I would absolutely love to see him in green and gold, but last i heard the rockies are more likely to part with holliday than they are Atkins, who I’m pretty sure in sunder team control for at least another year or two, (correct me if I’m wrong). But, I would take either… or Pujols, let’s trade the farm for Pujols!

Too many pitchers on this team need infielders who don’t trip over themselves when trying to field a ground ball. Uggla’s offensive value will be greatly diminished if he’s -20 runs defensively.

And, of course, you have to take away half a win for moving to the AL. And he’s moving to a park much more friendly to pitchers (well, it ranges from slightly more friendly to much more).

I think the A’s would have to give up too much to get a guy who probably won’t help them as much as the current offensive numbers would indicate.

It probably doesn’t cost any more salary wise and his offensive downfall this year has a lot to do with luck. His LD% is up, GB% up a tad and FB% down a bit, IFH% up yet his BABIP is .249, almost 50 pts below his career average. Some of this is tied into a ridiculous 25% IFF (I guess he’s been getting under the ball too much and popping it up?), but he’s still been unlucky.

When you take O + D into account Ellis may be > Uggla, and if not I think its pretty close, and we wouldn’t have to give up talent for Ellis.

But he’s basically Cust with a few more homeruns.
Question: Think Cust would see better pitches if he had some protection like Uggla does? Well you know… pitches he can (should) actually make contact with.

I also don’t think the A’s will bring in Giambi because at this point, I don’t think Chavez can play a whole season at third base, having to throw it across the diamond. What you might be able to do though, is bring Big Frank or even Sweeney (but not both) back and let Chavy and Barton split time at first base and DH, with Chavy occasionally playing third.

Only then, we wouldn’t have Cust in the lineup very often if Cunningham gets to play, which I bet he will. The A’s are too crowded with DH’s that don’t play positions well (Cust, Thomas, Sweeney, throw in Chavez) so I don’t think Giambi will be brought in when we have cheaper options already in the system or willing to sign for cheap.

so I’d love to have him. Heck, I’d rather stick him at DH and ditch Cust.

and can uggla play 3rd base?

middle infield defense is crucial – power (at LEAST “doubles power”) is also crucial, so the A’s may have to find that power at other positions (3B, 1B, LF, DH). I’d love to have Uggla, but not at 2B – which unfortunately is the position he “plays”.

Would there be mandatory hugglas when he made a mistake?

The A’s have a serious lack of talent at the hot corner, at all levels really. With reports saying Eric Chavez might be done at 3B, Jack Hannahan having a turrible offensive season (his defense is actually pretty good but not nearly enough so to make up for the offensive offense) and no true 3B prospects in the minors (Chris Carter is most likely not a 3B and while I think Jeff Baisley deserves a shot the 40 man roster is full right now, though personally I would send Duke to the 60 Day DL at this point and shut him down), the A’s should be looking to acquire a 3B for the future.

I’ve seen some people (for many different teams) clamor for Kevin Kouzmanoff of the Padres. Personally I think he’s not a very good fit, his 3.3 BB% and 20.9% are pretty bad each individually, and when you combine the two in one player results in a putrid .16 BB/K ratio (last in the majors). He’s also no great shakes on defense, most of the metrics agree he’s below average. At 27 years old he’s probably already in his peak stage, and if this is it, pass.

Another name that pops up a lot is the Rockies Garrett Atkins. A career .300 hitter, he appeals to many A’s fans who’ve probably forgotten what a .300 hitting 3B looks like (at least those who value AVG too highly, which unfortunately is still probably too many). I think people may be remembering Atkins 2006 (which was outstanding) offensively, and not focusing on the past two years where his ISO-P has gone from .228 to .185 to .165 this year and his ISO-OBP has dropped from .080 to .066 to .052, which isn’t very impressive. Atkins also makes Kouz look like a whiz defensively, Atkins was an awful – 29 by Dewan’s +/- last year -15 by Chris Dial’s DRS and was -12 by Dewan this year before being moved to 1B where he’s already -7. Turning 29 in December, he isn’t likely to improve, so pass again.

Enter the 3B I’d like to go after, the Royals Alex Gordon.

Coincidentally, while looking his news up I just learned that Gordon has been shipped to the DL with a torn right quad. I still would like to go after him and think it may be even easier now with this injury.

Gordon was the 2nd overall pick in the 2005 draft by the Royals. All he did in the minors was live up to that billing, starting out 2006 in AA and hitting .325/.427/.588. He was rewarded with the #2 prospect in baseball tag by Baseball America (really #1, Daisuke Matsuzaka shouldn’t count in my opinion) and #1 by Baseball Prospectus’s Kevin Goldstein. These accolades helped him break Spring Training with the big league team, and Gordon was expected to step in and become a star.

He didn’t. Gordon ended up hitting .247/.314/.411 with an ugly 7.0% BB% and 25.2% K%. Most people expected him to go “Brauning” on the league (as an aside I think Gordoning sounds cooler, so nice going there Alex messing that one up) but Gordon failed to live up to the hype.

The 2008 numbers showed improvement for Gordon in almost all facets. Hopefully people don’t focus on the AVG difference of only .007 (his name is Gordon, Alex Gordon) and instead look at the whole line of .247/.349/.420. He’s upped his walk rate to 12.2, and his pitchers per plate appearance is up to almost 4 (3.94). He’s hitting more flyballs but not many popups or HR (8.0 IFFB, 8.5 HR/FB%). And that power has been to all fields as Hit Tracker shows:

Gordon doesn’t come without his faults though. I’ve used defense to bash Kouzmanoff and Atkins plenty earlier, and Gordon’s isn’t much better. Rany Jazayerli thinks that Gordon may be done as a 3B, which obviously isn’t very useful to the A’s with 1B and OF aplenty in the system. At only 24 years old though, I think Gordon may still be able to stick at 3rd, especially if his bat picks up like it looked like it might be.

He also may be eligible for Super Two Arbitration, though I think his DL stint and sub-par numbers will prevent that from happening. And even if it did, it may be a plus as the Royals don’t like spending a lot of money unless they’re handing out big Free Agent contracts to Gil Meche and Jose Guillen.

That being said, I have no idea what the A’s would have to give up to get him. I’d put Anderson and Cahill off limits, but everyone else is up for discussion including multiple players with regards to prospects. I’d even think about dangling Carlos Gonzalez and seeing what bites since the A’s do have plenty of OF talent, though I don’t like a one for one swap of those two and the Royals would have to sweeten the deal.

#1 prospects are #1 prospects for a reason, and they don’t all come into the league on fire (remember when BJ Upton was struggling? Doubt people are unhappy with that one now, unless they’re infatuated with hustling). That’s why I’d like to see Alex Gordon in an Oakland A’s uniform next year.

Just… not a good one.

You think the A’s can put together a package to get him over to Oakland, or is he off limits?

To the question of what they need, Kevin Gregg may walk this year, so a closer is a need as well as middle/late in bullpen help. They are losing patience with Hermida in RF and they really need a starting catcher. Strenghts, SS, LF, SP (they have a very good starting rotation that is meshing and will only get better, depending on injuries of course) 1B and 3B. Uggla is popular here as well, but that has never stopped them from letting good players go (kinda like the A’s).

This is coming from the inside. When Willingham was ready to come off the DL, the first person they said would lose playing time was Hermida, because he was not performing well offensively. I guess at the time when Uggla, Cantu, Hanley and Jacobs (for Jacobs it was HRs only) where hot, Hermida was in a fog. He has been slow to get it going and his BA is not where they would like it to be. Plus his plate discipline is not the best either.

I really do not understand it either. I would love to have him playing in OAK too.

And to Devo’s point, add the injury factor in as well.