Hey AN, Sorry to use up a Dia...er... FaNpOsT on something like this, but I wasn't sure where else to put it. A couple of guys who are in my simulation baseball league (kinda like fantasy, but way better) are going to be up here tomorrow. One flies in from Vegas in the morning, and we were planning on meeting up beforehand and then catching a game.

I figured that since it's a "special occasion" I would try and get some better tickets than my usual bleacher seats, so before resorting to Craigslist or (ew) StubHub, I'll ask AN-land if anybody with super awesome seats that can't go tomorrow would be interested in selling them to me. If not, no biggie - if anything there are still MVP section 115 tickets from the A's website, but I wanted to get around the "convenience" fee. (I'll delete this if it's out of place. Thanks)

I agree with him.

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si.com link with details...

It's been announced that the A's first "home" game is going to be at 3:07 in the morning Oakland time.  

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Welcome back Kirk.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/st.htm

For me, this is good news.  I wished that he would have stayed in Oakland all along, I thought he was a much better (much cheaper) option than signing Esteban Loaiza to the godawful contract that LAD thankfully took off our hands.

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So, uh... For the sixteen or seventeen people that are going to keep going to games next year:

3 sections of the 3rd Deck will be open for $35 All-You-Can-Eat tickets, to include hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, soda and ice cream -- and maybe more!

I guess that's sort of a reason to go to games... I guess.

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According to this ESPN link, Miggy is finally getting out of Baltimore and heading to the Astros.

The Orioles get Luke Scott, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate, and third baseman Michael Costanzo.  The only one I know of is Scott, who's supposed to be pretty good.

Anyway, this will probably result in subsequent trades of Roberts and Bedard by the Orioles.  To me, this will set the market for possible trades of Dan Haren, Joe Blanton, and possibly Mark Ellis if Beane decides to blow the team up and look towards Fremont.

For really not much reason whatsoever, I was perusing mlbtraderumors and noticed this little tidbit about Boston possibly looking at Johan Santana or Haren.  Obviously adding Haren would give Boston a ridiculously awesome rotation (Beckett, Haren, Dice-K, Schilling, Wakefield? Seriously?), but I don't care about that.

What interests me is thinking about what would be required from Boston.  Who would Beane want?  My first thought:  More than Haren is worth.  I couldn't see Haren going to an AL team without Billy getting so completely blown away by an offer that he just can't say no.  To me, that would mean a package starting with Buchholz and Ellsbury, and probably including somebody like Jed Lowrie as well.

So, here's my question to AN:  What would it take for you to be okay with trading Dan Haren?  A Mulder-or-Hudson-esque deal?  More? Less?  How about Blanton, as he's the other major piece that could be dangled if a full blown, tear it down rebuild were to commence.

So it's official:  The A's open the season in Japan against the Red Sox next year.  The A's will be the home team, as the March 25th and 26th games are being considered the first of a four game set that will be concluded on April 1st and 2nd back in Oakland.

As pointed out on various other blogs around the net, the current Oakland active roster consists of 21 Americans, one Canadian, one Venanzuelan, one Puerto Rican, and one Dominican.  As we all know, Boston has Dice-K, as well as Okajima, so I think it's pretty clear who will actually be the "home team" in this series.

I would think that each team would have been given one home game instead of taking away two from one team, unless the A's are going to be getting the revenue from the game as if they were truly the home team.  Somehow I'm not sure that's the case, but I've got to believe that the team wouldn't be making the trip if it wasn't going to be worthwhile for them.  I hope.

Oh BTW, first diary post.  Hi, I'm Mike.