The A's are currently leading the AL West. As lucky as we have been, this will not last ! But it provides us with a great opportunity to revamp the team and win NOW ! Here's what I propose. You might not agree with all of it, but if you really think about it, you will know it's best:

1. Fire Billy Bean ! - We've sucked for 3 years now. We're hitting no home runs. The guy has man crushes on Jack 'K' Cust, Daric 'no power' Barton and Ryan 'Raccoon' Sweeney, while trading away Carlos Gonzalez, a terrific ballplayer. Also, the A's haven't developed any superstar hitters since Eric Chavez. Billy is the one to blame. If the Cards can get Pujols in round 5, the A's should do better.

2. DFA Cust, get Eric Chavez back at DH. This has been eloquently put in another post I just read. Cust strikes out way too much. I once saw one game, someday, where he struck out 3 times and walked once. Puke !

3. Trade Daric Barton and Adam Rosales for Brad Hawpe - A no power 1B and a utility infielder are easily expendable. We need power ! Brad Hawpe is a great hitter. He had 86 RBI last year. Maybe we need to include a prospect like Cardenas, who's clearly never going to make it to the majors.

4 Trade Ryan Sweeney and Gio Gonzalez for Manny Ramirez - We have a chance to win now ! Ramirez is one of the top 3 hitters in the league. He could really ignite this team as well as the clubhouse.

5 Call up Carter and Taylor - With Barton gone at 1B and Sweeney gone at RF, we finally have room for these guys. Give them a week or two and they'll be on fire !

6 Draft more high school pitchers - This will not help us now, but we need impact pitching like Brett Anderson, not more nr. 3 / 4 starters like Cahill and uhm, well, Braden. I read somewhere that we should trade Braden for Bumgarner, which really resonated with me, but I'm a bit confused on that one now...

7 Trade for Jose Bautista - This guy is clearly on fire, 41 RBI in 53 games. Not sure who we'd have left as tradebait, but Kurt Suzuki clearly isn't hitting this year, and Landon Powell already has a couple or HR's

8 Trade for Livan Hernandez - has a 2.15 ERA, enough said, not sure the Nationals will be fooled easily though.

9 Bunt MORE: We're winning ballgames when we bunt !

10 Rosterbate more with line-ups 90% filled with prospects: Next year our line-up should be:

C Donaldson, 1B Carter, 2B Weeks, SS Green, 3B Valdez/Parker, RF Taylor, CF Davis, LF Dunn (he'll be a free agent next year, with Chavez coming off the books, we have room to give him 15 mln. a year), DH Hawpe

SP Anderson SP Braden SP Ross SP Capra SP Mazzarro (I really like him, he pitched very well, once)

RP H-Rod, Demel, Smyth, Wuertz, Leon, Storey, Bailey

Let's stop being boring ! The future is bright !