Josh Fields?

A former top prospect who has just been replaced by Gordon Beckham. I think he'd be relatively cheap, hes 26, and he did flash his potential a couple years ago. In 07 he hit 22 bombs in 100 games, or 373 abs, and last year was held to just 14 games. He's stumbled out of the box this year and obviously hasn't lived up to his own hype which is why I think he'd be a perfect fit.

I've read a little about his defense and all I can find is that hes a little above average. Would you sacrifice the D for a potential .275 20 3rd baseman? I think its worth the risk.

I have no idea what it would take to get him from the sox, but it doesn't look like much. I understand he isnt a great player but he's better then what we have and seems like a realistic oppurtunity for us. It can't get any worse....

He's only 26 and as we've seen sometimes the development takes a little longer. Pena, Ludwick, Cruz.

I say give it a shot, 3rd base is the weakest postion on the roster and in the lower levels of the organization. The A's don't have to give up any elite talents and have a chance to upgrade a poor postiton. If he hits .235 and 12 bombs its an upgrade.

That Jason Taylor would be an incredible pick up for the Colts?

I don't know what the asking price but if it's a 2nd round pick I think we should do it.

Remember what the Giants just did with 3 excellent pass rushers. And of course the depth any team could use. A combo of Freeny, Mathis, and Taylor just sounds phenomenal.

I'm sure this has been said before on this site and I'm not trying to beat a dead horse but i was interested what others thought.

from Gammons' blog on espn.com

'By the way, as of Saturday morning, the A's were tied with the Angels for the best record in the American League and had the best run differential at plus-28 (the White Sox were plus-27). For those who thought Beane quit by trading Dan Haren at his peak value period, Dana Eveland and Greg Smith are 5-1, Brett Anderson is 3-1, 2.66 in the Cal League, Chris Carter has six homers and Carlos Gonzalez has a .930 OPS in the Pacific Coast League. Then they have Gio Gonzalez, with a 2.50 ERA in the Pacific Coast League, Joey Devine hasn't allowed a run and is up to 96-97 mph, and soon they will be fast-tracking RHPs Henry Rodriguez and former North Carolina closer Andrew Carignan, both of whom are already in Double-A. Remember, when Beane traded Haren, Nick Swisher and Mark Kotsay, he said, "To rebuild, we don't just need good players; we need a lot of good players." He got them.'

Link: http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=gammons_peter

So far so good!! And last I checked the Big League club is pretty solid. Futures looking bright

Henry Rodriguez?? Who is he and was he part of one of our recent trades??

I was reading through Peter Gammons blog and came across this.

heres the link to the blog

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3284876&name=gammons_peter

and heres an exert from it

"From one scout in Arizona: "The best young pitcher I've seen in two years out here is Oakland's Henry Rodriguez. He throws 98 with a devastating breaking ball." The 21-year old Venezuelan won't open the season with Oakland, but he will get there in a hurry if he stays healthy."

Thats some pretty high praise. The A's are my favorite team and I follow them religiously but I've never heard if this kid. Always good to hear we got guys like this in the future

Coming back and playing 3 exhibition games vs SF??

Does that seem odd to anyone else

I guess thats good because a healthy Harden will get an extra meaningful start in the regular season and give us a slim chance to start the season on the right foot.

But as we all know Healthy and Harden are words that we don't hear to often.

Anyways... Go A's and stay healthy

I haven't seen it posted anywhere on here but it took place on Tuesday during the Razor and Mr.T show. It's kind of repetitive but it's nice to hear our GM talking about the A's on the Giants network.

Towards the end theres some funny talk about the Angels.

Heres the link

http://media.knbr.com/knbr/0115beane.mp3

Here's the source

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

Minnesota has initiated talks for a three-way blockbuster with the Twins and A's.  Here's how it would go down:

Mets send Jose Reyes, Kevin Mulvey, and Hector Pellot to A's
A's send Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson to Mets
A's send Dan Haren to Twins
Twins send Johan Santana to Mets

Mets get Johan Santana, Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson
A's get Jose Reyes and Kevin Mulvey
Twins get Dan Haren and Hector Pellot

The source says Haren is exactly the type of player the Twins want for Santana, a cheap frontline starter. It's known the Mets would hate to deal Reyes but they would get some value beyond Santana.  Billy Beane is happy because he gets Reyes for one more year than he had Haren plus longtime favorite Mulvey.  And, he's out of Crosby's contract.

Only thing that seems odd to me it's essentially a Haren/Santana swap. I have to think the Twins would need another player of impact in order to pull the trigger. Reyes would help us in a variety of ways... Kick starting our offense, solid SS, and the lack of speed we've lacked for so long. Of course I'd love to see Reyes as an A, he'd sell some tix.

Continue reading this post »

I've been hearing a lot about how Swisher is a far superior 1st baseman then JD latley and also noticed he has been playing 1st base instead of Dj the past couple games. Anyways, Dj is involved in trade rumors to the Twins and Yanks. I'm sure he'd love being in Minnesota.

here's the ESPN insider in rumor central on the topic

'A' trade consideration
Jul 15 - The A's first baseman has had his name linked in trade rumors with Minnesota and the Yankees, reports the Contra Costa Times.
If Johnson were traded, it could clear a path for hot prospect Daric Barton, who has been tearing up Triple-A pitching this season, hitting .323. And Johnson, 27, who's hitting .256 with 10 homers and 37 HRs, would provide a team with a left-handed power bat.

I wouldn't mind trading him... Also, how clever is ESPN, "'A' trade consideration" haha, god, it's so clever and witty. (sarcasm)

See ya DJ, i say it happens soon but thats not really going out on a limb

The A's will re-evaluate their No. 1 starter during Monday's off day, though he doesn't think the injury will keep him out. "It's not too serious," he said. "I'm not concerned." Consider him a big injury risk for the upcoming scoring period. The A's could choose to be very cautious with their young ace.

Source is Cbssports.com

1st, I was wondering if there was anyway to cheat the MLB ticket blackout restrictions on MLB.com for games like tomorrow. I've tried a number of things but none have seemed to work.

2nd, i was also wondering if anyone has ever seen A's hats in a solid blue color or if they know of a good hat website with some unique A's hats.

Sorry for this boring diary but I've been looking for answers to both these questions for a while and this was a last resort. Anyways, hopefully Blanton picthes well tonight and the bats wake up a little... well, I cant really blame any hitter for yesterdays preformance, hopefully Felix doesn't pitch like tat against us again. I believe were due for a win tonight

What about him for the 5th starter?? I know some people have mentioned him before but I havn't seen anything for a long time. Towards the end of last year he showed some good poise and makeup to be a strong, maybe a 3 type of starter, and be a valuable asset to our rotation next year. it seems like Kennedy has the upper hand to start but I'd like Gaudin. Then again we won't have a lefty in the rotation and going 5 right would be awful. Maybe it makes sense to trade Blanton and plug in Gaudin. I don't know but if we can grab heilmen in a Blanton/Miledge trade we may have something going.

Farfetched but

1. Harden
   
2. Haren
   
3. Kennedy
   
4. Gaudin
   
5. Loiza

Looks a little odd but who knew Haren would be as good as he was. Also, Harens track record is kind of like Guadins. (start well in the pen and become a good starter) If he can cut down those walks he could be great. Considering we'd recieve a player like Miledge and possibly improve our rotation by getting rid of Blanton I would be all for this. But if I was the Mets... I wouldn't be

I'm sure this has been posted before but i'd like 2 hear what others have 2 say about this idea.

Trade bait?
Dec 12 - The A's say Dan Haren is available for the right deal, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

One possible trade suitor is the Mariners, who are looking to add more starting pitching. Even though the M's reside in the AL West, Oakland GM Billy Beane is a maverick who might just make a deal if it helped his cash-strapped club sufficiently.

Haren is eligible for salary arbitration after going 14-13 with a 4.12 ERA in 2006.

Link for the Insider members
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/features/rumors

This was posted yesterday but I havn't seen it on here so i'm gonna post it. What strikes me,really don't know how to say it, wrong about this is the fact that it isn't even reported correctly. I believe, but not certain, we signed Haren through his arbitration years for around 12-13 million last year so he will be with us and payed for until 2009. I do know he is signed.

Then again, it is espn and why not just throw it out there instead of research the situation first. Another thing is I don't get how this could even be a rumor. Haren is cheap, and real cheap, and also he is an elite pitcher if you account for the market value of pithers these days. If Meche is 12mil annually I believe that would make Haren a little more expensive on the open market.

Finally, the Mariners?? Come on ESPN. The bloody Mariners. Unless it's for King Felix i really don't see it. Ecspecially because we are thin on reliable starters as it is. Well, just wanted to throw this out there.

It was filled with thrills and chills. We made it farther than we have ever before only 2 be let down. I for one thought we had a golden chance only 2 watch my beloved A's get outplayed by the team i wished we had in the ALDS.

Am I mad?? ya, real mad. It sucks, ecspecially since we made it so far just 2 tumble. Anything 2 make this feel better?? nope.... ecspecially since there no guarentees for next season nor the folllowing one. We can pray, hope, wonder, understand, and accept...

In 07 there is nothing 2 look foward to exept a better offense, staff, pen, and team. Let the Angels do what they do and move along. If we were good enough this year we sure as hell are next year. Just imagine an ALCS w a Harden starting game one along with a middle infield that plays it's starters. It's all gold from here on out, remember talking before the year saying this is the core thats gonna stay together??? Hopefully were right and they bring a trophy 2 Oakland.

- I had a party last weekend and some guy left a Detroit hat here..... I lit it on fire tonight and threw it off my balcony, ya, i'm a poor sport. But it sure felt good even though the Tigers are easily gonna be the 07 Champions.

This has been some built up aggression that is finally coming out after I saw Thome, not Thomas, is comeback player of the year. How big of a deal is come back player of the year? Not that big but it's the fact that there giving the A's no love once again. Honestly, Thomas should have won that award. From being crippled to single handily leading a team to the playoffs, something Thome couldn't do.

I'm upset because I feel there is a huge bias in Baseball. I'm also sick of the way the national media treats the A's. Ya we can soak it up and play as the underdog but I'm sick of that too. What must we do to earn respect? Sweep the Twins?? Ya, for a day until the media, who buried the Tigers, all the sudden pick them as big favorites to beat the A's. I think I heard people picking em in 5....

In 5??? Get the fuck outa here. IF anything, without bias, we are a superior team, I think we have a better O but not that much better, our staffs rival each other and I'd give em a wash. Our pens are both good and for the exception of Zumia we are superior. Defense isn't even a question, were way better.

This is just me waking up hung over and being bitter after seeing Thomas didn't win. Also, a week of hearing nothing but trash talk about the A's from anyone from an ESPN network. They were talking shit about the A's an hour after we swept saying they didn't have a shot in the ALCS. We just got to shut em up and that's exactly what were going to do. Go A's. I know the team don't care but I do, kick the Tigers asses and prove to the world just how good we are. Comeback player of the year??? pfffffffff.... I'm sure he would rather have an Oakland A's World Series ring.

Is anyone else as worried as I am about Street closing in the playoffs. I am, i don't know the exact numbers but I believe he has blown 10 saves as of yesterday. He just hasn't been lights out like he was last year.

Do I have a solution?? Nope..... And i'm not suggesting we pull our closer with 5 games to go before the playoffs. I hope he gets 2/3 shots in the next 5 days to gain some confidence back.

Wait, I do have a solution. All the Starters can pitch complete game shut outs!! That would take away all the stress!!

A new day is upon us I feel better than I did yesterday. The loss is behind us and in about 8 hours we can be celebrating a division title and yesterday may never occur to us again.

We got our Ace on the hill.. Although limited, Vs a guy with a respectable ERA who I don't know to much about. Strange as it may seen I got a feeling about tonight. Let's combine an A's win with a Halo loss along with a Harden Win and a Street save.

That will make me feel much much better

I just made my 1st trip to this ridiculous site in which they despise the A's and make excuses for everything. I was honestly offended with the remarks and assumptions made by the "so-cal" people. They honestly believed they would sweep us, then the Rangers, and finally put us away next weekend. Also, seeing these posts from "rev" made me sick, always attacking and never rationalizing. I'm not saying were perfect but I have yet to ever see Blez post some crazy or stupid remark about the Angels like the numerous attacks from the Rev Character. I'm gonna say the main AN posters (Blez, Nico, BBG) think about what they say before they say it unlike our rivals to the south. At least here on AN we admit our flaws and weaknesses instead of denying and making shit up. I actually read one comment from a HH saying they blame vlad for the season.... come on now that website made me sick and I'm very glad to be a A's fan.

Let's make it happen tomorrow Oakland!!! It's our time, hey Halos, better start thinking about 07

Here is the line

AB    HR    AVG    RBI    R    SB
397    34    .275    93    68    0

I know it's farfetched but maybe he has an outside shot. If he continues his current tear he could easily end up with 40+ jacks and 110+ RBIS. He missed some time and he's a DH but he is also on a contending team and hitting the hell out of the ball on a "bad offense".

Dye obviously has a strong case but if his team misses the playoffs ultimately that would leave Thomas as the most viable option for MVP on the contending teams.

Think about it, where would we be without him?? He's definitely the MVP of our team. Personally I don't think he will and I'd have to say it should be Santana considering he leads the majors in every pitching stat and I read today the Twins are 25-5 when he starts, not bad. Jeter?? God, if I have to hear about the intangibles he brings the Yankees 1 more time..... Don't get me wrong, he's good, but he is not an MVP. Ortiz is pretty good.... It will probably be him. He's a sock and the media loves him.

I tried to make this argument with my buddies but they all laughed. They say the voters always remember what happens in September, maybe Thomas can give em something to think about.

Kinda thinking about the award and he seems like the best canidate. If you think about it he definitley deserves it. We shouldn't use injuries as an excuse and i believe macha has allowed us not to. With all the injuries that have occured over the duration of this year we are 1st place by 6 games (possibly 6.5 after tonight) and without our best starter! Hes not charasmatic and rarely shows emotion but so far he and the A's have put together a hell of a year and maybe it's time to give credit to him instead of bash him all the time.

I got the idea from this article
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/columnists/gfraley/stories/082706dnspofraley.3721bb4 .html

Just from an A's update, heres the link

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060613&content_id=1503197& ;vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak

Davis, clearly disturbed by a recent report suggesting that Rich Harden's injured right elbow might require Tommy John surgery, reiterated that it won't and said he's not going to offer any further updates on Harden's rehab until the day Harden is ready to play catch for the first time

Thats better to hear than "Harden underwent Tommy John surgery today possibly ending the youngsters bright future"

Once he's back and hopefully healthy...... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, we sit at 22-22 and have many injuries. People are expected to come back farely soon so lets just pray they stay healthy and these injuries get out of the way. Some hope, we have a better team than last year and on this date in 2005 we were 17-26. Just think, we pick it up and get hot like we did before last years all-star break. Don't fall apart in late August/September because we better be healthy and this year can be very salvageable. like 95-100 win if no more injuries occur. I know there is nothing to back this up but my speculation but it is very possible. Win these next 2 and than kick the sh*t outta the rangers!!! Yes!! sounds good 2 me

Maybe it's because we just lost a game we should have won but this is very frustrating just like the game on Saturday versus the Giants. Runners on 3rd with less than 1 out and we can't get em home. I know we are ravaged by injuries but that should give us more of a reason to try something new to win games. As farfetched as it sounds I think both Saturday and tonight we should have layed down a bunt to squeeze the runners in. What really pisses me of is after I said we should have done this sat and tonight the White Sox go ahead and rub it right in our faces. I think that's the difference between them and us. Even last year I thought we were a better team than they were but they take big risks sometimes and it seems they payoff. Street did blow a save and the relievers didn't pitch as well as they could have but I think to make up for that we have to take risks. I've read Diaries like this before but I thought I'd take the time to write what I was thinking. Just hope the A's pick it up soon and I'm sure they will. I just hate seeing em lose especially since we will think back about games like this in September.  

It just kinda hit me listening to the last couple A's games on the Radio. I know this is repetitive and redundant, but it's gonna suck next year not hearin Bill King do the games. This post has no point, just wanted to type it.

Go Oakland in 06!!!!!!!!!

See yall Monday in the RF Bleachers

O ya, my sign. I've settle on this one for Shef.
Hey Shef!!! on one sign and TASTE IT!!!! on the other, i think its gonna be funny. thoughts?

I'm gonna be there in the RF bleachers cause havoc. I'm going 2 get a big AN sign made and i also want to come up with a catchy phrase to hirass Shef with another sign. I've been brainstorming but havn't come up with anything catchy enough. I need some help, any ideaS??

My goal is to get shef 2 look up and yell something, i wanna get in his head.

Just wondering where yall are sitting on this glorius day. I got 10 tickets in the bleachers, thinkin im gonna go right field and yell @ Shef. 2 Years ago we actually had mench look up @ us and put his hand 2 his ear, one of the greatest games ive ever been apart of. I was a little intoxiciated bit that is niether here nor there. Any1 remember the chant??? whats the matter w/ Mench!!!??? HES A BUM.

ya, so who we got in the bleachers

The question is who will win the AL west and out of 24,000  votes it's Angels 52% and A's 28%. Maybe thats a good thing, we will jump up on everyone, how are the Angels still favorites in peoples eyes when all they have done is subtracted. hmmmmmmm guess we will know soon enough

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/index?&lpos=globalnav&lid=gn_MLB_MLB lower right hand corner is poll

I was lookin @ the A's myspace page just a second ago and realized the creater only had 47 or something friends. I then went to my buddys page who is a Giants fan, i clicked the Giants Myspace page to notice it had friends in the thousands. Here is the link to the A's myspace page

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=23296284

If you got a myspace and are a Aner lets start adding, after all, we have some high expectations this year. lets support em

Man....... they need to step it up, once they started playin agaisnt good teams they havn't been been playing up to par. I watched that damn Miami game and they looked awful and now they just took a blow from Phoenix. If we can't beat the Suns now imagine what it's gonna be like when Amare comes back. The West Isn't as tough as it's been in the past so there is still hope. and it is quite possible that Jrich and Baron Davis might be All-stars, i cant even remember the last warriors all-star.
Few Questions.... You think they will ever win a championship??? and If they do manage to acquire Ron Artest(most rumors say GSW is the front runner) do you think him and Milton bradley will be Buddys???

Well, there he goes.. I personally will not miss him @ all.

he got 2.9million. Not 2 bad Here's the Link

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2256199

Guess this makes room for Flores??? Our pitching's only real need is Lefties.  Just a few years ago we had 3 in the starting rotation, oh well. I'm sure we will make do. he has been on the decline it seems that past couple of years anyway.

Angel steal JC romero from the twins adding some depth to, well, a already deep pen. Heres the link

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2253819

Well, better Romero then Manny huh?
What were all those Abreu for Zito rumors about, they were reported and nothing ever after. I guess we never know whats going on in the A's front office. I think Zito and payton (or kielty someone like that) for Abreu and another phillie would be great for both teams.