http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/oak/news/oak_news.jsp?ymd=20041202&content_id=917963 &vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp

I'm just curious, isn't that not the smartest of decisions? He's just finished his first full major league season, and I'm just wondering if continuing to play ball over the winter'll tire him out even more.

I was wondering if any of you had more information to possibly explain why? Or is Scutaro just getting more ABs to try to improve and show he's capable of doing more? Because if it's the latter, I'm not sure that's the wisest of ways...

Looking at the posts made, there's been a lot of suggestions to trade Bradford, possibly to ditch the  million or so he'll make in arbitration. I dunno... just to me, that really seems like a sad decision. Admittedly, Bradford has an inflated value to me because of the whole Moneyball story-- and how he wasn't the star in HS, got underestimated-- and dude, how can you not love the ultra-submarine style :) Actually, I found AN while trying to surf for Bradford news (been more of a lurker than anything else), and his ERA before this year hovered around 3, and I remember also that he had an insanely high percentage of inherited runners left on base in '03, so I'm hard-pressed to believe it's been just a fluke. I don't have the hard numbers to confirm more thoughts, just that I think the relatively bad ERA and occasional ineffectiveness this year was more of a fluke and forced stretching into new roles.

Which leads to '04 and him being partially sidelined with a back injury, etc. etc. He's also a soft-tosser that's always been more subceptible to lefties, but righties have a .546 OPS against him in the past three years. Always use for a guy like that on my staff :) While the back is troublesome news, it just seems a shame that Bradford hasn't earned more loyalty for what's been an awesome run until this year. And maybe it's just helpless optimism, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that the past year was kind of a down-year with the injury and everything, and that he's due for a bounceback.

I understand that he seems more of a spare part with all the excitement we have about our reliever prospects, but I really think that with all the power arms we could be having (Dotel/Street/Garcia), the two-headed monster of Rincon/Bradford will become a lot more effective to balance it with the soft stuff.

But I was more curious of feeling out AN's attention on the guy, because I've heard stuff about trading him. True, if he was the key to get someone insanely good like a Mark Prior, then I'd be able to understand, but just to trade him to relieve salary? That's kind of iffy to me. But I'm just one person, so what do all of ya think? I added a poll as well, if all you want to do is vote instead of leaving a comment :)

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news.jsp?ymd=20041121&content_id=915238&vkey=news _mlb&fext=.jsp

Slugger in the KBO, seems eager to make jump to MLB. Had an off-year this year, but if he's willing to sign for about a million... he could provide unexpected power for our OF. Couldn't be any worse than Kielty ;)

Just curious, though, do you think Beane will jump into the international market? I mean, the Padres did with Otsuka and it seemed to pay off, and it doesn't seem Shim is going to get the most of attention... maybe the A's can sweep underneath?

He's been slowed down by injuries in the past few years, but if the Tribe take a pass on him, maybe he'd be worth a one-year deal for about a million? He's been back from Tommy John for a while, and he could be what Mecir initially was as an acquisition, a good, veteran relief pitcher that's flown under the radar for most of his career.

I don't know how many teams were taking initial looks at him, but if no one else wants him, he can't be a bad complement to our 'pen as a setup, maybe even close if Dotel doesn't pan out.