The A's need a 3rd baseman. Badly. Preferably a 3rd baseman with power. The Pirates just traded for rookie 3rd baseman and AN favorite Andy LaRoche and are in negotiations to sign another highly-regarded 3rd baseman (Pedro Alvarez) out of this year's draft. Those moves have effectively blocked the Bucs' former top 3rd base prospect Neil Walker for the next decade.

The story on walker: Pittsburgh native and big-shot high schooler taken 11th overall by the Bucs in the 2004 draft. Drafted as a catcher but moved to 3rd base at the beginning of last season. Struggled initially at the hot corner but is now seen as an adequate defender. Always about a year younger that his competition but probably moved up through the system too quickly. Is a switch hitter with talent from both sides of the plate. Hasn't hit a ton of homers so far in his career, but has hit a ton of doubles and is still only 22 and is in AAA. Has stayed healthy his entire career.

My completely unscientific take on Walker is that he could be the 3rd base equivalent of Nick Swisher. He switch hits pretty well with some power and is apparently a fairly confident/brash guy. He even kind of looks like Swisher.  Speaking more to the bottom line, Walker's stock is probably at an all time low. He's obviously been passed up on the depth chart by Andy LaRoche and he's struggling big time right now at Triple-A Indianapolis, hitting just .234/.269/.414 for an underwhelming OPS of .683. He's got 14 homers but a frightening 22-85 BB-K mark.

Those stats are certainly concerning, however I believe that Walker is more like the guy who hit 13 homers, 30 doubles, walked over 50 times and OPS-ed .824 last season as a 21-year old in Double-A than he is the struggling, has-been top prospect. For one, Walker's BABIP so far this season is a very unlucky .253, more than 50 points lower than his previous career low. Secondly, his struggles this season have primarily come at his home park, where he is OPSing a woeful .578 with only 15 extra base-hits; on the road he is at a much-more respectable mark of .768 with 28 extra-base hits in roughly the same amount of at-bats. Thirdly, Walker is actually hitting more line drives (21% of balls in play, according to minorleaguesplits.com) and is hitting less groundballs and less flyballs than he is since 2005, which suggests that he's making good contact but just not finding holes. Fourthy, take a look at his batted-ball charts. He hits a quarter of all balls in the air to centerfield and half of his homers have gone over the centierfield fence, suggesting he's got prodigious raw power. Lastly, he's also only 22 while competing against guys a year or two older than him and some of whom who have major league experience.

So while there's no doubt that Walker is having a down year, I think there is enough evidence to show that he isn't nearly as bad as his numbers indicate, and is actually a pretty good hitter. He's also got enough of a track record to show that he generally knows what he's doing. So, if I'm right, then why would the Pirates think about trading him? Two reasons:

1 - The Obvious: even if the Bucs had faith in Walker, there would be no room to play him. The LaRoche brothers have the monopoly on the corner infield positions for the next several years, they have better prospects to fill the outfield corners, he couldn't hack it at catcher and even if all those guys don't work out, the Bucs will likely have Pedro Alvarez chasing him out of the organization within a year or two.

2 - The Roster Crunch: Unless I'm mistaken (which is always possible) Walker will need to be added to the Bucs' 40-man roster this off-season lest be made available in the Rule V draft (since he is currently not on the 40-man but was drafted in 2004). The Bucs are in a transition period and might not want to expend a roster spot on a talented, but ultimately expendable player such as Walker, especially considering that they will probably need the roster spot in order to offer Alvarez a major league contract as an incentive for him to sign. It's for these reasons that I think Walker will be made available this winter.

So then, the question is: what could the A's trade to get Walker this winter. Obviously, Gio, Cahill and Anderson are way too much and have already been given the "off limits" tab by Beane & Forst, according to other execs. Since the Bucs have several promising, high-upside center field and corner outfielders, I don't think they would insist on Cargon or Swooney either. They really just need more pitching (who doesn't) and middle-infield help. They seem to be overhauling their entire system and would probably go for bulk rather insist on premium talent. So I'm thinking that any combination of the following players could work for the Bucs:

Braden, Meyer, Eveland, Kilby, Pennington, Petit, Sellers, Horton, Bailey, Fernandez, Lansford, Banwart, Italiano, Hertzler, Hodsdon, Richard

Basically, I'm thinking it would take two non-premium but fairly valuable pieces to land Walker, maybe a starting pitcher coupled with a middle infielder. It wouldn't be a huge price to pay, but it would be significant. I think it would be worth it though. At 22, Walker still has lots of projectability left in his bat and he's already shown that he can handle advanced pitching. As a switch hitter that sprays line drives to all fields he could become a fixture in the middle of a lineup. I'm thinking he could be moved up to the majors starting next season. I'm guessing he would need a few years to reach his full potential, but I don't think that it's out of the question that he could debut next season with a .750 OPS, 12-15 homers and 20+ doubles. That's probably not going to get the A's to the playoffs, but it would be a HUGE improvement over Hannahan and the upside in Walker's bat is tremendous.

I already know what you are all thinking: Walker sucks. If we're gonna trade prospects I'd rather go after Glaus or Beltre or someone else that can help immediately. I also like Kouzmanoff and Ian Stewart and Allen Craig more than Walker.

I like Stewart and Kouz too, but I know for a fact that their current teams like them as well and will demand premium prospects in return. Craig is intriguing, but is 2 years older than Walker and playing in a lower level. I realize that Walker isn't going to be very popular around here since he won't help the big league team immediately. However, I think it's important to note that as a hitter and player he's still developing and won't be a finished product for probably another two years or so. That's precisely when Beane envisions the A's window of contention to seriously begin. Trading for a 3B that could help immediately but will be gone by 2010 doesn't jive with the rest of what Beane is doing. And don't forget about Eric Chavez. If some miracle occurs, Eric could conceivably return to the hot corner next season. But with Walker being only 22, it wouldn't be difficult to just play him in AAA for further seasoning with the intention of him being the 3rd baseman of the future. Overall, Walker has the chance to be an impact-type hitter at a position of need for the team for many years to come. Since I think he could be obtained affordably in terms of talent, I think he should be pursued.