Jack Cust Drawing Trade Interest?

some jerk (me) is gonna start arguing that his Ks are actually more beneficial overall, at least better than a ton of DPs. In the end, is a K any worse than any other kind of out? I think sometimes its better if there’s a runner on 1st, cause Cust is like slow motion jello running 90 feet, aka automatic DP on GBs.

maybe “snarket” value is best. Seeing as how mikev is absolutely right… there are like 900 little wooden posts in the Jenga tower that is Jack Cust. So many to pull, so many ways for the whole debate to devolve into a pile of useless wooden blocks.

I actually thought you were making up some weird new word to describe the dichotomy that is Jack Cust. Or would it be trichotomy with the BB the K and the HR?

OMFG HE SUCKED LAST YEAR…

but…

OMFG HE’S GOING TO BE EXPENSIVE!!!!!

If he sucked last year, he won’t be expensive. If he’s expensive, it’s cause he was good.

he hit EIGHT home runs.

would rake in the DH spot with the occasional start behind the plate. His knees would get to stay fresh, and he still get the PAs. If Billy were to trade Cust, I think this would be the most immediate result, benefitting Landon tremendously, who has shown he can hit for power. I also think it offers Barton the advantage of staying in the lineup whenever Carter/Wallace or both arrive.

They would have been a better team and won more games. Same with 32 extra doubles or 64 extra walks. If your point is, “Who cares what happens if you don’t make the playoffs?” then my answer is simple: I do. And while HRs aren’t the be all and end all, they are still among the better ways to be able to score points.

Why do we care how many home runs our team hits when we’re not in the playoffs?

Because the more HRs we hit, the more likely that one of them will happen at a game you happen to be attending. And when you’re at a game and the A’s hit a home run, that’s a lot of fun.

If you’re locked in a cell from April through September and don’t get to see any games till the playoffs, well, then I guess your point of view would make sense. Otherwise it’s silly. Are all home runs hit by the Royals, Pirates or Orioles completely meaningless?

Im down……..as of this moment……..though if we get the shaft in a trade I may change my mind.

I reserve the right to be fickle in this matter.

I imagine that Cust’s club control makes him a little more attractive than some of the folks you mention, but there are indeed other Custs out there for the taking.

Carter and Wallace will, in all likelihood, not be ready for the majors in April of 2010. For both, I think it’ll be a combination of offense/defense. So there’s no point in making Opening Day roster decisions (like aggressively looking to “jettison” Jack Cust) to make room for either of them, especially since, like you pointed out, when one or both or ready, they are likely to replace whomever are the stand-ins at 3rd and LF respectively, rather than Jack Cust at DH.

I foresee that Barton will be the Opening Day 1st baseman in 2010, and while Billy might still “like” him as a person and a player, I think he’s also stated numerous times that he expects his corner players to hit for power…so, if a few months go by and the guy is slumping or not hitting for the power he is capable of, then I could easily see him replaced by Carter/Wallace/Doolittle, all 3 of whom should definitely get a long period of AAA seasoning to start the year.

What I’m trying to say here, in response to s0sNe@kYbUtY?, is that the way I see things, there is no pressing or impending roster crunch where it’s currently necessary to trade/non-tender Jack Cust, especially while he remains the team’s best hitter and only one who has EVER hit more than 20 homers in a major league season (not counting the corpse of Eric Chavez).

Green (I know its nearly impossible for him to make it that quick, but we are talking dream scenario here, lol) in August, put Carter at DH, and Desme/Brown in LF (which ever is doing better come August in AAA).

Its Billy’s dream experiment/young player lineup, and its Lew Wolfs dream cause he doesn’t have to spend any money.

I subscribed to that blog thinking it would actually have some decent stuff. Instead I see that the Mets could go after Jack Cust to play 1B.

Either would be way below average for a DH, where he’d need to be +17.

any second-stringer gets. If he looks good in spring training that earns him some occasional spot starts. And if he impresses us in his few at-bats while someone else doesn’t — I figure it’s a pretty good bet somebody in the starting lineup will suck… — then he earns himself more starts. And if he keeps it up then he earns his way into the regular lineup, like Rajai did last year.

But I don’t want to want to give him freebie starts just for the sake of lots of playing time on the theory that with enough consistency he might get good. Sure, regular playing time can help E-Pat, but it can help anyone he might replace just as much, and they’re better to begin with.

should depend solely on when he’s ready. If it’s April, great, but if it’s June, call him up in June. He doesn’t figure to out-perform Cust, or even approach Cust’s performance, in 2010.

I also think the figure “$5M” is getting thrown around carelessly. I’d expect the A’s and Cust to settle closer to $3M (not that I know much about salaries and arbitration) and that’s just not a lot to play your leading HR hitter so that you can call up your promising slugger when he’s ready, no sooner no later.

It’s already been said before that the player payroll is separate from the draft and/or international FA budget.