What a crazy offseason? What became apparent after yesterday is that aside from Billy Beane stock piling young arms, also does the same for outfield options. With 8 outfielders on the roster (9 if you count Brandon Allen), what combination of this will be the most effective for the A's?

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This just looks all kinds of wrong:

via a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net

From BANG's Joe Stiglich:

If the team does indeed move to San Jose, they will be called the "San Jose A’s," which has been assumed. Wolff pointed out how the franchise has moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland, always keeping the "Athletics" label. There was a stuffed Stomper on hand at Wednesday’s event, with the A’s mascot wearing a "San Jose Athletics" uniform.

I know I've heard it, typed it, thought it... but until I saw the Stomper doll with "San Jose" where "Oakland" should be, it didn't really sink in.

It doesn't look right. Doesn't feel right. Doesn't seem right.

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Before the Cahill/Gonzalez/Bailey trades this offseason, we were looking at a middle-of-the-pack farm system. Thanks to the top notch pitching we traded away, Billy Beane restocked the farm, and suddenly moved the slider to win a few years away from now. As you can see, last year's Baseball America #1 prospect Grant Green has been bumped down to the second half of this list due to new arrivals of Jarrod Parker, Brad Peacock and A.J. Cole (also due to Green's shift from SS to OF).

The AN community has voted Jarrod Parker and Michael Choice at #1 and #2 in our Community Prospect list. The consensus list tallies 9 of these top prospect lists and really doesn't show too many surprises. Each prospect was assigned points based off of how they placed (#1: 10 points, #2: 9 points, etc). I've listed all the sources after the jump.

Does this match up to what you expected, or do you think there's some guys that may be more deserving of top 10 spots?

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Piggybacking off the success of my post about the 2012 Davenport Projected Standings, here's what RLYW's got in terms of some also ridiculously early standings projections using MARCEL. Rob Neyer's got a write up on it on Baseball Nation, so figured we can take a look at this a little bit.

As crazy as I thought the original Clay Davenport win projections were at 80 wins, they've since been revised with 77 wins, which seems plausible. Here's how both Davenport and MARCEL look in context.

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Motivated by Ciderbeck's funny fanpost: Hall of Really Neat Players Named Jack, I started wondering... who are the best A's players by each first initial? Some letters will be kinda obvious, like R and J. I used Fangraphs career Wins Above Replacement-level (WAR) and my own personal whims for these decisions. The fWAR statistic goes back to 1901. Billy Beane could've made this a little easier had he traded for Yonder Alonso, but I digress.

A: Al Simmons — fWAR 78.5

Let's start off with a Hall of Famer, huh? Simmons, an outfielder nicknamed "Bucketfoot Al," started off his career in Philadelphia and had most of his finest seasons in an Athletics uniform. He was a member of the 1929 and 1930 World Series champion teams, and also a three-time All-Star. Simmons rapped out 2,000 hits in just 1,390 games — still a record for fastest to 2,000 hits in MLB history. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1953.

Honorable mention: Amos Strunk, Alfredo Griffin, Andrew Bailey

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BREAKING NEWS: Reigning NL MVP Ryan Bruan has tested positive for Performance Enhancing Drugs, receiving a 50 game suspension. Bruan had signed a 5 year contract extension in April 2011 for $105 Million.

"The 28-year-old Braun had to provide a urine sample for testing during the playoffs, and he was notified of the positive test sometime in late October -- about a month before he was named the National League's most valuable player." - ESPN

This, of course, is huge. For one, this is a player who JUST won the MVP. Will he be able to keep it? Will it go to the next person? Whatever the deal is, this is huge.

-Zonis

So, the trade has officially gone down, and if you're anything like me, you're wondering who these guys are. I'm not so much talking statwise, as I'm sure that will be thoroughly covered by AN writers smarter than I.

To Arizona: Trevor Cahill, Craig Breslow

To Oakland: Jarrod Parker, Collin Cowgill, Ryan Cook

Jarrod Parker

Follow him on Twitter: @JarrodBParker

Jarrod Parker @JarrodBParker

Cant wait to join the @Athletics and new teammates for the#2012Season @MLB

5:05 PM, Dec 9th via web

Jarrod Parker @JarrodBParker

@Adidas219 be seeing you and @toriihunter48 a lot more now this season #ALWest

7:17 PM, Dec 9th

Jarrod Parker @JarrodBParker

Wonder if #Tebow is going to locker room to grab his Narnia Dust for second half?! #SpaceJamWater

10:38 AM, Dec 4th

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This time of year is a little depressing for A's fans. It's like the MLB teams have all been released into a giant candy store. Many kids can (and do) start pawing at peanut butter cups, peanut brittle, chocolate bars and the like. The A's are only able to afford gumballs and hoping one of the other kids drops a piece of fudge on the ground.

The once-frugal Miami Marlins recently signed closer Heath Bell to a 3 year/$27 million deal, and have been linked to Albert Pujols and José Reyes, in preparation of their new stadium. The Nationals and Rangers have been rumored to be contenders to fork over large sums of money for Prince Fielder.

While the A's will possibly once again be dining on Smarties instead of M&Ms, they might be able to head around the corner to see what else is out there. Who knows?

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It's May 6th. When the day ends, the A's will be, at worst, tied for first. Or, they could be all alone in first if Kansas City somehow wins. Off days are always a good opportunity to take stock... So what do we know right know? Not much that surprises us...

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