The success in the month of September has muted discussions of Geren being replaced but the recent slide should bring up a constructive analysis that should prove that Geren is not a very good manager. 2010 is year 3 of our rebuilding plan (rebuilding earnestly started after 2006 when Haren got traded). Not many will expect us to contend but I would want, at the very least, a respectable showing in 2010 so as to contend for a playoff spot in 2011. I'm thinking 85 wins in 2010.

Talent-wise, we have tons of question marks heading into next season. But I also believe a good manager can inspire a team to over-achieve. That is what I want to see. I don't believe Geren can do that. There are tons of good managers out there (at least a notch above Geren) who should get a chance to manage the A's. The recently fired Wedge was AL manager of the year 2 years ago but due to bad fortunes in Cleveland, was fired. Or how bout Buck Showalter? These ex-managers are just dying to prove themselves again.

Geren already had his shots -- 3 years in a row of being 10 games below .500. Geren is almost comatose managing this team. I could swear that since people all thought the A's were gonna suck, Geren figured there's no point in trying too hard. No one is gonna blame him to guiding this team to where they are suppose to be, anyway.

But today, I say NO MORE! The buck stops here.

Landon Powell should get a serious look as a FT player next season. It will be inconceiveable that Powell should ride the bench half the time when the entire team is in desperate need of offense. Since Suzuki is locked in as C and we have a glaring hole at 1B (I count Brett Wallace as a 3B), should Powell be given a shot as our everyday 1B next year? At this point, even if he makes 30 errors at first, his bats should more than make up for it. Or am I being too optimistic about Powell's abilities given the small sample size?

Shouldn't Andrew Bailey be a serious candidate for the Cy Young? If he was on the Yankees, there will be serious talk but he is 'languishing' with the A's. Still, Cy Young is an award for individual accomplishment and Bailey should at least contend for it.

Now that I put this out there for the baseball gods to ponder, I fully expect Bailey's ERA to balloon to above 4 during the last 40 games and take him out of contention.

Anyone else secretly hoping that Davis, Sweeney, or Hairston will get hurt so that Cunningham can be called up? Honestly, I have not seen Cunningham in action in the minors other  than the few ABs he had as an A's.  Numbers-wise, this guy is hitting the crap out of minor league pitching, for average and power. Make him a full time player next season and I doubt he will fare worse than Hairston or Sweeney. AC is putting up amazing numbers in the minors and I'm curious as hell to see him tackle major league pitching.

Not sure if I got the numbers right, but with Duke, Springer, Nomar, Crosby, and Giambi's salaries all FAs after this year, that's $17.5M coming off the books. After such an awful season, forgive me if I'm already salivating on which quality FA we can entice with out $17.5M for next season. I think we definitely need a front line quality starting P to guide our young ums. Anyone knows which pitchers will be FAs after the season?

It seems that the future of this team seems to hinge on the future success of the trio of Cahill, Anderson, and Mazzaro. Perhaps, Gio Gonzalez can also be thrown in there. Since I live in NY, I can't help but compare our trio to the Yankees' trio of Ian Kennedy, Philip Hughes, and Joba, At this time last year, everyone was raving about the Yankees' trio of young guns and we now know how that turns out; only Joba shows promise of being a very good starter. To be fair, Hughes and Kennedy are still young but the pundits are no longer raving about their capabilities. The Yanks have so little confidence in Hughes and Kennedy that they spend a billion dollars on CC and Burnett.

This year, so far, no one even thinks our trio is as good as the Yanks' trio of yesteryear. The Yanks' trio put up much better minor league numbers than ours, and yet 2 of them seemingly flamed out. Seeing how common it is for most minor leaguers to flame out in the majors, should we hold high hopes for Cahill, Anderson, and Mazzaro/Gonzalez? Perhaps it will be considered successful if only one of them pan out? Anderson, perhaps?

All  the talk about going after Furcal or a borderline average pitcher makes me think, Why not save the money and go after Texeira and put him at first base for the next 6-8 years? Texeira is a proven hitter and is a gold glove at first base. He will probably be asking for 15M per for 6 years. To this, I say PAY HIM. This money is better spend on Tex than on a questionable Furcal coming back from injuries and on the wrong side of age 30, or Randy Johnson or Ben Sheets or any other questionable pitcher who may or may not be any good after we signed him.

WIth Tex and Holliday, we can afford to have deadweight Crosby at SS and it wouldn't hurt our offense too badly. If we don't contend and decide on a salary dump, Tex should have high trade value as he is only entering his prime.

I guess at this point in the season, pretty much every player is playing on half gears. But has anyone else notice that Suzuki's average has fallen to .279 or thereabout? This number isn't so bad but if you factor Suzuki's lack of power from the catcher's position, it is troubling. Good catchers are averaging 15-20 HRs, even if they hit for a lower average. For Suzuki to be even considered a decent offensive catcher, with his lack of power, he should be hitting close to .300. At this rate, is Suzuki gonna be our leadoff hitter next year and become Jason Kendall Circa 2007?

The A's are most likely gonna concentrate on improving its offense for 2009, and our current pitching roster will most likely see very little change. Right now, I'm projecting that we will have 3 southpaws in our starting rotation for 2009: Gio, Eveland, and Smith to complement Duke and Gallagher. Braden will most likely be considered as well.

I'm not a big fan of having 3 lefties in the rotation, especially 3 merely average ones. The team will get killed when facing offenses with right-handed power such as Yanks, Bosox, Tigers, or Rangers. This is why I'm proposing to use Andrew Brown as our starter. When healthy, Brown posted up similar bullpen numbers to Duke before he became a starter. He has a great fastball and is a strikeout pitcher. He has been hit by the injury bug over the last 2 years and perhaps, putting him on a fixed 5 day rotation will help him.

With the emergence of Zigler, Devine, and to a certain extent, Blevins, there is little use for Brown in the BP. He has a great arm and should be given a chance to start, just like Duke. Heck, we really got nothing to lose in 2009, anyway.

How is it that Geren and company are escaping blame for the current swoon? I have not read a single article either here or the SF Chronicle or Costa that puts some of the blame on Geren. A good manager gets his players to excel above what they are capable off. It is true that not many people expect this team to be any good this year and Geren can shrug his shoulders and say it's not his fault because he got nothing to work with. I just want to know how the interview went between Beane and Geren 2 years ago. Did Beane tell Geren that he wasn't expecting anything from him because the team is in rebuilding mode? What is the purpose of having a manager if he is not going to get his team to play up to higher expectations?

The team is likely to finish below .500 this year and most likely, again next year. Does Geren expect to keep his job if the team finish below .500 all 3 years under his care? How is it that Geren still kept Burkleo as hitting coach for creating the worst offensive team in the AL 2 years in a row?

No one dares to say it but I'm gonna say that we have the worst coaching staff in the league, with the exception of Curt Young. Some of it are the players' fault but Geren and Co. have to take huge blame for the current state of this team.