just mediocore.  I always heard that we had one of the best in baseball.  As presented to me, I don't see evidence that suggests otherwise.  Maybe you could help "educate" me on this topic.

is a system that has a lot of guys who project to be solid, but only about two guys who project to be stars (Meyer and Barton).

But yeah. Our system's stregnth is importantly, but look at the MLB team. We are set at 6 positions for the next few years. We have people comming up who can fill the remaining slots.

And for the rotation, we are set at 4 of the slots, with someone set to come in for 2007.

we have at the major league level--at starting pitching and CF--can (and likely will, IMO) be converted into good prospects from other organizations.

The A's don't have a lot of players that they can count on in the upper minors, but that could all change by the end of 2006. Quick note: (Age) in 2006.

The A's have surprising good pitching depth in AA and AAA, the question is which arms have the potential to be difference makers at the ML level. Sacramento could feature a rotation of Dan Meyer(25) Chad Gaudin(23) Shane Komine(25) John Rheinecker(27) and Juan Cruz(25) with Jairo Garcia(23) closing in the pen. That's very good depth, better than most teams feature at AAA, but they all have question marks that shadow their talent. Meyer, Rheino and Komine are all recoverubg from 2005 injuries while Cruz and Gaudin have been inconsistent in their big league appearances. Garcia must still work on his control, although his strike out totals alleviate some of the worry.

In stark contrast, there is very little help available from Sac's everyday line-up. Brian Stavisky(26) Jeremy Brown(26) and Matt Watson(27) are the best of a weak bunch.

Midland is likely to feature Jason Windsor(24) Dallas Braden(22) and Brad Knox(24) in the rotation with Connor Robertson(24) closing. This is probably a make or break year for Windsor and Knox, especially if they have dreams of being SP in the big leagues. Their stuff is as good as it's going to get, if they don't move quickly up the ladder they'll get left behind. This will be Robertson's first taste of AA (although he did get a sample of AAA cooking last year) and he needs to refine his control.

The Midland line-up features a bit more hope than Sac's. Kurt Suzuki(22) Daric Barton(21) Kevin Melillo(24) and Dannt Putnam(23) offer some potential fireworks for Oakland's 2007 roster. Still, questions surround all four players. Barton and Putnam need to show more power than they have so far, and Suzuki's bat isn't enough to get him to the Show if his defense doesn't pick back up. Melillo needs to carry last year's success into the 2006 season. If he does, he'll be looking at a September call-up.

Things shift at the A-ball level. Oakland has a strong crop of offense at Stockton, led by Richie Robnett(22) Cliff Pennington(22) Javier Herrera(21) Landon Powell(24) and Travis Buck(22). Obviously Powell is a little old for the league and he needs to come back strong from knee surgery to get caught up. Pitching wise, the A's have Mike Madsen(23) and Ben Fritz(25). After that, your guess is as good as mine. Fritz is coming back from TJ surgery and I wouldn't be surprised to see him get moved to the bullpen by mid-season in an attempt to accelerate his development up the ladder.

The A's have a bunch of young arms, mostly from last year's draft class, that will find themselves assigned somewhere between Stockton, Kane County and Vancouver. So back to novaoakland's question: What's the next step?

With Oakland losing its 1st round pick thanks to Loaiza's signing, I think the single most important thing Beane and Co. can do in next year's draft is use their 2nd round pick on the best available player, regardless of position or contract demands. The A's don't have to worry about signing a 1st round pick, they can combine that money with the money they'd normally expect to spend on a second rounder. That way they can draft and sign the next Justin Smoak they're interested in.

all the High School players this year, Billy Beane, isn't expecting much from his AA or AAA players in the next 3 years or so, by then Pennington, Buck, Lansford, Italiano, will be closer to the Majors, and you can better evaluate the minor league depth.  If the Big team needs any small tweaks Billy will just trade for it.  The Marlins have a whole lot of "prospects", but nothing for the present.  That is why Billy always talks about both improvement now and the future when making any deal.

I'm not sying that a team's farm system in general is unimportant, obviously that's not the case.  But a team's approach to their system is IMHO more important than the raw ceilings of the players they have there.

Take Duke, Saarloos, Harang, Ellis... these are guys who have been important to us but never have hit the radar of our own farm system in the BA mold.  Gaudin looks to me a fantastic pick-up, of this same type.  

Komine could easily become a useful pitcher, though he will not be lighting up the prospect lists either.

Ethier for Bradley was a great trade talent-wise, it makes the farm system look worse, but not the depth chart.  And I love where the A's depth chart is.

Or take DJ, everybody knew he was likely a MLB ready hitter last off season, but because of his age, he was only considered a fair prospect, though his MLB value to us is as good as that of a higher rated prospect to their teams.

Anyway, we have a ton of guys who are under the radar but could be useful players.  We have a lot of arms now, and probably some of them will look really good in July.  We have a stable of guys who look like good AAA hitters, that won't be too bad in emergency situations, and some of these guys could keep improving and become major league worthy.  It happens.  Stavisky for example still could become a decent hitter, but he'll never be a 'prospect'.

The 2004 and 2005 drafts look real nice to me, the main hole in our system being that no one from our 2003 draft is left who looks promising.  Quintanilla, Ethier, and Majewski have been traded, Sullivan was damaged goods when drafted, Snyder was decent before missing a season.  No one from the later rounds has emerged either.  

So to me, the big thing the A's can do is draft better than they did in 2003.  But it looks like they have already learned and changed their strategy a bit, a lot if you factor in the HS arms drafted in 05.