Ok -  I know that most folks here guffaw at most of the ludicrous speculative trade scenarios proposed by various members of the community, but I wanted to offer my lotion softened hand at one such "scenario".

Targets:  David Wright and Prince Fielder

Cost: ???

It's a foregone conclusion at this point that this club needs to produce more offensively in order remain become competitive.  Most of us would agree that that's going to be hard to do given the cast of characters we're working with.  A lot of the community would also probably agree that the A's farm system is mediocre at best, and while there's been a few pleasant surprises at the upper levels (Weeks's health and production, Taylor and Cardenas's bounce backs) the upper levels of the minors don't hold a lot of high level prospect depth. 

That said - I wouldn't have a problem with Beane dealing away some of the prospects that we have in order to improve this year and beyond, even if some are dealt for a rental player like Fielder.

I would propose sending Barton, Cardenas, Magnunson, and someone like Hollandsworth to the Brewers for Fielder.

Then, assuming Wright can get healthy (and assuming Ross is back in the rotation,) I'd propose we send Taylor, Outman, Weeks, and Kouzmanoff to the mets for Wright.  Maybe we could get Reyes as well, but that seems doubtful as they'd probably want Green in that deal, and I'm much more comfortable with Pennington at this point than I am with Kouz or Barton.  I'd also try and work out a 2 or 3 year extension with Willingham.  I'd promote Carter if he's healthy and release Matsui outright.

That would give us a potential line up this year of:

Crisp - CF

DeJesus - RF

Wright - 3B

Fielder - DH/1B

Willingham - LF

Carter - 1B/DH

Suzuki - C

Ellis - 2B

Pennington - SS

That's a lineup that could actually frighten some teams when it gets going.  Of course this is all in fun and completely and foolishly speculative - please don't read to too much into these ideas or make a mountain out of a gopher hill. 

I am interested to know what you think it would take, though?  With Wright's injury and Fielder's lack of signability, both are going to be significantly cheaper than they might have been in the past.  Discuss!