FanPost

10/3 Link Dump - PAYTON STAYING!!!!

I wasn't gonna make it again, but jeez. It's already 7 AM pacific time... :P Just kidding. The real reason is because i was reading (again)   The A's Game Recap (not exactly re-capping the game though) and i came across this little tidbit:

Oakland will lose almost no one in the offseason, unless GM Billy Beane orchestrates some major move. Left-handed reliever Ricardo Rincon is the team's only major free agent, and the club has options on Hatteberg, outfielder Jay Payton and reliever Keiichi Yabu. (Payton's will be picked up, Hatteberg's is less certain, and Yabu's, at $1.5 million, is unlikely.)

Good News: Payton Stays, Yabu's gone.
Bad News: Hatty is uncertain?? COME ON man, he's done.

There are also more tidbits about free agents and the A's having money to spend. There is a lot of information, definitely check it out.

Also, there is information in Slusser's A's Report:

One thing that should help those A's with back trouble next year: The travel schedule is much friendlier. Oakland had seven trips this season that either began or ended on the East Coast, and on two of those trips, Kotsay's back acted up, and Justin Duchscherer had some similar difficulty. Next year, the A's play the NL West in interleague play rather than the NL East, and their mileage for the season will drop from a major-league-record 57,000 this year to 44,122.

Briefly: Alan Nero, manager Ken Macha's agent, said he has not yet seen the contract proposal the A's faxed him but will get it when he goes into his office today (he returned from a trip to Japan on Saturday night). He plans to talk to GM Billy Beane today about a multiyear deal for Macha, whose contract is up. Macha has a meeting with Beane this morning. ... Bynum picked up his first major-league hit in the seventh inning, a single off Felix Hernandez. "I was so happy, I didn't know what to do when I got to first,'' said Bynum, who plans to give the ball to his mother, Dalphine. ... Joe Kennedy (4-5) got the win Sunday when his teammates busted loose for five runs in the eighth inning. Eric Chavez broke a 3-3 tie with an RBI double and Dan Johnson had a two-run single. ... Matt Watson had a three-hit game. ... With 644 career RBIs, Chavez is one behind Rickey Henderson for sixth all-time in Oakland history. ... The A's 88 errors were the second fewest in team history. ... Oakland's 31 steals were the fewest in team history and the fewest in a non-strike season since Boston's 30 in 1983. ... The A's went 43-38 on the road, their first winning record away from home since 2002. ... His future is uncertain with the A's, but Keiichi Yabu is staying in the Bay Area this winter and he plans to take English lessons at a community college. Yabu also wants to go to Arizona to work out and to see the Arizona Fall League play for the third consecutive year.

The errors part is amazing: Weren't they worst in the league in late may in the error department?