I was not aware that this was what they swapped Bruney for. It's actually a really smart move in that they should be able to replicate Bruney's production (and probably more) for about $1.5M less.

From our perspective it sucks; though we're the 7th pick overall there was a good chance we were going to be the first team to select someone.

No reason why Omar shouldn't have made this move considering we have waiver priority over MIL based on record. You can never have too many young/cheap/talented catchers in an organization, especially one that hasn't produced a good serviceable catcher in what seems like decades.

While his defense needs work, Kottaras hit 22hrs in AAA as recently as '08. Limited ab's due to injuries/knuckleball catcher status hurt his #'s this season but make no mistake, Kottaras is worth the $400k he's owed and then some.

Read an interesting quote this morning that sheds some light on the fallibility of scouting. For those concerned about Adam Rubin's now infamous scouting report regarding Jeurys Famila, make sure to take that w/ a grain of salt:

"I've talked to three scouts this week who saw him (A's prospect Grant Desme) at various stages of the season. One saw him at Low-A Kane County, one saw him at High-A Stockton, and one saw him in Arizona. All three had wildly varying opinions on Desme, with projections ranging from never getting to the big leagues to hitting 30 home runs there." -BP's Kevin Goldstein in the Nov 11th 'Minor League Update'

Very surprised about #10.

The Rising Stars game (Nov. 7) and the Championship game (Nov. 21) and they'll stream them online for free as well.

Hopefully Surprise makes the championship/some combo of Ike, Tejada, Moviel & Mejia make the all-star game.