Holliday is that he is not only a Boras client, but he has already said he plans on testing free agency after the 2009 season. Somebody will end up giving this guy a 6 year 120 million dollar contract (or more), and that leaves the A’s shit outta luck on him after next season. They don’t have the funds to splurge that much cash on a single player, and I think if Beane plans on dealing away some of our minor league talent it’ll be on a guy who can contribute for more then a single season. I would love to have Holliday’s bat, but considering the entire situation i’m gonna have to say pass. I’d rather go after a guy like Dan Uggla who would be around for a couple years, and could play 3B. Even Burrell would be nice, and wouldn’t cost prospects.

Holliday only makes sense to acquire for a team on the cusp of contention. The A’s acquisitions need to be either cheap short term pickups or long-term acquisitions. Holliday is neither of those two.

i’m going to go out on a limb here and make some predictions as to what I think Beane plans on doing about the offense situation for 2009. Matt Holliday isn’t coming to Oakland. It’s interesting, but not likely. So, i’m new to this site (enjoy it very much so far), the world series is on, i’ve had a few beers, and I wanna talk some A’s baseball. First, I don’t think many feel that Beane is going to blow all of the reduced payroll on 2 all-star type players. Realistically, this team is going to need a lot of things to go right to compete next season. Now’s not the time to “splurge”. With that said, I think Beane feels he is at least within a reasonable distance of fielding a pretty solid team. I think he try’s to make Crosby the Mark Kotsay of last season, because this year was finally a wake-up call about good ol’ Croz, and with only 1 year left on his contract he’ll be easier to deal. Then, I think he goes after Orlando Cabrera on a 2-3 year deal for around $7-8 million per. If Furcal doesn’t resign with the Dodgers, somebody will vastly overpay for his services and that won’t be Beane. Cabrera is a fine fielding veteran SS that doesn’t put up rediculous numbers, but would be a good upgrade over Crosby. If he can come in and hit .275/.330/.390 with a good glove he’s well worth the money IMO. Next I think he does indeed sign Giambi. Guys like Burrell and Dunn are going to want 4+ year contracts, and likely for $14+ million a season. That’s not Beane’s style, at least not yet. Giambi would probably sign for 1-2 seasons and maybe an option year. He’ll come cheaper then Burrell/Dunn because of his age, but I honestly think he’s not too far off production-wise from either of them if they were to come to the AL. So, i’m guessing he signs for 2 years, $9 million a year. Lastly, at least as far as major moves go, I think Street is a St. Louis Cardinal and David Freese is playing 3B for the A’s next season. I think its a very logical move by both teams. They have hooked up on deals in the past, and have things that the other team needs that also happen to be expendable. Freese is one of three good 3B prospects in that system, and he’s really not even the best of the three. He’s ready now, and projects to be a solid RH bat that could end up a middle of the order type guy. He’s older, but has shown good success at the higher levels. Take Streets contract off the books, plus a million or so from Crosbys after we eat most of it and this team’s budget is still only in the mid 50’s if i’m not mistaken. We upgraded at 3 positions, added a legit power threat to give Cust some protection, and with some improvement from the youngsters this team could be pretty solid in 2009. Then, in 2010-11 when Giambi and Cabrera come off the books, the prospects have arrived and are playing well, Beane can blow some big(ish) money and trade for a stud or two. I wish, but just don’t see that as an option for this offseason. What I do see is big signs of improvement and the future for 2009.

my thoughts on Cabrera are that although he is 34, he put up a nice line compared to Crosbys past few seasons. I wouldn’t expect him to come in and put this team over the top next year, but he would be a step up defensively and while i’m pulling these stats out of my rear end, Cabrera could come in and realistically hit .275/.330/.390 while Crosby pulls off another .235/.295/.345 type gem. I do agree with you that he is in decline, but it’s not like he’s 39-40 and not capable of putting up a line on par with his career numbers. I do like the idea of trading for a young MLB SS, but I just worry that it would cost too much in the way of prospects.

  Lets get Prince Fielder. Send over Huston Street, Gio Gonzalez, Deric Barton, and Cunningham. The A’s will have their big bat for 3 years. With him as the clean up hitter you can stick Cust at DH in front so they got to pitch to cust. Buck, Sweeny, Fielder, Cust, Chavez, Suzuki, Ellis, Cargon, and whoever is ss.

The A’s were a bad team last year. It’s encouraging that we have so many young players and we should expect them to improve, but they really deserved to be a 75-76 win team. Putting this team in a position to make the playoffs would require about a 10 win improvement. That’s a massive change in a single off-season – it’s about the same magnitude as adding A-Rod and Holliday to our team while hoping our pitching staff can pick up the slack for the Harden innings we won’t be getting.

We have some promising young players, but there’s no way this team is going to rocket into the playoff picture without giving up huge amounts of talent or cash, and neither is something this team can afford it if wants a run of sustained success like we’ve becomed accustomed to.