November 23, 2018 at 2:16 PM

The MLB.com prospect squad picks one unprotected player from each team as Rule 5 draft possibilities. From the A's, they point out Richie Martin, who could be an intriguing choice for a team that can afford the roster spot because his defense is probably MLB-quality right now. The Marlins or the Reds or the Padres or the Rangers could pay some retread to be their utility man or they can grab Martin, let him play the eighth and ninth innings of some games and give him a few at-bats against major-league pitchers here and there, and see how the whole thing goes. The risk, of course, is that it's his bat that most needs reps to develop if he's going to be a plausible major-league player, so by jumping him straight from Double-A to the majors, you may hurt his development so much that rather than altering his path, you simply end it.

On the A's end, given that their starting pitching is what it is, they could take one of the pitchers highlighted in the article, give them a shot at earning the no. 5 rotation spot in spring training, and ship them back home if they don't hold up. Possibilities for that path might include Alex Young (Padres), Brandon Waddell (Pirates), Tom Eshelman (Phillies), Foster Griffin (Royals), Tyler Alexander (Tigers), Spencer Adams (White Sox), and Luis Gonzalez (Orioles).

November 14, 2018 at 9:55 PM

I know that even these days, WAR doesn't capture everything any player does, and probably especially catchers, but Kurt Suzuki? By WARP, which does include framing and blocking, he racked a up grand total of 0.7 wins above replacement from 2009 through 2016. He then hit the absolute dickens out of the ball in Atlanta the last two years to the tune of 5.6 WARP. Meanwhile, the once-great Jonathan Lucroy has fallen off the map and was not much more than a replacement-level player for Oakland last year, despite being two years younger than Suzuki. Is either of them worth a two-year deal, even without considering Sean Murphy's arrival? You have to imagine Suzuki will get one after his performance the last two years.

But what else is out there? Stephen Vogt? Brian McCann? ... Matt Wieters?

Alright, fine, you talked me into it: two-year deal for Kurt Suzuki, with the second year being less a full-load starter than to help ease Murphy into the role, play the mentor, do all the leadership-y things catchers are supposed to do.

September 22, 2018 at 5:04 PM

Jonathan Mayo names Jesus Luzardo as one of the biggest risers among pitching prospects. Shooting back from Tommy John surgery to put up a sub-3 ERA and a 4:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio across three levels, topping out at Triple-A, will do that for a guy.

September 22, 2018 at 4:26 PM

Over at Deadspin, Rick Paulas spent some time in the right-field bleachers talking about A's fans' relationship with ownership.

September 13, 2018 at 9:38 PM

Jon Tayler, apropos of the last post, suggests that the A's would be better off with a bullpen game in a wild card matchup with the Yankees, especially if it's in Yankee Stadium, than handing the ball to Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill, Edwin Jackson, or Mike Fiers. I think two of those four can be eliminated easily: Anderson should receive no consideration for a wild card game start whatsoever, and Jackson, as nice as it's been that he's had the results he's had, is simply far too unlikely to continue having them to warrant a start. So: Cahill or Fiers? I think Tayler is right that Fiers's dinger-heavy ways in Yankee Stadium would be terrifying. I could talk myself into Cahill in either park. But do I want to talk myself into something? Or do I want to see Bob Melvin throw his best players at the season's most important game? There is no tomorrow, after all, unless you make one happen.

Maybe you go with a hybrid approach. Instead of trying to squeeze five innings out of the starter, you promise them a maximum of nine hitters. The pitcher can go (relatively speaking) balls to the wall, but you also get a little more length out of a stretched-out arm than you can out of the typical bullpen guys. Hopefully that gets you into the third inning, if not quite through it, and shaves off two innings that you don't have to try to get from, I don't know, Cory Gearrin or Liam Hendriks.

So I agree with Tayler: be bold, Bob. But don't necessarily throw away all your starters when you're building the patchwork pitch quilt that you're going to use to get you into the real playoffs.

September 13, 2018 at 9:32 PM

Patrick Redford is done questioning the A's. I'm pretty friggin' jazzed myself to see if they can make a run in the playoffs, where the structure allows them to throw their best relievers basically every game because there are so many off days.

August 28, 2018 at 7:23 AM

Check Michael Baumann at The Ringer on why A's first-rounder Kyler Murray, who will be playing quarterback for Oklahoma this fall before kicking off his pro baseball career next spring, is unique in the history of two-sport athletes.

August 20, 2018 at 8:03 AM

Today's Monday Morning Ten Pack at Baseball Prospectus has a couple of paragraphs on Stockton outfielder Greg Deichmann, who the A's drafted in the second round out of LSU in 2017. He's not particularly young and won't wow anybody with anything but the bat, but Karaman is cautiously optimistic about the power profile that could leave him a starting right fielder in the big leagues come 2021 or so. Worth noting as well that he hits lefty, so even if he's a platoon bat, it's the long side.

August 9, 2018 at 8:33 AM

Jeff Sullivan points out, at FanGraphs, that Trevor Cahill has been one of the best free-agent signings of the year.

August 1, 2018 at 9:36 PM

One interesting downside of the A's surprising contention for what is sure, given that they're the A's, to be a one-and-done appearance in the playoffs (we have to be real; we are nothing if we are not real), is that there's no time to worry about development of the kids. You've gotta go with who's going to win you games, because every game counts, and you're not just playing for draft position. Which at this point means: Dustin Fowler is headed to Nashville rather than continuing to run out in center field and battle through his struggles. Nick Martini, a fellow lefty, has taken his playing time, and Mark Canha had already taken the duties against lefty pitchers.

Susan Slusser reports that Ramon Laureano, a mid-level prospect with really good numbers in Nashville, and a righty swinger, is likely to come up in Fowler's place. If you needed another sign that Jake Smolinski's time in Oakland appears to be over, well, there you go. (Though the A's did choose to keep him on the 40-man roster and instead designated pitcher Carlos Ramirez for assignment to make room for Boog Powell's return from the 60-day disabled list.)

August 1, 2018 at 7:22 AM

It is hard to argue with Grant Brisbee putting the A's in the "loser" side of his winners/losers wrap-up of the trade deadline, considering they're one game back of the playoffs and five games back of the division leaders, yet decided only to add a late-inning bullpen guy. He came practically free, in prospect terms, so that part's a win, but this is still a team relying on the following starting rotation:

That's barely a big-league rotation, much less a playoff one. Here's a list of the starting pitchers who were traded:

There are players on this list who would have helped the A's. Eovaldi, Happ, Gausman, and maybe even Andriese are better than Frankie Montas, Edwin Jackson, and Brett Anderson, and they're all active and pitching now, which makes them more valuable to a team than Paul Blackburn. None of them cost that much in terms of prospects or cash. (Happ's $4.6 million remaining on his contract is tops of that group.) You can argue your way out of each of them, sure—Andriese is mediocre reliever; Eovaldi is going to break; there's no budget room for Happ; Baltimore's price for Gausman outstripped his actual value—but you can do this with every single player you could ever think about acquiring. There's always a reason not to. It sure seems to me like the reasons to outstrip the reasons not to for the A's as they existed on July 31, 2018.

July 31, 2018 at 9:42 PM

I don't actually know how big the knife is. Now that I think about it, it's probably a small knife. But regardless of the size of the knife, he's going to be out for a while, as he will undergo Tommy John surgery.

It won't have much effect on the 2018 A's, because he was ineffective and then hurt before this announcement, and to be brutally honest it probably won't have much effect on the 2019 or any other version of the A's, either, because it's just not clear he's a major league–caliber pitcher. But it will have an effect, a massive one, on Gossett, and so all we can really do is wish him well.

July 29, 2018 at 10:13 AM

Baseball Prospectus published their midseason top 50 prospects list a few weeks ago. Jesus Luzardo jumps all the way to no. 13, reflecting a fantastic first half in which he blew threw High-A en route to Double-A, where he has also pitched well. He doesn't have ace upside, necessarily, but if he stays healthy, he should be a good midrotation pitcher for a long time. Luzardo had been BP's no. 88 prospects preseason. Some amount of the rise is due to graduations, of course; just eyeballing, there are something like 12 guys ahead of Luzardo on the preseason list who are ineligible for the midseason list because they're now in the majors. But that's still a 50-spot jump, from "pretty good prospect, and we'll see how he comes back from injury" to "one of the best players in the minor leagues."

Luzardo is the only A's player on the midseason top 50. The other possibilities would have been A.J. Puk, who is out with injury and therefore unranked, Franklin Barreto, who graduated, Jorge Mateo, who ranked 79th on the preseason list and hasn't exactly lit Triple-A on fire, and Dustin Fowler, who graduated.

Meanwhile, MLB.com has reranked every team's top 30; the A's list is here. Luzardo moves to the top spot, bumping Puk down one, while Sean Murphy jumps from no. 8 to no. 3 and first-round pick Kyler Murray debuts at no. 4. Other changes of note:

• Second-round pick Jameson Hannah, a college outfielder, slots in at no. 8
• Jeremy Eierman, a college infielder picked between the second and third rounds with a competitive-balance selection, comes in at no. 11
• Richie Martin rises from no. 21 to no. 12 by flashing some bat at Double-A
• Grant Holmes falls from no. 10 to no. 16 by getting hurt
• Eli White rises to no. 19 after not being in the top 30 preseason by slashing .321/.412/.483 at Double-A. That's a perfectly nice line for a future backup infielder even if you take 50 points of batting-average air out of it
• Hogan Harris, a college pitcher drafted in this year's third round, debuts at no. 25

July 27, 2018 at 7:41 PM

At The Ringer, Michael Baumann analyzes the key individual in Seattle and Oakland's playoff chances: James Paxton and Sean Manaea. His point really lays bare just how horrifically bad the A's rotation is that someone like Manaea can be the ace of the squad; on the other hand, the horror of the rotation also lays bare just how good the rest of the team has been that they're right there for a playoff spot despite a Baltimore-ass rotation.

May 4, 2018 at 7:45 AM

MLBTR notes the PCL's transactions page, which says that the A's released Simon Castro. He'd been pitching at Nashville and the main thing in his stat line is that a lot of stuff was going on: 12 strikeouts in eight innings, but also 11 hits, six walks, and two wild pitches. He managed to log significant time for last year's bullpen, pitching the seventh-most innings (37) of any non-starter, as the team cycled through various mediocre options (Chris Smith, Zach Neal, Michael Brady, etc. etc.), traded their two best relievers (Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson), and dealt with injuries (John Axford (six weeks), Doolittle (five weeks), Ryan Dull (nine weeks), Bobby Wahl (four months)). Castro was easily into the double digits of the relief pitcher depth chart, which looks something like this:

1. Blake Treinen
2. Yusmeiro Petit
3. Ryan Dull
4. Ryan Buchter
5. Danny Coulombe
6. Liam Hendriks
7. Santiago Casilla
8. Chris Hatcher
9. Lou Trivino
10. Wilmer Font
11. Emilio Pagan
12. Chris Bassitt
13. Josh Lucas
14. Bobby Wahl
15. Raul Alcantara
16. Simon Castro

The order of the guys ahead of Castro isn't really the point (e.g. Trivino might be considered further up the list right now) so much as the sheer number of players ahead of him for playing time. Even with the eight-man bullpen, and even with two relievers currently on the DL, and even with the struggles of Pagan and Hatcher, Castro just wasn't all that close to sniffing the big leagues. He still throws in the mid-90s, though, so he can probably latch on somewhere and keep trying to make things work at Triple-A for a while.

May 1, 2018 at 8:41 PM

As an update to my last two items, and in particular to the fact that Brett Anderson was supposed to start for Nashville but didn't, Bob Melvin says Anderson will start for the A's on Wednesday, and he's already hanging around the team in advance of his activation. Nothing yet on who will go to the minors to make room, but with nine goddamn relief pitchers, I think we can be pretty confident it's one of those dudes:

• Blake Treinen: the closer
• Santiago Casilla: would have to be DFA'd, is pitching fine
• Lou Trivino: maybe! He's been good, though
• Yusmeiro Petit: would have to be DFA'd; no chance
• Emilio Pagan: maybe!
• Ryan Dull: hmmm maybe!
• Danny Coulombe: the only lefty
• Chris Hatcher: would have to be DFA'd; seems to be bad at baseball now; maybe!
• Wilmer Font: would have to be DFA'd; the new guy; maybe!

So I think I rank the likelihoods this way: (1) Trivino (2) Pagan (3) Font (4) Hatcher (5) Dull.

April 30, 2018 at 7:50 PM

As an update to my last item, Jane Lee says Brett Anderson's the leading contender to join the rotation this week. Important note: Chris Bassitt started (and got the absolute living hell pounded out of him) instead of Anderson tonight in Nashville. Anderson pitched on the 25th, so he'd have been on turn tonight, and Bassitt has not been pitching as a starter. I'd say that's an omen!

April 17, 2018 at 10:24 PM

All my protestations to the contrary, the A's did indeed designate Trayce Thompson for assignment today to make room for Trevor Cahill to join the team as their fifth starter. The move was for 25-man purposes, not 40-man, as Cahill was already on the team on a major-league deal, but Thompson was optioned by his prior teams in 2014 (White Sox), 2015 (same), and 2017 (Dodgers), thus exhausting the years in which he could be optioned. The Dodgers and Yankees have each already waived Thompson this year, the former on March 27 and the latter on April 5, and he was claimed each time, so there's clearly some demand out there for his services. The odds he gets claimed seem great, but if he manages to pass through waivers, I believe the A's can assign him outright to the minors without him having the ability to elect free agency, since he has not previously been outrighted.

You know my feelings on Mark Canha, who the A's chose to keep over Thompson despite having options, by this point, but the team clearly believes he can handle center field (tonight marked his third consecutive start there) and he is, even I would admit, clearly a better hitter than Jake Smolinski.

In the end, I'm probably going to be embarrassed by how many bloggies I spent on the A's center-field situation in light of the six years of Certain Glory we're going to experience from Dustin Fowler or Jorge Mateo. "Jason why did you blog so much about Jake Smolinski in April 2018?" "I don't knoooooowwwwwwwww I just diddddddd."

Also, Yusmeiro Petit has a family situation back home and has been placed on the family emergency, so Lou Trivino, who the A's drafted in the 11th round in 2013, will come to the majors for the first time to help out in the bullpen. The big thing that jumps out at you from his stat sheet is the one (1) homer allowed over 128 innings at three levels the last two seasons. Make that one (1) homer over 132 innings if you count this year. Take that one step further, back to 2015, when he left the rotation for good on June 2, and he has allowed two (2) homers in 182 innings since becoming a reliever, all at High-A and above. He debuted tonight, but I haven't watched the game yet. Be not afraid: you will hear my thoughts when I have them.

April 15, 2018 at 5:08 PM

It was always going to be tough to find room for Renato Nuñez when he came off the disabled list. He's out of options, so the A's were either going to have to keep him on the roster or waive him and hope nobody put in a claim. Despite the presence of Mark Canha, who still has options, Trayce Thompson, who the team just got on waivers, and Franklin Barreto, who would leave the team without a backup infielder for a day but who has options and who in any event is going to be replaced by Chad Pinder shortly anyway, the A's went the waiver route on Nuñez and lost him to division rival ("rival") Texas.

"Why not option Mark Canha" is the obvious question, but the equally obvious answer is "because he's going to get optioned on Tuesday when Trevor Cahill comes back," so if you replace Canha with Nuñez now, all you're doing is delaying by two days the necessity of waiving Nuñez, since it's fair to assume that Jake Smolinski and Trayce Thompson are both going to stick around, seeing how your fourth outfielder needs to be able to play center, and it isn't clear that Chadwick Hudson Pinder qualifies as "able to play center."

It's unfortunate to lose someone with power potential on waivers, but Nuñez doesn't hit enough to hold down first base and doesn't defend enough to play the other corners. Hell, he may not hit enough to hold down those corners, either, considering the career .301 OBP in Triple-A. We can worry about him being Nelson Cruz, but the odds he gets there are next to nil.

It isn't actually clear how Texas intends to get Nuñez on the 25-man roster, either, since they're also running with an eight-man bullpen, and they're already failing to carry a backup infielder, their bench consisting of Ryan Rua and Carlos Tocci. One suspects the Rangers had a 40-man spot because of the ability to put Tim Lincecum on the 60-day disabled list, and are about to turn around and try to sneak Nuñez through waivers themselves. Even if they manage to keep him on the bench (by optioning Rua, maybe), it would probably only be until Rougned Odor or Elvis Andrus was ready to come back. Which is to say: welcome to that part of your career, Renato Nuñez.

April 14, 2018 at 3:48 PM

Ryan Dull comes back from the disabled list today, as we discussed previously, but instead of having to make an actual decision, i.e. instead of having to piss me off by designating Liam Hendriks for assignment, Hendriks' body made the decision for the A's, as a groin strain sends him to the disabled list himself. The Aussie reliever had pitched in six games this year:

That is the profile of a middle reliever, so the A's don't necessarily have any particularly difficult decisions to make about how's going to take Hendriks' innings. Depending on how the A's feel about Dull, he might slot right into those innings.