I have been an A's fan my whole life, never switching allegiances despite logistical barriers because I identified with the philosophy and story of the organization...but I'm having my doubts now. Our organization seems to know nothing about developing hitters, at least without the help of steroids...

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Seriously A's fans. Just how long are we going to be content with Bobby Crosby in the lineup? This man has proven his inability to hit one too many times for even the most optimistic Crosby fans and his 3B defense has certainly improved, but he is no gem out there.

Could Adrian Cardenas match Crosby's production (that word just doesn't feel right) right now? Its starting to look that way.

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I'm a huge A's fan - love the Rays also. I really love Carlos Pena because I have followed his entire career (since it started in Oakland) and I am so glad to see him tap into that immense potential.

I am also an avid fantasy baseball player and I love to draft Pena on my teams, but I haven't been able to watch him play at all and I was hoping some Rays fans could rationalize his inconsistency for me:

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http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/free-matt-murton

The above link is a fangraphs.com piece written about the value of matt murton right now.

We should have kept him, look at this gem:

In his first 50 PAs for Colorado Springs, Murton is hitting .409/.480/.636 with six extra base hits, five walks, and just one strikeout. He’s running a .510 wOBA...

and this one...

At the least, Murton should be a right-handed platoon caddy for a team that has a LH hitting OF that struggles against same handed pitchers. Or a defensive replacement/pinch hitter in the NL. There’s no way that there are 750 better baseball players on the planet that Murton.

Hmmm...sounds familiar, FML

Over at MLBtraderumors.com, there is a post about some rumblings and grumblings between the Mets and Ben Sheets.

Long story short, Ben Sheets is believed to be asking for $18mill/2 years with a third option year - Yes, really.

Just over three weeks ago, AN's very own Blicks made what I thought was an extremely compelling case for signing Ben Sheets.

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You will not find a bigger Orlando Cabrera hater than myself. He's a bum. Not only did I always think he was over-rated, but I have always found myself naturally opposed to the teams he has played for - okay, not the Expos, but I loathed his presence on each of the dreaded Red Sox, Angels, and White Sox. (Red Sox for acting entitled, White Sox for the betterment of sabermetrics, and the Angels for being the Slegna.)

However, I was reading a random thread about Cabrera in which a commenter mentioned that Cabrera had been "lucky" to go to the playoffs with all of those squads. Upon reading this, I had to pause and think for a second, was it just luck or was it possible that despite his reputation as a negative team presence Cabrera might actually improve the players around him?

The following is my attempt at answering this question...

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EDIT:  Rumor has been shot down, crap!

MLBtraderumors suggests that the angels are interested in trading for Jermaine Dye and that the White Sox would seek Figgins, possibly more in return...

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In all likelihood, Matt Holliday will actually be the OBP King of the A's next year. Its certainly not a lock, but given that of our 3 sluggers, Holliday is the youngest (turns 29 in 4 days) and given that his OBP has been steadily increasing year-to-year:

.349....361...387....405....408 last season

It is somewhat likely that this will decrease in Oakland, but if so not by much. Looks like ~400 is about the peak anyway, which makes sense for his age.

Now then, lets shift our attention to the likely runner-up - Cust or Giambi?

I am not asking who is a better player, or even how well either of these guys does next season, but rather I simply want to take a heat-check on ANers and see who thinks Giambi will have a higher OBP than Cust next season or vice versa (assuming relative health)...

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While waiting for the annoying MegaVideo cooldown period to end I decided to take a look at some of my favorite secondary baseball blogs: LL, BTBS, and of course, for novelty Halos Heaven. While there I came across an interesting nugget that puts words to my sense of optimism going into the 2009 season.

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Okay, 'Ben Sheets' was a dirty trick to get people in here, but I seriously do love the guy and would like to see some pros and cons about acquiring him. He could come with a short-term contract I think, and I mean whatever the Rangers offer him we could match and he'd probably rather play in the pitcher-friendly confines of Oakland...

But anyway...

So I was looking at some baseball gambling sites, and I noticed that right now the A's are projected at a 1/41 shot to win the world series, in the lowest tier of the projected teams. Seeing as gambling reflects the consumer and not the expert, it is no surprise that the A's are perpetually undervalued, so I ask the question -- is now the time to take a shot at capitalizing on this inequality, albeit an unlikely winner?

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Here is the article from mlb.com: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081126&content_id=3694591&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp, definitely somewhat of a rosterbation piece, but Sabathia seems somewhat likely, and Peavy could definitely happen as well. We would just have to hope the Yankees make this impossible.

Hypothetically anyway, if the Angels sported a rotation of Peavy, Sabathia, Lackey, Santana, Saunders...I could see the A's being screwed for a couple of years. Our offense had better be a TON better than theirs if this rotation were to come to fruition. Scary idea.

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Hi AN,

I have a friend looking at stadium financing projections for an economics course.  He is trying to find out what portion of the complete stadium proposal (Cisco Field + the adjacent community village around the stadium) will be financed by Fremont tax dollars?  He has scoured the internet searching for this information and asked if I might know something...well, I don't, but I do know that the collective database that is the AN community often does, so if anyone has any information about this I'd be greatly appreciative, thanks.

Also, while looking at the stadium proposal, it is interesting to note that most of the financing will not be for the stadium itself, but for the production of residential neighborhoods (mostly townhouses), commercial sections for retailers and restaurants, and schools.

Who knew.