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The A's and Royals held talks for infielder Alberto Callaspo at the GM Meetings, according to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports.  The A's would've used Callaspo at third base, but "talks failed to progress."

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With our boys blazing away in September, some things have started to clear up for 2010.
I thought I'd share what we could possibly do this off-season.

Opening Day line up:

C1 Suzuki

1B Uggla/Glaus

2B Ellis

3B Wallace/Glaus

SS Pennington

LF Carter

CF Davis

RF Sweeney + Hairston platoon

DH Uggla/Glaus/Carter/Wallace

C2 Powell

OF Cunningham

IF Iwamura or J.Hairston or Kennedy or O-Cab.

Retired/DL Chavez

Notes:

-Uggla AND Glaus? Yes, Uggla and Glaus. The Marlins are going to be hawking Uggla on the trade market (because they are too cheap to pay him) and Billy needs to be right there to lap up his RH power-y goodness. His fielding is inconsistent from year to year, ranging from average to bad, moving him to 1B/DH can only be a good thing. Also, his K/BB has improved out of sight this year and he has had an excellent 2nd half offensively. Glaus is the sort of cheap post-injury retread that we usually get, and if he is all the way back from surgery he can play some 3B (which UZR thinks he played quite adequately in '06-'07-'08).

-Where is SpartaCust? Either traded or non-tendered. It has finally come to the time where he is going to cost us too much for what he is. He is eligible for arbitration for the second time, and for 5ish million, a mediocre/declining (2009) bat + disaster in the field is not the right price. Also, he has stopped hitting LHP this year. Will probably be unpopular amongst ANers, but the right decision.

I could see Carter starting in AAA for April/May so that we can keep him under control longer, in that case Cunningham or Buck or Hairston or a warm body would hold his place.

SP Anderson

SP G.Gonzalez

SP Cahill

SP Braden

SP B.Myers

SP Mazzaro

P Breslow

P Kilby

P Blevins or Gray

P Ziegler

P Wuertz

P Bailey

DL Outman

DL Devine

Notes:

-You wouldn't believe it, but Brett Myers is actually a ground ball-leaning pitcher. Maybe the offense killing Coliseum will be a boost to his numbers (especially HR/FB). Having an injury-plagued last couple of years, and allegedly being a “clubhouse cancer” potentially puts him right in our price range.

-We have so many potential relievers that the A's could possibly use one or more of them to snag another bat or SP.

So there you have it. A trade with the Marlins and a couple of buy low free agent moves (if they want to come to us, of course), plus the debuts of Carter and Wallace create a dangerous, reasonably priced contending team in my opinion.

G'day A's Nation peeps,

My girlfriend and I are coming (from Australia) to San Fran, and are going to see 3 of the early September games against Seattle.

I am just posting this to see if there are any tips you can offer about going to a game at the Coliseum.

Best place to sit?
Best place to buy tickets?
Best time to get there?
Best place to buy merchandise?
Any other advice?

These will actually be my first live MLB games, and I'm hoping to see Gio/Anderson/Wallace(if he's up). Ironically when we booked (months ago) I was hoping to see Giambi and Holliday.

Anyways, thanks in advance :-)

G'day, first post :-)

We need hitting - FACT.

Our kiddie pitchers are showing us a bright, shiny near-future - FACT

So here are a couple of hitters I think Billy should trade for, stat, that I think he can get for less then they are worth.

#1. Dan Uggla, Marlins.

The Marlins hate this guy. He took them to arbitration this year (that bastid). Most likely he'll be wanting to be paid far more then the frugal Marlins are willing to pay in 2010 too. They have a viable (but obviously not as good) replacement in Chris Coghlan for 2B.

Before you say it, yes he is terrible at 2B this year. But I don't want him for that. Uggla is our (for the next 2+ years at least) 3rd baseman. Using UZR, he was decent in 2006 and 2008 in the field.

Hitting-wise in 2009 he looks like he is stinking up the place. But if you look deeper, his BB/K has improved radically from 2008 (77-171 to 52-81) and his BABIP is a low .254 so far, down from a career .299 - meaning he's probably been pretty unlucky so far.

This is a text book profile of a tasty buy low.

What will he cost?
Well the Marlins need a bit of OF depth and some relief pitching. If they truly think they can contend this year, maybe they'd like Holliday + a RP (pick one) + cash for Uggla +  1 or 2 prospects. If they don't want Holliday, maybe there is some sort of OF/RP package that they would like. (Eric Patterson?)

#2. Kila Kaaihue, KC Royals

The Royals don't want him in the majors. Why in blue blazes do you trade for Mike Jacobs to start over him?

Why we want him:

- Team controlled for 6 years
- Last year - .314/.456/.628, 104-67 BB/K. Wow!
- Rotting on the vine, so might be in our price range.

What will he cost?
I have no idea. Most likely some sort of SP, or a catcher. Maybe Dayton Moore will fall in love with one of our lesser players a'la the Betancourt deal and give us a bargain.

Anybody agree or disagree with me? I'd love to have both of these guys on the A's.