Official Oakland Athletics Season Thread

[sohi 23]

Originally Posted by bbllplaya23

Also, I've heard a few people say Barry over Thomas but do you think Barry is going to sign at the price we paid for Frank? Because there is NO WAY IN HELL he is worth what he has made over the past few years.

At this point, I think Barry would take any offer given to him

 

[GreenNGold89]

Originally Posted by SoHi 23

Originally Posted by bbllplaya23

Also, I've heard a few people say Barry over Thomas but do you think Barry is going to sign at the price we paid for Frank? Because there is NO WAY IN HELL he is worth what he has made over the past few years.

At this point, I think Barry would take any offer given to him

Maybe. I don't know it is probably just me because I just HATE him so much.

 

[dr 715]

HATE is such a strong word.

But weren't you the dude with the pro A's and anti Giants avy?

... Even though theres no real rivalry there?

 

[acidicality]

Frank Thomas

 

[GreenNGold89]

Originally Posted by Dr 715

HATE is such a strong word.

But weren't you the dude with the pro A's and anti Giants avy?

... Even though theres no real rivalry there?

Yeah that was me. You can say there is no rivalry all you want, but the giants fans I know MAKE me HATE that squad. The majority of giant fans onthis board are cool and know baseball. On the other hand, the ones I know

. There was a giants fan that told me they would win it all like a couple of yearsago, and there was NO SHOT of it happening. I know all teams have fans like that but I just know way too many of them. Plus I've gotten +*%# thrown at meat the giants games

, so yeah my hate runs deep for that team.

 

[dr 715]

Oh, duh ... Of course there is an A's season thread ... I've already posted in here. But thanks for the link to whomever provided it in theA's-Mariners thread.

I was curious to see what kind of prospects the Giants and A's had so here it goes. Accord to Keith Law:

Oakland
1. Daric Barton, 1b
2. Carlos Gonzalez, cf
3. Fautino de los Santos, rhp
4. Trevor Cahill, rhp
5. Gio Gonzalez, lhp
[table][tr][td]

38​

[/td] [td]

Daric Barton​

[/td] [td]

1B​

[/td] [td]

Oakland A's
TOP '07 LEVEL: Majors​

[/td] [td]

22​

[/td] [/tr][tr][td]People who didn't read or didn't understand Moneyball would refer to Barton as a Moneyball player, because he gets on base and isn't a great athlete. He was a first-round pick by St. Louis, which traded him to Oakland in the Mark Mulder deal, so it's hard to argue that the market undervalued his skills (which was the real point of the book). Now, Barton would be highly coveted by a number of clubs because he is big league ready and has a very advanced approach at the plate. The question is his power, which projects in only the 15-20 homer range, light for a first baseman. That increases the pressure on Barton to put up OBPs in the low .400s to provide sufficient offensive value. He has a good enough eye and good enough plate coverage to do it.[/td] [/tr][/table]
[table][tr][td]

42​

[/td] [td]

Carlos Gonzalez​

[/td] [td]

CF/RF​

[/td] [td]

Oakland A's
TOP '07 LEVEL: AAA (Tucson)​

[/td] [td]

22​

[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gonzalez, the centerpiece of Oakland's haul in the Dan Haren trade, still has not seen his performance catch up to his tools. He has a smooth, simple, left-handed swing that should generate a ton of contact, but he is too pull-oriented and leaves himself exposed on the outer half. He already has 55 power and projects to have more as he fills out, but he will need to continue to work on his pitch recognition and approach to get to that level. On defense, he played mostly right field in the Arizona system, which was chock-full of center fielders, but he could return to center in the Oakland organization, giving him some star potential. He has an average arm for right field, but he gets good reads off the ball and should be fine in center if the A's choose to put him there.[/td] [/tr][/table]
[table][tr][td]

57​

[/td] [td]

Fautino
de los Santos​

[/td] [td]

RHP​

[/td] [td]

Oakland A's
TOP '07 LEVEL:
A (Winston-Salem)​

[/td] [td]

22​

[/td] [/tr][tr][td]De los Santos was the potential star among the three players the A's received from the White Sox for Nick Swisher. He's a two-pitch pitcher with a 91-95 mph fastball with some late life and a hard breaking ball with a sharp 11-to-5 break. His command is below average, and he has a tendency to leave his front shoulder open, especially when throwing the breaking ball, and he doesn't have a solid third pitch. At worst, he projects as a power two-pitch reliever in a set-up or closer role, but he has a chance to mature into a top-of-the-rotation starter.[/td] [/tr][/table]
[table][tr][td]

94​

[/td] [td]

Trevor Cahill​

[/td] [td]

RHP​

[/td] [td]

Oakland A's
TOP '07 LEVEL: A (Kane County)​

[/td] [td]

20​

[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Cahill gets good sink on a solid-average fastball and flashes a plus curveball with very good depth. His arm is quick, but he needs to work on keeping his front shoulder closed, and his control is still below-average.[/td] [/tr][/table]
Gonzalez didn't make the top 100 list.

P.S. I'm like JapanAir in a Warriors thread.

 

[GreenNGold89]

Gaudin moving to A's bullpen
By JANIE McCAULEY, AP Sports Writer
1 hour, 32 minutes ago

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)-Chad Gaudin is moving from the Oakland Athletics' rotation to the bullpen, where he's spent most of his previous five major league seasons.

The A's need to make room for the return of right-handed starter Rich Harden, who is scheduled to come off the 15-day disabled list to start Sunday's series finale at Texas.

The 25-year-old Gaudin has a 3-2 record with a 3.75 ERA in six starts this season after he made 34 starts in 2007 as a full-time starter for the first time.

"It was a very difficult decision with all of our starters throwing well," manager Bob Geren said Wednesday. "The bullpen will be one of our strengths and a deeper one with him. … When you have five starters throwing well and one of them is not going to start, I don't expect him to be happy about it."

Gaudin wasn't available to address the situation before Wednesday's series finale with the Baltimore Orioles.

Harden, on the disabled list with a strained throwing shoulder since April 10, is 1-0 with an 0.82 ERA in two starts this year before he felt some soreness while throwing a side session after Oakland returned from their opening series in Japan.

The 26-year-old Harden was limited to seven games for Oakland last season because of shoulder injuries. He has been on the DL five times in the last three years.

He struck out nine in six scoreless innings in a rehab start for Class-A Stockton on Tuesday, his final minor league tuneup. He allowed three hits, plunked three and didn't walk a batter.

"Chad's not far from a proven starter," closer Huston Street said. "We know what he can do out of the bullpen in any role. He satisfies an eighth-inning setup guy or someone who can pitch six innings. We're pretty versatile. I know it's going to be an adjustment for him and I know he prefers to start, but with Rich back and him in the pen, it makes us a much stronger team."

Oakland general manager Billy Beane said he would listen to clubs that might be looking to acquire a pitcher, but he also likes having a plethora of pitchers.

"You're always looking for opportunities," Beane said. "I was in the Dominican the last couple of days. I should probably chuckle at it, but it was like, 'They have a big problem on their hands. What are they going to do with this?' You should see my problems a year ago. We've got spots for all our good pitchers is probably the best way of saying it. Ultimately, if there are some needs as we go along that can be addressed by using that, I don't think we'd be against that either."


I don't know about this. I would kind of rather go with a 6 man rotation. But honestly, don't trip Gaudin, you'll be back in the rotation next tripwith Rich's history.

 

[eagle 0n]

San Jose A's FTW
Fremont A's FTL

From the get I've been opposed to the A's moving to Fremont. As much as I would want a shiny new stadium, the Fremont plan didn't sound like a longterm solution for our attendance woes. No disrespect to Fremont but placing a baseball team there would suck, plus the traffic on 880 would be 100x worse ifthe A's moved there.

Ultimately I'd love for the A's to stay in the 'Town but if they're going to move I think San Jose is the only option. I believe the A'scould generate far greater revunue in San Jose > Fremont. http://

[h1][/h1]

[h1]Purdy: Might Magowan's departure rekindle San Jose A's talks?[/h1]
Mark Purdy
Mercury News Columnist

Article Launched: 05/16/2008 01:34:29 AM PDT


Click photo to enlarge


During the 15 years that Magowan has operated the franchise, he has never... (SUSAN TRIPP POLLARD)

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Blogs about the Giants

Let's cut to the chase for South Bay sports citizens:

Will the Giants' new ownership structure end up being more open about the team's territorial rights to Santa Clara County?

And does that mean a potential San Jose ballpark for the A's could be back on the table?

My best stab at the answer to both questions: Why in the name of Cisco Field wouldn't it?

I know this much, from multiple baseball sources: Peter Magowan, the Giants' managing general partner, will step down today from that position at a scheduled team ownership meeting and will sell all or much of his 15 percent stake in the team. It was definitely the word floating around the hotel in Milwaukee at this week's Major League Baseball meetings.

According to one set of eyeballs in attendance, Magowan showed up in Milwaukee just briefly, quietly moving in and out of town. He looked weary, spent, exhausted and more beleaguered than his team's batting order.

I can only imagine. During the 15 years that Magowan has operated the franchise, he has never had an easy task herding the Giants' 30-member ownership group into one cohesive body. It was probably his most underrated skill. He kept the group content for much of the time.

But things changed. Developments of the past two years - Barry Bonds' steroid shame, the Barry Zito cash giveaway, the ongoing ballpark mortgage payments combined with more and more empty seats - created more and more discontent among

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the 29 other owners. Magowan's herding technique couldn't cope.
And now, apparently, he has surrendered. Magowan was either coaxed to give up his position or decided on his own that enough was enough. It hardly matters. Same result. He's out.

But this is where things grow intriguing from the South Bay angle. Among all of the Giants' owners, Magowan was the one standing most intractably at the team's territorial rights barricade. The other owners, at least the ones who speak about it, are far more ambivalent about the issue.

To review: Those territorial rights give the Giants complete control of Santa Clara County as a baseball market. This makes San Jose the only large city in America forbidden to build a ballpark for a Major League team. And it explains why the A's are pursuing their Cisco Field project just over the county border, in Fremont.

That project is proceeding, but sluggishly. Last month, the A's pushed back their expected Fremont ballpark completion date from 2011 to 2012. Groundbreaking is far from imminent.

In other words, the timing of Magowan's exit could be fortuitous. Without him, you have to wonder if the Giants' ownership group might consider dismantling the territorial rights barricade. Negotiations with the A's could commence, negotiations that would at least give the team a chance to examine a San Jose or Santa Clara ballpark option. Would the A's be interested? I know enough to know they would.

Of course, this all depends on the person who steps into Magowan's role. The Giants' new ownership face, my usually reliable voices say, will be William Neukom. He is currently the Giants' general partner, third on the franchise masthead behind Magowan and Sue Burns, who owns the largest share (32 percent) of the franchise. Neukom joined the ownership group in 1995 and stepped up to his current position in 2004.

Neukom's further ascension, into Magowan's role, makes sense. Burns is not eager to become a public figure. Neukom is very comfortable appearing on the big stage. He spent almost 25 years as chief lawyer for Microsoft, guiding the firm through major anti-trust cases and other lawsuits before the highest courts in the land. He's also president of the American Bar Association.

He must be an intelligent guy, William Neukom. He's a 1967 graduate of Stanford law school who, a decade later, went to work for a Seattle law firm at which Bill Gates' father was a partner. When Microsoft started up, dad told son that Neukom would be the perfect company lawyer. Neukom smartly agreed. In 2002, he retired from the job with an estimated $600 million fortune.

Neukom has been charitable with his money. He gave $20 million to Stanford in 2006, for example. But over the past five years, Neukom has also contributed thousands to baseball's lobbying arm in Washington, D.C., the MLB Political Action Committee. That shows me Neukom has been thinking big ownership picture for quite a while.

There's no guarantee Neukom is the guy. My information could be wrong. And all of it will be subject to a vote at today's ownership meeting. But whether the new face is Neukom or someone else, the new person will surely find it prudent to re-examine the territorial rights issue.

Why? Reports are that because of the large ballpark mortgage, the Giants' investors have been subject to several cash calls, which means they've had to pony up more money to keep their share of the franchise. If negotiations with the A's instead produce a cash flow into the owners' pockets, wouldn't that be preferable? Isn't a return on investment better than an outflow?

Just asking. Let's see how the new face of the franchise answers.

 

[mfr3shm]

Mark Kotsay has been playing great for the Braves very good defense and is putting good offensive numbers too very solid player.

What about Joey Devine? is he in the minors or majors?

 

[eagle 0n]

^ Devine's had a couple relief stints this year. I'm not sure if we sent him back down to the minors though, I haven't seen him in any of the gamesrecently.

As for Kotsay, I alwasy felt he was underrated and has gold glove caliber defense in CF. Hopefully, he can stay healthy this year but you never know when itcomes to a player with chronic back problems.

 

[paul is on tilt]

A's fans, is Chavez going to be an everyday player now that he's back? Yesterday he played DH so I'm thinking they're still a little tentativeto put him on the field for defense or maybe it was just Frank Thomas needing a day off... what is the news coming from the A's organization?

 

[smokey1212]

Athletics activated third baseman Eric Chavez from the 60-day disabled list.
Travis Buck will stay in the minors for now. Chavez is expected to alternate between third base and DH duties while Frank Thomas is out. That will keep JackHannahan very much in the mix, but Hannahan does figure to lose a lot of his playing time eventually.

Frank moved to the 15-day DL

 

[wearinthefourfive]

CarGO up, Petit Down, Sweeney's on DL, Frank on DL, Chavee is back, fiorentino DFA'd, Calero back.

Busy week for the A's.

 

[GreenNGold89]

All I want is a healthy team

. We need a new $#*#$@# training staff. If we were in NY, they would have been exposed already.

 

[acidicality]

San Jose or Fremont would be good to me

, either one would be nice. but don't they already have a plan all put together for fremont alreadythough?

 

[0aktown]

the DL is like a revolving door right now. frank and ryan were essential in our lineup. chavvy better find his stroke soon or our offense will remain anemic