I really, really, REALLY hope I’m wrong about it though.

Well alright I’ll take your word for it that this is a good move but if you hear about a handsome man who jumped off a bridge in 2011 after watching an A’s game know that death is on you!

Usually one goes on to stardom and the other turns out to be the bust and with the A’s luck Taylor will be the bust.

is all about Beane trying to hide the fact that he’s a racist.

I love Sweeney, but good lord not in the 3 hole. He needs to show more pop than he has before that promotion.

I was never comfortable with Wallace. Too much uncertainty surrounding him.

Once he’s really established himself as a bona-fide, first-division right fielder, I think he’ll be dealt.

I don’t think there’s any way that Carter or Taylor open the season on the big club. Combined, they’ve played 43 games in AAA. They are a part of a different wave of players, and that wave – not Sweeney’s wave – is the one that will lead the A’s back to the playoffs.

Sadly, the Sweeney/Rajai wave very well could be gone by then, if you look at Beane’s past trading history. If the A’s clearly aren’t in contention – which I definitely don’t think they’ll be by the end of 2010, or even the beginning of 2011 – Beane would prefer to trade attractive assets with 2-4 years of contractual control remaining rather than watch those assets slowly lose value as they creep toward free agency on non-contending A’s teams. Witness Street, Swisher, Haren, etc.

With that in mind, here’s my prediction:

a.) Opening Day ‘10: Hairston/Davis/Sweeney in the OF, Patterson on the bench, a star-studded AAA outfield in Sac. That starting major league trio is on the Trade Value Building Tour in ’10. Fingers crossed that Hairston remains healthy, and the A’s can sell him as the most attractive LFer on the trade market at the FA deadline.

b.) Offseason ‘11: In the rosy scenario, Davis established himself as a legitimate starting center fielder in ’10, outstanding defense without regressing to his pre-’08 self offensively. Sweeney’s outstanding defense in RF proves to be for real in ‘10, and he’s finally able to hit .300, stay healthy, and hits 10 homers. Both players finish 2010 with 3+ years of service time coming off two consecutive good seasons…one or both get dealt for prospects.

Opening Day ’11: Open the floodgates. With a full year of AAA under their belt, this is when I expect Taylor, Carter, Desme, and Cunningham to own the Oakland outfield. Not sooner.

That’s a distinctly different wave of players than the guys who currently have 2+ years of service: Suzuki, Davis, Sweeney, etc. That latter group, sadly, might not be in an Oakland uniform the next time this team makes the playoffs. That’s the pattern we’ve recently seen with Beane, anyway. Those three guys’ best chance of staying in an Oakland uniform all the way through to their free agent years is for this team to look like a legitimate playoff contender entering 2011. If the team still looks far away at that point, it makes more sense to trade them for prospects and continue the cycle.

AN today: wallace is a DH/1B

did anything actually change besides him being traded?

(Posted something very similar in a previous thread just as it was being abandoned, my apologies if you see this twice but I am curious what the community’s thoughts are on this angle:)

Approximately 7% of Major League baseball players and 12% of the United States are African-Americans.

All in the last two years, I believe, the A’s have acquired:

Rajai Davis, Scott Hairston, Eric Patterson, perhaps joined on the major-league roster in the not-too-distant future by:

Chris Carter
Michael Taylor
Jemile Weeks
Tyson Ross
Corey Wimberly
Tyler Ladendorf
Jeremy Barfield
Rashun Dixon

Thoughts (I realize this is a difficult topic for some people to discuss, but I think I’m approaching it thoughtfully and respectfully):

*That’s probably now the best collection of minor-league African-American talent in the game.

*I can’t think of a team that has four African-American position-playing starters, but the A’s definitely could in two to three years.

*If you’ve ever been the only member of your race in a large group, you probably felt like you stick out. Some people feel less comfortable in that situation. Many African-American ballplayers come up through the farm system as the only American-born black player on their teams. Conversely, the A’s have acquired more than 10 African-American players in their system the last two seasons.

*The city of Oakland is one of the most ethnically diverse in the country, and roughly 30% of the city is African-American. It always made sense to cultivate diverse talent, especially in this market, and I remember growing up and watching Dave Hendu, Rickey, Dave Stewart, and Dave Parker on the 1989-1990 A’s teams I idolized. But somehow the organization strayed from that in this decade and fielded a few teams this decade that weren’t very ethnically diverse at all. I don’t think that ever makes sense, but especially in this market. In terms of on-the-field benefits, I could see that increased diversity making the A’s a more attractive destination for free agents someday down the road.

Wallace can’t play 3B and Taylor can play RF.

Now there really are no 3B prospects in the system but it’s not completely hopeless because there is still Cardenas and Donaldson. I’d like to see Donaldson work on catching until it’s universally decided that he can’t stick there. At this point, I’d like to see Cardenas start next season playing 3B full time in Sacramento with Weeks being groomed as the A’s future 2B. Use McPherson, Chavez and Fox to get through a likely miserable first half of the season. If Cardenas succeeds, bring him up.

I like this trade. I can’t find anyone with any negative thoughts about Taylor and it seems he’s more athletic than Wallace.

An outfield of Taylor/Davis/Sweeney should be fun to watch and I really only have two concerns (well two concerns about baseball) who plays third base and where do the A’s get power?

I’m hoping Beane makes a move for a third baseman and I guess Hairston plays the DH role and bats 3rd or 4th. Hmm the pitching better be pretty good or wins might be hard to find.