Oakland A's Offseason Thread

Plain and simple Buck has to perform. If he stays healthy and can live up to expectations the A's will find a way to fit him in. No doubt in my mind.

What the A's did is very smart; instead of counting on certain players performing and when they don't the A's are stuck with no depth, the A's now have a lot of depth. I'm sure the A's would love as much as we would for Buck to perform. But you can't keep on waiting for certain players to develop and get stuck with no backup plan.

Buck is a commodity right now, if he performs well great, if not the A's have other options. As for Brown, Doolittle, Carter whoever else, if he's good he'll just have to beat them out. If he can't he doesn't deserve to play in the big leagues. Taylor's no different than if we had CarGon still.

The ball's in Buck's court right now and frankly the A's owe him nothing.

The Toronto-Oakland pipeline continues...Dana Eveland traded to the Blue Jays for PTBNL or cash considerations.

Originally posted by AllTimeGreat:
The Toronto-Oakland pipeline continues...Dana Eveland traded to the Blue Jays for PTBNL or cash considerations.

My name's sake

Gives him an opportunity to start in the Bigs right away...he likely would have been stuck in Sac all season.

PP with their top 50.

2 A's made the list.

Quote:
13 Michael Taylor LF/RF Making unbelievable strides as a pro; scary part is he could continue to improve 24.3 OAK AAA

25 Chris Carter 1B Monster power will come w/ perhaps 200 Ks a year -- patient too; no value on D 23.3 OAK AAA

Other players A's fans may want to know about.

Wallace-29
Chapman-32
Hicks-50

Oh yeah Smoak at 9.

Originally posted by ninerpride:
Oh yeah Smoak at 9.

it hurts....so....bad.

Why did Texas have to get him? Why couldn't he have just gone top 5 like he was supposed to?

Don't know and you look at some of the players drafted in front of him and you wonder what other teams were thinking.

I know 1B aren't the hardest position to fill but when you got a guy who potentially could be a 30 HR/100 RBI SH 1B who some thing could win a gold glove down the road, why pass up on that type of talent.

I think at least half the teams that didn't draft Smoak that had the chance will be kicking themselves in about 3 years.

I don't know if he has the ceiling of a Tex who is the player he's compared to but barring any kind of major injury, the guy IMO is gonna be a consistent all star type talent.

Just have to hope Weeks ends up being a Durham/Hudson type 2B, although if the A's view Cardenas as their 2B of the future once he arrives possibly mid late 2010, Weeks may have to move to the OF where the depth in CF at this point in the system isn't looking all that great with the departures of Desme and Cunningham this offseason. Could argue that moving Weeks to the OF away from 2B could help him out least health wise. Won't get beat up playing OF as he could as a MIF.

A's to SJ report delayed a week.

I'm done reading the scout.com message board. I'm tired of hearing how Beane is an overrated moron, Sheets and Duke won't throw 100 innings combined, Buck is getting f**ked by Billy Beane's personal narrow minded hate over all common sense and whatever negative crap the posters all spew out of their ass. I mean not everyone is negative but I feel like it attracts all the malcontents to the bad.

I'll stick with AN.

A summary of the A's top prospects posted at Stiglich's blog last week...

Quote:

Updates on some top Oakland A’s prospects

By Joe Stiglich
Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 3:35 pm

With two weeks left until spring training begins, it’s a good time for an update on some of the A’s top prospects. As I did last year, I stuck to those who were active over the offseason – either playing winter ball somewhere or participating in the Arizona Fall League or the A’s instructional league program. I sought out the team’s director of player personnel, Billy Owens, who spends much of his winter evaluating the A’s top young players. Owens offered a few of his thoughts (only after he got done scouting super prospect Bryce Harper in a junior college game. Owens has no offseason, I tell you).

Baseball America recently ranked the A’s top 10 prospects, which you can read about. The players below are listed in no particular order. I put an (*) next to those who will be in major league spring camp. You’ll notice a common thread: Most of these guys are crossing their fingers for better health in 2010 …

–*Jemile Weeks, 2B: The A’s believe Weeks can be a speedy table-setter batting from the first or second spots in the lineup. But his development with the glove probably will determine how quickly he makes the big leagues. Weeks, 23, has logged lots of hours with A’s roving infield instructor Juan Navarrete. A hip-flexor injury delayed the start of his 2009 campaign. “Defensively he made strides (during the Arizona Fall League),” Owens said. “He worked on his pivots at second base and being more aggressive. He’s going to be a catalyst down the road at the top of the order, in the same mold as Ray Durham.”

–*Corey Brown, OF: Knee and shoulder injuries sidetracked his 2009 season at Double-A, but the A’s saw the player Brown can be during the Arizona Fall League. He hit .333 with six homers and 28 RBI in 105 at-bats. A sandwich pick between the first and second rounds in 2007, Brown is a center fielder but can play all three outfield spots well. The A’s love his power and defense, but as Owens says, “His kryptonite can be strikeouts.” Brown, 24, combined for 168 strikeouts in 2008 at two levels of Single-A ball, but he also hit 30 homers that season, so A’s fans may have to take the good with the bad. Brown was extended a non-roster invitation to spring training after fellow outfielder Grant Desme retired.

–Michael Ynoa, RHP: Ynoa, now 18, was supposed to make his professional debut last season, but the A’s shut him down due to elbow soreness. His fastball topped out at 94 mph during the Dominican Republic instructional League this winter. Ynoa’s English is improving rapidly, Owens said, and he’ll report for the start of minor league spring training March 7. After participating in extended spring training in April, Ynoa will join either the A’s rookie league team in Phoenix or the short-season Single-A Vancouver squad, assuming all goes well. The A’s are taking it slow with Ynoa, given a $4.25 million signing bonus in 2008.

–*Fautino De Los Santos, RHP: He’s the forgotten man in the Nick Swisher trade. The A’s obtained De Los Santos from the White Sox along with Gio Gonzalez and Ryan Sweeney in January 2008. But he missed most of 2009 following elbow ligament replacement surgery. De Los Santos, who turns 24 this month, made seven appearances in rookie ball toward the end of the season, but Owens said he was closer to full strength in November and December. “He didn’t truly dial it up until the Dominican instructional league. The results were very positive. He had a dynamite arm. It came back in full force.”

–James Simmons, RHP: Simmons’ rise through the system has been slow considering he began his pro career at Double-A in 2007. A minor shoulder problem set him back last season, when he went 7-7 with a 5.72 ERA at Triple-A. He posted a 1-4 mark and 4.50 ERA in six starts during the Arizona Fall League. “He’s a kid that’s got exquisite fastball command,” Owens said. “His change-up is solid, major league average or above. He’s just been working on that third offering — a breaking pitch, whether it’s a breaking ball, slider or cutter.” Simmons was a non-roster invitee to big league camp each of the last two years, but not this spring.

–*Grant Green, SS: The A’s will get a close-up look at their 2009 first-round pick during spring training. He appeared in five games with Single-A Stockton after signing last summer, then took part in the A’s instructional league after the season. Owens compares Green to the Texas Rangers’ Michael Young, a hitter who can “go gap-to-gap with authority.” The question marks may come on defense, where some think Green might project more as a third baseman.

–*Max Stassi, C: Just eight months after graduating from Yuba City High School, Stassi will report to major league spring camp. It’s likely the A’s just want to give him a taste of big league life. But there’s serious hype around Stassi, whose $1.5 million signing bonus was a record for a fourth-round pick. His father, Jim, was his high school coach, and Owens said it’s obvious Stassi comes from a baseball family. “He’s a student of the game. He has an amazing maturity level for a teenager, from what he showed in instructional league. He was born to catch.”

NOTE: Chris Carter played winter ball in the Mexican Pacific League, but his stint was very short due to illness, so I didn’t include him. Besides, you’ll be reading plenty about Carter come spring training!

Does anyone wanna buy me a few A's player Tees and send em to chicago and I'd pay you... all these player shirts online cost like 37 dollars! I know here in chicago we have cubs/ white sox ones for like 2 for 30 and s**t so if anyone would like to step up that would be nice.

Lurie and Ratto on Chron Live earlier TUE night and both said that if the A's are gonna build a new stadium it'll be in SJ over Fremont.

Now who knows what the "recommendation" will be from this blue ribbon panel, a very similar named "blue ribbon panel" that basically killed the Picicinni ownership group a dozen or so years ago.

Hopefully it's better news this time around.

Photo of Feliz...



Also won Pitcher of the month in the Dominican Prospect League...

Quote:

During the month of January Michael Felix's stats weren't as eye opening as his peers but his latest accomplishment were eye opening enough for the Oakland A's International scouts, as he signed an $800,000.00 deal this past week. Michael has shown a consistent explosive FB (92-93 mph, toping out at (94); throwing the ball down hill with late life. He showed great spin on CB's and good feel for CH with late movement down in the zone. Both his plus FB and off speed pitches should be enough to make him an impact guy in the Major Leagues.

Are there any ideas that our new stadium if we get one in the next 5 or so years would be simular to Mccaffee Stadium? Or will it actually be possible to hit in it?

Don't know what kind of park a potential new A's one would be.

Really only had some renderings of what Cisco Field in Fremont would've looked like.

From what I read a few months ago, Cisco is still a go in terms of naming rights to a new A's park down south.

My preference would for it to be a pitcher's park, although I don't know how you could make it a pitcher's park other than having the distance to the wall being further than the average park I guess. But we could get into a whole mess like the NYY new stadium where they built the park dimensionally the same as the old one but the new one played like a bandbox.

I still say build a bigger park and if it plays TOO tough, you can always move the fences in and make it more hitter friendly as they did with other parks in recent years like with DET and the ChiSox which both used to be a pitcher friendly, some would argue unfair for hitters but they both renovated and moved in the walls some and it plays more fair albeit the ChiSox park you could argue is really hitter friendly while DET's I guess you can say is more neutral.

Add to that in the "space" that you increase from moving the walls in, you could add seating to that area beyond the walls then which for the A's if they really are planning to build the smallest park in terms of capacity, around 32K-36K, adding in more seats in the future would be a good decision.

If you build a park too small, I don't know if you could push the walls far enough to make it more pitcher friendly. I know of only two parks that have pushed their walls back over the years and that was BAL and KC.