but I think Jason has cured that. But I would be a little intrigued by signing Miggy if he’s willing to play some hot corner, especially if the A’s elect to keep Kennedy. We would have a little redundancy at short with Pennington, plus Miggy and Kennedy in tandem could hold down third when Chavez inevitably collapses. Then Wallace can step in at the ASB.

Lackey is going to end up in Boston. Which is fine with me. Chone on the other hand would be another intriguing possibility, albeit one that might give LB fits.

So we have an option at 3b until Wallace is ready. We can eat the poor D with the rest of our defense being stellar.

Give Cust another year, see if he figures it out/rebuilds some value. He is still one of our top two or three hitters, even in a down year. Don’t sign anyone else. As we’ve seen this summer, it helps to figure out what you have in your own organization before paying lots of money to older players.

Basically, free agent signings won’t help us compete next year, so why sign them?

He’s a guy I’d like to see. Glaus is not too old at 33 and just one year removed from a .856 OPS season – I don’t doubt he can be a better hitter than Kennedy was this year if he’s 100% fit. He would be a starting 3B or in a 3B/1B/DH musical chairs game with Barton, Cust and Wallace, if Wallace is MLB ready (which I personally think he is).

If they don’t re-sign Marco Scutero, the BlueJays will need a shortstop. It’d amuse me if they continued to play A’s infield cast-offs.

How about bringing Harden back?

I have a friend who is on Facebook. I do not use it but a friend of hers got on her computer and deleted all her friends (400 of them) .

Is there anyone here familiar with Facebook and is there anyway she can retrieve the list.

I would think she is screwed but if someone can give a quick answer, it would be much appreciated.

Like Brad Penny. There is a difference in mentality/style (AL pitchers tend to paint corners more and thus AL teams are much more patient, where as NL is alot more fast ball- battle).

I have identified 3-4 needs. A veteran starter, a corner infielder, a utility infielder, corner outfielder. One of the hitter needs to be a middle of the lineup presence, PREFERABLY right handed. Otherwise I’d like to give Wallace a chance ti win a starting position.
  
-Erik Bedard would be great, division familiar. Any Idea how much he’d cost?

-I love the idea of Jerry Hairston. Again, how much?

-For corner infielder, Adrian Beltre would be GREAT. Seattle is a bad hitters park.
Other names: Joe Crede, Adam LaRoche (unlikely), Miguel Tejada (he would be comfortable here)

-If we can’t find a corner infielder w/ power, we should try to add that bat in outfield. I’d love to grab Xavier Nady (Nor cal guy), or Jermaine Dye

Also what about Coco Crisp? He’s off a nightmare season, so he could come for cheap.

 a nice player, he was 27 when he came on the scene, Rajai is 28. If the guy bats .275 with 50 SB next year and scores 85+ runs, whats wrong with that?

I’d like to see minimal trades involving the 40 man roster. (if you can trade from a strength, like outfield bullpen and get Adam Dunn, maybe for Hairston, Kilby) I’d do it.

The riskiest thing the A’s should do this off season is offer arbitration to Duke. I’m not certain of that either.

If the teams plays .500 or better ball in the first half next year, then add players, but I want at least another half season of what I’ve seen this half season. No more guess work.

He’s still steal you 50 bases in a full year.

it’s not like all his speed his going away next year, there’s no reason to trade him.

I wouldn’t want to sign Bedard on anything but a one year <$5m type deal. With Penny I would be willing to go up to 2/8 with incentives, the same with Sheets.

I would sign Beltre but not for the 3/27 that grover thinks he will get. more like 1/10 or 2/15.

I would be willing to sign Tejada for up to 2/16 and play him either at SS or 3b depending on Wallace and Cardenas.

everybody else on this list I am not interested in.

Looks like the brewers might shop hardy/fielder and the dbacks with drew

Both teams are looking for pitching.

Let everything else work itself out. I think we should be okay everywhere else. I am looking forward to next season.

My thoughts are, in order:

1. Damn they’re cheap,
2. Surprised they don’t think they could trade the guy,
3. I would like to sign him to play for the Oakland A’s, since he is young and has high upside and does not cost a draft pick, and he might resurrect his career with a change of scenery, and
4. Damn they’re cheap.

Priority 1. Get Yunel Escobar, JJ Hardy, or a yet unmentioned SS for all the trade chips we’re willing to part with. For simplicity Pennington is included in the deal. He’s fooled many into thinking he’s worth a shot. But his upside is that of a slick fielding guy who relies on walks and SBs on offense. He’s putting up an ISO higher than anything he’s done since rookie ball. ZiPS predicts a .285 wOBA the rest of the season (which is likely what we’re looking at in his sophomore campaign). Add in Desme, Donaldson, Powell, Simmons, Davis, Hairston, Wuertz, Buck or other trade chips to complete the deal. All 8 of those names could draw some level of interest and because of that are my top trade chips. If we’re not able to pry either Yunel, Hardy, or another SS loose, I’m in trouble. I end up considering Miggy but I also try to pick up as many former prospect SSs as possible. The first guy I look at is Brandon Wood. Past that, I go crazy and either sign a good glove 2b (Polanco/Hudson) and plug them into SS or try Cardenas there. If you haven’t figured yet, I don’t like Pennington on any A’s playoff squad.

Priority 2. Inquire about Alex Gordon. I doubt even Dayton Moore will consider him available for any combination of the 8 names above (especially as the most attractive are likely to be taken in the previous trade), but Gordon has underachieved just enough that KC might suffer SNTS and look at a FA or trade and replace him. If they seriously consider moving him, I might consider parting with Wallace for Gordon. The Royals would need to add a bit more to the deal, and I’d have to run through a lot of calculations (mainly about Wallace’s D) but I might just do it. If Gordon’s not available I look at Beltre’s price tag. If the bidding on Beltre gets too high, I’m again up a creek. I consider Tejada. What I don’t do is sign Kennedy. I’m real happy AK did well but he’s precisely the type of option that has no upside. He’ll likely perform great as a replacement if one of your infielders is out on the DL (remember D’Angelo Jiminez? That’s when AK could have been great), but there’s no way Kennedy performs enough to lift the A’s to the playoffs. I’d rather the A’s go young and throw Wallace into the fire. But I’m against that unless there are no more options.

Priority 3. Find 2 big hitters for the 1b/OF/DH. The A’s have 3 solid options in CF. Unfortunately none is great for COF. Sweeney is the only one of Raj, Ryan, and Hairston who I can foresee getting to 3.5 WAR next year (and even that’s uncertain). However all could get to 1.5 WAR. The absolute best thing to do would be to consolidate and trade two of them to get one great LF with a couple years of control. In a perfect world that’s a guy like Shin Soo Choo (well in a perfect world, it would be a guy like Holliday, in a semi-realistic perfect world it’s Choo). However, I don’t see that happening. That leaves two options: get a guy who’s not a big hitter yet or get a couple of guys who combined could be a big hitter. Now the only suggestion I have for the prospect that the A’s could acquire with their trade pieces is Matt Gamel. Cameron is a FA, leaving the Brewers with a hole in CF. The Brewers’ C is Jason Kendall. Need I say more? Of the A’s trade pieces I’ve mentioned before, two are catchers and two are CFers.

I’ve already mentioned three trade ideas: SS, Gordon, and Gamel. If the A’s don’t have the pieces to get all three done, they’ll need to get some help from the FA market. One of the easiest ways to get a lot of production for little cost is a platoon. Luckily, the A’s already have half of one in Scott Hairston. Hairston crushes lefties. Who can the A’s get as the second half of the platoon? How about Eric Hinske? Strangely, Hinske does not have much of a split this year, but in years previous Hinske has shown that he can hit righties at a very good clip. Better yet, Hinske can be a good backup at 1b, 3b, RF, and LF. Plus he’s only 32 (not too old for a FA) and likely to be cheap.

Without looking, whom did Beyond the Boxscore name the 1st and 5th most valuable Rfers of 2008? Here’s a hint: they’re both FAs. Still don’t know? Brian Giles and Randy Winn. Both have had bad years (Giles a terrible one). Both could be available cheapish. I wouldn’t sign either for more than Giambi signed for, but G’s contract seems reasonable to both. Mike Cameron could be an interesting pickup as well.

That leaves 1b and DH. Barton and Cust are the incumbents and both deserve a shot. However, getting a guy like Huff or Vlad (if he’s cheap) wouldn’t be that bad an idea. It may seem like that’s too many players for too few positions, but remember what happened with Jay Payton. The players who perform and stay healthy will find playing time.

Priority 4. Get a number two starter . A rotation with Cahill as the 4 starter looks a lot better than one with him as the 3. There’s a bunch of aces who get injured a lot on the market: Harden, Bedard, Duke, Escobar, Hudson, Penny, even Prior. Sign the one that’s the cheapest. Investigate Doug Davis and Randy Johnson. Maybe sniff at Chapman if you’re feeling frisky.

No one can argue that 2010 should be about two things: trying to win a World Series and building to win future World Series. Argue about how much each objective should play into your moves, but those are the goals. I think the moves I suggested give the A’s an outside shot at competing next year and still leave the A’s in good position to call up Carter, Wallace and others if it’s decided the A’s can’t compete.