2009 Oakland A's thread

Yeah, Gonzalez is a much better defensive player...remember said he'll be a better all around hitter than Wallace who probably realistically at least will start his first 2-3 years at the most at 3B even though he's said personally he's going to work his ass off to remain a 3B...but probably sometime he'll have to move to 3B.

Back to Gonzalez, he made some great defensive plays both with the diving catches and throwing out base runners last season with the A's in his stint here albeit for a short stop. He must've thrown half a dozen base runners out at least.

Hey what's done is done...we have to move on.

But I do think A's fans if Gonzalez does turn into a star will complain about it like they've been doing it the past few years with Ethier with the Dodgers. Difference, A's made the playoffs because of that deal IMO with the addition of Bradley here in 06 while the A's didn't with the Holliday deal...although they still got a pretty good return at the end with Wallace, Mortenson and Peterson.

I doubt very much you could get anything for Hairston.

.242/.270/.409 line and that OBP with the lack of BBs is a huge warning flag. Still 10 2Bs/7 HRs/32 RBIs in 1/3 of a season, you average that out to a 500 AB season it'd be around 30 2Bs/20 HRs/90 RBIs.

Course most won't believe Hairston wouldn't be able to basically triple those offensive #s thru about 200 ABs so far with the A's since the deal for a full season.

Gallagher made a brief appearance for SD in relief, Webb has done alright but Gray has done much better with both pitching the same amount of innings so far this season, and Italiano...who knows? Still think he's in AAA but he'd probably be a reliever had he stayed with the A's because of the violent delivery he has but as we know, the A's system and org as a whole is deep with talent relievers so I don't think they'll miss him much.

I still am a big Gallagher believer and I still probably wouldn't do the deal over again knowing what I know now and see what I've seen.

Nice win for Mort, his first career...he's looked pretty good now in his last two stats.

Offensively, wow, haven't see that much power in a while.

5 different A's hits HRs. Cust who all of a sudden is red hot hits looks to be a 500 ft bomb, Suzuki hits another one as his HR power is very good the past month plus starting with AUG, Pennington hit his 4th and I'm shocked he's shown this much power, Ellis continues to very good second half, and Barton hit his 3rd.

Sweeney almost hit one off the top of the baggy, maybe 3-4 ft away from a HR.

Hopefully they didn't waste all of these runs with Anderson pitching tomorrow, he's gonna need some run support and his run support thru out this year has been inconsistent.

Carter FRI night hit a HR in his third consecutive playoff game.

Dating back to last season when he was at A+, he hit like 5 in two playoff series I believe.

Wallace also hit a HR tonight, his second of this playoffs.

At AA, Donaldson and Spencer also hit HRs. Donaldson has been very solid this year. AVG is decent at .270 but his K/BB ratio is very good and even though that HR FRI night was just his 10th, he has hit 37 2Bs in the regular season so hopefully some of those 2Bs turn in HRs down the road although don't know where he'd play with Suzuki here and possibly somebody like Wallace manning 3B for the first handful of years of his career.

BA had their hot sheet for the season, Carter was their 3rd rank prospect I guess.

Desme was on something similar to "honorable mention".

Quote:
No. 3 CHRIS CARTER, 1B
ATHLETICS
Team: Double-A Midland (Texas) / Triple-A Sacramento (Pacific Coast)
Age: 22
Why He's Here: .329/.422/.570 (179-for-544), 28 HR, 43 2B, 2 3B, 115 RBIs, 115 R, 85 BB, 133 SO, 13-for-19 SB
The Scoop: Carter might have had a shot at winning the triple crown in the Texas League if the A's hadn't let him get his feet wet in Triple-A for the last two weeks of the season. Carter wound up finishing second in the TL in average (.337) and home runs (24) and third in RBIs (101). He made the most of his time with the River Cats though, going 3-for-5 in his first Triple-A game and slugging four home runs. Carter worked hard on shortening his swing and using the whole field more, resulting in a 70 point increase in his average from '08 (.259) to '09. He's also been the best power hitter in the A's system, and this was his third consecutive season with at least 25 home runs.

Quote:

MEN AMONG BOYS

Grant Desme, of, Athletics: Like many prospects in the low Class A Midwest League, Desme was embarking on his first year in a full-season league in 2009. The only difference was that he was already 23 years old. A second round pick by the A's in 2007 out of Cal Poly, Desme's pro career had been plagued by hand and shoulder injuries that limited him to only 49 pro at-bats over his first two seasons. Finally healthy in 2009, Desme showed the power and athleticism that led the A's to take him so highly, belting 31 home runs and stealing 40 bases between stops with Kane County and high Class A Stockton.

MLB.com having a poll done about the great 9 single seasons for the 9 positions, including DH in A's history.

Here's what I voted for and what the lineup would look like...

CF-Rickey Henderson (1990)-.325 AVG, 28 HRs, 119 runs, 61 RBIs

2B-Nap Lajoie (1901)-.426, 14 HRs, 125 RBIs, 145 runs, 27 SBs

1B-Jimmie Foxx (1932)-.364 AVG, 58 HRs, 169 RBIs, 151 runs, 3 SBs

RF-Reggie Jackson (1973)-.293 AVG, 32 HRs, 117 RBIs, 99 runs, 22 SBs

LF-Al Simmons (1930)-.381 AVG, 36 HRs, 165 RBIs, 152 runs, 9 SBs

DH-Frank Thomas (2006)-.270 AVG, 39 HRs, 114 RBIs, 77 runs, 0 SBs.

SS-Miguel Tejada (2002)-.308 AVG, 34 HRs, 131 RBIs, 108 runs, 7 SBs

3B-Frank Baker (1912)-.347 AVG, 10 HRs, 130 RBIs, 116 runs, 40 SBs

C-Mikey Cochrane (1931)-.349 AVG, 17 HRs, 89 RBIs, 87 RBIs, 2 SBs

Nice win today.

Anderson with win #9 and the pen just shut down MIN's offense.

FRI night...Wallace hit his 2nd HR of the playoffs while Carter once again hits a HR, third consecutive game now.

Haha, never mind I posted that earlier...

Pennington went 3/3 today. I'm shocked on how well he's played so far this season.

He's been good defensively which we all knew, but his bat has been better than even I think most optimists thought it'd be.

He's actually hitting better in the bigs right now than he did in the minors for most of this season and he's definitely better with that bat than his previous MLB showings, especially the power.

.286/.358/.429 with 7 2Bs/4 HRs/13 RBIs and 6/10 on SBs.

...at this point, he's been better than Cabrera has been for MIN so looks as the A's made the right decision even though the prospect the A's got in return for Cabrera, Ladendorf isn't having that good of a year in the A's minors since being dealt here.

If Pennington can even remotely produce for a full season the kind of #s he's producing now, even .270/.333/.375 I'd take from him although I still believe he's a place holder at SS until Green is ready.

Although who knows, maybe the A's move Green to 3B if Pennington continues to play as well as he has the last 8 weeks since taking over full time at SS in the next two years as I honestly don't see Green reaching the bigs until maybe mid 2011 although there is a shot he could be ready by the start of 2011.

Congrats to Bailey for setting the all time A's record for saves by a rookie.

Was watching BBTN a few days ago and they picked who they thought would win AL ROY. Bailey wasn't there choice.

The three choices were Beckham, Andrus and Neiman. Basically said had Bailey played on a better team, better chance he'd get serious attention for ROY.

That's BS, plenty of bad teams have had ROYs.

I think if Bailey can reach 30 saves, he has 24 right now I think, he'll have a very good shot for the award with the writers.

Unf**kingbelieveable!

Carter hits a HR in his 4th consecutive playoff game!

Wallace also with a 3B that same inning.

In regards to Carter, that'd give him 8 HRs in 17 games at AAA combining the regular and now postseason.

Trib FRI had a nice article about the A's top hitting prospects, although they IMO left off Brown unfairly.

www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_13312044

Weeks had a huge game for AA MID in their playoff game. 2/4 with a HR and 4 RBIs.

Ross looked good in his start tonight too going 6.1 IP, 4 hits, 2 ERs, 8 Ks.

Originally posted by ninerpride:
Unf**kingbelieveable!

Carter hits a HR in his 4th consecutive playoff game!

This guy is clutch!!! He hit a bunch of home runs last year in the playoffs as well.