SB Nation User Blog: athleticsBB4life

A's Select Bobby Cassevah in Rule V; Release Santiago Casilla

athleticsBB4life — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:30:42 -0000

UPDATE: The A's released Santiago Casilla.

To make room for Cassevah on their 40-man roster, previously full, the A's designated for assignment right-hander Santiago Casilla, who had been one of their five candidates to not receive a contract offer by Saturday night's tender deadline.

Link

With the 9th pick of the 2009 Rule V Draft, the A's selected Bobby Cassevah from the Angels.

baseballamerica.com: Cassevah’s sinker tops out at 93-94 and helped generate 4.03-to-1 groundout-to-airout ratio in ‘09 at Double-A.

mlb.com: A's scout Randy Johnson, after seeing Cassevah in July, called his slider one of the best he had ever seen.

In the AAA phase, the A's selected Beau Vaughan from the Rangers.

Scouting Report:

Scouting Report: Aggressive righty has a fastball reaching 91 mph with good sinking movement. Vaughan is able to throw his biting slider for strikes often. Four strong pitches, but needs a little work on keeping a consistent delivery for all of his pitches. Gets a lot of groundball outs. Struggles against left-handed batters. Fierce with a good mound presence. Good control. Vaughan has moved through the system slowly but surely - he was actually drafted the round before Jonathan Papelbon in 2003. Despite being old for his leagues along the way, Vaughan still has a very good chance to be an effective MLB reliever.

The A's did not lose any players in the MLB or AAA phases of the draft.

Bobby Cassevah:

Official Minor League Stats

Beau Vaughan

Minor League Stats

Rule V Notes:

baseballamerica.com

The Nationals take Jamie Hoffmann first overall, and he’ll be traded to the Yankees for Brian Bruney. The Pirates follow with speedster John Raynor out of the Marlins system.
Orioles take lefty Ben Snyder from the Giants and will trade him to the Rangers in the Kevin Millwood trade. The Royals follow with lefty Edgar Osuna from the Braves.

Poll

Do you like the Cassevah selection?

Beane Deserves Credit for Trying to Bring Marco Home

athleticsBB4life — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:46:58 -0000

Scutaro turns down more money from the A's to sign with Boston:

per Rosenthal:

Scutaro turned down a slightly more lucrative three-year contract from the A's before signing his two-year, $12.5 million deal with the Red Sox, according to major-league sources.

The A's would have used Scutaro at shortstop and made Cliff Pennington their utility man.

Clearly, the A's are operating with a measure of financial flexibility.

Beane deserves a lot of credit for trying to bring Scutaro back to Oakland. Scutaro, as we all know, was one of the most popular A's players in recent memory. Unfortunately, and nearly heartbreaking, us fans lose out on the opportunity to see Scutaro back in the Green n' Gold. The attempt by Beane makes sense, after 3B, SS was the most pressing need for this team. Scutaro's price tag was very reasonable. Futhermore, he's an A's type player. He took what he learned in his time with Oakland and became what Beane's brass preaches, unfortunately...it all happened elsewhere. Although disappointed, I'm encouraged by Beane's attempt to bring in someone who is "watchable" and quite frankly, plays at an above average level.

As for Pennington, does this tell us that the A's aren't sold on him as the answer at SS? I think this attempt is quite telling; should we expect to see Orlando Cabrera back in town as Plan B? Maybe the A's try to trade for a young SS?

Hopefully, Beane uses the money he saved, the aforementioned financial flexibility, by not signing Scutaro and brings in a similar type player. However, I don't see another free agent that fits that mold. Anyway...this so called financial flexibility may only be a myth.

As for Scutaro, his decison makes me a bigger fan. I respect a man who turns downs more money in pursuit of competitiveness. I'm sure he knew the A's wouldn't challenge for contention until his would-be contract was up an would have a better chance at a ring in Boston. Wow, don't the A's usually get outbid by teams like Boston? What a role reversal.

UPDATED - Open Thread: Best of the Unprotected; Top Rule V Prospects

athleticsBB4life — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:18:45 -0000

What players did your team not protect that may be a decent pick in the Rule V draft on December 10?

It would be interesting to hear Mr. Sickels thoughts on the subject as well. In the 2009 Rule V, will there be a hidden gem like Josh Hamilton, Joakim Soria, Dan Uggla or a Johan Santana?

Community List so far:

(I did not check for accuracy, eligibility or player postions)

Angels: Tommy Mendoza; Marco Albano; Amalio Diaz

Astros: Koby Clemens, C

Athletics: Anthony Recker, C; Graham Godfrey, P; Jared Lansford, P; Corey Wimberly, Util

Cubs: Maestri; Snyder; Diamond; Camp; Chrinos; Clevenger

Giants: CF Mike McBryde; LHP Ben Snyder

Indians: Matt McBride 1B/LF/C; Yohan Pino P; Josh Tomlin P; Chuck Lofgren P; Stephen Wright P; John Drennan OF

Mets: RHP, Ryan Coultas ; Nick Carr; Hector Pellot

Nationals: IF/OF Leonard Davis; RHSP Erik Arnesen; RHRP Luis Garcia; LHRP Yunior Novoa; RHRP Josh Wilkie

Orioles: Steve Johnson

Phillies: Edgar Garcia right-hander; Tim Kennelly UTIL

Pirates: Shelby Ford

Rangers: John Whittleman 3B

Rays: Aneury Rodriguez, P

Reds: Danny Dorn; Dallas Buck; Sean Watson

Rockies: Cole Garner; Craig Baker

Royals: Chris Hayes, P

Twins: IF Steve Singleton; IF Brian Dinkelman; RHP Santos Arias

White Sox: Kyle McCulloch P

Yankees: Colin Curtis; Zack Kroenke; Grant Duff; George Kontos; Kanekoa Texeira; Kevin Whelan.

A's Protect Carter, FDLS, Figueroa and Souza from Rule V

athleticsBB4life — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:32:13 -0000

The A's selected the following players on November 20, 2009:

Oakland Athletics called up Chris Carter from Sacramento River Cats.
Oakland Athletics called up Fautino De Los Santos from AZL Athletics
Oakland Athletics called up Pedro Figueroa from Stockton Ports.
Oakland Athletics called up Justin Souza from Midland RockHounds.

The aforementioned players are no longer eligible for the Rule V draft on December 10. The A's roster now stands at 39.

I would venture to say that nobody would have put Souza in this group. Souza, as you may recall, was acquired from Seattle in the Jack Hannahan trade. Some of the players left exposed to the Rule V include: Recker, Wimberly, Godfrey and Lansford. Does AN see any glaring omissions?

Poll

Do you agree with the Souza selection?

Yes

52 votes

No

71 votes

123 votes | Poll has closed

UPDATE: Denorfia Outrighted; Becomes 6-Year Minor League Free Agent

athleticsBB4life — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:33:08 -0000

*There has been some discussion as to the status of Chris Denorfia after he was outrighted by the A's last week. According to this LINK at the Game of Baseball.com, Denorfia's name appears on the list of A's players eligible for 6-year minor league free agency.*

Oakland (17)

Pitchers: RHP Daniel Barone, RHP Andrew Brown, RHP Shawn Chacon, RHP Dewon Day, RHP Leonardo Espinal, RHP Angel Garcia, RHP Chris Gissell, LHP Daniel Haigwood, LHP Justin Hampson, RHP Scott Mitchinson, RHP Scott Patterson, RHP Jerome Williams

Catchers: Raul Padron

Infielders: Carlos Arrieche, Frank Martinez

Outfielders: Chris Denorfia, Archie Gilbert

In a move that we all expected, the A's outrighted Chris Denorfia to Sacramento and freed up another spot on the 40-man roster.

Official Release:

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Oakland A's outrighted outfielder Chris Denorfia to Triple-A Sacramento, the club announced today.
Denorfia spent most of the 2009 season at Sacramento where he batted .271 with nine home runs and 49 RBI in 107 games. He also went 0 for 2 with a run scored and RBI during a four-game stint with Oakland from June 9 to 17. Denorfia is a .279 career hitter with three home runs and 19 RBI in 100 games with the A's (2008-09) and Cincinnati (2005-06).

via media.scout.com

A's Outright Four

athleticsBB4life — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:37:11 -0000

Bill Beane and staff got right to work on the off season today by removing Edgar Gonzalez, Kevin Cameron, Dan Giese and Eric Munson from the 40-man roster. No big surprises here. Of the group, I could see Munson returning on a minor league deal. After all, he is Eric Chavez' BFF.

Official Release

Scout.com Article:

In the first of what is likely to be many moves this off-season, the Oakland A's have outrighted four players off of the 40-man roster: right-handers Edgar Gonzalez, Kevin Cameron and Dan Giese and catcher Eric Munson. The moves leave the A's with 37 players on the active 40-man roster.

Farhan Zaidi: Dispelling Some AN Rumors?

athleticsBB4life — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:55:34 -0000

I noticed this interview with Farhan Zaidi on Scout.com yesterday. Melissa Lockard and Zaidi discuss many issues that we've all debated over the past year. I just wanted to pass it along and see what AN thinks. Here are some of the key points:

on Travis Buck being in the doghouse:

Lockard: Turning to the outfield situation, which is as crowded at the starting rotation situation, I thought it has been an interesting year. There have been guys like Rajai Davis who have really stepped forward, while guys like Travis Buck and Aaron Cunningham have gone back-and-forth between Triple-A and the big leagues.

Zaidi: I think that there is this conception that certain guys have fallen out of favor with the organization, but the fact is that there were guys who were simply playing better than those players. We still really like Travis and really like Aaron, but we couldn’t justify playing them over guys like Raj and guys like Ryan Sweeney who were producing at the major league level.

later:

Zaidi: There is nobody in that group that we are down on as an organization. If we had a guy who was in Triple-A who was hitting .400 with an .800 slugging percentage and we didn’t call him up, then I could understand someone saying that there was a rift between that player and the organization. But ultimately it is the best players who give us the best chances to win who are playing.

on Jack Cust's swing being messed with:

Lockard: Is there a concern that his numbers are down this year? It seemed like he changed his approach a little bit, maybe in an attempt to cut down on his strike-outs, and perhaps that deflated some of his numbers, especially early in the season.

Zaidi: You hear this from players all of the time, but baseball is obviously a constant game of adjustment. He didn’t look that different to me early in the year. Maybe he was pitched to a little differently because of some of the other guys we had in the line-up, but I think the talk about him really changing his approach is a little bit exaggerated. He has always been a streaky guy. He has cold streaks and he has streaks where he can carry your team. He has shown some of those hot streaks coming down the stretch. He has been one of the reasons that we have played so well over the last month-and-a-half or so.

He has been working with [A’s hitting coach] Jim Skaalen and he has added a toe-tap to improve his timing and that is one of the things that he attributes to him being able to get back on-track this year. That is something that is always going to be the case with all of these guys. When things aren’t going well, guys are going to make adjustments and you hope that those adjustments work and that their production jumps from there. I credit him for doing that. I think early in the season, he had some struggles, but I don’t think it was because of any huge change in his approach and it certainly wasn’t something that we asked him to do.

Poll

Buck's role in 2010

Starting OF for the A's

15 votes

Bench player for the A's

56 votes

Still in Sacramento

24 votes

In another MLB organization

89 votes

Other

5 votes

189 votes | Poll has closed

A's recall Blevins and Eveland; Select Kilby from Sacramento

athleticsBB4life — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:51:04 -0000

Official Release

The Oakland A's recalled left-handed pitchers Jerry Blevins and Dana Eveland and selected left-handed pitcher Brad Kilby from Triple-A Sacramento, the club announced today.

Eveland, oh boy - check out his last 5 starts! Congrats to Kilby, well-deserved - 77 K's in 63.1 innings! I think one or two positon players would've have given the A's some flexibility. I wanted the A's to purchase Munson's contract, so Powell could get some ABs at DH and 1B. Once the River Cats finish their title run, it's possible we'll see him, Buck and Petit. I know he's not a prospect, but Carson's had a helluva year for Sacramento. It would be nice to throw the guy a bone and give him a September call-up.

Blevins

Blevins joins the A's for the third time this year and he has compiled a 12.46 ERA in five relief appearances over his first two stints. He was on the A's Opening Day roster and allowed four runs in 0.2 innings over his first two outings before being optioned to Sacramento on April 18. Blevins posted a 4.91 ERA in three appearances during his second stint from May 4 to 14. The 25-year old left-hander was 5-3 with two saves and a 3.84 ERA in 45 relief appearances with Sacramento. He struck out 62 batters in 63.1 innings and allowed a .271 opponents batting average.

Eveland

Eveland is also in his third stint with Oakland in 2009 and is 1-3 with an 8.00 ERA in seven games, six starts. He began the season in the A's starting rotation and was 1-2 with a 7.40 ERA in six games, five starts, before he was optioned to Sacramento on May 5. Eveland was recalled a second time July 6 and started and lost the next night at Boston. He allowed four runs on six hits and three walks in 2.2 innings and was sent back to Sacramento following the game. The 25-year old left-hander was 8-6 with a 4.94 ERA and .273 opponents batting average in 21 starts with the River Cats. He went 0-4 with a 7.88 ERA over his final five starts.

Kilby

Kilby will be making his Major League debut after five seasons in the minors. He was 4-2 with two saves, a 2.13 ERA and .179 opponents batting average in 45 relief appearances with Sacramento this year. The 26-year old left-hander from Elk Grove struck out 77 in 63.1 innings and now has 339 strikeouts in 295.2 career minor league innings, an average of 10.3 per nine innings. Kilby was drafted by the A's in the 29th round of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft out of San Jose State University.

MT. Everidge Down; Patterson Recalled

athleticsBB4life — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:25:43 -0000

Official Release

The Oakland A's recalled outfielder Eric Patterson from Triple-A Sacramento and optioned infielder Tommy Everidge to Sacramento, the club announced today.

It's about time the A's brought up some bench reinforcement. Having two 1B and one backup catcher on the bench left a lot to be desired in the roster management department. Patterson probably will be riding some pine, because that's what the A's do with their young guys, which will be unfortunate because the River Cats could definitely use the player that has done the most for them during the '09 campaign for the PCL playoffs. This will be Patterson's third stint with Oakland this season.

The 26-year-old Patterson was hitting .307 with 56 RBIs and 43 stolen bases in 110 total starts at Sacramento this year. He was batting .336 (108-for-321) with 37 RBIs against right-handed pitchers and .241 (35-for-145) against lefties. His 43 stolen bases set a new River Cats' franchise record (previous, Bo Porter, 39 sb in 2000) and he is just the second player in River Cats' history to have at least 10 home runs, triples, doubles and steals in a season (also, Mark Bellhorn in 2000). As of today, Patterson ranked second in the Pacific Coast League with 11 triples and 43 stolen bases, fourth with 91 runs scored and fifth with 143 hits. He went 20 for 89 (.225) with 17 RBI in 20 games with Sacramento since being optioned on August 5.

Everidge, well, was very average. However, it was nice to see him get a shot at the "show." It remains to be seen if he gets recalled September 1 or when Sacramento finishes its tittle run.

He complied a .224 average (19 for 85) with seven RBI and 17 strikeouts in 24 total appearances for the A's, starting 22 of those game (19 at first base and three as designated hitter). He was batting .146 (6 for 41) with one RBI over his last 12 games, after hitting .295 with six RBI over his first 12 contests.

A's Sign 1st Round Pick Grant Green; Come to Terms with Ian Krol

athleticsBB4life — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:34:33 -0000

Official Release

The A's have now signed or agreed to terms with 29 of their 49 selections from the draft, including each of the first eight and 15 of the first 18.

According to Slusser, the Oakland A's and the 13th pick in the 2009 amateur draft, SS Grant Green, agreed to terms. Kevin Goldstein reports that Green will receive a $2.75 million straight bonus.

According to the baseballamerica.com, the team also came to terms with pitcher Ian Krol, who was drafted in the 7th round.

Illinois prep lefthander Ian Krol has agreed to terms with the Athletics, who drafted him in the seventh round. Krol missed his senior season due to a suspension and was committed to Arizona. He signed for $925,000.

As for another notable pick, Sam Dyson, it was previously reported that he would be attending college.

With the signing of Max Stassi earlier in the day, it appears as though the A's had a relatively successful draft. The organization was able to come to terms with their first eight draft picks.

via www.capecodbaseball.org

Grant Green

via riveraveblues.com

Ian Krol

via cdn.picapp.com

Max Stassi