Jack Clark was basically a poor man's Gary Sheffield. Jack Cust is (hopefully) a well-off man's Rob Deer.

And the 1985 Cardinals played in such a completely different environment from the 2008 A's that there's really no basis for a comparison. Dale Murphy led the league that year with 37 HR's and only 5 players hit more than 30. Busch was a pretty extreme pitchers park that massively suppressed HRs, while its huge outfield and painted concrete astroturf surface put speed at an absolute premium. According to baseball-reference.com, the park-adjusted league SLG at Busch in 1985 was .388. Last year's equivalent at the Coliseum was .410.

Former Athletic George Hendrick was their most powerful hitter. Hint: He wasn't all that powerful.

when you look at his production/cost compared to that of Sweeney/Cust. He's simply not worth the extra money he will cost. A win, at most, is not worth $10 million. It's just not.

I love baseball enough to not care that I was essentially reading a text book.

based entirely on my preseason expectations -- since the totals this point are based on such a small sample size.

(was that the answer you knew was coming?)

and the least runs scored. Home runs are a bit overrated

The .000 hitter, or the guy who hits .600 with all doubles?

A's have had 5 games in domes (avoiding the weather and good for hitting anyway) where they scored most of their runs, but they've also faced better pitching than what they'll face for the rest of the year, so who knows...

Oakland definitely is a much better hitter's park when it warms up. Snow in Cleveland tends to suppress offense. Toronto and Tokyo should be more or less neutral, though.

Doubles by young hitters often eventually translate into homers ... like in a year or three, as they gain muscle. Players generally don't lift much in season (just enough to maintain, not enough to actually grow).