As much as I like the idea of Giambi coming back to Oakland. You’re right, it doesn’t make sense. It’s just sad that there isn’t a better free agent market for our needs this off-season.

The way I had figured it, Bonds, like Giambi, would’ve been worth at most 2-3 wins (if you keep Cust in the outfield) and less if you replace Cust.

Great analysis. You did the work I didn’t want to do when I would briefly say how I didn’t like the Giambi idea.

I have to work tomorrow, but now I think it is already Saturday. My head hurts.

BTW, great post.

But when I look over the free agent market and then contrast it with what Beane has said recently about wanting “someone for one, maybe two years” to just give the young pitchers “a little bit of wiggle room”, the one guy that I think satisfies both is Giambi.

I’m not saying it’s ideal, but I think Giambi can still handle 1st base 3 times or so during the week, especially if the A’s re-sign Ellis, whose fantastic range and sure-handedness could somewhat mitigate Jason’s defensive limitations. He could also help tutor Barton, who definitely needs a mentor at this point. On those days he plays the field, Cust DH’s and instead of having to choose one .850 OPS, 30-homer guy over another, you get two, with pretty good up-the-middle and corner outfield defense. On other days, either Giambi takes a day off or Cust puts a glove on once a week. The idea is to keep them in the lineup together as often as possible, but keep them both from being overexposed in the field. With Barton still in the team’s plans going forward and at least an adequate defenisve 1st baseman, along with a plethora of solid defensive outfielders, I think this can be achieved with a little lineup juggling throughout the year.

I realize the point that this A’s team is probably a good two seasons away from truly competing and signing Giambi is not going to “put this squad” over the top, however, I think and Beane seems to think that even those 2 extra theoretical wins you speak of are important to the development of the young pitchers.

Of course, ideally, the A’s wouldn’t need to sign Giambi to get the boost of offense they need, but I just don’t see a better, readily-available and reasonably affordable fit out there on the free agent market, and Beane has already stated that he won’t trade big-time prospects for bats, at least this off-season. Nice analysis by the way, it’s a good breakdown of the facts, I just happen to still tentatively support signing Giambi, even if it means just a minor overall boost to the team.

I guess my biggest problem with brining in Giambi would be the ~$10M it would cost per year. I’d much rather see this money invested in player development such as we did this year. Sign a big international FA, draft aggressively and go over slot, etc. This seems a better distribution of the money than throwing it at Giambi for one or two semi-competitive seasons.

That said, I’m operating under the (fairly safe) assumption that we don’t have a large amount of additional money to spend – meaning we can’t allocate $10M extra to player dev and $10M to Giambi, per season.

If the A’s are taking in more than they’re spending even with such a signing, and wouldn’t otherwise drop those 10 large into some other part of the personnel system, I’m not sure why fans should care about the expenditure, unless another equivalent expenditure is being proposed in its place

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The Moneyball ethic did a funny thing to A’s fans—it got us in the habit of analyzing every move in the context of the team’s budget. But in the middle of a sustained run of profitable years, I submit that as fans the franchise budget is no longer some ever-present obstacle to be worried about. Realism is still important—it’s a waste of time to propose signing Manny and CC and trading for A-Rod this off-season. But beyond that, the degree of profit Lew+pals retain is not something which I feel obligated to consider.

Why is Giambi being compared to Cust? If we signed Giambi, of course he and Cust would play at the same time. The question isn’t “Is Giambi any better than Cust?” but “Is Giambi likely to provide more offense than Daric Barton or any of the low-ceiling, power-and-walks-deprived outfielders?”

Who cares how Giambi compares to Cust? And why?

Crosby being out the door? Could we sign Furcal and move Bobby to 3rd?

We need more husky fellas. Skinny guys just can’t hit for power with any consistency.

There’s gotta be sort of waistline to OPS ratio out there. Some needs get on this.

Dial’s defensive stats indicate Barton’s something like 15 runs better than Giambi in the field, but he was also about 35 runs worse than Giambi this year on offense. I’m not sure both Daric and Carlos wouldn’t benefit from being in AAA to start the season. If having Giambi enables the A’s to reduce the nearly 900 PA given to those two (and Bankston) till they’re more ready, then I’m not seeing the down side.

I also agree with Paul that the difference between the A’s and Angels isn’t as stark as the 24.5 game difference in the standings. If having Giambi puts the A’s projection within 5 games of the Angels, it’s well worth it to me. Anything can happen during the season and the team can improve at the deadline, not to mention with minor league callups. The Twins should be kicking themselves for trading Santana for peanuts and then coming as close as they did. OTOH, if they need to sell, Giambi should have value at the deadline.

Finally, if the semblance of competitiveness facilitates the CSN West deal and prospective deals with radio stations, there’s a much higher potential marginal revenue payoff.

sal made a butt thread?