Barton is currently posting a line of 292/390/442/832 with 9 HR.  The OBP is great and the rest is not bad, and as has been oft said, at 22 he has time to develop.  Nevertheless, there's no guarantee he'll develop power or that he'll become the type of "pure hitter" (whatever that is) for which we're all hoping.  

Because FA prices are so high, high level prospects are more valuable than ever, and fewer teams are willing to let theirs go.  Its possible Barton could be worth more in a trade than a Loaiza or even a Crosby or a Chavez to a team looking to get young and cheap.  We already have Swisher to play first.  It might make sense to deal Barton for a prospect at non-premium offensive position (ie centerfield) considering he's not as good as Swisher and possibly not even as good as Johnson.  Alternatively, dealing him as part of a salary dump would free up more payroll to pursue a CF or SS.

I don't think such a move would turn us into a KC, as we currently have two 1Bs above Barton on the depth chart.  One is pretty good and the other is passable.  Which KC/Florida deals are you referring to specifically?  

over our offensive crapitude with the .600 OPS part.  What I meant is we don't need to shoot for .850 to improve our offense; 750 would probably go along way toward making this team better.  

For this reason, I disagree with you that there's "only one player worth signing." That said, I guess I was thinking not so much along the lines of signing a killer player (the 850+ OPS guy) as I was about making a killer deal - a deal or two that would bring the A's closer to contention.  

My point is that its only worth overpaying for stars if  you know their going to fill a hole and get your team closer to the playoffs, and until then you may as well give young guys a chance as Oz was saying.

I don't think this team is as far a way from being a contender in '08 as maybe you do.  And if Murphy pans out, maybe Rowand will be all the offense we'll need (although I'm much more intrigued by Fukudome as I think he'll be more affordable and probably better).

As for Rowand and Kotsay, its precisely because Rowand is younger and doesn't have back problems that he's better than Kotsay.  Also his career SLG. is also almost 50 points higher than Kotsay's.

The problem? They were wrong. Injury-prone doesn't come down to luck so much as bad mechnanics, bad habits, bad constitution and slow healing. And those rarely change easily.

The only guy that paid off in this respect was Thomas, and he was the one guy we had no contract years on. Otherwise it's been Bradley, Denorfia, Crosby, Snelling, Chavez, Kotsay, Harden, Loaiza, Piazza, and the entire 2006 draft year (seriously, go look at the number of TJ candidates and knee surgery recoverees we drafted in 2006 - it's staggering).

When the market catches up to OBP, you can switch to defense or high school pitching and at least trade your OBP guys for value. But when you bet the farm (literally) on guys that are DL-friendly, and it fails, you've got no option but to cut guys and do some serious rebuilding.

For mine, the Injury-Prone era is Beane's first real tactical error that has hurt the franchise - ever - and it's a major one.

So while you see Chavez, Loaiza, Piazza, Bradley, Kennedy and Kotsay potentially leaving as salary-dumping, I see it as a necessary correction in franchise direction.

Away with the gimps, in come the workorses.

the foreseeable future that would increase their market share would be Rodriguez, Bonds, Clemens, or maybe Schilling.  The first is going to cost about $30 million and the last three wouldn't make the A's any better.

Sosa, Palmeiro and Hernandez were pretty big names that didn't much help the Orioles.  

As for the Giants, while Alou, Benitez, Zito and an aging Finley don't exactly scream superstar, they are recognizable baseball names - the kind of names you acquire for their marketability.  I understand these aren't the type of "stars" you're advocating by any means, but given there simply aren't many free agents available who are both good and recognizable, and therefore likely to increase the A's market share, I would worry that an A's team which adopted the approach you are advocating would end up too much like the Orioles or Giants.

The problem has been, nobody has come up from Arizona. Like, nobody. At all.

Richard SS D?
Solid. Not Petit/Sellers outrageous, not Pennington solid, will turn plenty of DPs because of his speed which translates to solid range, but can boot it now and then.

Can Pruitt play legit CF?
He won't get the chance. Not the blue-chipper he needs to be to get the spot working his way up the system, but physically, he's totally cut, so with a lift in power (or speed), he could grow into a really solid multi-tooler. For mine, he just needs to work on base-stealing and he's your ultimate lead-off guy. But then, if Richard worked on taking walks, he is too.

Or is he going to have to try and be Chone Figgins and learn a bit of everything?
If there's such a thing as a pinch-walker, that's the role he's best suited for. He does many things well, but some fundamentals are lacking and that'll make him a 'character actor' if he gets high enough for consideration in the bigs.

Can Brown, Sulentic, and Hamblin all turn on a good fastball in?
Like they had a grudge against the ball and a split second to exact revenge on it. All three of these guys hit the ball hard enough that, if you're not paying attention, the sound of a base hit up the middle makes you look up quickly to see what you're certain will be a homerun.

Lots of swing and miss at good breaking stuff?  
And bad breaking stuff. Let's not forget that Nat Bailey Stadium is where homers go to be flyball outs. Brown's hit three at home all season, and eight on the road. Put them in the Cali League and watch the fur fly.

Ability to foul off good pitches?
The best guy in the system for that is Nick Blasi, and none of them come close to him. Keeping the at bat alive has been a big issue with the C's power-hitters, because they tend to swing out of their shoes. Sulentic is the biggest problem in this respect, because he's trying too hard, and when he just goes up and sprays liners, he sprays them continually. Instead, he's trying to keep up with Brown (now Desme) and Hamblin, which means he'll swing at borderline stuff in a 2-1 situation, rather than let the pitcher fall in a hole.

Brown will K a lot too (though not nearly as much as Julio Rivera, who thinks he's a home run hitter but would have mor luck throwing it over the fence), but he's a legit heavy-hitter, so you don't mind so much when he takes a windmill swipe and misses, because the next one will get pounded.

For straight up pyschological makeup, keep an eye on Hamblin. He's as calm a player as I've seen. I think you could kick him in the nuts and he'd just walk past you and take a few warm-up swings.