How about our future A's

Eastbayjim — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:17:41 -0000

How about us looking at the positives of rest of this season and 2009

There really isn’t much sense in blaming anyone like Geren or Beane or Nico’s goat for this year’s downturn. Let’s look at what we have and what options we have for next year.

Position Players

C- Suzuki - He is the starting Catcher for the duration. I do think that Powell, if he stays healthy will be the backup for 2009 and beyond.

1B – Barton - He needs to get back to his old hitting style and forget about the pressure. Not sure how long before Doolittle or Everidge can come up but I would put my money on Doolittle winning out of the three for long term solution at 1B. Doolittle provides one half of the Power 1B that people have been wanting.

2B – Ellis – Possibly his last year with the team but you never know. I would probably put 2009 as a competition between our infield prospects below.

SS – Crosby - Probably here through 2009 if BB doesn’t decide to extend him (Just kidding), But I bet there is a competition for SS too.

3B - Hannahan - Depends on what BB really thinks of Baisley. We have a couple different long term possibilities here with Carter playing 3rd now. Carter, if he can handle 3B long term would be the Power for this corner IF position.

Infield prospects:

Guzman

Pennington

Petit

Cardenas

Horton

Patterson

Who do you think will m ake it from the above list in 2009? I like Cardenas (probably later than 2009) and Patterson.

OF - Cargon CF, Sweeney RF are our main outfielders now and for the future. I do believe these two will grow to be well above average fielders and hitters but I don’t have any stats to prove my futuristic point. Just a hunch. I felt this same way when Ricky Henderson came up.. but who knows. Hopefully Buck can get his head and body on straight and healthy and start playing like he can. I really think that Cunningham is the future CF with Cargon moving to RF and Sweeney to LF. That would be one hell of an outfield. And finially we get some potential Power out there.

Starting Pitchers:

Duke - looks like he will be traded in the offseason but he would be a mainstay if he doesn’t get dealt.

Gallagher – is going to have the opportunity to excel and I think he may be able to handle that.

Greg Smith - he could stay long term also as he has the skills to improve.

Gio - I think Gio will definately be ready for Sept 2008 and to stay up in 2009.

Mazzaro - He is up in Sac now I heard and has been getting better and better. He may be ready sometime next year.

Relief Pitchers:

Street – He could get dealt but would be a good setup pitcher for us in the future.

Brown – Once he gets completely healthy again he is going to be a good Middle relief guy for us.

Ziegler – HE STAYS - Could do some closing.. or at least be a top of the line setup pitcher.

Blevins – Another who could stay around as a middle relief pitcher.

Casilla – Depends on which guy shows up but I like his style and hopefully he gets more and more comfortable with middle relief pitching… and if he can settle down a little he could be a top notch closer.

Devine – Everyone loves this guy. Thank you Kotsay! He could be long term anywhere in the relief corps, including closer of the future.

Ok, now that I have said my piece, let's forget about blame and look at the bright for our A’s. Of course BB could actually trade for a top SS or 3B but I have to go with what we already have.

Who can we get for futures SS and 3B

Eastbayjim — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:05:51 -0000

This is my first attempt at a diary so, here goes.

With all of the talk about how bad or not good, Crosby is and how alot of us aren't sure if Chavez will fully recover I thought about finding out where we can upgrade these two positions for the future.

Who can we trade and what can we get.

After our other trades I realized that we still need to upgrade our minor leagues with good SS and 3B prospects.

One thought I had was the possibility of trading Street and a minor leaguer or two to get a new SS and 3B for our future.
So, how do we get new SS and 3B prospects? (0 / 0)

I found on ESPN insider (sorry don't have the link) where Keith Law lists the top 5 prospects by team. Here are the teams that have one or more shortstops or 3B in the list. Now, who can we trade (Street?) for these?

Boston
Jed Lowrie, ss

Chicago Cubs
Josh Vitters, 3b

Cleveland
Wes Hodges, 3b

Colorado
Ian Stewart, 3b
Chris Nelson, ss
Hector Gomez, ss

Detroit
Cale Iorg, ss
Danny Worth, ss

Florida
Matt Dominguez, 3b

Kansas City
Mike Moustakas, ss

Los Angeles Angels
Brandon Wood, 3b

Los Angeles Dodgers
Andy LaRoche, 3b
Chin-Lung Hu, ss

Milwaukee
Alcides Escobar, ss

Pittsburgh
Neil Walker, 3b

San Diego
Chase Headley, 3

Seattle
Carlos Triunfel, ss

Tampa Bay
Evan Longoria, 3b

Texas
Elvis Andrus, ss

Toronto
Kevin Ahrens, 3b

SB Nation User Blog: Eastbayjim

How about our future A's

Who can we get for futures SS and 3B