While we wait and hope for Chris Carter and Michael Taylor to come up and produce at the major league level, the Athletics need to do something for next year to generate some power. Power is the most expensive commodity in baseball. Therefore you can forget about the A's signing Adam Dunn, Jayson Werth, or Carlos Pena. Even aging stars like Lance Berkman & Derrick Lee are unlikely to join the A's because they still have something left. Unfortunately the A's have resigned themselves to trolling the third tier of free agents: Aging veterans.

Since OF is the only position where there is any available upgrade in Free Agency (sorry Kouzmanoff & Ellis haters), that is where i'm focused. And here is the short list

Michael Cuddyer , OF, 31 - still very good (.273-12hr-66rbi), and would cost too much.

Brad Hawpe, OF, 31 - having off-year (.255-7hr-37rbi), would be a risk.

Marcus Thames, OF, 33 - having a great year as reserve (.320-9hr-25rbi).  His career numbers are .495 slg% and extrapolating his HR totals for a full season gives you 37hr type of power. That's big! I'd split him at LF/DH and force the youngsters to outperform him.

This series will be bun, but watch Thames in particular because I think he's a fit for the A's next year. Plus, wouldn't it be nice to take someone away from the Yankees for once? What do you all think?