Official 2010 Oakland A's Thread

I hate when that is said year after year, when that play is mentioned.

Giambi if he slid would've been out. He would've slid right into Posada's tag. He had a better chance of doing what he did which is try to hope over the tag to be called safe than slide. Hell he should've just ran into Posada and tried to knock him out. With his size, could've dislodged the ball.

f**king Howe should've just pinch run for Giambi in the first place. I know I was SCREAMING at the TV when Giambi got on base which I think it was in the 6th or 7th inning, down 1-0, with two outs. Better damn good chance it would've taken two hits to score Giambi and that's including any XBH that woud've been hit. As we saw with Long's 2B down the RF line, had the NYY cleaned field that ball and there was no stupid god damn flip by Jeter, Giambi would've been out by at least 10-15 feet.

Why I don't Howe kept Giambi in there when you had multiple guys in the dugout ready to pinch run, including somebody like Byrnes who would scored on that play had he been pinch running.

I will never forgive Howe for not pinch running that game. Now who knows, if the A's score it's still a tie game and the A's offensively even though they won the first two games against the NYY that series, still had trouble scoring and especially had trouble with men in RISP all series long especially those first 4 games.

f**k, don't wanna relieve those horrible postseason moments from 00-03 all over AGAIN!!!!!

Originally posted by skeetskeet:
Giambi should have slid...

lol Giambi shouldn't have even been on the basepaths, if the manager had just pinch ran for Giambi the player wouldn't even have needed to slide.

but yes I agree, Giambi should have slid

Originally posted by ninerpride:
I hate when that is said year after year, when that play is mentioned.

Giambi if he slid would've been out. He would've slid right into Posada's tag. He had a better chance of doing what he did which is try to hope over the tag to be called safe than slide. Hell he should've just ran into Posada and tried to knock him out. With his size, could've dislodged the ball.

f**king Howe should've just pinch run for Giambi in the first place. I know I was SCREAMING at the TV when Giambi got on base which I think it was in the 6th or 7th inning, down 1-0, with two outs. Better damn good chance it would've taken two hits to score Giambi and that's including any XBH that woud've been hit. As we saw with Long's 2B down the RF line, had the NYY cleaned field that ball and there was no stupid god damn flip by Jeter, Giambi would've been out by at least 10-15 feet.

Why I don't Howe kept Giambi in there when you had multiple guys in the dugout ready to pinch run, including somebody like Byrnes who would scored on that play had he been pinch running.

I will never forgive Howe for not pinch running that game. Now who knows, if the A's score it's still a tie game and the A's offensively even though they won the first two games against the NYY that series, still had trouble scoring and especially had trouble with men in RISP all series long especially those first 4 games.

f**k, don't wanna relieve those horrible postseason moments from 00-03 all over AGAIN!!!!!

calm down man, he's just a Giants fan. Save your angst, you don't have to relive these memories.

Choice after starting slow at A- VAN starting to heat up possibly? Remember he's done basically nothing in terms of in game action since what maybe May when his season ended at UT-A?

Went 2/4 FRI with a 2B and a HR, his first pro HR.

.318/.4444/.636 now albeit in only 6 games/22 ABs for VAN.

Does have 9 Ks/5 BBs which were to be expected. Like with quite a few A's hitting prospects, he'll probably have K issues but maybe offset it with the BBs which were a strength of his in college leading the country I think.

Would you trade Gio or Mazzaro if he could help us get a legit bat? Cahill and Anderson are definitely off limits.

Gio's had a very good year for us and only turns 25 in a few days.

147 IP, 3.49 ERA, 121 K 1.31 WHIP

The walks are still very high, but he's cut it down by over a walk per inning this year.

Mazzaro since being inserted into the rotation has put up excellent numbers as well.

75.1 IP 3.46 ERA, 49 K, 1.23 WHIP

He's still only 23, and his walk rate has been excellent and he seems to get better every month.

If it could help you land a young middle-of-the-order bat who would you trade? With Outman hopefully coming back we could afford to lose a pitcher. I would feel a bit uneasy about depth with the injury histories of Anderson, Outman and Braden but if it could help us land a big bat I'd do it. I'd trade Gio just because he probably has more value right now and Outman is a lefty which would make Cahill the only righty in the rotation.

With plenty of payroll room I'd like to see the A's try to sign a prime free agent hitter, overpay if needed. Trade for a young stud outfielder. Make a trade for a player who struggled this year on the cheap but can bounce back, do that fantasy Bailey for Montero trade, maybe trade for a guy who's aging a bit and only has one year left on his contract. Trade Sweeney, Jackson for a young starter who's like a year or so away, a quality spot starter, one or two relievers etc.

Sign Jayson Werth or someone of that caliber (preferably an AL hitter)

Bailey - Monero

Gio, Taylor (he's gotta have some value still right?), filler- Ryan Braun/Matt Kemp (both having down years, would allow Brewers to resign Fielder)

Barton, Cardenas, filler- Aaron Hill (struggling mightily this year, i like his bounce back chances)

We could end up with something like this

CF Rajai Davis
2B Aaron Hill
LF Ryan Braun
RF Jayson Werth
C Kurt Suzuki
3B Kevin Kouzmanoff
1B Chris Carter
DH Miguel Montero
SS Cliff Pennington

SP Brett Anderson LHP
SP Trevor Cahill RHP
SP Dallas Braden LHP
SP Vin Mazzaro RHP
SP Josh Outman LHP

CL Michael Wuertz
RP Craig Breslow
RP Henry Rodriguez
RP Good relief pitcher addition
RP Brad Zeigler
RP FDLS
RP Quality long man/spot starter

Add in a quality 4th outfielder and it looks pretty impressive. Probably too good to be true. I really should stop dreaming and get to sleep.

And big surprise, Ross headed for an MRI on his elbow. It's not like I didn't see that coming from a mile away.

Anderson even with his health issues and def Cahill are IMO keepers. They could be the 1-2 punch in this rotation for the next 5 years assuming that Cahill gets a similar deal that Anderson got which bought out a year of his FA which would be the 2015 season.

Gio and Mazz? Gio probably would have more trade value being a LH and showing the progression most had hoped, albeit he still has issues with control as he's 2nd in the AL in BBs. I'd def deal Gio in some part of package if it could land the A's a quality middle of the order bat, just don't know who or if a team even if they're desperate for young pitching and Gio is cost controlled for I think another 3 or even 4 years, not sure, would be willing to trade a quality bat.

Bailey for Montero, yeah I'd do that deal. As much as I like Bailey closers unless they got longevity like a Rivera or Hoffman heck even Nathan are IMO expendable and look at the A's of the past decade who under the Beane era has gone thru closers almost every other season.

99-01...Izzy
02...Koch
03...Foulke
04...Rhodes/Dotel
05-08...Dotel/Street
09/10...Bailey

...that doesn't include the likes of a Ziegler, Devine, Duke and this year Wuertz closing games out.

Even though the pen took a hit with health and some who we counted on to pitch well, IMO there are still a couple of closer candidates if Bailey is dealt. Wuertz is starting to look like the Wuertz from last season when he was one of the best set up man in baseball with that nasty slider. Remember too Bailey has had a major injury before as he too had TJS back in 06 I think so he's been hit with major injury bugs before during his time with the A's org.

Werth? His name has been mentioned a lot. Sure it'd be nice to have him but how well would he do getting out of CBP in PHI and coming to Oakland. Now I doubt he'll end up like Rowand whos #s were benefited from playing in that hitter friendly park in PHI and that he wasn't really a key cog in the offense, more of a 2nd or even 3rd tier hitter in that lineup. Werth was pretty highly thought of when he came up thru LAD system, didn't live up to potential and finally did when he arrived in PHI a handful of years ago. But IMO his #s if he gets out of that park, goes to the AL and plays half his games at the coliseum, don't expect him to be the 30 HR/100 RBI bat he is now with PHI with the A's. Not saying he'll stink it up, but how old is he, 32 and he'll probably want a 4-5 year deal and I don't think the A's wanna be paying 8 figures per season for a guy who'll be switching leagues for the first time in his career and will be in his mid 30s in the middle of his deal.

Braun, no way he gets dealt even after a pretty much sub par year for him. IMO he's the one player MIL should build that lineup around. He signed a pretty cost controlled deal after his rookie season, ala Longoria with TB, and I doubt MIL would deal him until maybe his last year of his deal which I don't think is next season. IMO they would want either Cahill and Anderson too in that deal. More likely they'll deal Fielder whos entering his last year of his deal in 2011 and as a GM, I'd much rather have a guy like Bruan who should be a guy for the next decade who could consistently hit .300 with 35+ HRs/100 RBIs than Fielder who weight wise has issues even though he's TRIED to slim down being a veggie head I think back at hte start of 2009, don't know if he still is one.

Kemp I'd love to get. Report was that Stew who is his agent hinted that he wouldn't mind seeing his client dealt. Kemp who like mentioned is having a disappointing year after a pretty good start to the season. This guy is exactly the type of all around player the A's need. A guy who could be a 30/30 type talent. A's and LAD have worked on a handful of deals before. Saw the Ethier and Bradley deal back in 06 and the A's basically gave Loazia away back in 07. But Kemp would cost a lot and he signed a deal thru 2012 I think so the A's would only have him for two more years and who knows if the A's could afford to keep him. But I'd def try hard if he were available although you know LAD aren't gonna give up him for nothing. They'd def would want either Cahill or Anderson, which would give them as good of a young trio in the bigs teaming them up with Kershaw-Bills. They'd probably want a hitter too. Cahill/Anderson and maybe Taylor, along with maybe another prospect for Kemp. Don't think it'll happen.

Hill. Yeah don't know why he's struggling so bad? .215 AVG? Power is still there with 18 HRs but why would TOR sell low on Hill who you could've argued before the season was the best offensive 2B in the AL or at least in the top 3-4 in all of MLB with Utley/Cano. Adding a guy who could hit 25-30 HRs at 2B would be huge especially since the A's don't have much power coming out of normal power hitting positions like 1B and pretty much either corner OF spot and maybe DH although you hope Carter can solve that.


A's def need to concentrate of getting hitting. At this point I see only Suzuki at C and maybe, MAYBE Pennington at SS and Kouz at 3B as the only guys to have a hold on the starting spot for 2011.

1B-lets face it, Barton hasn't developed as much as a hitter as we had hoped. He's near dead last in HRs for all MLB 1B even though he's near the top in 2B. He's a BB machine but this team needs pop at 1B and I don't know if Barton even best case could hit you even 15 HRs. I know a lot of A's fans want the team to go after Dunny to play 1B or even OF. That guy could hit 30 HRs in ANY park so him playing at the coliseum/AL isn't a problem IMO. But does he want to come here? He's spent his entire career in the NL and if he does come to the AL, you don't think a team like the NYY or BOS wouldn't mind going after him as a 1B or DH candidate in case of the NYY? We've seen countless of hitters just in the past two offseason that we offered more money to...Furcal, Scutaro, and Beltre...reject the A's offer and gone off to sign with other teams. I don't see what will have changed much from the past two offseason to this one. Maybe easier to acquire help in bats with trades than it is to try and sign ones. And even the ones we've signed recently that "want" to come here have bombed. Last "good" signing was Thomas back in 06. IMO the only bats the A's can attract or mediocre ones like a E.Brown or aging talents like a Thomas, Piazza, Giambi, Nomar. The one exception I guess would be Cabrera.

2B-complete mystery. I don't know if the A's bring back Ellis. Is Rosales the answer, IMO he'd be the lead candidate if Ellis isn't brought back. Weeks and Cardenas could start next year at AAA with Weeks probably having more pop potential.

OF-gotta bring somebody in IMO. No starting OF on this team this season will hit double digit HRs, this is the AL and even past the steroid era, you're gonna need pop coming from at least two of the three OF spots especially in the AL. Maybe Taylor is ready to come up by the start of 2011 or at least after June. Who from the group of Sweeney, Davis, or maybe a brought back Crisp will be back? Sweeney has issues with his knees that may not ever go away. Davis has shown a good second half spurt like last season but he just makes some awful poor baseball IQ decisions. FRI night he nonchalantly played that ball in RF and it bounced off of him. That's been a problem of his even dating back to last season when he was doing well and really been a problem since he joined the A's, just some bonehead defensive issues when you think he should be pretty good out there.

DH-now Carter could fill this spot or one of the corner OF spots.


I def could see the A's trading away maybe one of their SP along with a prospect to land a quality young veteran bat whos cost controlled beyond 2011. Now who exactly could they target, don't know. Teams aren't stupid and are gonna deal a good young talent for the A's "secondary pieces" that they could give up. But the A's need power and right now, other than Carter and Taylor, not a ton of power in their upper minors and this pitching staff IMO is playoff ready in 2011 and especially 2012.

Saw this at a pro SJ blog, this the official rendering of a Cisco Field in SJ or a fan's doing?

From what I can see.

-two deck park as it's been noted many times would be a lot cheaper to build and faster to build too. That'd mean the press boxes would be like Wrigley, PNC and even the Nats new park, at the top of the park above the 2nd deck seats.

-guessing the pens would be around CF in that area.

-have no idea where the scoreboard/video screen would? Guessing that RF/CF area with Cisco Field from the back.

-don't know how they incorporated that building down the LF line? Don't think there's any building currently where the SJ park is being built to be incorporated ala Petco down their LF line.

-two deck seats in RF? That'd be strange, thought they go plain bleachers.

-course can't see anything in RF.


Blog did say they'll put up more pics.

I've been waiting too for some images to come up of what a new SJ park would look like.

Thought we'd see some the months or at least weeks before what was gonna be the NOV ballot measure but that's being pushed to the spring of 2011.

We've seen before teams maybe trying to pump up support and excitement of a new sports venue by releasing images or 3D video of what it look like.

Niners did it almost a full year with their renderings of that SC stadium before this past year's ballot.

That's a strange looking stadium to say the least.

Originally posted by ninerpride:
Anderson even with his health issues and def Cahill are IMO keepers. They could be the 1-2 punch in this rotation for the next 5 years assuming that Cahill gets a similar deal that Anderson got which bought out a year of his FA which would be the 2015 season.

Gio and Mazz? Gio probably would have more trade value being a LH and showing the progression most had hoped, albeit he still has issues with control as he's 2nd in the AL in BBs. I'd def deal Gio in some part of package if it could land the A's a quality middle of the order bat, just don't know who or if a team even if they're desperate for young pitching and Gio is cost controlled for I think another 3 or even 4 years, not sure, would be willing to trade a quality bat.

Bailey for Montero, yeah I'd do that deal. As much as I like Bailey closers unless they got longevity like a Rivera or Hoffman heck even Nathan are IMO expendable and look at the A's of the past decade who under the Beane era has gone thru closers almost every other season.

99-01...Izzy
02...Koch
03...Foulke
04...Rhodes/Dotel
05-08...Dotel/Street
09/10...Bailey

...that doesn't include the likes of a Ziegler, Devine, Duke and this year Wuertz closing games out.

Even though the pen took a hit with health and some who we counted on to pitch well, IMO there are still a couple of closer candidates if Bailey is dealt. Wuertz is starting to look like the Wuertz from last season when he was one of the best set up man in baseball with that nasty slider. Remember too Bailey has had a major injury before as he too had TJS back in 06 I think so he's been hit with major injury bugs before during his time with the A's org.

Werth? His name has been mentioned a lot. Sure it'd be nice to have him but how well would he do getting out of CBP in PHI and coming to Oakland. Now I doubt he'll end up like Rowand whos #s were benefited from playing in that hitter friendly park in PHI and that he wasn't really a key cog in the offense, more of a 2nd or even 3rd tier hitter in that lineup. Werth was pretty highly thought of when he came up thru LAD system, didn't live up to potential and finally did when he arrived in PHI a handful of years ago. But IMO his #s if he gets out of that park, goes to the AL and plays half his games at the coliseum, don't expect him to be the 30 HR/100 RBI bat he is now with PHI with the A's. Not saying he'll stink it up, but how old is he, 32 and he'll probably want a 4-5 year deal and I don't think the A's wanna be paying 8 figures per season for a guy who'll be switching leagues for the first time in his career and will be in his mid 30s in the middle of his deal.

Braun, no way he gets dealt even after a pretty much sub par year for him. IMO he's the one player MIL should build that lineup around. He signed a pretty cost controlled deal after his rookie season, ala Longoria with TB, and I doubt MIL would deal him until maybe his last year of his deal which I don't think is next season. IMO they would want either Cahill and Anderson too in that deal. More likely they'll deal Fielder whos entering his last year of his deal in 2011 and as a GM, I'd much rather have a guy like Bruan who should be a guy for the next decade who could consistently hit .300 with 35+ HRs/100 RBIs than Fielder who weight wise has issues even though he's TRIED to slim down being a veggie head I think back at hte start of 2009, don't know if he still is one.

Kemp I'd love to get. Report was that Stew who is his agent hinted that he wouldn't mind seeing his client dealt. Kemp who like mentioned is having a disappointing year after a pretty good start to the season. This guy is exactly the type of all around player the A's need. A guy who could be a 30/30 type talent. A's and LAD have worked on a handful of deals before. Saw the Ethier and Bradley deal back in 06 and the A's basically gave Loazia away back in 07. But Kemp would cost a lot and he signed a deal thru 2012 I think so the A's would only have him for two more years and who knows if the A's could afford to keep him. But I'd def try hard if he were available although you know LAD aren't gonna give up him for nothing. They'd def would want either Cahill or Anderson, which would give them as good of a young trio in the bigs teaming them up with Kershaw-Bills. They'd probably want a hitter too. Cahill/Anderson and maybe Taylor, along with maybe another prospect for Kemp. Don't think it'll happen.

Hill. Yeah don't know why he's struggling so bad? .215 AVG? Power is still there with 18 HRs but why would TOR sell low on Hill who you could've argued before the season was the best offensive 2B in the AL or at least in the top 3-4 in all of MLB with Utley/Cano. Adding a guy who could hit 25-30 HRs at 2B would be huge especially since the A's don't have much power coming out of normal power hitting positions like 1B and pretty much either corner OF spot and maybe DH although you hope Carter can solve that.


A's def need to concentrate of getting hitting. At this point I see only Suzuki at C and maybe, MAYBE Pennington at SS and Kouz at 3B as the only guys to have a hold on the starting spot for 2011.

1B-lets face it, Barton hasn't developed as much as a hitter as we had hoped. He's near dead last in HRs for all MLB 1B even though he's near the top in 2B. He's a BB machine but this team needs pop at 1B and I don't know if Barton even best case could hit you even 15 HRs. I know a lot of A's fans want the team to go after Dunny to play 1B or even OF. That guy could hit 30 HRs in ANY park so him playing at the coliseum/AL isn't a problem IMO. But does he want to come here? He's spent his entire career in the NL and if he does come to the AL, you don't think a team like the NYY or BOS wouldn't mind going after him as a 1B or DH candidate in case of the NYY? We've seen countless of hitters just in the past two offseason that we offered more money to...Furcal, Scutaro, and Beltre...reject the A's offer and gone off to sign with other teams. I don't see what will have changed much from the past two offseason to this one. Maybe easier to acquire help in bats with trades than it is to try and sign ones. And even the ones we've signed recently that "want" to come here have bombed. Last "good" signing was Thomas back in 06. IMO the only bats the A's can attract or mediocre ones like a E.Brown or aging talents like a Thomas, Piazza, Giambi, Nomar. The one exception I guess would be Cabrera.

2B-complete mystery. I don't know if the A's bring back Ellis. Is Rosales the answer, IMO he'd be the lead candidate if Ellis isn't brought back. Weeks and Cardenas could start next year at AAA with Weeks probably having more pop potential.

OF-gotta bring somebody in IMO. No starting OF on this team this season will hit double digit HRs, this is the AL and even past the steroid era, you're gonna need pop coming from at least two of the three OF spots especially in the AL. Maybe Taylor is ready to come up by the start of 2011 or at least after June. Who from the group of Sweeney, Davis, or maybe a brought back Crisp will be back? Sweeney has issues with his knees that may not ever go away. Davis has shown a good second half spurt like last season but he just makes some awful poor baseball IQ decisions. FRI night he nonchalantly played that ball in RF and it bounced off of him. That's been a problem of his even dating back to last season when he was doing well and really been a problem since he joined the A's, just some bonehead defensive issues when you think he should be pretty good out there.

DH-now Carter could fill this spot or one of the corner OF spots.


I def could see the A's trading away maybe one of their SP along with a prospect to land a quality young veteran bat whos cost controlled beyond 2011. Now who exactly could they target, don't know. Teams aren't stupid and are gonna deal a good young talent for the A's "secondary pieces" that they could give up. But the A's need power and right now, other than Carter and Taylor, not a ton of power in their upper minors and this pitching staff IMO is playoff ready in 2011 and especially 2012.

Yeah I was just throwing around some ideas.

Cahill and Anderson have just as much value as Braun and Kemp on their own would have. No way we're giving that up.

Gio and Mazzaro are still good young pitchers that, while not aces have the potential to be agood #2/3 pitchers. Combine one of those two with a couple of top prospects and it should be good enough to get a legit middle of the order bat imo. Our pitching is playoff caliber and the least thing we can afford is to have to waist two or three more years to bring our offense up to that level.

Yeah the park looks a bit strange, still don't get how they get that building down the LF line. Are they gonna build something there? I could see some sort of restaurant and maybe an A's HOF housed in that building.

After looking further of the pics and those at the BBSJ facebook site, the images aren't great, but from what I've seen there are actually three decks in the LF structure and in the main part of the stadium that are yellow/gold colored.

The scoreboard is def gonna be in RF/CF. Thought when I first saw it that the green rectangular shape was the scoreboard but that's most likely the batter's back drop.

Thought the pens would be in CF, but I don't know if there is gonna be room there and or too much of a distraction to be pretty much right smack dab in CF. I don't know how RF looks like, from the image I saw at the facebook site that it looks like it'll be just a one section of RF "bleachers" and no 2nd deck like there is in LF so maybe the pens go there. Maybe they put them down the lines although only a couple of the newer parks have done that with AT&T and Petco, with most parks built in the past two decades being placed beyond the OF walls.

BBSJ posted that more pics would be posted online soon so we'll see how the entire park looks.

Also again these are the first potential images we'll see and changes probably will be made but the field level luxury boxes that were supposed to be in the Cisco Field design in Fremont aren't there in this SJ design.

They were supposed to be the first level of boxes in the park that would be maybe a dozen rows back behind the first row of seats.

Wonder if the A's changed their minds.

Really I just want a new baseball only park for the A's. I don't care if it looks strange or as somebody else who saw them posted called the design "boring" basically. Get me a new park and I'll be happy. As long as it isn't some joke of a design or how it plays is a "joke" ala what HOU has with that funky ass park they built where it has that very short porch in LF and that dumb hill in CF.

You could say PNC is rather "bland" looking but IMO that's the best park in baseball, maybe the backdrop of the RC Bridge, waterfront placement and the downtown skyline beyond RF makes it IMO the best but just taking the park, it's very simple and IMO doesn't wow you with stuff that will distract from the game.

Can see a bit of what RF looks like here...