Only one more week till the Trade Deadline! We still have our trade bait ready to go. So lets star the rumors and discussion and, if we get around to it, the actual trades, flowing! Same as the other thread was designed to do; keep the rumors and speculation in one place instead of flooding the board with em.

A's stock of players on the Block:
 
RHP Huston Street

 
RHP Justin Duchscherer

 
LHP Alan Embree

 
2B Mark Ellis

 
SS Bobby Crosby

 Commence Trade Rumors.

Susan Slusser has a recap on all the prospects acquired in the six deals we've made since the end of last season.

And Slusser's Notebook brings up some interesting things.

The team signed three 16-year-old prospects in Venezuela after the July 1 international deadline: outfielder Jose Sayegh, right-hander Elihoref Suniaga and left-hander Junior Gonzalez.

And for Rootbeer Float Day;

Wednesday is Mug Root Beer Float Day at the Coliseum, featuring $2 floats served by celebrity scoopers, including players Rajai Davis, Lenny DiNardo, Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez, Huston Street and Ryan Sweeney. In addition, mugs with unlimited refills will be $15 and a limited supply of mugs autographed by Ellis will be $25. Over the past five years the event has raised more than $215,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

And there is also an interview with A's top prospect Trevor Cahill up at Project Prospect.

Dump Away.

Anyone following the Athletics knows that the A's tend to move in cycles. While Pitching will always be there, the key is what they do on the position side of things.

Early in Beane's tenure, the A's went the route of OPS. They grabbed every player they could to go with their homergown talent that could get on base and hit for power. And they had success. Despite the generally lousy defense, the A's won a lot of games, scored a lot of runs, and had excellent pitching, at least in the #1, #2 and #3 slots.

And then the league caught up. The players that the A's had grabbed before became scarce, and they could no longer find them. So they changed their tune. They started to go Defense. Defense while grabbing the occasional OBP guy, but this time, with out power. And they turned into the best defensive team in the league, but at the same time, the least powerful. The offense, with out that power, died. The lack of power made the OBP unsustainable-after all, if you don't have any power, why not throw in the strike zone if the best you can get is a single? But the A's still held onto the offensive philosophy of batting average not mattering so long as the OBP was high. But with the power gone, and the OBP no longer able to support itself , the batting averages plummeted and dragged the OBP down.

The A's became a team of relatively slow or average runners, with low batting averages, decent on base skills, and no power, resulting in an astounding amount of ground-into-double-plays, and now, unable to make any contact, Strikeouts. The team has lived on its pitching and its defense to help prop up that pitching.

But that philosophy is changing, and it is evident in the type of players the A's have been acquiring, perhaps starting with the 2005 draft that saw the A's draft Cliff Pennington and Travis Buck, and with Mark Mulder trade acquiring Daric Barton. Or, perhaps, the A's were still deluding themselves, at least with Buck and Barton, that 'Power will come naturally, just like Jason Giambi', and not realizing that the unnatural power for Giambi would no longer arrive from now on.

The A's started to gather, for lack of a better term, lead off hitters. High Average, High On Base players with excellent speed, and the hope of future power. They acquired Daric Barton (.301/.414/.458 career minor league line), Travis Buck (.318/.395/.486) and Cliff Pennington (.368/.453/.561 with 29 SB in College).

Fast Forward to the A's recent acquisitions, and I think we can continue to see the pattern the A's are going for.

Ryan Sweeney is batting .307 with 8/9 Stolen Bases.
Carlos Gonzalez came to the A's with a minor league career .287 batting average and pretty good speed.
Aaron Cunningham came with another .300+ average and a good amount of stolen bases.

And just in the last few trades and the draft, the A's have gone after Eric Patterson (.329 average in AAA, 15/15 SB), Jamile Weeks, another high average, high obp base stealer out of the draft, and Ardian Cardenas, .301/.364/.429, 12/12 in SB, and Rashun Dixon, who rharden40 has told us, has blazing speed, so fast that he finds it hard to hit Doubles, and instead settles for 7 triples to 1 double.

That is what I think the A's are targeting right now. Versatile players who can play multiple positions with on base skills and speed to compensate for the lack of power. With Chris Carter and Sean Doolittle coming up at 1B and DH, unless the Carter return to 3B experiment succeeds (which I hope does) providing the power, I think we can expect the future A's to be somewhat similar to the team we have now, but with a lot higher average. A team full of Ryan Sweeney's, if you will. Which makes you wonder if the A's did indeed insist on Sweeney more than we thought at the time, instead of just being the throw in for the deal.

So why is this important to know right now? Well, with the Trading Deadline a week away, and the A's five remaining trading chips all generating some degree of interest (Duchscherer, Street, Crosby, Ellis, Embree), I think keeping in mind the type of player the A's seem to be going after is important.

Top Pitching prospects, as always, and a new kind of hitter.

It still remains to be seen if a lineup full of this type of hitter will succeed for a Major League lineup. Because personally, the lack of power still disturbs me.

With so many trade threads floating around, with three threads per new rumor, and five hundred for each trade, I thought I would take a leaf out of Viva El Birdos and go with a single Trade Rumor and Discussion thread to keep track of all the potential roster moves our Athletics might make with out having a new thread for each one.

Here are our primary trade candidates, and rumors thus far about them. I'll expect AN to fill in the rest when the next wave of rumors come in.

RHP Huston Street - Closer
Rumored Teams Interested: White Sox, Mets, Brewers, Dodgers, Devil Rays, Reds.
Street's value is in flux right now. After a string of good outings, Street's blown three saves in a row and there are concerns, at least on AN, that he might be hiding another injury. The Brewers sent their special assistant to the GM to scout Street, and instead of a clean save over the Yankees, he saw Street not only get bailed out of getting a loss by a baserunner tripping over his own feet, but saw Street give up a series of hits, blow the save, and send the game into extra innings. The Brewers in turn said they were not interested in Street any longer. The Devil Rays have been rumored for Street for a while now, being linked to a possible Huston Street and Matt Murton package, but no news has come from that angle in a while. The Dodgers are looking for relief help after losing their closer, though Broxton can probably fill in for them. The Dodgers probably have the prospects the A's (or at least AN) covets most; Andy LaRoche and Ivan De Jesus to name a couple. The Mets have also been rumored by Ken Rosenthal.

RHP Justin Duchscherer - Starter
No rumored teams in specific, though you can probably say that just about every team in need of pitching would be interested in the MLB ERA Leader. The number of teams that he could be dealt with is too long to even speculate a list on, though the Cardinals are the last of the 3 NL Central teams vying for the title that have not made a huge pitching deal, 4 if you count the Reds and the Volquez/Hamilton deal.

LHP Alan Embree - Relief Pitcher
Veteran relievers are apparently in demand right now, so again, Embree could be linked to any number of relief hungry teams, most likely the White Sox I would say. No idea on his worth though, and he might be destined to be a throw in for a bigger trade.

RHP Keith Foulke - Relief Pitcher
See Alan Embree, though Foulke's injury history probably makes his value much less than Embree. Then again, he's also making almost nothing.

RH Mark Ellis - Second Base
Ellis is average offensively, and awesome defensively. But who exactly needs Ellis? The Rockies probably arn't interested anymore. The Dodgers? The best bet is probably the Cardinals. Perhaps a huge blockbuster for Rasmus isn't that far fetched after all? Ken Rosenthal thinks that Ellis would be a good for the Cardinals, but thinks that the A's want to extend Ellis and keep him, despite the recent acquisitions of Eric Patterson, Jamile Weeks and Adrian Cardenas.

RH Bobby Crosby - Short Stop
AN has been disenfranchised with Crosby for quite some time now, and even though Crosby's offensive numbers do not look quite as bad these days, it is only for a combination of two things; 1) the A's offense sucks that much and 2) Short Stops, AL in particular, are no longer hitting like the SS's of old. Tejada is in the NL, Jeter's gone a sucking, ARod is at 3B for some reason, and Garciaparra is a cripple. The Dodgers are in need of a shortstop, as are the Cardinals.

RH Emil Brown - Outfield
Could be picked up by a team in search for a warm body. Or a team with an extra body bag that they feel would go to waste if they just threw it out.

SH Rob Bowen - Catcher
Simply because Catchers are always in demand. The Yankees just lost Posada to the DL, and could be in the market, and we sure as hell are not using Bowen much.

RH Matt Murton - Outfield
Rumored with Street with the Devil Rays, there hasn't been much coming from Murton these days, be it rumors or offense. Perhaps they are connected? I still believe he is as likely to be a throw-in in a deal with the A's as he was with the Rich Harden trade.

Scorecard:
Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to CHC for Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, Matt Murton and Sean Donaldson.

Joe Blanton to PHI for Adrian Cardenas, Josh Outman, Matt Spencer.

Mark Kosay to ATL for Joey Devine, Jamie Richmond.

Nick Swisher to CWS for Gio Gonzalez, Ryan Sweeney, Fautino De Los Santos.

Dan Haren and Conor Robertson to ARZ for Brett Anderson, Carlos Gonzalez, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham, Dana Eveland, Greg Smith.

Marco Scutaro to TOR for Graham Godfrey, Kristian Bell.

For three minor leaguers, Tim Kurkjian talking on ESPN right now. More when I get the links.

[update] Kurkjian did not say who the players acquired were, though the host did quesiton why the Phillies wanted a pitcher with a 5 ERA and a 1.5 WHIP

[update 2] From Rotoworld:

ESPN's Buster Olney says the Phillies have acquire Joe Blanton from the A's for three minor leaguers.
No word yet on the prospect, but the A's needed to get either Carlos Carrasco or Adrian Cardenas here. Infielder Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson are the Phillies' next-best prospects. Getting both Carrasco and Donald would have been a coup for the A's. What this does for the Phillies' plans for Brett Myers is unclear. If Myers would be happy in a setup role, it'd now make sense for the Phillies to convert him.

[update 3] For those curious, you can find Buster Onley's original "Blanton will be traded" video here.

[update 4] The Links have arrived. SF Gate confirms the Blanton trade, and ESPN reveals who we got in the deal.

The Athletics get second baseman Adrian Cardenas, pitcher Josh Outman and outfielder Matthew Spencer, all minor leaguers.

[update 5] Stats for all!

2B Adrian Cardenas [BaseballCube] - Baseball America #2 Phillies Prospect
P Josh Outman [BaseballCube] (great name for a pitcher, btw) Baseball America #4 Phillies Prospect
OF Matthew Spencer [BaseballCube]

 

Its the half way point in the season with the All Star Break here, and we've seen quite a bit of change in our system. We've acquired several prospects along the way, and we've called some up. So as of now, using ROY Qualifying rules to eliminate players who've been up too long, what does our top 10 Prospect list look like now?

First lets see what the elimination number is. From an SI Article, it says that;

Right now, though, there are no limits on age or previous experience outside of the major leagues. All a player has to do to qualify as a rookie is to have fewer than 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the major leagues and fewer than 45 days on a major league roster.

I am not going to bother trying to count up how many days the players have been on the Roster, but Innings and At Bats are easily found.

Now lets look at our previous Top 10 Lists coming into the season;

John Sickles, MinorLeagueBaseball.com

Carlos Gonzalez, OF, Grade B+


Daric Barton, 1B, Grade B+


Brett Anderson, LHP, Grade B+


Chris Carter, 1B, Grade B+ (an aggressive grade but I LOVE this guy)


James Simmons, RHP, Grade B


Henry Alberto Rodriguez, RHP, Grade B  (big-time sleeper, great arm)


Trevor Cahill, RHP, Grade B-


Aaron Cunningham, OF, Grade B-


Corey Brown, OF, Grade B-


Andrew Bailey, RHP, Grade B- (another sleeper with an aggressive grade)


Sean Doolittle, 1B, Grade B-


Javier Herrera, OF, Grade C+ (great tools, but refinement??)


Dan Meyer, LHP, Grade C+


Greg Smith, LHP, Grade C+


Sam Demel, RHP, Grade C+


Andrew Carignan, RHP, Grade C+


Grant Desme, OF, Grade C+


Travis Banwart, RHP, Grade C+


Josh Horton, SS, Grade C+


Jermaine Mitchell, OF, Grade C

Kevin Goldstien, Baseball Prospectus

Five-Star Prospects
1. Daric Barton, 1B
Four-Star Prospects
2. Trevor Cahill, RHP
Three-Star Prospects
3. James Simmons, RHP
4. Henry Rodriguez, RHP
5. Andrew Bailey, RHP
6. Corey Brown, OF
7. Jermaine Mitchell, OF
8. Javier Herrera, OF
9. Jerry Blevins, LHP
Two-Star Prospects
10. Josh Horton, SS
11. Sean Doolittle, 1B

Baseball America

1.	Carlos Gonzalez, of
2.	Gio Gonzalez, lhp
3.	Brett Anderson, lhp
4.	Fautino de los Santos, rhp
5.	Daric Barton, 1b
6.	Trevor Cahill, rhp
7.	James Simmons, rhp
8.	Henry Rodriguez, rhp
9.	Aaron Cunningham, of
10.	Chris Carter, 1b

Of those lists, the following no longer qualify:

Daric Barton - 227 AB
Carlos Gonzalez - 146 AB
Greg Smith - 110 IP

And now we have the new guys to add to the list, aside from those who were just left off. The guys who just joined the Organization.

Sean Gallagher
Jamile Weeks
Eric Patterson
Michel Inoa
Tyson Ross

and probably some more I am forgetting.

Now, we eliminate Gallagher for pitching too many innings in the Majors already, and we are left with that list added.

We've had breakout performances in the minors by a number of players. There are those we all know, such as Doolittle, Cahill and Anderson, and there are even the resurgence of Matt Sulentic, Craig Italiano and the elevation of prospects like Corey Brown. There have also been guys who fell off the face of the earth, like De Los Santos (Tommy John Surgery), and those who were hanging on by a finger and let go all together (Javier Herrera).

This is my Mid-Season top 10 Oakland Athletics prospects, and I hope that either Taj or Grover put together a better list.

1. Trevor Cahill, SP, AA
2. Sean Doolittle, 1B, AA
3. Brett Anderson, SP, AA
4. Aaron Cunningham, CF, AA
5. Michel Inoa, SP, DSL
6. Gio Gonzalez, SP, AAA
7. James Simmons, SP, AA
8. Chris Carter, 1B, A+
9. Henry Rodriguez, SP, A+
10. Corey Brown, OF, A+

Just Outside:
Mike Mazzaro, SP, Eric Patterson, 2B/OF, Matt Sulentic, OF, Fautino De Los Santos, SP, Craig Italiano, SP, Jesus Guzman, 3B, Jamile Weeks, 2B, Tyson Ross, SP

Now that Harden and Gaudin have been dealt to the Cubs for a collection of talent that none of us expected, who are the A's going to deal next?

It does not make sense to deal an Ace and a solid starter for a 5th starter and some backup outfielders unless the A's are going to be making some other trades in the coming hours, days, or weeks. Mulder was dealt the next day after Hudson, after all. Swisher was dealt soon after Haren.

So who is next? Duchscherer? Blanton? Street?

As many of you know, the Brewers just dealt AN-Want-To-Trade-For-Favorite Matt LaPorta, Zach Jackson, Rob Bryson, and maybe Taylor Green for Indians Pitcher, Bay Area native, and 2007 Cy Young winner CC Sabathia.

UPDATING: Sabathia dealt to Brewers

 

by John Perrotto

The Indians have agreed to send left-hander and reigning AL Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia to the Brewers for a four-player package that is highlighted by Double-A first baseman/outfielder Matt LaPorta. Also headed to the Indians are two minor league pitchers, left-hander Zach Jackson and right-hander Rob Bryson, and a player to be named, likely to be minor league third baseman Taylor Green. The deal is expected to be announced Monday.

Sabathia, 27, is 6-8 with a 3.83 ERA this season in 18 starts and is eligible for free agency after this season. He is expected to make his Brewers’ debut Tuesday night by starting against the Rockies at Miller Park.

LaPorta, 23, is hitting .288 with 20 home runs and 66 RBI in 84 games with Double-A Huntsville in the Southern League to go with a .402 OBP and .576 SLG.

Jackson, 25, has been converted from a starter to a reliever this season and was 0-0 with a 4.91 ERA in two games with the Brewers and is 1-5 with a 7.85 ERA in 22 games (and six starts) for Triple-A Nashville, where he has averaged 5.3 strikeouts and 2.9 walks per nine innings while posting a 1.73 WHIP.

Bryson, 20, is 3-2 with a 4.25 ERA in 22 games, five stars, with Low-A West Virginia, striking out 11.9 and walking 3.3 per nine innings with a 1.15 WHIP.

Green is playing at High-A Brevard County, and the Indians want to see if he can make the transition from third base to second before agreeing to take him as the player to be named. The 21-year-old left-handed hitter is batting .298 with 10 homers and 54 RBI in 80 games with a .382 OBP and .448 SLG.

 

Baseballprospectus.com

Thats the Brewers #1 prospect, and three who didn't make BA's BrewCrew top 10.

And we all remember the pitching deals that went down this winter. Dan Haren, Erik Bedard and Johan Santana were all dealt to different places, with Dan Haren being thus far the best of the three in both performane for Haren and the package recieved for him.

So what then could the A's get if they decided to deal away their pitching depth right now and deal Joe Blanton (after a few good stars), Rich Harden and Justin Duscherer? We would be throwing in the towel for 2008, but the potential haul of prospects would be enormous, and with our offense the way it is right now, we might simply be fooling ourselves into contention.

I think we could get a better package for any of those three than the Indians got for Sabathia, but not quite as good as what we got for Haren. Then again, should we concentrate the prospects acquired into three awsome prospects or six good ones like the Haren deal?

<!-- <h3><a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=930" rel="bookmark">UPDATING: Sabathia dealt to Brewers</a></h3> <p> <p>Posted by John Perrotto @ July 6, 2008, 07:14 PM-->

No, not a projection, but it is Rosterbation. The question is; what should the A's do right now as regard to the team. We are currently enthralled in a battle with the Angels, 3.5 games back. Both teams have good pitching, both teams have bad hitting, but the Angels offense has been better than ours and that has been the difference in the standings.

It is obvious that we need to improve the lineup, and who knows when Frank Thomas will come back, or if he will need to be rehabbed in Sacramento for a time before then. The A's appear to have a sizable chunk of change available due to the huge drop in payroll, but at the same time, that money appears to have been earmarked for draft picks and international free agents, as seen by the expected signing of Inoa for $4.25 million.

Likewise, if we do make a deal and trade for offense, we will have to sacrafice something in return, being either money, prospects or both. And the question is if we can have a good enough offense this year, if the pitching can continue to be stellar, can we make the playoffs and win the World Series this year, and would it be worth partially scrapping or hurting the reubuilding project by doing so?

As I see it, there are four sides in this discussion.

1) Improve the Team - The A's need offense like Cher needs Hair. If we make the trades nessisary and bring in poeple like Jason Bay, Xavier Nady, Brian Giles, Aubrey Huff, ect... the offense immidietly improves and we become a force to be reconed with.

2) Continue Building - This year was supposed to be a rebuilding year anyways, and we should not hinder that. We might be doing good, but its smoke and mirrors. We should deal away our overvallued/temporarly healthy talent and convert Duchscherer and Harden into massive prospect deals that will make 2010 and beyond look like the 1970's.

3) Improve but Not Prospects - Improve the team yes, make the trades that will bring in talent but only at a cost of money or low grade prospects, and not any of our core prospects in the minors that figure to be a key part of our future. After all, Duke, Harden and Blanton won't be here anymore by 2010 will they? Who takes over the rest of the rotation? And we already have enough problems on offense.

4) Improve but Not Money - The team is currently using that money to get those draft picks and international free agents that they need. Save that money for the Inoas, Hunters, Smoaks, and Leons of the world instead of wasting millions on Brian Giles. Make trades, but only if they help for the future and don't cost a lot of money, even if it means dealing some of our excess prospect depth at positions of stregnth.

So what do we do folks? Who do we target. As I said above, I think Jason Bay, Xavier Nady, Brian Giles and Aubrey Huff would be nice acquisitions, especially Jason Bay, as he is cheap and plays all three outfield positions if needed. Acquiring two of them, a 1B and an OF would instantly help us for the future. If Cleveland is going to tear it up, could we grab Grady Sizemore? Do we want Adrian Beltre if the Mariners are willing? Do we pay the price for Halliday from Colorado? Do we want Jack Cust's younger brother, Adam Dunn?

Because remember that right now, the A's are near or at the bottom of baseball on the offensive side of things. If that doesn't change, it won't matter what the pitching side does.

In one of the more bizzare occurances this year, the LA Dodgers defeated the Angels 1-0, winning the game on a Sac Fly. The thing is, the Angels no hit the Dodgers through 8 innings on the backs of Jared Weaver (6 IP) and Jose Arredondo (2 IP).

Freaky.

This comes on the same night that we lose to the Giants 1-0 despite 2 hitting them.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_06_28_anamlb_lanmlb_1

Chad Billingsley shut out the Angels for seven innings as the Dodgers won 1-0 despite getting no-hit on Saturday night.

Only in Los Angeles. The Dodgers manufactured a run in the fifth after Matt Kemp's dribbler was mishandled by Jered Weaver. Kemp stole second and went to third after Jeff Mathis threw the ball into center field. He then scored on a sac fly from Blake DeWitt. Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito finished up the five-hitter for the Dodgers. Billingsley has won three in a row and is 7-7 with a 3.38 ERA.