A's GM Billy Beane made an interesting comment the other day.

We're going to look at young players to fill spots, first and foremost," Beane said. "If those players we'd like to acquire aren't obtainable, we'll consider bringing in guys who can hold the positions down.

Link.

So the A's aren't interested in chasing down free agents but they are going to be talking to teams about making trades. I don't care how you feel about Oakland's current crop of young pitching (maybe you think they're the greatest thing since Hudson/Mulder/Zito... maybe you think all but Anderson are way over-rated) at the very least the responsible thing to do if you were the GM of a major league baseball team would be to kick the tires a bit and see what the sticker price is for Johnson.

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Greetings!

I'm bored.

A friend of mine, a fellow A's fan, said that he'd like to see the A's trade any and every vet off the current roster and load an already fairly decent farm system with even more prospects. I thought that sounded intriguing, so rather than waste my time over on AN talking about what kind of package the Rays would have to put together to get the A's to part ways with Zooks (proposals which would undoubtedly feature a decidedly pro-Oakland slant) I figured I'd come here to this bastion of Rays dedication to hear what you guys think would be a fair proposal. This is meant for fun and to wile away the hours while I sit at home taking care of my ill son. If trade speculation isn't your thing than thanks for checking out my post and enjoy the rest of your day. For everyone else... let's chat.

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If you’re a lot like me you should probably seek a mental health professional.

Wait… wrong website.

If you’re a lot like me the 2009 baseball season is dead to you, the post-season and the World Series a mere footnote in your existence. The A’s are sitting at home after their third straight losing season and you want to know what Billy Beane and Co. are going to do to make the 2010 season a more enjoyable experience for you. Winning more than half their games would be a good start and I’d like to tell you how the A’s can make that happen.

Only one must learn to walk before they can run.

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The minor league season is over and the Arizona Fall League has yet to begin. Baseball America has begun their League Top 20 lists but they haven’t hit anywhere where the A’s have qualifying individuals. Winter ball is months away (although today it seems as if winter itself is close at hand) and the A’s are being their typical tight-lipped selves regarding the goings on in Instructs. So don’t expect much in the way of minor league discussion in today’s write up. What will I talk about?

Glad you asked.

Next year’s Free Agent options, the current 2010 payroll and some interesting service time tidbits, why using FIP or any other metric to argue Cahill’s place in Oakland’s 2010 rotation is missing the point, a moment of praise to Rajai Davis’ base running skills and… I don’t know… whatever I bloody well want.

If that sounds interesting to you then I’ll see you on the flip side.

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The 2009 minor league season is over and congratulations are due to the Midland RockHounds, who won the Texas League crown by defeating the NW Arkansas Naturals 3 games to 1. The Sacramento River Cats were not so fortunate, getting swept by the Memphis Redbirds in 3 games. All in all it was a fairly successful year for the farm system, as several prospects that were under a lot of scrutiny had good seasons while 3 of the 4 full season teams posted winning records. (Heck, even the Stockton Ports managed to rebound in the 2nd half and go 36-34 to finish with a 61-79 overall record.)

I plan on doing a full summary of the farm system a little later on. For today I’m going to update what key players did in the play-offs. Minorleaguesplits.com is the only website that I know of that keeps track of play-off performance as part of the yearly tally but even they only show the numbers as part of the whole body of work. So if you ever wonder why the numbers from their website are different from what you will see at MiLB.com it’s on account of the play-off performance. The season totals listed below include the play-off numbers.

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First, the really cool news.

The Sacramento River Cats and the Midland RockHounds have both advanced to the next round of their respective play-offs. The River Cats are going for their 3rd consecutive PCL crown and what’s great about this season’s squad is that the current roster includes a fair number of high end prospects. Exposing them to the pressures of play-off baseball (even if it’s the minor leagues) can only help their development as ballplayers. The A’s have always believed that winning in the minors is important; as it helps the individual players unite as a team to strive towards a common goal.

Now if only we could get the organization to start winning in Oakland again… that would be a good thing. (Mean? Probably. Honest? Brutally.)

And how well are these wonder prospects doing in a play-off environment? I’ll tell you after the jump… so come on over!

You know you want to.

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Today we look at the A’s starting pitching depth in the minor leagues. I realize that the Oakland rotation is composed of several young arms (a couple of whom probably still carry fake ID’s just in case) but young SP are worth their weight in gold for any organization. They are the premier currency in the trade market and given how unpredictable pitching can be in general (plus the high rate of injury) an abundance of arms can quickly turn into just enough to get by. In short, for a professional baseball organization, cheap and young pitching is better than sex.

With twins.

So let’s check out the prospects.

Pitching prospects! Not the prospects for…you know. Jeez, get you minds out of the gutter.

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My timing is impeccable.

The morning after the A’s score 8 runs and Chris Carter hits 3 homeruns for the River Cats I come to AN to post a story about how underwhelming the Oakland offense has been and how we can’t expect to see any help from the farm system until July of 2010.

Gosh how I love feeling timely and relevant.

Today’s Minor League Update is my attempt to gauge when the Oakland A’s offense can expect to receive reinforcements from internal sources, i.e. the farm system. My estimates are meant to be conservative, as I don’t want to see players bounced back and forth between Oakland and Sacramento. When I post a player’s ETA it’s meant to be a permanent arrival… until Billy Beane trades him, of course.

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Hello again.

Work called me away for a while and it’s been tough getting back into the groove of things. For those who don’t know, I’m a wildland fire fighter and August got a little busy for those in my career field. So when I disappear again for a couple weeks just remember… I envy your access to in-door plumbing.

Anyways, I want to focus this week’s minor league update on the 40 man roster and the options that are going to have to be decided upon in the coming months. Why do this now instead of waiting until September 1st? The topic tickles my fancy, that’s why. As I seem to have (once again) misplaced my Cap o’ Omnipotence I’m forced to resort to basic logic and common sense reckoning to try and deduce the future roster.

That’s right… none of what I’m about to tell you is guaranteed!

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Sorry it’s been so long, but Life sometimes has a way of prioritizing things in a way other than what we wish. In fact, if things hadn’t gone to Hell at work this weekend I wouldn’t be posting this piece at all! (I’ll let you come up with what that means… your ideas will probably be more exciting than the reality.) There are some guys in the lower minors that have caught my eye lately and I thought I’d share my notes. So grab your preferred hangover cure ('cause last night's game was a dandy) and enjoy some smooth, soothing scouting reports.

OK, that was beyond cheesy... possibly approaching Velveeta. I apologize.

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