There were a zillion trade diaries yesterday, and yet this morning when I return to post my thoughts, it’s not obvious where they should go. I don’t want to fill up the DLD with trade talk, since that should be a haven for readers who don’t want to discuss the trade. The big trade diaries have all been pushed down from the front page. There’s a few new little trade diaries, but none are even close to getting enough recommendations to make the top list.

So for lack of any better place to add my comments, I’ll just make a new trade diary.

I was late to the party last night, so it took me all evening to get caught up on all the discussions, but I did manage to read (almost) everything. My next-day observations:

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Dear Bob Geren,

Next Tuesday, May 27, is Frank Thomas's 40th birthday. On that day, the A's are scheduled to start a series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Frank's former team. The media is bound to notice that and give it a little attention.

We, the undersigned, believe that we know the perfect way to celebrate Frank's birthday. We believe he should bat lead-off in that game. According to Baseball Reference, Frank has never started a game batting lead-off. We think he'd get a big kick out of it.

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In yesterday's game thread, Future Ed asked, "How many names are needed for a complete line up? 4?" and he proposed a lineup made up of Suzukis, Sweeneys, Ramirezes, and Sanchezes. I'm sure one could complete a lineup card with just three names, it's only a question of how deep one has to dig into the minor leagues to do it.

This suggests an amusing puzzle: What's the best team you can construct using only three last names? Go ahead and fill out the roster as far as you like, but I guarantee you'll be scraping the bottom of the barrel by the time you reach 25. Pitching counts, too. Try to come up with enough staff to get through a playoff series.

No restrictions on where the players come from, but every player is considered in terms of his talent right now. So if you want to promote someone from the minors (or college, or Japan) or bring someone out of retirement, go ahead ... but if he's not in the big leagues right now, it's probably because he isn't that good.

Here's my best effort:

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This hasn't caused a great deal of discussion on AN because we're used to it. Before the upgrade, it was impossible to post a comment or reply without clicking preview first. After the upgrade, it's still impossible to post a comment or reply without clicking preview first. Nothing has changed in that regard, so most of us haven't even thought about it.

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Over on the fanpost about the latest format updates, there was an inquiry about making poll votes public. In case you didn't notice, in the new AN, you can go to any user's profile, look in the "recent activity" section, and find out how they voted in any poll. Some have questioned whether this is a good idea.

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I'm not sure this really warrants its own diary, but I have a question and I don't see any other likely diary to put it in.

In the course of an unrelated discussion over on Athletics Nation, I happened to be thinking about Adam Jones and whether he'll be traded. And then I'm thinking that even though I understand both Jones and Ichiro are awesome, and I totally get why you'd want to hang on to both of them, it's kind of a waste to have two guys on the same team who can play good defense in CF, when so many other teams out there are resigned to picking the least bad of their corner outfielders to play in the middle. Surely there's better value to be had by trading one of them to another team that will make full use of the defense?

And then I started thinking, why the heck did you guys waste Ichiro in RF for so long, when statistically you know he's going to save far more runs playing in CF. But then I remembered ... well, Jeremy Reed, whatever other problems he had, was pretty good defensively. And so was Randy Winn. And Mike Cameron. And Junior when he was young and uninjured.  And holy crap, have you guys ever had bad defense in center field?? Maybe I'm forgetting someone, but I can't think of any.

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An illustrative comment on yesterday's DLD contemplates how Mark Ellis might handle a broom-wielding confrontation.

Looking at the options, I can't help thinking that "chase a rainbow" sounds more like something Travis Buck might do.

It's a slow day, so maybe this warrants a new discussion thread.

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The demands of real life have kept me from AN for about a week, and now I've spent the better part of this evening reading the zillion hot warm stove diaries I missed during that time. Most of them are too old to reply to, but I see that I made NSJ's list of posters who need to write more diaries, so here you go.

Nearly all of the discussions of the team's future are centered around the idea that the team has come to a point of major decision: either we can contend in 2008, or we can't so we may as well "blow up" the team. Here at AN, the debates rage on about how much to blow up, whether we can contend after all, how various moves by the Angels affect our decision, etc, etc. It's all we talk about now.

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Although AN is more savvy than most other baseball forums, I think that in trade threads we could still use a little more attention to what's in demand by other teams.

When I look around the league with the trade deadline approaching, what strikes me most is how weak the supply of starting pitching is this year. With any trade deadline, any team in a serious playoff race would like to add a legitimate starter to the rotation. Usually there are one or two really good ones available for "sale" and all the "buyers" bid for them.

But who are the pitchers being discussed this year? With Buehrle re-signed it now looks like the White Sox won't be offering up anyone better than Jose Contreras. Who else is there? Bronson Arroyo? Matt Morris? Dontrelle Willis? Guys like that could be an upgrade but none of them are the stuff of blockbuster trades we've seen in Julys past.

So it begs the question: if some non-contending team were to break the ice and actually offer up one of its "untouchables", putting a real legitimate starter out there, how high would the bids go?

By happy coincidence, two such candidates will be facing off tonight.

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A recent post at MLB Trade Rumors notes that the Houston Astros' season has tanked and speculates that the team might soon be ready for a fire sale.

Of all the names listed as possibly available, the one that really catches my eye is Mark Loretta. I believe Beane has shown interest in him in past years. He's a "Moneyball" style player in the sense of having a good eye for the strike zone and consistently good OBP. (Born in California, too!) He's a flexible infielder who could play at any of the four infield positions. And he's hitting very well this season.

Houston signed him to a one-year contract for $2.5 million with incentives possibly up to $3.5 million. If Beane were to obtain him in trade, I expect it would probably be a deal like Ray Durham or Jose Guillen, ie, plan to have him for the rest of the season but not count on anything beyond that.

With a .400 OBP and a moderate price tag, Loretta is a player who could draw some interest from several other teams, but he's not such a superstar commodity that we couldn't compete for him.

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