Billy Beane has always loved Jack Cust. From the chat, an interesting part about Cust:
Rob Neyer: I'll be surprised if Hatteberg sees a lot of playing time with the A's. It's been reported that Billy Beane is trying to acquire both Jack Cust (from the Rockies) and Erubiel Durazo (from the Diamondbacks). My sources tell me that Arizona won't let Durazo go, but don't be surprised if Jack Cust is playing every day for the A's next season. And last I heard, Roberto Petagine was still out there, lurking in the bushes ...
Beane always gets what he wants. Eventually. It's funny that both Durazo and Cust were mentioned in Neyer's comment. It's also funny that he says that Hatteberg wouldn't see significant playing time. Apparently, Neyer had predisposed misgivings about The Mad Hatter.
But that's off topic. Whether or not Cust can carry over his mammoth minor league numbers to the pro game is another story altogether. But for the budget-conscious A's, it was a smart decision. They've got nothing to lose by taking a chance on Cust, and if he's nothing but a minor-league masher, then at least they've added a something to a suddenly depleted Sacramento River Cats squad.
The A's also made several other moves today, which AN contributor Brian Durack summarizes nicely over on A's Y'all.
The one item I wanted to mention is the loss of Esteban German. It's too bad that German has gone the way of Jose Ortiz. For a time, German looked like he was shaping up to be the A's second baseman of the future. But with Scutaro and Ellis likely occupying that space, German was the odd man out.
The River Cats are going to look quite different next year.
But Billy finally got his man.
