Two arms and a headcase?

Hey Guys, this is The Cheat from South Side Sox. I thought I should stop by to give a late recap on the guys the A's just acquired...

Gio Gonzalez -- Drafted in the supplemental round of the '04 draft, Gio was a mid-first-round talent who fell because of (unfounded) makeup concerns. His mother tried to use his obvious talent to garner more playing time for his younger brother. When she held him out of practice, he was kicked off his HS team and his draft stock took a hit. When the Sox picked him up in the supplemental round, they left their mic open on the draft conference call. You could hear the room celebrate him falling to the Sox and one unknown person exclaim "He could start in Kanny (Sox Low-A affiliate) right now."

He domintated the low minors with his fastball curveball combo, but hit a speedbump in '06 when he was in the Phillies organization. This season he has worked very hard on his changeup, which is now described as average-to-fringy with average as it's upside, and actually left strikeouts on the table as he worked to develop the change and work deeper in games (You'll notice he only averaged about 5 innings a start in '06 and not much more in '07.)

He's got a decent fastball, which can supposedly touch 93, but he's mostly sat at about 90 when I've seen him. He's very adept at climbing the ladder, pitching up and out of the strike zone with a purpose. It's pretty straight, and will probably get hit hard if he doesn't continue to develop his change, or add a cutter/2-seamer.

His curveball is plus pitch, maybe plus plus since he's a lefty. Like Barry Zito, Gio's curveball makes his fastball (specifically the high fastball) better. This is his bread and butter pitch, and though it's not as big of a breaker as Zito or Rich Hill's (the next biggest breaking LHer I can think of) it's got a good combination of roll and bite.

There is a lot made of lack of height. He is shorter than advertized, but I'm not sure that will be what makes or breaks him. In my opinion it will be his ability to throw strikes and his ability to learn how to attack major league hitters. He'll be a back-end starter for sure, with 2-3 starter as his peak.

Fautino De Los Santos (DLS to us at SSS) -- DLS was not on anyone's radar as late as spring training '07. He made the Kannapolis (low-A) team only as a reliever. He struck out 10 in his first 5 innings pitch, which led to a spot start, during which he struck out double digits, and he never looked back.

He had an injury scare (shoulder) around the All-star break, coming out of a game early and throwing out of the bullpen for a bit to ease his workload. But the Sox allowed him to throw in the Futures Game (across the bay), and he made all his starts down the stretch. The futures game (1 inning) was the only time I've ever seen him pitch, but that was enough for me to believe in his future, which I recapped here. Cliff notes version: Woah, DLS has an awesome breaking ball. Wow. Justin Upton is good. Suck it Lillibridge, Ellsbury, Longoria!

Right now DLS is a two pitch pitcher. He's got a tailing fastball that sits at 93-94, and can touch the high 90's. He threw it well in the bottom of the zone in the lone inning I've seen of him. Listening to a number of his games this year, he was routinely holding or adding to his velocity late in the game. It was routine to hear him hitting 97+ in the 7th and 8th innings of games.

He also throws a slider/slurve, which is just nasty. I'm not a scout, but it looks like at least a 70 on the 20-80 scale, and I'm being conservative. He's got a tight slider at about 80-81 MPH, which is just about unhittable, and a more slurvy sweeping slider in the mid-to-high 70's that may have been him just failing to get the proper rotation on the ball.

He's supposedly working on a change, which he will need to be a starter at the major league level. But he could pitch in the late innings of any teams bullpen right now. His fastball/slider combo is the same aresenal that Carlos Marmol used to buzzsaw his way to top set-up man status in '07. He could start the '08 season in AA and be ready by '09, or he could take a while to develop. It's too early to tell, but he's got loads of upside.

Ryan Sweeney Sweeney was the Sox second rounder behind Brian Anderson in '03. The Sox pushed him too hard, as the only exceptional thing about his stats was his age relative to league average. Now with two full seasons at AAA, '08 will be a make or break season for Sweeney.

Sweeney has always been a favorite of scouts. He carries a big frame a legit 6'4", and a sweet swing that is supposed to project power. I have bought into this in the past and can still see him eventually hitting 20 HR in a season at the major leagues, but he's got to show improvement in '08 for that to happen.

Sweeney stagnated in '07, but he didn't really regress. I know his numbers from look like they've dropped off from '06 to '07, but he had the exact same AAA OPS in late July a wrist injury zapped all his power/bat speed. His late season stats were abysmal. and it continued this fall. He went until the final days of the AFL season (75 at-bats) before recording an extra-base hit in the Arizona air.

I would still have a ton of confidence in Sweeney were it not for a few quotes that I've heard from him since about mid-season. He's complained, for lack of a better word, without overtly complaining, about not getting a fair shot at the big leagues and has seemed downright satisfied with his AAA numbers. It's one thing to be driven to make the major league club, but Sweeney almost seems like he expects a major league spot to be held open for him...

For his sake, I like the move to Oakland. He's a streaky hitter who is at his best when he's "seeing the ball the 60 feet." You can tell when he's about to go on one of his hot streaks based on his walk totals. When the walk rate starts to spike so does his power. If the A's can get him to really work on his plate discipline, I can forsee him making great strides in '08.

I don't project him to hit for power at the major leagues before his 25th birthday, but his ability to play an average center field (though he projects as a corner outfielder long-term) would make his bat passable on a big league club should he add some more plate discipline.

In addition to plate discipline, Sweeney needs to learn how to get around on the inside pitch. Major league pitcher quickly discovered Sweeney couldn't hurt them when they went inside on him. This will likely be the one area that is holding him back from being an Alex Rios or Nick Markakis type hitter and lead many to bring up the name nobody wants to hear, Sean Burroughs.