If you haven’t heard, Frank Thomas was released on Sunday by the Blue Jays.   After rumours and A’s management keeping a tight lip, it was announced finally that he was signed by the A’s for $337,000. It is pro-rated based on the minimum $390,000 you must pay MLB players for a full season. Read the official news here here

Personally, I don’t care how low they are paying him. If they are going to get a over the hill designated hitter, they should get BONDS not Thomas or at least sign Bonds and then have Thomas as a backup, since Thomas is such a “bargain”. Thomas is struggling and is the last person you want as the main person in the designated hitter role. Bonds is a lot better offensively even though he is older and he would cause a tremendous surge in fans coming from S.F and the rest of the bay area to see Barry again!

What the hell is wrong with Oaklands management? Sign Barry and Thomas together.

Welcome back to Oakland Athletics #1. With the opening season approaching quickly, we are back from our hiatus and ready for the 08 A’s season! We have a new poll on our site I added, if you find the question interesting please vote.

The Oakland A’s season will be the first in the major leagues as they will be playing two of their first season games in Japan on the 25th and 26th against the Red Sox, broadcasted on ESPN. Unfortunately, the games will be broadcasted at 3 Am live on a tuesday and wednesday. I believe it’s the first time a MLB team has ever started their first regular season games in a foreign country. I know the Giants in the past have played exhibition games in Japan. A few years ago the Montreal Expos played some games in Puerto Rico because at that time, the Expos were considering moving to Puerto Rico, but instead later became the Washington nationals. You can see the rest of the A’s season schedule here I’m not a fan of the idea of having the A’s play outside their home and is probably another trick of Selig to try and attempt to get more money into the MLB.

A’s 08 Offseason News Overview

It’s been a long hiatus, so let’s discuss some of the major things happening over the offseason.

Chavez recovery - Eric Chavez continues to recover from his back surgery in the offseason. He hasn’t played any cactus league games. You can read the latest on him here

Swisher Trade I was very dissapointed to see Swisher go. He was one of my favorite players. Sure he was a bit cocky, but he was young and had a lot of talent and worked hard. I think he worked well on the A’s and could have provided a bright future for them.

No Barry Bonds Oakland A’s were rumoured to have been in talks with Barry Bonds, although that seemed to have stopped after the indictment. I feel the A’s made a major mistake, not picking up Bonds. Although, its still not too late to make a last minute acquisition.

Dan Harren Trade One of the best pitchers in the majors is no longer with us. This was the big sign during the offseason that the A’s were going to go into a new direction.

Oakland A’s O8 Season Prediction

Getting rid of Dan Harren and not acquiring a golden opportunity of Barry Bonds, tells us the A’s are in a major rebuilding phase. Which translates into the A’s probably not being in the playoffs again for as long as another 5-10+ years. The Giants are in the same trend of rebuilding, so I predict for the 08 season neither team will have much buzz or high attendance around them or even competing for the fan base between each other. Sometimes rebuilding teams can become playoff material, especially in the era of wild cards, but it usually is a vibe of chemistry and luck. We will have to see how it goes, but most fans should expect a slow 08 season, but hope for the best.

I think the make or break will ultimately be if the A’s are able to better off ward injuries this year than last. If they can, they at least have a chance to have a good season. The two most important players to watch right now as indicators of the rest of the season will be Cust,Harden, and Chavez. Depending on how healthy and how good of a season they are, they will make a big difference.

We have previously talked about the chances of Bonds coming to Oakland here. A lot of people argued that if Harren was traded then it would be a slim chance Bonds will get signed. Well a couple days ago Harren in fact was traded. The A’s will be using the trade to rebuild with some minor leaguers and they are getting two major league outfielders. You can read more about the trade here.

It does look like Bonds probably won’t end up on the A’s. I hope I’m wrong, as I would love to see Bonds on the team. I don’t want to see the team “rebuild” this year, unless it includes Bonds. If it doesn’t, I’ll just stay home. Speaking of controversy, the A’s already have one player named in the mitchel report, which beane addressed. I personally am disgusted by this witch hunt from the balco investigation and the mitchell investigation. I know I’m not on the popular side of this issue, but I don’t think it’s the governments concern about what athletes are doing. I think it’s pretty crappy what Mitchell did, I really don’t care who used what and the only meaning of it was to smear peoples reputation.

How does everyone feel about trade and do you think Bonds has any chance of coming to Oakland now?

The A’s a couples week ago submitted their official proposal to the city of Fremont to build a new ballpark there. You can read the story here

The Fremont deal is not a for sure thing, we’re talking at least a year before it could get official approval by the city. If everything goes smoothly they might be ready as early as even 2010. You can continue to read periodic news updates about the ballpark at the official mlb page here

I have mixed thoughs about this move.  I personally hate Oakland A’s stadium, its hideous and the seating isn’t made for baseball. Fremont is too far away from where I live though, so I doubt I’ll ever be going to many(if any) games in the future. Plus it sounds like parking is going to be a huge pain.

Their future name is a tossup between a few different possible choices at this point, but none of them look as nice as Oakland Athletics. Maybe they will keep their name Oakland A’s (sort of like the Angels renewed their name to L.A angles even though they are still in Anaheim 30 miles south of L.A), but I highly doubt it.

Well the A’s have had a dissapointing season plagued with injuries. It’s time to wrap up my writing for this season, by talking about the hottest potential free agent on the market this year for the A’s. I know some may not want Bonds to go to Oakland, but as a bay area baseball fan, I would love to see him come over and DH. Oakland had talks with Bonds last year and the GM has said they would sign anyone if it was for the right price.

The question is, will Bonds want to take a paycut to go to Oakland? I don’t know, it would depend on the demand and how bad Bonds wants to play. I don’t think Bonds wants to take a paycut, but I do know he is eager to stay in the game as Bonds is one of the most determined ball players ever.

Bonds could prove useful for leading A’s relatively young and inexperienced hitters. When Thomas came on the team 2 years ago he helped get them to the playoffs. I believe Bonds could fill the same role and help get them to the playoffs again. I say overall it’s probably less than a 25% chance we’ll see him on the A’s. He might retire and just say screw it since he is off his Giants, or wind up on a long A.L struggling team like the Royals or Devil Rays.

Well, thanks for reading my A’s blog and I wish you the best of luck. I hope you will visit this blog again, when I resume blogging next spring. Feel free to continue to leave comments on any of my blog posts.

-Paul

With September approaching, now it’s time to analyze realistically, what the A’s chances of being in the playoffs. It was great to see the A’s in a 5 game hit streak, but just like the Giants, it just got snapped with a loss. I usually don’t pay too much attention to the standings, until about August. I think it spoils a season staying fixated on them too early in the season.

With them on that win streak I was starting to feel good. But how realistic is it they can make it to the playoffs? They are 11 games back. Seattle and L.A would both have to roughly lose 2/3 of their games for the rest of the season while the A’s win 2/3 of theirs, in order for the A’s to take the division lead. What makes it difficult is there is two teams, not just one that are 10+ games ahead. While the Athletics aren’t technically eliminated, realistically the playoffs are very very unlikely.

Milton Bradley raises some interesting discussions. Here is the news article

If anyone remembers Milton Bradleys outrageous temper tantrum on the L.A Dodges before being traded to the A’s, I was always wondering how long Bradley would last on a team like the A’s. Bradley’s comments aside, the A’s have always been pretty fickle with players and constantly trading and selling them. I think it would do the A’s management better, to treat the players more like players instead of a meat market.

Well the tradeline is over with and no one was traded before the deadline. However, outfielder Bobby Kielty was released. He only had a .200 batting average for 13 games this season, due to his long stint on the DL. I think because the A’s are not in close contention on the trade deadline, they decided to not go through with trades. I’m glad Mike Piazza is still on the team and that the rumours of his upcoming trade weren’t true.

Yet another injury to plague the A’s.

News Story

In other news, rumour has it that Piazza is highly likely to be traded

Another dissapointing loss again making it their 7th loss in a row. I can’t help, but wonder if they caught the “Giants bug” from across the bay to cause these series of losses.

In all seriousness, the A’s are quickly losing time to get their act together. Right after the All-star break is when you set the tone for the rest of the season.