Move over, people. Make some room on the "I hate the Erstad offer" bandwagon, 'cause I'm jumping on. Now, some people might claim that just because I live in Southern California and have to listen to Rex Hudler go on and on about the magical, wonderful, heart-y, gritty players that make up the team from the "Los Angeles" (despite being about twenty cities away from the actual city of Los Angeles, and fifty miles down the freeway), that I automatically dislike the idea of adding any part of the Angels' leftovers to our team. Of course this isn't true. If the Angels decided to give the A's their Vlad, well, welcome to the team, sir.
Others would say that the all of the media attention that Erstad received during the 2005 playoffs activated my pet peeve like only articles written about Erstad and Eckstein can. As you probably remember, Erstad was awfully clutch-y, and gritty during that time, and probably should have been MVP-for-life, despite the little things, like he's really not that good, and didn't he once get thrown out trying to get to third late in a playoff game with the Angels down three? Maybe I'm making that up.
Oh, who am I kidding? Both of the reasons above apply. I've been listening to baseball commentary long enough to be able to decipher what it means when analysts start talking about 'intangibles', 'heart', and 'grit'. That usually mean the player's stats are terrible, and there needs to be a reason to justify his presence on the field. In addition to that, I want no part of the Angels 'special' players. I have spent years rooting against the Angels. I don't want to root for anyone that I look at and see a giant red "A", despite what color uniform they are wearing. Unless it's Hester Prynne. She can be our new shortstop; I hear she plays the field better than Bobby Crosby.
<waits for laughter>
Wow, tough crowd.
So anyway, if you're looking for A's contracts approved by baseballgirl, I'm sorry to inform you that Scot Shields, John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar, Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana, Chone Figgins, Orlando Cabrera, Garret Anderson, David Eckstein, Juan Rivera, and especially Francisco Rodriguez are just going to have to look elsewhere. (But Vlad, call me!)
So is it just me? Or are there players (and even good ones) that you wouldn't want on the A's simply because of what team they used to be on? And in the current baseball climate, is it even possible to care anymore?
