I've been trying to put my finger on what it is about AN that attracted me to join last year that I find missing now. Here are my thoughts at the moment -- for whatever they're worth.

Blez has created a magical, vibrant place that was on its way to being all a team website should be in this day and age -- a place where A's fans of all backgrounds, temperaments and individual areas of strength could gather and discuss the team we love, experience its victories and defeats, enjoy each other's company, and maybe learn from each other as well.

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Crosby and Hannahan must go.  I don’t want to debate that.  But how do we turn things around for 2009?  Solutions can be found in all sorts of places, near and far.  Some of these are:

1) Top prospects that could be available

2) Not so top prospects that might surprise

3) Young major leaguers redundant on their teams

4) Old veterans

5) Minor league veterans.

I looked at the Top 100 preseason prospect lists of Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America, as well as the John Sickels’s Top 20 organization prospect lists.  I then looked at the Peak Translations for minor leaguers available at Baseball Prospectus for information on their performance in 2008.  Then I looked at free agents during the upcoming off-season.  Finally I looked at the rosters of each major league club to find interesting players who are redundant on their teams.  Altogether I put 70+ guys into my simple spreadsheet, including the incumbents.  If anyone wants to see it I can e-mail it to you, but don’t expect much.  It's a summary, not an analysis.

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