Finally, the A's come out and roar! Here is a release today regarding territorial rights.

From the SJ Merc.

http://www.mercurynews.com/athletics/ci_20121271/statement-south-bay-territorial-rights

Link to the A's press release

EDITING NOTE: The rest of this post has been deleted in order to avoid violating copyright laws. General reminder to the community: Please do not reprint material from other sources -- just post the link and limit any further quoting to a 1-2 sentence excerpt or summary. Thanks. -Nico

FanFest is this Sunday. Who's going?

From the A's Website...

Free autographs and question-and-answer sessions with Manager Bob Melvin, rising stars such as Jemile Weeks, former legends like 1972 World Series MVP Gene Tenace and 20-game winning streak hero Scott Hatteberg, will be among the up-close-and-personal features at Oakland A's FanFest 2012 on Sunday, January 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Oracle Arena. The event is presented by Comcast SportsNet California.

The 2012 A's Calendar has Bob Geren for the month of October.

Geren.

2012

16 months after he was fired.

http://www.amazon.com/2012-OAKLAND-ATHLETICS-12X12-CALENDAR/dp/1436085616

I think the 2013 Calendar will have Ryan Langerhans on the cover.

Not to dump on the A's, cause it's more the fault of the calendar company, but could someone get their act together on this?

Enjoy, and have fun with the poll.

 Note from Nico: This is huge! Congratulations, A's and Ken Pries! Story is here.

Best case scenario. A's on 95.7 FM. Yes FM. Hits my neighborhood, hope it makes it to yours.

OAKLAND, CALIF. -- The Oakland Athletics and Entercom's 95.7 The Wolf ("KBWF-FM") have agreed to terms for the station to acquire the radio broadcasts as the Flagship station of the Oakland A's Radio Network for the upcoming 2011-14 seasons.

95.7 The Wolf, a San Francisco-based FM country music station, owned by Entercom, is the exclusive country music station servicing the entire nine-county Bay Area and will broadcast all 162 regular season and all post-season games

Does this mean we'll be hearing more country music from the players?

From Nico: Thank you, Stew Crew, for posting the info right away. We'll update the story as more information becomes available, but just at a glance what terrific news for the A's to:

1. Have a solution.
2. Be on a station you can hear, reasonably well, all hours of the day, throughout the Bay Area.
3. Be on an FM station, where static and signal issues tend to be less.

Let the season begin!

I like signing Giambi, I think he'll be effective and cheap. But...

now this team is practically falling through the left side of the plate. Of the 1 - 6 hitters, only Holliday is on the right (Sweeney, Cust, Chavez, Giambi, Buck). The other righties, Ellis, Suz, and Croz, are 7-8-9 hitter material, and if you move them up in the order they're still nothing to strike fear into a LH starter. (This is another reason that Furcal would have really helped).

Cust, Chavez, and Barton are the only returning players with an OPS over .700 against LH, but I only believe Cust's numbers. Chavez had only 24 AB against LH. And Barton...

Barton had, well I don't know what to say about Barton. 128 AB isn't the largest sample size, but it is a typical amount for a full season. He DID hit LH much better than RH. I can't find his minor league splits to see if it that's a pattern. Maybe he's a RH hitter in a LH hitter's body. Can't he get a transbatter operation to fix that?). Still, I don't think the plan is to put platoon Buck/Barton, with Cust moving from DH to OF. (but if it does happen, remember that you heard it here first!).

Looking for a RH hitter, I keep coming back to Rocco. He's the A's retread gamble of the year, only he's 100 years younger than our last few tries. Word has it that he's cheap, he has a ton of potential, and he brings a RH bat to the team.

Sure we're flooded with OF, but I don't think any of those guys have the potential that Rocco does. Platoon him with Buck (unless one of them takes over), let Barton work on his SS skills at AAA (I can dream, right?), and still have cash to get one more SP for 2009.

Keeping Crosby isn't going to drag down the very lacking offense. Batting Crosby 6th will. (Started this as a reply to a post, then realized it was too long.)

Crosby isn’t a terrible hitter for the 9th spot, maybe he’ll break .240 if we leave him there and don’t ask for much.

The problem is with the rest of the offense.

I’m OK with Crosby batting 9th where we can bury him down low and not expect more out of him than he can produce. Depending on what you look at, his defense is anywhere from above average (Ray Fosse ranking system) to below average (pick your favorite metric). We could do better, but he’s not the only problem. And to have a below average hitter at a position where you can bury a below average hitter…well that’s not the biggest problem.

(warning, rosterbation on the way…)

Beyond Crosby, we still have some serious holes in the offense. Nothing that makes the other team really worry after Holliday, who is the only “good” hitter, and would probably be pitched around in this current lineup.

Cust is probably above average (if you can ignore BA and focus on OBP & OPS). Not a cornerstone, but would be fine batting 5th if there was a cleanup hitter around (assuming Holliday is batting 3rd).

Ellis & Chavez are average hitters for their positions (assuming Chavvy can get close to where he used to be) with above average defense. I’d be fine with Chavez hitting 6th and Ellis 7th, anywhere earlier in the lineup and they’d be weak. Chavez batting 5th (after Cust) doesn’t scare anyone anymore.

Suzuki & Sweeney show promise, but right now their hitting is more average than above average. If Sweeney can lead off (right now, who else can do that?) bumping his OBP up 30 pts, then he’d fit the role OK. Suzuki batting 8th is a good spot for him, he’d be a decent # 8.

That leaves the big disappointment of Buck/Barton (not so Killer B’s) – Cunningham’s 80 at bats are too few to tell us much, although the 1 HR does say a lot (or, actually, a little).

Their performance last year was on the below average side, but they both have potential to improve (maybe 2008 was an off-year, but that’s a long “off” time period). They might be OK burying deep in the lineup (7 – 9 spots), but those spots are “taken” (see above). And really, could you put either of these guys 2nd or 4th in the lineup? Not now, maybe after they show us their potential is more than just “potential”. Their defense is fine, but nothing spectacular. And their positions are usually easy to fill. So give them a little minor-league seasoning in 2009. Sure they’ve proved themselves in the minors, but then they didn’t cut it last year, so clearly there’s something that could be worked on.

This leads us to…

Burrell/Dunn/Giambi. Hopefully coming at a discount from last year (maybe Billy can get a bargain), guys who can get on base, hit the ball hard, and hopefully make an impression on the offense.

Spend the Furcal money and get Burrell/Dunn for a couple years and (maybe) Giambi for 1 year. The offense changes from below average to above average. Barton & CunningBuck can spend a year figuring out how to hit. If they do perform, then call them up mid-year and move Holliday. In the meantime, there’s a major league offense on the field.

If we only sign one of Dunn/Burrell/Giambi, then spend the rest of the money on a proven starter (Unit?). Then there’s a decent offense and an improved pitching staff.

And if we do none of this, then we’re looking at 90 losses and counting, and that would just be painful after 2008.

This is a pretty funny post...

http://blogs.tampabay.com/twocents/2008/04/the-dan-johnson.html

April 23, 2008

The Dan Johnson Era: A Retrospective

Why, it only seems like yesterday that the Rays picked up Dan Johnson. In fact, it was two days ago. My how the time flies. Sadly, the Rays designated the legend for assignment Wednesday. His days, both of them, with the Rays appear to be over. So much has changed in the world. Think back to what the Rays and the world was like when Johnson joined the Rays:

* George H.W. Bush was in his second term as president.
* Gas cost $3.54 a gallon.
* Popular TV shows were Lost, American Idol and Deal or No Deal.
* Joe Maddon was Rays manager.

And then there's Johnson. As he walked out the door Wednesday for likely the last time, you have to wonder what was going through his head, what memories he held most dear. Maybe it was the time he showed up at Tropicana Field for batting practice and found everything locked. Maybe it was the time he asked someone where the bathroom was. Maybe it was the time he picked up his bags right before he walked out for the last time.

Today is a sad day. An era has ended. The Rays won't be the same. The only comfort we can take is that someday, perhaps even in a new ballpark down by the water, we will all look on the outfield wall and see Dan Johnson's retired number, good ole No. 17. Or 22. Or ... what number did he wear again? The Rays never lost a game with him in uniform. That's the only important thing we need to remember.

So long, Dan, we hardly knew ye. And here are two photos to remember Dan Johnson:

Dan Johnson as he looked when he joined the Rays ...

 

.

.

.
.
.
Dan Johnson as he looked when he left the Rays ...

Just saw something on ESPN saying Sweeney has a clause that says the A's have to let him know of their plans by March 19. Haven't heard any of this before, has anyone else?

I'd like to see him stick around, I'd be willing to put up with Cust in the outfield just to have a healthy Sweeney at DH.