News that the A's have signed Yoenis Cespedes to a 4 year, $36M deal has Oakland fans legitimately excited. It's also another move that smacks of confidence that the team will get the go ahead to build a new stadium soon, though Lew Wolff recently acknowledged that in regards to San Jose, "soon" probably meant for the 2016 season. So how does Cespedes, a 26-year old OFer under contract through 2015, fit in with the hopes of building a new stadium to move into for the 2016 campaign?

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As soon as the A's dealt Trevor Cahill, they set their sights on acquiring Tom Milone. Not because Milone will be a good pitcher, mind you, but rather because the A's always need to have at least one highly controversial figure on AN -- a polarizing player whose "true ability" no one can agree on -- and with Jack Cust already gone, and now Cahill gone, there was a void to fill. Enter Milone.

Here are some objective facts about Milone followed, after the jump, by some observations I will add to the analysis and overall conversation of "What should we expect? How good can this guy be? How good will this guy be?"

• Milone was a 10th round draft pick.
• Milone turns 25 on Thursday.
• Milone's fastball, in his 2011 big league stint with Washington, averaged 87.8 MPH.
• Milone's K/9IP rate at AAA last year was 9.4 and his K/BB ratio was 9.7.
• Milone's K/9IP rate in his minor league career is 8.1 and his K/BB ratio is 5.5.
• Milone's repertoire is a fastball, changeup, cutter and curve.

What does it all mean? I sure don't have all the answers, but I may have a few useful pieces to add to the puzzle.

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First of all, don't worry: Fanposts have not undergone any surgeries or embalmings. A network-wide technical problem has rendered them "day to day," and they should be back soon. The same, however, cannot be said of pitcher Rich Harden.

As Susan Slusser notes in this morning's Chronicle, last week Harden had shoulder surgery for a torn capsule that he says dates back to reaching for a comebacker in April, 2007. Pitching through this injury, which is analogous to the ones that have recently felled Johan Santana and Dallas Braden, purports to explain Harden's low velocity in 1st innings last season. So Rich, like the A's, is rebuilding.

Part I of this series featured Brandon McCarthy, Part II featured Josh Reddick, Part III featured Seth Smith, and Part IV featured Cliff Pennington. In our final installment, after the jump A's manager Bob Melvin addresses the crowded 1B picture, evaluating the young talent in general, leadership on this particularly young team, and his options for closers. The photo below is by our own Optimist Prime.

"I don't like to undermine my own players,
but the fish Cliffy caught was only this far from shore."

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Part I of this series featured Brandon McCarthy, Part II featured Josh Reddick, and Part III featured Seth Smith. Next?

"Pennington Station...Now boarding..."

At 27 years old, with 3 major league seasons under his belt, Cliff Pennington finds himself in the role of "grizzled veteran" on a very young A's team. Interviewed alongside the cerebral Brandon McCarthy, Pennington fielded -- cleanly I might add -- a blend of "thinking man's questions" and questions around his role as the captain of the infield and one of the few potential captains of the clubhouse.

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Part I of this series featured Brandon McCarthy and Part II featured Josh Reddick. After the jump, hear from Seth Smith, interviewed along side Josh Reddick at FanFest's "blogger exclusive," followed by my analysis of the A's OF and DH situation and the team's rumored interest in Manny Ramirez and Conor Jackson.

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Introductory note: I decided to break the FanFest interviews into 5 parts (one for each Athletic interviewed), even though it makes a couple of the segments pretty short, because it seems less choppy that way in that you can focus on one player at a time. My figuring is that these interviews can be a springboard not just to discuss the questions and answers transcribed below, but also to talk about that player in general.

Part I, published on Monday, featured Brandon McCarthy. Part II introduces one of the A's key off-season acquisitions, Josh Reddick, who was the centerpiece coming back in the trade which sent Andrew Bailey to the Boston Red Sox. Six bloggers, all associated with AN, participated in these interviews. This time, to avoid misquoting who asked what question, I have just put "Question" if it wasn't asked by me!

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At FanFest, the A's generously made time available for a select group of bloggers to hold 15-minute interview sessions with Bob Melvin, Brandon McCarthy and Cliff Pennington, Josh Reddick and Seth Smith. As it turned out, all 6 invited bloggers were members of AN, with two (myself and Optimst Prime) there representing AN directly, and four (dwishinsky, jeffro, doctorwojo, and vertig0) there also representing other sites. I believe I have correctly identified who asked each question, but my apologies in advance if I have "misquoted" any of the other five!

Part I (after the jump) features Brandon McCarthy, who was joined by Cliff Pennington for this session. Look for parts II-V to run in the next week or so, as I get each segment transcribed...

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I'm not a big fan of looking at true "ceilings" and "floors" with prospects, simply because a ceiling is a "best possible scenario" that almost no prospect actually reaches, while every prospect has a floor of "total bust" - and many reach it!

More interesting to me is to look at who, among players we know (major leaguers) is the best comp for who that prospect will become if he stays healthy, all goes as planned, and he doesn't especially take off or stall (that's your 50th percentile), and then to look at about the 90th percentile ("likely best case scenario") and about the 10th percentile ("likely worst case scenario"). The comps should run a tad optimistic just because they assume good health and as we know, new injuries, and full recovery from previous injuries, are among the most common reasons a prospect fails to live up to his potential.

After the jump, here's a look at each of the A's new key acquisitions (Raul Alcantara, A.J. Cole, Collin Cowgill, Miles Head, Tom Milone, Derek Norris, Jarrod Parker, Brad Peacock, Josh Reddick) with my best attempts, based on their scouting reports and minor league performance so far, to suggest good comps for their 10th percentile, 50th percentile, and 90th percentile projections. I hope you will weigh in with better comps, as well as your analysis of where I might be being too optimistic or pessimistic.

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Jon Heyman reports that the A's have indeed come to an agreement with Petaluma's Jonny Gomes, on what is reportedly a major league deal.

The signing has been presumed for the past couple days, and as a result there has been some discussion already about whether or not you feel this is a good move. Perhaps a broader discussion is whether and when "strict platoons" are a good idea.

If Seth Smith and Jonny Gomes follow their career norms, a Smith/Gomes LF platoon could put up some awfully good numbers at the plate, with an expected OBP around .360 and an expected slugging percentage around .510. On the flip side, you use up 2 roster spots to field one position and do it with players who are, by nature, of limited utility. That is, were they great fielders or good hitters against "same-handed pitchers," they wouldn't be stuck in this kind of a platoon to begin with.

So in Smith and Gomes, you have two flawed players who might be able to combine for a robust .870 OPS. Are these kinds of platoons something the A's should be seeking as "clever," "undervalued," "affordable" ways to get good production from their lineup? Or is one man's trash just another man's trash in a different colored uniform?

First off, I'm on record saying my ideal scenario is to see Tommy Milone make the rotation out of spring training, but to see Jarrod Parker, who is coming off of TJS, and Brad Peacock, who still has some refinement work to do on his changeup, start at AAA and delay their service clocks another year as a bonus.

That being said, my hope of an Opening Day rotation of Brandon McCarthy, Guillermo Moscoso, Josh Outman, Tommy Milone, Tyson Ross/Dallas Braden took a significant hit when it was established that Seth Smith cannot pitch left-handed one day and right-handed another. It's looking more and more like Parker and Peacock are going to have the same opportunity Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson had in 2009. Is this a big problem?

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From Tyler Bleszinski, Nico, and baseballgirl

Blez, baseballgirl, and I have had some serious discussions over the past two weeks, and the following comes from all of us. However, since I, as Blogfather, am delivering the message I will speak in the first person.

It is time to clearly articulate what AN stands for and why, and to update the Community Guidelines ("CGs") in ways that clearly and consistently reflect this vision. In a perfect world, every member of AN would embrace this vision, but at least by clearly outlining what AN is and will be, each member of the community can self-select whether or not it is right for them, and from there AN can build a stronger and stronger community by adding members who have chosen AN because they were on board with this vision from the start.

AN was founded on some core principles that Blez, baseballgirl, and I all share, and they are "mutual respect and celebration of diversity". This requires that a premium be placed on respectful dialog and respect for the diverse ways a person might like to see, think about, or discuss the game. It also requires that even if there is an "inner sanctum" that has grown up together, and quarrels together, there also needs to be room to welcome newcomers who may want to share in the baseball or the banter, but not in the internal drama or the baggage.

Essentially, AN needs to be clearly defined as a place where all are equal, all are respected, and diversity is celebrated, and AN needs to be a place where these principles are enforced as if they were the very foundation of the site -- because they are.

After the jump, you will see what a clearly defined "This is AN" looks like and it will undoubtedly suit some and not others. I would just ask that you read it thoroughly and carefully so that you can make the choice that is right for you.

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UPDATE: Friday, January 13th

Please note that this post, which was a "run it up the flagpole" idea floated, in context, on January 1st, has absolutely no relevance now and no bearing on how AN will proceed in the future in any regard. As a result, I am taking Paul Thomas' excellent advice and putting up this notice and closing comments, and I apologize for "hiding" the post as a clumsy way to try to avoid confusing people with what is now "obsolete/bad information" about where the thought process is about AN going forward. Peace. -Nico

UPDATE: 10:00am, Sunday, January 1st

First and foremost, Happy New Year everyone and please recognize Optimist Prime's awesome Fanpost as being the epitome of AN at its finest.

"Speed" has not been our ally these past 10 days. In today's cyber-world of "red buttons," Facebook & Twitter, and blogs like AN, you can push a button in the blink of an eye, and you can spread word far and wide, or you can rush to judgment, nearly as fast. Few good decisions are made in the heat of the moment and perhaps unfortunately, the cyber-world is one that encourages us to "act, then think" while emotions are still raw, and the consequences are self-evident.

2 weeks is not a long time to anyone who has sent a key correspondence by carrier pigeon (but enough about my Aunt Bertha). This is all going to grind to a halt for 2 weeks, by way of my leaving the poll open, talking totally privately and quite seriously with Blez and baseballgirl, and my truly not so much as logging onto AN. There is nothing that needs to be "solved" that can't be solved in 2 weeks. It's only a long time on the internet.

Relax, hug a loved one, talk about baseball: How can you wrong with any of those three? May 2012 be good to you.

-Nico

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This proposal isn’t intended to “favor” anyone, or any “side” taken in recent discussions. It is intended to find the common ground that can both make the most people possible happy and also make AN a better community going forward. This combination works for me if it works for the community. In democratic fashion, I put it up to a poll vote and will act on the majority decision.

The CGs are amended to add the following:

1. The Blogfather cannot take any unilateral actions normally reserved for the committee of moderators, unless the moderators have specifically authorized the Blogfather to do so.

2. AN adopts a rule that the front page of AN, including the sidebar (Fanposts, Fanshots) is a place free of “meta-discussion,” which includes comments and discussions around AN’s enforcement of rules, how AN is run, how it should be run, etc. (Someone can write up an actual definition.) This rule is made in acknowledgement of the fact that AN is a public site, subject to be read and discovered, at any time, by readers who wind up caught in the crossfire. Offline conversations, online conversations outside of AN, and if necessary AN’s Overflow threads (e.g., The Lounge), can be used for discussions about policies and about individual members or cases.

Additionally, “mikev” is reinstated and Nico will simply convey to him, privately by email, what he was first aiming to convey to him back on December 10th.

And we just got a guy named Cowgill, so there. Sorry to be so bad at being absent, but it's hard not to weigh in with my (clearly precious) thoughts on a major trade: Trevor Cahill and Craig Breslow to the Diamondbacks for Jarrod Parker, Collin Cowgill, and Ryan Cook.

To put the trade in context, I have generally fallen on the side of "Cahill supporter" in that I think Cahill is better than his 2011 season -- one in which I suspect his curveball was somewhat affected by a lingering finger injury -- and that I think his 2010 season, though not easily repeatable, was also not a fluke. I have often been quick to point out that Cahill's minor league career mirrored Brandon Webb's quite well with the one exception that Cahill put up his numbers 2 years younger at each level.

However, despite my belief in Cahill as a quality starting pitcher, I can see this trade working out to be a very good one for Oakland and if you'll jump with me I'll explain my reasoning.

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First and foremost, a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at AN and a reminder that we all share the same qualities: "Only a turkey would bleed green and gold like we do."

Hopefully the next time I "see" you the A's will have a new stadium and perhaps a few new exciting players who offer promise for either the immediate future, or at least for the near future. I am taking a leave, or "sabbatical," through the end of January. Halley's Comet comes by once every 76 years and apparently my sabbaticals come once every 73,004 comments. (Holy cow! Get. A. Life.) I will continue to serve officially as blogfather, even in my ghost-like form, though it is front page writers and moderators who will have their pulse most directly on AN.

There will be a guest front page post this Saturday, recommended by danmerqury and not just because it has uber-pretty charts, and then Saturdays in December and January will be handled with care (even using styrofoam packing peanuts that were stolen from a styrofoam Stomper) by longtime ANer, and all around good great guy, Yon Yonson.

Finally, a public service message on this Thanksgiving Day: After tonight's feast, please don't let yourself get addicted to your Thanksgiving leftovers. It's really hard to quit cold turkey.

Much love, and I offer my true thanks to all of AN's dedicated front page writers who keep the blog going each day, as well as to a community that has been very special to me and has produced more friends than I ever thought possible. Be good to yourself, be good to each other, believe in green and gold miracles in the face of all available evidence, and if you find a spare moment, email Blez and urge him to get me a pony this Christmas following 6 consecutive years of unfulfilled promises. Happy Thanksgiving, AN.

Don't get me wrong: There were aspects of Moneyball that I appreciated, and as an A's fan it was almost automatically interesting and enjoyable to watch the story of an A's season, and an A's-led movement, unfold. But from critics and fellow fans, I keep hearing how great the movie was ("Best baseball movie ever!") and Moneyball is no great movie. It is, in fact, full of contradictions and inconsistencies that undermine its own premise.

Let me start with the positives. I thought Jonah Hill was outstanding, and agree that the blending of real and fictional footage was pretty masterful, capturing the atmosphere of baseball action, and making the stadium and crowds look their best, or actually better "real life". But...

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If one can believe Fox Sports, Bud Selig might actually be about to do something about the A's and San Jose in the next two weeks. Is this a big story, finally leading to a conclusion, or is it just another chapter in the 3 year saga of "talk but no action"? I guess we'll know soon. Perhaps.

Can you please explain to me the dream I had last night? I know I should be able to be able to do dream analysis, what with my being a counselor and all, but I never quite understood Freudian theory. Freud said every young boy, growing up, had a secret desire to sleep with his mother. To me, that's just ridiculous: I never even met Freud's mother.

Anyway, back to the dream I had last night. I am not making any of this up. I really did have this exact dream. And you tell me why Vince Cotroneo was in it. Please jump (after last night, I'm seriously considering it)...

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First of all, I hate to be critical of Ron Washington because he's pretty much the only thing I like or respect about the Texas Rangers, who have become a smug, gesticulating bunch. Seriously, every time you stand on base and make a ridiculous gesture of sign-language/semaphore/epilepsy, an innocent puppy runs in front of a bus.

But this World Series matched up two managers who have definite strengths, neither one of which is exactly "being a great tactician". Tony LaRussa's is that he is one of the most innovative managers of our time, not afraid to buck convention if he doesn't agree with convention's wisdom. With the infield apparently back, LaRussa will sometimes bring his infield charging in as the pitch is being delivered, or at other times he will play his infield back until there are two strikes but then bring them in when he knows the batter is more defensive and just seeking contact. He has batted his pitcher 8th. This innovation can obscure the tactical blunders he is sometimes prone to, usually when he over-manages and finds himself out of players -- be it in the 20th inning or the 6th game of the World Series.

As for Washington, he is a master motivator and you get the feeling his players would run through a wall for him even if at the most inopportune time they might also slow up at the warning track and forget to catch the would-be final out of the World Series. But a tactical genius Wash is not. In fact, to my eyes he is one of the worst tacticians in baseball and it caught up to Texas this week.

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{NOTE: THIS IS ALSO THE GAME THREAD FOR GAME 3 OF THE WORLD SERIES}

Back 8.5 in the Wild Card in September, the St. Louis Cardinals had to keep winning something fierce, but they were far enough back that just winning wasn't going to be enough. Beyond their control, they needed the Atlanta Braves to really tank -- and tank they did, losing 18 of their final 26 and their last 5 in a row, or else despite their September efforts the Cardinals would have finished in 9th place for an 8-team post-season bracket.

Who knows what else would be different besides St. Louis watching from the sidelines the whole time, rather than entering tonight's game just three wins shy of a World Series title?

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With the series 3-2 Texas, it's do-or-die for Detroit tonight playing on the road. Max Scherzer gets the ball against Derek Holland, who lasted short in Game 2.

Tonight's starting lineups:

is that he actually didn't pitch very well in 2011. This was easy to overlook, since not only was Harden a "low-risk bargain" at $1M, but during many stretches he dazzled with his fastball-changeup combo that, when the changeup is moving every which way, makes him unhittable at that moment or for that stretch of innings. It gave Rich the appearance of someone who is probably unhittable most of the time.

But by any measure, Harden was not in fact effective overall.

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We're in a rain delay, as in the top of the 5th inning CJ Wilson's douchiness has turned to liquid, and fallen from the sky with such douchy-force that they have been forced to put the tarp on the field. According to the Doppler radar, only rubbing Adrian Beltre's head will allow the storm to pass.

As play was halted in the 5th, Detroit had 2 runs in to cut Texas' lead to 3-2, with the bases loaded, two out, and Alex Avila at the plate. Justin Verlander and Wilson have gone the distance, but neither is expected to throw another pitch tonight.

The Detroit Tigers have their ace ready Justin time! Working on normal rest, Tigers' ace Justin Verlander gets the call in Game 1 against the smack-talking CJ Wilson who, in contrast to fellow smack-talker Nyjer Morgan, has not backed it up in the playoffs so far.

Remember that Delmon Young left Game 5 early with a tight oblique -- he is out of the lineup tonight, replaced in LF by Ryan Raburn. These are two scary middles of the order, but at the same when you scrutinize each lineup you also see a few holes defensively. This should be a well-fought series...


The lineups:

We're down to the Final Four and the Eastern Divisions have been dealt a shutout, while only if you lean far enough to your left might you be able to convince yourself that Texas is on the West Coast -- but geographic location aside, the Rangers are the only team representing the Western Divisions in the League Championship Series.

The other three teams? Welcome to middle America, where only the lactose-intolerant can't appreciate the state of Wisconsin, proudly represented this year by the Milwaukee Brewers. Meanwhile, Milwaukee's Central Division rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, used a skilled Carpenter to create an all-central NLCS, while the Detroit Tigers taught the Yankees that "Barely knew her!" is still funny longer than a super-Nova.

It may not be a ratings bonanza, but to fans who prefer the Davids to the Goliaths it's kind of neat to see Milwaukee, Detroit, and St. Louis, with their respective and respectable payrolls, and even Texas, which has created a monster the right way -- through the draft, excellent talent recognition, and player development -- playing on to audiences whose couches will include players from the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies: "Powerhouses" that came up woefully short at crunch time.

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Though the best title for his biography is fast becoming "Puddles & Piles" (because apparently after 15 years a dog spontaneously decides that the whole world, not just the backyard, is his personal bathroom), and though he is increasingly blind, mostly deaf, and has always been quite dumb, Poochini has, nonetheless, survived cliffs, buses, and raccoons well enough to make it to his "sweet 16"  -- at least by our best estimates.

Told by the vet when we got him that he he was "about 1.25 years old based on his dental records," we assigned Poochini a birth date of October 5th, 1995, with the exact date chosen because it matched that of my grandmother -- who would be 118 today if she were in slightly better health.

Three days ago, Poochini looked like this.

Awwwww!!!!!!!!!!!! Who's a pooch?

With both NL teams starting their series today, the Rays-Rangers continuing, and the Tigers-Yankees trying to finally play the bottom of the 2nd, it's wall to wall baseball...weather permitting.

11:00am PDT is the Diamondbacks and Brewers (Go Ziggy!)
2:00pm PDT is the Cardinals-Phillies (Will Matt Holliday drop a key fly ball? Stay tuned)
4:00pm PDT is the Rays-Rangers (if the Rays win the World Series, will Dan Johnson be voted an 87% share?)
5:30 PDT is the Tigers-Yankees (exit Verlander and Sabathia, enter Fister and Nova).

The "Question of the day" is which team will ultimately get hurt more by losing the chance to pitch their ace twice in the 5 game series, DET or NYY? Both are hugely reliant on their ace, with Verlander being the Tigers' best shot at an upset and with Sabathia being the Yankees' only truly reliable starting pitcher.

This much I know: Likely as not, either Fister or Nova is going to emerge as a huge factor in the series, perhaps the deciding one. If it comes to that, my money's on Fister, who is becoming a "Doyle Alexander-like" story for the Tigers. But then again, would you take the Tigers to win in this matchup, knowing they can't even get two starts from Verlander? Probably not.

My ultimate conclusion: BARELY KNEW HER!

{still funny}

A'S NEWS: Susan Slusser reports that pitching coach Ron Romanick, hitting coach Gerald Perry, and bench coach Joel Skinner will not return next year, and that two possible pitching coach hires for next year include Bryan Price, a fellow Cal alum Bob Melvin has worked with before, and Curt Young, whose manager, Terry Francona, was also let go yesterday.

I want to see that headline in tomorrow morning's Chronicle, Sluss. I dare you. The bottom (no pun intended) of the 6th vacillated back and forth between balls that were hit really softly and balls that were hit really hard. Unfortunately for Guillermo Moscoso, Howie Kendrick hit one of the hard ones.

It was 1-1 when Erick Aybar dropped a perfect bunt single down the 3B line to lead off with only the Angels' second hit of the night so far. Kendrick didn't get a hit, but his searing line drive might have been the game's pivotal swing because it nailed Moscoso high up on the gluteal region, if you will, with Moscoso having the presence of mind to pick up the baseball in front of him, rather than focus on the scattered remains of his upper ass behind him, and record the out at 1B.

Then came another very softly hit ball, a 63-hopper by Bobby Abreu between 1B and 2B that drove home the go-ahead run. Then came another very not-softly hit ball, on really Moscoso's only mistake of the evening, a possibly throbbing-posterior induced center-cut fastball with nothing on it that Torii Hunter deposited into the LF seats. Speaking of seats, did I mention that our pitcher was nailed in the buttocks by a line drive tonight?

The other notable in the game was the battle to claim the inside part of the plate. Josh Willingham, who was drilled by Jered Weaver last night, had to hit the deck when a Jerome Williams fastball ran up and in. Two outs into the bottom half of the inning, Moscoso hit Peter Bourjos, but not on the ass. On the leg.

Which reminds me of one other notable, a positive the A's can take from an otherwise forgettable performance: Kurt Suzuki threw Bourjos out stealing with a perfect throw and appears to have come a long way towards solving the throwing woes that plagued him for a good three months. That, and Jemile Weeks' 14th game of 3-hits or more -- three singles, two RBIs, and one SB -- constitute the best news of the day.

The Angels end the day 2.5 back of the Red Sox in the wild card, with Tampa Bay 1.5 back, and Boston throwing John Lackey and Tim Wakefield in a double-header tomorrow against the Yankees. This thing ain't over yet, folks.

POST GAME NOTE: FOR WHATEVER REASON, THE RECAP MAY NOT BE SHOWING UP ON THE FRONT PAGE BUT YOU CAN GET TO IT BY CLICKING HERE.

Having ended the Angels' division hopes last night, tonight the A's take aim at the wild card. Guillermo Moscoso, whose middle name is, "drive to deep left-center field...but it's playable..." faces off against Jerome Williams, who has 3 wins since 2005 and who also has 3 wins since August 21st.

The A's enter play 20 games back with 5 to play, causing the more stat-minded folks to predict Oakland will miss the playoffs this year. Others simply eyeball the starting lineups, notice that Cliff Pennington is batting 6th, and laugh. Or cry. Or both.

Speaking of which, Baseball Press seems to believe that the lineups will look a lot like this:

UPDATE, 6:06pm: Pennington has been scratched (possibly due to fan laughter). Move Suzuki, Allen, and Sizemore up, and Eric Sogard is at SS, batting 9th.

Yesterday's win, and the one the day before, reminded me of how each game is its own mini-season and how even non-contending seasons can bring you tension, excitement, and joy. It's why I can't really get into the "lose and get better draft position" mentality -- because this season, 71 times now I've gone to bed savoring an A's win. (This is an estimate, as I can't actually confirm I went to bed each night, but I assume that I probably did.)

Here's what a meaningless win, in a disappointing season can mean...

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