As I mentioned before, the rumors are flying. Back East, the papers have backed off the Hudson deal and are now changing their story to "Beane is only willing to deal Zito."
On the other hand, an Oakland Tribune columnist shares that Billy Beane is supposedly interested in signing Troy Percival.
Percival seems like a perfect fit for the A's, but only if Billy Beane can get him signed to a shorter-term contract, like two years. And while I'd love to see this happen, I'm doubtful that it will because Percival doesn't fit the A's typical signing. You know an under-the-radar kind of free agent.
I will say that his 316 career saves and his career .186 batting average against would look great in green and gold. But his strikeouts per nine innings has declined the last four seasons, from 11.08 in 2001 to 10.86 to 8.76 to 5.98 in 2004.
So unless Billy can somehow get Percival at a bargain rate (or at least moves Arthur Rhodes' albatross of a contract), I don't see this happening.
