice core to work with in the next few years with the potential current crop they have with...

Suzuki, Sweeney, Barton, Pennington, and maybe even Davis


...and by mid 2011 I'd expect to see most of the A's top hitting prospects here with at least a year or 1.5 years of experience with the likes of Carter, Wallace, Green, Weeks, Cardenas, Donaldson, Desme, Brown and the countless other positional prospects the A's will bring up the next few seasons.

There is a potential dynamic young batting lineup the A's can have if the majority of those guys live up to their billing and potential. Course when they arrive it's unlikely they make an impact right away but I'd expect by 2012 this A's team will be legit contenders and hopefully a year or two away from moving into a new park too where they then can actually keep some of those young talents.

If there is such a thing as a "five year plan", I think the A's are following it. I'd expect 2010 to be another maybe 75-80 win season, 2011 to be a season where they finish a few games over .500 and then 2012 which would be five years removed from the A's rebuilding plan they set after 2007 when they dealt Haren/Swisher.

A's prospects Desme and Weeks will reportedly playing in the "Rising Stars" games later today SAT night 5 PM PST.

First time I've seen Desme potentially play, did catch weeks in the CWS the months following the 08 draft.

Desme has cooled off from his video game like start the past week but Weeks the past ten games has on a hot streak after he started off start.

Carter is back after about a 2.5 weeks layoff due to some illness which I'm still not sure what it really was.

He's been back since the 4th of this month and since returning he's 5/19 with no XHBs and only 2 RBis in five games back.

The bright spot I guess would be he's still getting on a good pace with a .458 OBP clip due to his strong 6 BBs/5 Ks ration in his five games since coming back.

Bailey wins AL ROY.

Congrats.

Originally posted by ninerpride:
Bailey wins AL ROY.

Congrats.

He was a stud this year... I might..(glup)...sack up and get his jersey. I need a new jersey for the A's/ Cubs series I am goin to this year.

Certainly was more of a romp than I thought it was gonna be.

13 first place, 6 second place , and 5 third place votes.

Totals were Bailey with 88 votes, Andrus with 65 and Porcello with 64.

NICE!1 Congrats to Bailey...very deserving!

10 AM PST news conference tomorrow on CSNCA.

A's announced a 10 year deal with 860 AM.

Well that's good news that the A's have a "home" now instead of switching stations every other year like they had for the past decade.

860 still has a long ways to go, they're building a new transmitter in the north bay to help the reception which was on and off thru out last season even though it's listed at 50K watts, it certainly didn't "feel" like one but hopefully that gets better in future years/seasons.

Now all they need IMO is a couple of local call in shows here. Said all along that I could deal without the Petros/Money show and to have a local call in show during that time slot, think it's 4-7 where I dont' know I mentioned somebody like former KNBR host/reporter B.McGowen who filled in on the A's call in show last season and IMO did a good job.

I know from his time on KNBR that he's a Raiders fan so he'll have that with him if he could be a host on 860 maybe in the future. Yes he's a Giants fan but hell I remember Herrera doing the A's post game show back in the late 90s before Baun took over and seems like he did well even though everybody knew he was a HUGE homer for the other team across the bay. IMO he did a MUCH BETTER job as a host than Baun who I still can't believe he'll be entering his 10th year as the A's post game show host starting next season as he took over mid 2000 for Herrera who left for back then was Fox Sports Radio and now works with TB.


Add to that ML on his blog speculating that Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment could potentially buy into the A's basically "cementing" the A's move to SJ due to how that group and the A's owners, both currently and those in the past, have a nice working relationship and this could also mean they'll buy into the Earthquakes too since they're owned by Wolff.

So positive things coming into focus now and maybe in te near future in regards to the A's finding a potential permanent home down in the south bay.

Well Desme finished up being the AFL MVP although he really slumped the last few weeks and the alarming K rates showed up which he had "under control" for the most part for most of the season.

Desme will continue to have his detractors, I'm not a TOTAL BELIEVER where I think he's a lock to make it to the bigs but I think it's a good chance he will and be maybe at least a decent regular OF. Guy has probably the best tools out of the A's top hitting prospects, albeit it was only one season where he showed it and AA will be a huge proving ground for him in 2010.

You would hope that with Buck, Sweeney, Cunningham, Brown, Desme, heck maybe even Peterson (that guy we got in the Holiday trade) we can have 2 legit corner outfielders out of it.

Don't forget Doolittle and Carter.

Seems as many are projecting Carter to play in the OF although he still isn't that good out there, scouts say he's a bit slow in his jumps when the ball is hit in the air so that's not a good thing.

Interview with Beane with Sickels...

www.minorleagueball.com/2009/11/20/1167032/an-interview-with-oakland-gm-billy

Oh yeah the A's signed minor league FA McPherson, the former highly thought of often injured LAA 3B prospect years ago.

Doubt he has much of a future in the bigs, think he's in his late 20s by now. Heck he was with SF last season and that's a team that could've used a major league caliber 3B prospect and he couldn't even break thru with their big league team, don't see how McPherson who seems to put up big time minor league #s will make it to the A's big league team especially with Wallace probably ready by midseason of next 2010.

McPherson at best is a Cust, a guy who never was given really a full chance to be a major league regular but most likely he'll be AAA filler.

Looking around and seems as McPherson who I thought signed with SF last year after FLR released him, but it looks as he never showed up at all and or didn't play with them in 09 in the minors.

I don't know what happened to him last season.

The guy is basically a .300 career minor league hitter. .275 with 42 HRs/98 RBIs with a .997 OPS with FLR's AAA affiliate in 08 albeit he was 27 in AAA that season.

I highly doubt he's gonna be the second coming of lets say a Cust/Branyan as we've seen over the years of guys who've put up big time #s in the minors and probably wasn't given full ABs in the bigs, but when given the shot, produces as McPherson has only had just under 400 career MLB ABs due to injuries and really LAA not having much faith in him due to them being a contender almost every year for the past 7-8 seasons.

Also if you read ML's blog post about the A's renewal with 860 and the thought that they were building a new transmitter in the north bay.


All is true but with 860 having three transmitters, not all of them will be used all at the time which means it's not guarantee, although nobody will know until they're up I'm guessing for next season.

So A's fans in certain parts of the bay area still may have trouble getting a real clear and booming reception from 860. I the A's are planning to move to SJ, you'd think they'd want a radio station that get reach their potential new home eh?!

I know baby steps in terms of getting all what we A's fans want but the A's org is sure making improvements at a snail's pace which just continues to piss off the fan base that hasn't turn their back on the org especially with the way they've treated the fan base really since the Haas family, who Ratto said last week on TV, was the best owners in bay area sports history.