I was pleased to see Forst declined to interview with Seattle. Im happy to let him play GM when Beane goes on his walkabouts

First, I’ll say that there are like 3 of us (myself, monkeyball, and I forget who else) that are behind this idea. It probably won’t work, so I’m going to just come out and say it straight away:

Convert Daric Barton to third base this offseason. I don’t care what the front office says, I’m not convinced that Chavez plays third for the A’s again. If he comes back healthy, I think it’s 1B/Dh for him the rest of the way.

So, assuming that Dale successfully switches corners on the diamond, we move forward.

Free Agents
1. Rafael Furcal – 2 years, $24M (2nd year option based on PAs). I believe Furcal will sign a short term deal to prove that he’s healthy so he can go for a 4-5 year megabucks contract after that.
2. Mark Ellis – 1 year, $8M. Same as with Furcal, only Ellis needs to prove his health even more than Furcal. I’m not convinced that Patterson is the answer, even for next year, at second base. Everything that Ellis lacked with the bat this year (which was rather fluky) he more than makes up with by flashing the leather.
(MAYBE) 3. Jason Giambi – 2 years, $20M. Lets be serious. There’s not gonna be an Adam Dunn or Mark Teixeiria signing, even though Dunn is undervalued. I don’t see the team handing out any 5-6-7 year big dollar contracts. I just don’t. Giambi would fit the bill, not cost a ton, and not block any prospects. Still, I don’t see a high chance of this happening. I’ll project lineups both with and without.

Trades
1. Huston Street/Bobby Crosby to Detroit for Magglio Ordonez. I think this trade just works for everybody. Detroit needs to jettison salary, add a bullpen arm, and “replace” Edgar Renteria. They accomplish all three of those tasks with this deal, while WE (hi PT!) deal from a strength – the bullpen – and create a spot for Furcal. There aren’t many teams able to absorb an 18M/15M/15M contract, which puts us (tee-hee!) in a somewhat favorable position.

So, that’s it. It’s not a huge wild fantasy baseball type of scheme, and I think it’s fairly realistic. There’s always the possiblity of signing Jason Giambi, but frankly I don’t know if he’ll take the kind of deal that I’d want him to and somebody out there will probably give him more than I’d want to give him anyway.

Projected Roster/Lineup

1. Furcal, SS
2. Buck, LF
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cust, DH
5. Chavez, 1B (If Giambi is signed, Chavez/Giambi rotate at 1B and mix in time at DH to give Cust time off)
6. Suzuki, C
7. Ellis, 2B
8. Barton, 3B
9. Gonzalez, CF

OF Sweeney
OF Cunningham
IF Hannahan
IF Pennington or Petit
C Bowen

1. Duchscherer
2. Gallagher
3. Smith
4. Eveland
5. Braden/Outman

CL – Devine
SU – Casilla
SU – Embree
MR – Blevins
MR – Outman/Braden
MR – Ziggy

The outfield can be juggled around, whether Sweeney starts in CF and CarGo in AAA, or if Davis’ defense is good enough to justify his subpar hitting as a starting CF, or whatever. The pieces are in place and can be manipulated as deemed necessary.

Salary

$38M
+ $18M – Ordonez
+ $12M – Furcal
- $5.25M – Crosby
- ~$5M – Street
potential +$10M – Giambi

So, without Giambi the team is at $57.75M, leaving a healthy 12.25M to spend on the draft, minor leagues, and international signings. Since I’m doubtful that there’s another Inoa hanging around, there should be plenty of dollars available.

Signing Giambi changes that whole situation, leaving a paltry $2.25M. I really don’t think that it’l happen, unless Uncle Lew decides that $80M is acceptable for an organizational budget.

Step 2. Budget $7m for the draft, $4m for LA.
Step 3. Receive bonus for being so far under budget.
Step 4. Take long vacation.
Step 5. Return from long vacation in July to work on adding a bit of talent to “surprisingly” competetive team.
Step 6. Make reservations at Disneyland.

Sign Furcal 3 years 40 mil (12-14-14)
Trade Ryan Sweeney for Adrian Beltre
Send Crosby and 4 mil to the Tigers for Scott Sizemore
Send Street somewhere for some minor league 3B (Wed Hoges?)
Resign Ellis for 2 years 15 mil (7-8)

Lineup:
1. Furcal SS
2. Buck RF
3. Cunningham LF
4. Cust DH
5. Beltre 3B
6. Suzuki C
7. Ellis 2B
8. Barton 1B
9. Gonzalez CF

Bench
OF Denorfia
IF Hannahan
IF Petit
C Bowen
CP Eric Chavez

Rotation
1. Duke
2. Gallagher
3. Eveland
4. Braden
5. Smith/Outman

Pen
Devine
Ziggy
Outman/Smith
Casilla
Blevins
Carigan

Salaries: I dunno, whatever it is now PT says 36 so I’ll roll with that.
36 +12 +12 +7 – 1 – 4 = 62 million. Stick the rest in draft/int signings (6/2 I guess)

Like, I can suggest general things – see if Adrian Beltre can be had for a reasonable price, stick Gregorio Petit at shortstop and see if he can’t turn into an acceptable major league hitter (cos his gloves pretty darn good), look for a high upside arm in Rule 5 (not like, say, Jay Marshall or Fernando Hernandez. Take someone who throws hard and see if you can’t luck yourself into a pitcher.) Deal Street for a package of prospects, re-sign Ellis. Those kind of things.

But trying to be specific about it (I want prospect X, Y, and Z from Milwaukee) and offering up contract deals (Furcal for X dollars at X years) and composing hypothetical trades is hopelessly, hopelessly unrealistic.

I was doing some work looking for a good 2B for the Cardinals. Mark Ellis turned out to be one of the unluckiest hitters based upon THT’s PrOPS minus OPS with the best glove in the MLB. With our heavy ground ball pitching staff seems like a good fit.

                PrOps/OPS/PrOps minus OPS
Ellis,Mark – .798/.694/-0.104
          
                    RZR/OOZ
Ellis, Mark – .897/31 (highest RZR in MLB by 2B and SS)

Do you expect Ellis to stay with the A’s? Since this is first trip to FA I expect him to sign a multi-year contract with someone. He is a Type B FA so that will not hurt his signability being 32 will though. Does a 3 yr/$21mil contact seem about right?

:-X

I understand if we can’t compete with the Angels in 2009, the plan Beane sold me a year ago stated 2011 as the goal for contention. But I am sick and tired of the losing seasons and I don’t think our fan base can handle a third sub-.500 year.

i don’t understand, who are you in this hypothetical?
why should i care if you are sick and tired?

Open up the wallet and take a chance on Furcal to stabilize SS: offer 1-4 years, $10-12/year depending on length of contract. The A’s could well afford to spend $40/4 years to get a solid SS without having to trade away their young talent. Re-sign Ellis.

Offer the Padres a chance to really rebuild by acquiring Street, a young starter (could be Smith, Eveland, or Braden) a promising OFer (could be Buck as sell-low or Sweeney as a sell-high), and the potential “Petco triples machine” Eric Patterson (as a throw in), for Chase Headley. Additions or subtractions can be made to make the deal fair for both sides.

Move Eric Chavez to 1B and Cust to DH.

In other words, I really have no idea.

What do you guys thinking of Trading David Freese (STL) for Huston Street.

For you guys that don’t know I will tell you a little bit more about Freese

http://firstinning.com/players/David-Freese-a

He put up a line of .306/.361/.550/911 in the PCL league this year while playing stellar defense at third. He did this with also skipping AA and going straight to AAA. He projects to be a /.257/.300./.439 hitter in his first year in the MLB.

While the A’s need a solid 3B with the line of .242/.318/.369/.686 for worst in the MLB.

Freese fills in your 3B hole while Street fills in our closer hole. Now other players/prospects would come along with Freese most likely.

Now would be the perfect time for me to take over for BB because I don’t have a particular fondness for any of our top 40 right now and I wouldn’t mind heartless trading any of them away to get Harden back.
Oh, wait, bias showing….

First thing I do is fire my marketing and customer service department, whether it’s within my powers or not.

Then, in true "how he’d do that, he’s a f*cking genus" fashion, I make a trade with the Rockies for Santa Clara native Troy Tulowitzki. I give’em any starter they want (IMO we’ve got four guys of the same skill set and an oft injured A.S.) with Crosby (replacement glove man) and Barton (who I sell as a replacement for Helton). I also point to the fact that they have plenty of bombers and not enough pitching which is why they need only a glove man at SS.

Next, now that I’ve lost my 1B (which is a lot easier to replace than a SS) I offer Teixeira a 10 year $200M deal (with 11 and 12 year buy outs and options) and tell’em take it or leave it. He might get more for less years, but this deal he can retire on. If he takes it, I now have my No. 3-4 hitter for the next decade and a proven AL West stud. If not, I go short term with Pinstripe G for a 8-10M one year (with a second year option/buyout) and set my sights really high on a future run at Albert. Like I said, 1Bs are a lot easier to come by.

Since Chavez is too big a question mark for me, I offer Casey Blake a one year deal for $5M-6M with a second her buy out/option). I seriously doubt a 35 year old is going to get more than that and his HR total this year would have been second with the bunch I’ve got now. If Chavez does come back, I use him to spell Big Headed G or I platoon him with Blake until one forces me to get rid of the other.

If Tex signs this gives me:

LF Buck
RF Sweeney
1B Tex
DH Cust
SS Tulowitzki
CF Gonzo
C Suzuki
3B Blake
2B Pennington

If he doesn’t sign, I replace him with Raging G and use that money to lock up CC, who with a health Duke give me a better one-two punch than any in the West. Either way I’ve now got an offense that will at least give my kids some runs to play with for the next two to ten years.

Whatever I do, I definitely fix my hole at Short first and go get my one true middle of the line up threat (every good team’s got at least one!)

Step One: Sign Dunn (5 / 80). Yes he’ll be expensive but he’ll also be undervalued.

Step Two: Trade Street for Freese and change.

Step Three: Sign Furcal (2/24).

Step Four: Salary dump Crosby on someone for some minor prospects.

Step Five: Re-sign Ellis to whatever he wants ($7M in 2009).

SS Furcal
RF Buck (or Cunningham / Sweeney)
LF Dunn
DH Cust
C Suzuki
1B Barton
2B Ellis
CF Cargon
3B Freese (or Chavez)

Pitching is all the same, except Devine to closer and Ziggler back to late and close double play multi inning work.

Salary:
$38M
+ $16M – Dunn
+ $12M – Furcal
+ $7M – Ellis
- $5.25M – Crosby
- ~$5M – Street

= $63M