Sean Davis looks at whether the A's should get Mark Reynolds to play third base. Reynolds is so far superior to Josh Donaldson at third that it's not even funny. Over a season, based on their respective PECOTA projections (using TAv, a park-adjusted metric), we're talking about twenty runs on offense. However horrendous Reynolds is on defense (and he is horrendous), he's not twenty runs worse than converted catcher Josh Donaldson. (Probably.)

Performance, of course, isn't the only issue. Money and acquisition costs count, too. Mark Reynolds is making $7.5 million this season, which is $7 million more than Josh Donaldson. That's less than the actual value difference between the two players, but you have to add to that $7M gap whatever it would cost to acquire Reynolds. If the value of that asset were more than a few million dollars, you'd be looking at probably not really getting value on the upgrade. Add to that that the A's aren't going anywhere and that the entertainment / fan pleasure value of Reynolds is probably negative (fans hate strikeouts and errors, it seems) and I'd call a Reynolds acquisition a loser.

One quick other note about the article: it cites errors as the measure of defense, which I don't love, but more importantly, it states that because Reynolds had 26 errors last year while Donaldson committed four in 27 games at Sacramento and three in 17 spring games, he's better. Let's add that up right quick: that looks to me like seven errors in 44 games, which extrapolates to 25 errors over 162 games, i.e. kind of exactly the same number that Reynolds made. It's not a good argument either way, but I figured I'd note it.

A's farm has a great piece on Grady Fuson that includes a lengthy profile, details about his relationship with Billy Beane (including some things I didn't realize about how close he got to being general manager of the Rangers), and some tips and impressions on some key A's prospects, both top-notch guys like Michael Choice and Sonny Gray and some of the guys who are hoping to become top-notch, Blake Hassebrock and Yordy Cabrera. I can't recommend it enough.

This is actually a pretty good piece from Monte Poole on Coco Crisp's mindset on moving to left field. It's not a good one.