so I don’t think it would be a good player for Blanton, Street, Barton and Suzuki or something like that that people seem to be suggesting.

As for Barton, he’s finally started hitting in June, so I would like to see how he continues before making the jump on him.

The Infield is very hard to upgrade, simply because theres few players to replace them with.

Ellis is a good deal for the A’s right now, as a GG 2B with an average bat. There are very few upgrades for 2B around the Majors, though one, and he’s on the wrong side of the 2B Decline Phase, is one whom we ALMOST acquired but failed to due to Ken Macha shooting it down somehow in favor of keeping an ineffective LOOGY. I am refering to the almost deal of Rincon for Polanco. Polanco is struggling a bit in Detroit, but still has a decent line. He plays good defense as well. And Detroit is sucking right now, and can use pitching. But what do we do with Ellis?

Crosby sucks balls, we all know that, but looking around the league there is no talent in the majors at SS available.

Chavez is injured and expensive, so it will be unlikely we can dump him. The question is if his surgery finally fixed something and he can hit now.

The DH situation is moot-Thomas is here for dirt cheap and good production, and if he isn’t, there’s Cust.

But the Outfield is a different matter. We only have one good hitting outfielder at the moment in Jack Cust. The other two slots are essentially open if we want to contend and do not care for the rookies taking the slots.

But we do care about the rookies and we want them to take the slots. Patrol Craft is doing poorly, but has a lot of promise, and as we’ve seen, is one of the few A’s that hits the ball hard. He can handle CF or RF. Sweeney has had flashes of good streaks, and one right before getting injured, and can also handle CF or RF. Both of these guys can be replaced, theoretically, with better players that would instantly upgrade the offense. But the question is at what cost?

Right now, money doesn’t matter. If we acquire a player like Hanley Ramirez, the price will be in prospects. Same goes with acquiring a player like Jason Bay. The Money doesn’t matter because compared to production, its not a huge issue and our payroll. is very low right now. But sending out talent when we are rebuilding is a big problem. And remember that in one aspect, acquiring a Hanley Ramirez helps in the long term, and a Jason Bay helps in the short term but with added Draft Picks.

If we want to upgrade, we need a Jermaine Dye, a Ray Durham or a Johnny Damon type deal. Fortunetly or Unfortunetly, there are a lot fewer Allard Bairds in the Majors right now, so fleecing will be much more difficult. And guys like Bavasi are in our division and won’t deal with us. Jason Bay, I think, is one of those guys, but Pittsburgh will be smart when dealing him. So who do we target?

Personally, I think we should look at Detroit and see if we can grab anything from them. Acquiring Ordonez would be nice, and Granderson would be awesome. But what would the Tigers want?

Im also for drafting the best available player so that you can make trades down the line. Look at the current A’s roster, its filled with prospects from other Organizations. Barton, Cust, Sweeney and Cargon. The whole young core of the rebuilding A’s were traded for not developed in the A’s system. I dont know if its bad luck, bad scouting or just lack of good coaching but the A’s system has not been good for position players for awhile now. This was the main reason I was against drafting Weeks ahead of Brett Wallace, you take the best player available.The A’s are good at seeing pitching talent that others dont and they also seem to be good at developing good pitchers. I would like to see the A’s develope some of this young pitching, some for the 2011 A’s and some used as trade chips. I would be very open to trading some pitching for a few young stud position players. If this is truly a rebilding year then you may have to trade a Harden, Blanton or Gaudin. Gm’s are getting smarter, it takes talent to get talent.

You obviously put a ton of effort into this diary while highlighting that it is just plain difficult to find decent hitters who can play catcher and SS.

Renteria was cleared for this guy to shine. I’m pretty sure he’s as untouchable on the Braves as you can get.

The A’s have plenty of money right now. I would be very much in favor of an outfield upgrade, or a middle infield upgrade. Crosby is a year away from his walk year, and Ellis is a free agent at the end of the season. Ellis could have a lot of value to a team desperate for help at second, as he’s cheap, excellent with the glove, and has legit pull power.

Another key reason why an outfield upgrade is helpful is the continued bad news about Thomas and Senior Sweeney. Cust should really be DHing every day right now. With him in his proper place, you’re choosing between a lot of mediocre-at-best outfield options.

Is about our talent within the organization we are building around. I don’t think anybody expected our top prospects to perform this poorly out of the gate. The biggest disappointment has to be the performance of Buck, Barton, and Suzuki.

The real question is, do we stick with our current prospects or give up on them. It seems clear to me though, many of the fans just aren’t too thrilled with what we got seeing as we would all shit our pants if somebody actually hit .300 with 30 plus HR’s and 100 RBI’s

I almost think Bowen and Landon Powell need to see some considerable time at catcher. While Barton and Buck may just need some time to work our the kinks. Might as well play R. Sweeney, CarGon, and Buck (AAA) everyday and let them get as many AB’s as they can get.

What about Jack H. at 2B once Ellis leaves? i don’t know if we can get excited about him or Murphy playing everyday at second.

In regards to Crosby, “What you see is what you get!”

I heard Beane offered Crosby and Detroit said no!! LOL

If so then I’m fine with it, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Bowen and Powell getting some time in there to mix it up a litttle more.

My guess is there’s no move made. I also don’t agree that the Angels are uncatchable. They’ve been pretty lucky with run distribution and their bullpen has been invincible in clutch situations. That isn’t likely to continue very long.

A’s won’t make a trade for a big time player. I was hoping they could make a trade for Griffey as he would increase attendance and bring a big threat into our lineup, but its very unlikely.

Blanton sold.

Gaudin sold. (The guy is worth so much more as a starter…)

Harden sold.

Hannahan/Murphy platoon to second for Ellis. Ellis sold.

Get back young pitching, infield prospects. Those four could fetch us a franchise. Harden/Gaudin/Blanton are 3/5ths of a good starting rotation, (assuming Harden stays healthy until the trade deadline). Better than the 1-2-3 of half the teams in the majors. I’d love it if they could re-sign Ellis, but Hannahan/Murphy is almost as good, for a fraction of the price.

I think Billy spends a lot more time thinking about this sort of scenario than how to improve the offense by trading away his prospects. I really like the post, well researched, but it just goes to show that the sort of player the A’s look to build around is just too expensive by the time they are big leaguers.

Billy has been interested in Nady before. As a right-handed bat that crushes lefty pitching (.982 OPS) but doesn’t completely suck against righties (.831 OPS) and hits for a high average (.311), he could be a nice complement to the offense. He’s relatively cheap ($3.35 million this season), under club control both this year and next, is in the prime of his career (aged 29) and is fairly versatile defensively as he could be slotted into right field, left field, first base or the DH slot.

The problem I have with trying to trade with him is that a lot of his value right now is tied into his abnormally high batting average and RBI numbers. He will not keep up his scorching hot start at the plate and will cool down eventually. If that cool-down happens before the trade deadline, then his trade value might come down to the point where he will be worth what Billy would likely trade for him (probably a minor league arm or two). But if he doesn’t cool down anytime son, then Neal Huntington will likely be asking for a lot more for Nady than he is actually worth.

Nevertheless, I wouldn’t put it past Billy to make a trade for a player like Nady that he’s liked in the past and who would clearly upgrade the offense, even during this “rebuilding” year. Billy’s always looking for ways to improve the club at all times, and since it seems like the rebuilding process has kind of gotten a head start this season with solid performances from some of the young pitchers, there would be no reason for Billy not to look to keep the team as competitive as possible.

From what I have read he has great defensive skills and is a good hitter. I would like to see him get a bit more playing time right now and give both Crosby and Ellis a break now and then. Also I would like to hear more about the possibilities of Guzman in our middle infield in the future.

I wouldn’t mind trading for a right handed OF, he would need to still be young in order to be a long term solution and he would need to have great defensive skills.

Thinking about our teams this decade and where we have excelled is in defense. If we can keep that area up and still improve the offense then it is worth the cost.

He may not show it right now but he is one of out top ranked pitchers.

Now, Embry and Braden for either Ethier or Kemp I would do.

someone who the other team isn’t looking for real talent in return, just to shed the contract. He’d probably even go for a contract that doesn’t expire until after 2009 …

I think he’d be willing to move Blanton or Gaudin in exchange for young-ish, inexpensive-ish MLB offensive talent.

I can see a lot of hypothetical trade discussions over the next month ending with links to this fanpost.

I voted for Kelly Johnson, thinking that Ellis will be gone in 1-2 years, and he’s one of the few upgrades that I think would fit into the long term plan. I have no idea what it would take to convince the Braves to part with him though.

Robinson Tejeda who was DFA by the Rangers. Is he worth taking a gamble on by picking up or is he just what he appears to be a bust?