Kotsay for Niekro + AA Pitcher?

I think Soriano is going to play left, making Murton expendable. Now, he can't play center, but he's a good hitter, young, and I think would be a swell pickup. Toss in one of the Cubs' younger arms, and voila~

whatabout Bradley to CF, Swisher to RF, Murton/Kielty in LF. Perhaps some switching around of Kielty / Murton / Johnson at 1B and DH. Maybe another deal somewhere for someone like Baldelli? Burrell? Figgins, and we take a look at one of our younger guys as a 4th OF?

I like Murton a lot, and I think he's available. the other option might be someone like Felix Pie?

What will he develope into?

Pena has shown amazing power potential. He's also shown horrendous strike zone judgement. The first could make him a star, the second could sabotage his career. Pena is a classic Boom-or-Bust player and I think Duke could net more than that. Match him with Windsor and DJ and I'm certain of it.

I also think Youkilis is a good player but he won't be "great".

Simply put, I think you're selling low on Duke and there is absolutely no reason to do so.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sosasa01.shtml

Sosa never posted an OBP higher that .340 until he was 29. Matter of fact, up until his breakthough season in 1998 he had managed to post a .290 OBP for his career. Now, Wily Mo is currently boasting a career OBP of .315, but that's in large part due to his .301 BA this year and it's pretty much agreed that Wily Mo shouldn't be expected to hit .300 every year.

Sammy had 4021 AB under his belt before he broke out with a 308/377/647 line in 1998. Wily's 1106 AB into his big league career and I think it's unrealistic to expect a Sosa-esque breakout until Pena's had a few more AB. Like, say, at least a 1000 more AB?

But Pena's young, he just turned 24 at the end of the 2006 season so he has plenty of time to get those AB, to gain that experience. Too bad he's also got roughly 4 years of ML service time, which means if the A's traded for him there wouldn't be enough time for him to gain that experience and have that breakthrough before he left as a free agent.

So if we're saying that Pena has the potential for a Sammy Sosa type career, and we're going to use Sosa's career as a model to gauge Pena's development path, then we can conclude that four years after the A's trade for him (and two years after he's left the organization) Wily Mo will become a super star.

Great plan.

And you'd trade Duke for Youkilis straight up? Have you not been paying attention to how the value for relief pitching has sky rocketed these past few months?

"Youkilis is a pretty average first baseman"

"We can pull another unathletic first baseman with decent hitting ability off the scrap heap."

Your words, not mine and you want to trade a "very good" relief pitcher for a player who's twin could be found on the scrap heap?

That's fucking stupid.

You've just contradicted yourself completely. If Youkilis is an average 1B than adding 30 points of slugging won't make him a star, it might make him an above-average player. He turns 28 next May, he's pretty much at his peak in terms of development and it's hard to foresee him turning into a big time slugger. (He could very well hit 20 HR some day but that's not exactly attention grabbing from a 1B. Even John Kruk had a couple years where he hit 20 HRs!)

If Youkilis is indeed an average 1B then there is absolutely no need to trade Duke to get him. Beane should visit his local scrap heap and buy the production that Youkilis offers. That makes the deal Duke for Pena, a player who shows no signs of becoming a "super star" any time soon. That's just a bad deal, and you want to make it worse be including the A's most advanced SP prospect?

Fucking A+ Trade for Theo.

You said you're new around here, so let me give you some advice. If you're going to debate people around here you better not groove your pitch, you'll get hammered every time.

Welcome to AN, hope you enjoy your stay.