Let's face it, things have been boring since the A's traded Cahill for Jarrod Parker, Collin Cowgill, and Ryan Cook. The next big hump in the 2011-2012 MLB postseason, which was the announcement of which team posted the winning bid for Japanese phenom Yu Darvish, has come and gone. And much to the chagrin of most Athletics fans, that winning bid came from the Texas Rangers. The rich get richer, I guess?

How this affects the Oakland Athletics in coming days should be obvious. Any team that lost out on Darvish has one less impact target to choose from. Latos is already off the table. John Danks and Gavin Floyd are both viable options, but neither of them comes with the obvious luxury of having at least four more years of team control. From recent rumors, it sounds like the second place team in the Darvish bidding was Toronto, who already supposedly expressed real interest in Gio Gonzalez.

Per Slusser, Toronto's farm system is loaded, so trading for Gonzalez "makes the most sense right now." I definitely wouldn't be surprised, and I wouldn't be unhappy. Their farm system really is chock-full of talent. The other teams who have apparent interest in Gonzalez is Detroit (from whom the A's reportedly asked for Jacob Turner, Drew Smyly, and Nick Castellanos), Washington (who has reportedly discussed a four-for-one deal), New York (who are reluctant to include pitching prospects and Jesus Montero), and possibly Kansas City (who is reluctant to include top prospect Wil Myers in any deal).

Things should pick up fairly quickly.

IMPERIAL PROCLAMATION!! Let's have Nate's excellent Draft post, which exceeds what I could achieve even were I to receive Joe Posnanski's brain in a transplant, be the thread for comments and observations on this afternoon's developments. 

The Draft begins at 3 PM Pacific Time from the studios of the MLB Network and can be seen on that channel... I'll be by with fun-n-frolicksome Game Threads of rib-tickling hilarity -- complete with pictures of the mysterious-yet-legendary "Loch Ness slegnA," as game time approaches at 7 PM.                

-emperor nobody

With the MLB draft tomorrow, more and more rumors are swirling around. At the start of the mock draft season, the A's were linked most often with Michael Choice and Bryce Brentz, two college outfielders. Then the projections started pairing Oakland with a pair of high school arms, Dylan Covey and Karston Whitson. They have also been linked with shortstop Christian Colon, high school pitcher Stetson Allie, and high school outfielder Josh Sale. 

Most of those projections had Zack Cox going somewhere in the first nine picks, usually to Houston or the Mets. According to Franklin Piliere, MLB analyst who is running some draft rumor updates at FanHouse.com, "We are continuing to get word that the Mets are heavily leaning toward Justin O'Conner with the seventh overall pick.... If Chris Sale or Drew Pomeranz gets to them, they will likely take one of the pair over O'Conner." Most projections don't have either of those two getting to them, but even if they do, he writes the Astros are leaning heavily towards taking high school outfielder Josh Sale. He also writes the Padres will choose between Choice or Kolbin Vitek. 

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The A's season is over. The minor league season is over. The AFL is over. This is a sad time for baseball fans, and with Beane's recent comments that the A's likely will not make a big splash (or even a little tiny splash) in the free agent market this year, it looks like it will be a long winter with very little news for A's fans. 

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Something I’ve never understood, as a baseball fan—or even a sports fan in general—is why fans are so quick to turn around after a failure and go for the throat. Even in the playoffs, fans are so quick to mutiny against the people that got them that far in the first place.

Here at AN, there has been a whole bunch of Beane hating lately, and it’s all nonsense. I’ve heard people attack him and try to hold him responsible for the team’s shortcomings in the playoffs, as if it was Beane himself that failed to slide in that all-too-infamous play.

I am not a member of the In Billy We Trust club, but I’ll be damned if he isn’t one of the best GMs in the game today, and I can defend nearly every move he’s made in the past several years. I’m going to start by defending the trades that everybody points to when they’re trying to prove their “Beane Sucks!!!” theories.

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Obviously this website is for MiLB players, but there are plenty of posts regarding prospects that recently reached the majors, and how they are faring. If you guys don't think this is the right place for this post, let me know and I'll take it down. Hopefully though it will generate some discussion and maybe even get rec'd and move Daaron's ridiculous Mazzaro posts.

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I love watching A's games, and I love dissecting box scores afterward. And while I do pay quite a bit of attention to some of the more intricate statistics, I rarely check up on season statistics. Today, I did just that. I was quite shocked to see Jack Cust sporting a lowly .760 OPS - well, lowly for him anyway.

So, what's the deal with Cust?

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Taking a page out of last year's draft's book, the A's took several talented players in the later rounds and went over the recommended slot bonus to sign them. That's why we have Brett Hunter, Rashun Dixon, and Dusty Coleman in the system right now.

This year, as many of you know, the A's did the same thing. The A's will almost certainly have to go above the recommended bonus to sign Green, a Boras client, who is rumored to be asking for $4MM. Since the A's shortstop cupboard is all but bare, save for Coleman in Kane County, the A's would be foolish not to sign a talent like Green.

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In the third installment of my Oakland Trade Bait series, I'm going to be doing something a little differently. Instead of looking at who Oakland has to trade, I'm going to be looking at who Oakland wants. With last night's news that Eric Chavez's career is all but over, Oakland's problem at third base has changed from a big hole to a vast, gaping chasm.

The Carter experiment was a big failure. Other than that, it was been basically fill-ins at the hot corner for A's affiliates. Cardenas could eventually make the move, but only if Ellis is healthy and not traded, and then after that, if Jemile Weeks stays healthy and gets something out of his potential. Jason Christian and Christian Vitters are doing alright in the low minors, but neither could help Oakland right now, and neither project to be stars.

Today I will be looking at almost every 3B prospect in the National League. As a reference, I mainly used John Sickels' blog, which is a tremendous site which you should check out if you aren't already a member. I'll be looking at 3B prospects team by team, comparing their holes with our strengths, and looking at possible win/win deals.

The A's strength is obviously pitching up and down. And I mean all kinds of pitching: safe bets like Outman and Simmons, wild cards like H-Rod and Leon, and high-risk, high-reward types like Hunter and Ross. Oakland also has quite a bit of strength at 1B, with Doolittle, Carter and Barton. Second base is also a strong point, with strong prospects like Weeks and Cardenas and high quality replacement level players like Pennington and Petit.

In looking at different prospects, I'll be including where Sickels ranked them in his top 20 by team (on his website, not his book), his grade (in this case A through C, where all grades take into account risk, potential, etc.), whatever little blurbs he wrote about them on his website, and how they're doing this year.

By the way, you are forewarned. This post is a doozy.

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The Unicorn is an interesting case when it comes to Oakland's trade bait. He's injured right now and it's a leg injury which, if it ends up affecting him when he comes back, could hurt his range an awful lot. He is expected to come back early-to-mid June.

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Alright, I'd like to start by saying that the season is less than 1/5th of the way over, and as poorly as the A's have played, Mark Ellis is set to return in 4 to 6 weeks, and Duchscherer is able to come off the DL June 4th and is rehabbing as a starter, as SuSlu reports. So there is help on the way.

I also find it hard to believe that Holliday's BABIP will continue to sit at .259 or that Giambi will continue to OPS just over .700, or that O-Cab will also continue to OPS a weak .543, because that's just ridiculous. We have good hitters on this team and I have faith that they will hit. Eventually those flyballs will start leaving the park at a normal rate.

But, because it's an off day and because off days are the bain of my existence, let's look at another scenario. Cue ominous music. I'll be looking at our trade bait, and possible scenarios that could come to be if the A's are out of the running come the deadline.

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I was comparing our two young, bright-futured pitchers and I was surprised to find that their careers mirror each other's so closely, and yet they're still such different pitchers. It's actually kind of ridiculous. That's why I'm writing this fanpost.

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I understand that it is very early in the season to be making posts like this, but today's near perfecto/no-no/shutout left a bitter taste in my mouth. And also, it may be not be that bad a time to do it as a number of unfortunate events have occured recently. Chavez is injured and as we all know, this could very well end up being much worse than it appears (it appears bad, too). Nomar also left the game yesterday, though it appears to be much less serious than Chavy's, I'll get to why it is still important here in a moment.

Warning: Light to Mild Rosterbation follows...

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That's what Yahoo!'s Tim Brown is saying.

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According to MLBTradeRumors.com, the A's have traded Matt Murton to the Rockies for infielder Corey Wimberly. Wimberly played primarily second base for the Colorado system and he ranked as the 26th best prospect according to Baseball America.

I've never heard of the guy. He seems fast, though. And Matt Murton wasn't really in the discussion of making the team as an outfielder. After Holliday, Sweeney, Cust, Buck, Denorfia, Cunningham, Davis, etc... 

More details if any more come out.

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