There's always next year...ah, the life of an A's fan.

1. Aaron Cunningham to have an everyday job from opening day and be given a long leash.

Cunningham is a good prospect who has nothing left to prove in the minors. He's a good bet to be average and has a decent chance of being a minor star as one of those guys that's above average at basically everything.

I do think he'll start the year in the outfield. My worry is that if he sucksfor a few weeks, he'll be benched. No matter how badly he plays, Cunningham should get at least half a season next year to show what he can do.

2. Ryan Sweeney to platoon with somebody.

Sweeney is actually a pretty good player. I doubt he's as good as Fangraphs WAR thinks he is this year (which is solidly above average) because his UZR is so different from last year, but he's still probably around average. He's a horrible hitter against LHP though, and since we have two other guys in Davis and Hairston that are at about his level and are of the opposite handedness, a platoon makes perfect sense.

In a shocking turn of events, I think I lean to the Nico camp over the PaulThomas one here, and think Hairston should be the one on the short end of the platoon. He's just an atrocious hitter against RHP (.288 OBP), and while this is certainly not Davis' true hitting level, he doesn't have much of a platoon split, and I think his very good defense ultimately makes him more valuable than Hairston (even with Sweeney probably losing a little value moving from CF to COF). 

Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen because we never have platoons because...I have no freaking clue. I understand that when a platoon effectively takes up two roster spots, that's a problem. But that is not at all the case here. Hairston, Sweeney and Davis (assuming they aren't traded) are all going to be on the team NO MATTER WHAT, and all have value as bench players/defensive replacements. Why in God's name wouldn't you put out the player most likely to hit against the starting pitcher?

3. Rajai Davis to be traded.

This would kind of conflict with the whole platooning Sweeney thing, I suppose, but I've come around to the idea that it's the right decision. There's just no way that Davis is this good, and if we can get a couple decent pitching prospects to help replace all the depth we've graduated recently, I'd be all for it. That said, Davis is a reasonably good player and shouldn't be given away either.

If we do trade him, though, I'd love to see us make a lowball offer for the Rays' Fernando Perez, and not just because of his poetry. He's completely superfluous to the Rays, there's a non-zero chance that he's a star-level defender with acceptable OBP skills (basically that he'll be Davis this year at his peak), and at worst he's a great bench player with options left. Don't give up anything significant of course, but it's worth a shout. 

4. Trevor Cahill, Chris Carter, Brett Wallace, Sean Doolittle, and Adrian Cardenas to start the year in AAA. 

First, for everyone: service time, service time, service time. We're probably not going to win anything next year, and none of these players are likely to be THAT much better over a couple months to be the difference between the playoffs or not anyway, so it's really an imperative for a team in our financial situation to hold off on starting arbitration clocks for as long as possible.

Cahill: He's been just awful this year. Of course he's been rushed, and there's still reason for optimism, but for both service time and development reasons, Cahill needs to go back to minors next year. It makes no sense to send Cahill out there to suck it up when we have guys like Eveland/Mortensen/Tomko/random guy from scrapheap who are perfectly capable of sucking it up with out doing any developmental damage. I'm also open to the idea of Mazzaro going back to AAA too, though that seems less necessary.

Carter: Not ready. Had a great year, but needs to learn to play a decent LF or 1B (I'm betting on LF), and to work on hitting breaking pitches (I'm just trusting the scouts on that one). Give him at least half a year in AAA.

Wallace: AAA performance still hasn't matched the scouting profile. Let him hit like he's supposed to in AAA for a few months.

Doolittle: Try staying healthy for half a season first. 

Cardenas: I think it's obvious that he's not ready yet, but I thought I should mention it anyway.

5. Daric Barton to start the year as the everyday 1B. 

Why is it that when Barton has a horrible year in the majors at 22, everyone gives up on him, but when Cahill, at 21, is arguably even worse, everyone thinks he should just walk into next year's rotation?

I doubt Barton will ever be a whole lot better than average, but there's nobody ready breathing down his neck (if you say Tommy Everidge I'll scream), and there's no reason not to give him another half season audition. It seems like some AN'ers take it personally that Barton played so badly. Maybe he doesn't "deserve" another shot, but there's no one else that's worth throwing out there to start the season, and Barton still has genuine upside. 

Also, I don't know what to do about shortstop, but I'd sure like somebody to do something. Oh, and can we have Jack Hannahan back? I really hate that trade.