I've been picking up on some serious anti Garrett Atkins vibes here on AN.

Why?

What we're doing here is some dieting, counting stats, rate stats and of course jumping! Follow me for more! (Apologies in advance for my lack of pretty charts and graphs, I'm just not that good with that stuff.

Alright, let me see this now:

The guy had a BABIP of .247, only about 60 points below his career norm of .311. Oh sure you say, numbers like that must be because of his launching pad of a home park and that is true to a point (see his home/away OPS splits...yeeesh)  but since its "Power" we are all worried about here, he has hit more 2 homers on the road than at home, and only 12 less doubles...for a career. His career ISO is .169, not exactly terrible.

In 2009, in 399 PA he drew 41 walks, to 58 strike outs
in 2008, he had 664 PA, and only drew 40 walks.

Call me crazy, but once his BABIP returns to normal, I would love to see him manning the hot corner.

Warning! I'm about to cite projections to support me, get your torches and pitchforks ready!
Bill James: .285/.353/.448
CHONE: .275/.345/.440
ZiPS: .267/.335/.428

Even if you go with the lowest, pro-rate that for 146 games, his career average since becoming a full timer in 2005, you have yourself a very solid 3B. The primary components of the past 3 seasons at our hot corner have been the following stiffs/bodies/mannequins-in-the-batters-box, broken down by innings played at 3B from 2007-2009:

Strand-ahan: 1680.1
Chavvy (he was/is my favorite player, I cannot bring myself to mock him): 774.2
Kennede-cently field it?: 691.2
Crossitively awful: 297.1
Scutaro (another favorite): 295.5
Atkins: 2693.0

Offensively, its not really close. In those 3 years, Hannahans wOBA was .307, and Atkins was .332. Yes, defensively there is a huge disparity as well, but for a 1 year deal, I love the upside to this deal.

The only cons I see is that he's 30. He had a groin injury that probably limited his defense, but fangraphs still listed him at pretty much average, -0.7 per 150 games. To my knowledge, this is his first semi-serious injury. If the A's are not serious about bringing up Wallace at all this year except for a September cup of coffee, I'd be all for this. Then again, if theres a chance, however unlikely, that the team may want to break camp with Wallace, then obviously don't throw 4.5 million at Atkins, unless you push Barton to the bench.

This is just one man's thoughts and ramblings. I'd love to see the other side of the opinion.