Ohhh, how times change so quickly in Green and Gold land. This time last season Travis Buck and Mark Kotsay had been shut down for the remainder of the year and we were all wondering who the heck would be healthy enough to man the A's outfield in 2008. This season, it's almost the complete opposite predicament: who isn't going to spend some time in the A's outfield in 2008, let alone 2009? The A's 40-man roster is absolutely packed to the brim with outfielders - 11 roster players are strictly outfielders while another (Eric Patterson) has seen some time out there so far this season.  This diverse of collection of talent is certainly going to result in an intriguing combination of outfield rotations over the last few weeks of this season (especially when the RiverCats' season ends), but will certainly necessitate sweeping roster maneuvering over the winter time.

So, on the off-day today, let's discuss the A's current outfield cluster-f***, examine the strength/weaknesses of each player and see if there is any type of consensus here on AN about what do with the outfield for the foreseeable future. By my count, there are 10 guys currently on the 40-man that are under team control next season and are likely to be in the 2009 OF mix:

Jack Cust: Even in my most stat-headed of Staturdays, Cust is a very frustrating player for me to really get excited about. His inability to make consistent contact has been discussed ad naseum on this site. However, we all know what he's good at: taking walks and hitting homers, and he does both well enough to lead the A's and the entire AL in one category (walks) and crack the top-ten in the league in the other (10th in homers). He's a streaky hitter, but he's actually a good enough hitter during his good streaks that he can carry an offense (see last night for evidence). He's still a liability with a glove on his hand and ideally he'd be the team's primary DH next season, however, with Chavez possibly needing to see most of his time at DH for the next few seasons, Cust has to be considered an outfielder. He'll be arby-eligible for the first time this winter and should get a million dollars or so. He's the closest thing to a "sure-thing" going into next season...

Rajai Davis: In many ways the polar opposite of Cust, Davis has seen his playing time increase recently due to his hot hitting. He seems like a good defensive centerfielder. He's a total burner on the basepaths but still doesn't seem like a good enough hitter to get on-base enough to really be an asset everyday (especially since he doesn't walk much). Part of me thinks that picking up Davis this season was just a one-year experiment by Beane to see how speed could be utilized within the current corps of players and by the current coaching staff. Davis is out of options, so he'll need to stay on the active roster all winter lest be exposed to waivers.

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Note to A's pitchers: don't put ANYBODY on base before Justin Morneau comes to bat.

Morneau struck early and often against another A's starter ( this one being Greg Smith) as he provided an RBI single in the top of the 1st after a double by Nick Punto. He would then put the game out of reach with a 3-run shot to right field off of Smith after another Punto hit and a walk to Joe Mauer. After that point, with the A's trailing 6-1 in the top of the 6th, Smith lost his composure and the A's effectively lost the game. Foulke, in his first action back off the DL, came in and hemorrhaged a few more runs, so that by the time the A's wound up stringing some hits and walks together to put a dent in the lead (the bottom of the 8th) it was way too little too late.

Early in the game, after the blip to Morneau and a belt-high BP fastball to Alexi Casilla in the 2nd that left the yard for a 2-run homer, Smith seemed to have settled. He was consistently finding the strike zone, wasn't walking anybody and had a few K's for the effort. He cruised through the 3rd, 4th and 5th, but just couldn't keep the focus going into the 6th. That loss of a focus was a killer, but I'm just gonna take the positive away from Smith's outing: he actually struck-out more batters than he walked (4 to 3) and managed to work into the 6th. Ehh, not much, but what can you do?

A few hours after I raved about how solid the A's defense has been the last few series, a few likely culprits spoiled the party this afternoon. Barton pulled a Buckner and let a grounder roll right through his legs while the bags were loaded with Twinkies in allowing two more runs to score in the 8th, while Pennington's bobbled ball and errant throw tacked on an unearned run to Ziggy's sloppy 9th inning "getting the work in" appearance.

And now, a few hours after my call for this team to seize the momentum for a new month and a new era in this team's development, they just reverted back to the ugliness that has permeated "100% Baseball" since mid-July. At least the month of August is mercifully over and...

Aaron Cunningham (2 for 4 with a double, single and 2 RBIs) is up with the team to stay and giving us something to cheer for! After a rough first two at-bats (striking out twice on a total of 8 pitches) the young Tom Sawyer-lookalike came alive and topped off his debut night with a well-struck ground rule double to right-center and a two-RBI, line drive single to center in the A's first significant rally of the game in the game on the 8th. Congrats Cunningham...we've needed you for awhile now!

For some reason, the auto game thread won't load, so I am trying it this way...

I won't say this on behalf of the entire AN community, but I will say it for me: if the A's win today, they will have done a lot in the past few series to help me forget about their mostly horrible month of August. In taking 2 out of 3 in Anaheim against one of the top clubs in the game, and now showing a lot of fight in not 1, but 2 walkoff victories in 3 games against a very good team that is fighting for a playoff spot, this young team is finally showing glimpses of what it is capable of. They still aren't scoring many runs, but the young pitchers are coming around and the position players are playing solid-enough defense and are focused enough so that they can keep the game close and take advantage of the other team's mistakes. That's a big improvement from just two weeks ago, and it's finally showing in the win-loss record.

Today's game also marks the final game in August and the final game before rosters expand and September call-ups take-effect. A win today combined with a gradual reinforcement of the roster from prospects over the next week could finally conspire to give the A's something that has been anathema in the team's clubhouse since early July: momentum. With some mo' and some confidence and a full, healthy pitching staff, this team might just pull-off a .500-season when all is said and done. So, disagree with me if you will and excuse the hyperbole, but I feel like today's game is the biggest of the year so far for the A's.

The team will send the mostly capable left-arm of Greg "The Nibbler" Smith to the mound against the Twins for the contest this afternoon. Smith got battered by the Angels last time out last week, but still lasted a full 6 innings in the process. Since the All Star break, Greg has not been all that effective: 1-6, 5.08 ERA and 25 walks against only 21 strike outs. So, I'm guessing the best-case scenario today is that Smith is wild, yet effective for 6+ innings, Devine can come in and shut the door in the 7th and Ziggy can provide one of his patented 2-inning saves.

In order to do that, the A's will need to scratch out at least a few runs against Smith's fellow Louisiana-native Scott Baker.  Scott, like the rest of the Twins' young rotation, is an aggressive strike-thrower that probably won't do the A's batters any favors (3.55 to 1 K/BB ratio). Best case scenario: Cust stays hot, belts another homer and newly-arrived Aaron Cunningham makes his major league debut one to remember with a multi-hit game that sparks several rallies that give the A's a one-run lead going into the later innings...

(I've been called in to work to help monitor the growing monster that is Hurricane Gustav, but I'll have internet access and will be monitoring the Game Threads and listening to the game on radio, so I should be able to stay on top of things, but if I need to abruptly halt my blog activity, I would appreciate it if someone could open a new thread if necessary...)

I won't say this on behalf of the entire AN community, but I will say it for me: if the A's win today, they will have done a lot in the past few series to help me forget about their mostly horrible month of August. In taking 2 out of 3 in Anaheim against one of the top clubs in the game, and now showing a lot of fight in not 1, but 2 walkoff victories in 3 games against a very good team that is fighting for a playoff spot, this young team is finally showing glimpses of what it is capable of. They still aren't scoring many runs, but the young pitchers are coming around and the position players are playing solid-enough defense and are focused enough so that they can keep the game close and take advantage of the other team's mistakes. That's a big improvement from just two weeks ago, and it's finally showing in the win-loss record.

Today's game also marks the final game in August and the final game before rosters expand and September call-ups take-effect. A win today combined with a gradual reinforcement of the roster from prospects over the next week could finally conspire to give the A's something that has been anathema in the team's clubhouse since early July: momentum. With some mo' and some confidence and a full, healthy pitching staff, this team might just pull-off a .500-season when all is said and done. So, disagree with me if you will and excuse the hyperbole, but I feel like today's game is the biggest of the year so far for the A's.

The team will send the mostly capable left-arm of Greg "The Nibbler" Smith to the mound against the Twins for the contest this afternoon. Smith got battered by the Angels last time out last week, but still lasted a full 6 innings in the process. Since the All Star break, Greg has not been all that effective: 1-6, 5.08 ERA and 25 walks against only 21 strike outs. So, I'm guessing the best-case scenario today is that Smith is wild, yet effective for 6+ innings, Devine can come in and shut the door in the 7th and Ziggy can provide one of his patented 2-inning saves.

In order to do that, the A's will need to scratch out at least a few runs against Smith's fellow Louisiana-native Scott Baker.  Scott, like the rest of the Twins' young rotation, is an aggressive strike-thrower that probably won't do the A's batters any favors (3.55 to 1 K/BB ratio). Best case scenario: Cust stays hot, belts another homer and newly-arrived Aaron Cunningham makes his major league debut one to remember with a multi-hit game that sparks several rallies that give the A's a one-run lead going into the later innings...

(I've been called in to work to help monitor the growing monster that is Hurricane Gustav, but I'll have internet access and will be monitoring the Game Threads and listening to the game on radio, so I should be able to stay on top of things, but if I need to abruptly halt my blog activity, I would appreciate it if someone could open a new thread if necessary...)

Struggling Carlos Gonzalez has been optioned to AAA Sacramento while Ryan Sweeney has been activated from the disabled list to take his spot on the 25-man roster.

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Recent whisperings out of South Florida indicate that the Marlins will be "open for business" this winter as they face the possibilty of having to add significant payroll next season if they wish to retain all their players. The guy projected to cost the team the most in his arbitration-raise is slugging 2nd baseman Dan Uggla, who is likely to recieve a $4.5 million salary bump in his 1st turn through arbitration. Now, $5 million is still a bargain for a guy with Uggla's skill set, but the notoriously-thrifty Marlins might look to cash him in this winter while his value is at an all-time high.

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Well, it seems like my duties of monitoring the minors have officially been usurped by user asyouwish33 who has been publishing daily updates of the minor league teams using some fancy-pantsy box score widgets. He/she obviously has better tech skills than I do and has more time on his/her hands to issue a new report nearly every day, so for daily updates and more eye-friendly info, please refer to his/her reports in  the "recommended diaries" area.

But if you just can't get enough of my unique prospect analysis, I'll continue to do my humble little report for the duration of the minor league season (mercifully, only one more week!) So here goes...

News

1. Uber-pitching prospects Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson will return to the States with bronze medals after USA baseball defeated Japan 8-4 in the bronze medal game on Friday. Both 20-year old hurlers performed admirably for the US team. Cahill, who I saw pitch in one tape-delayed game, looked a lot like Brandon Webb, with his nasty sinker being off-set by a nice, sharp breaking ball, with everything down in the strikezone. He finished the tournament with a 2.25 ERA over 8 innings, with 5 K's, 5 walks and 6 hits allowed. Anderson started the bronze medal game and went a solid 7 innings, striking out 6, walking 3 and allowing 4 runs. Anderson finished the tournament with a 4.97 ERA but with a 10-3 K-BB mark in 12 innings.You would think both of their seasons are now officially over.

2. The A's announced that they have extended their development contract with Low-A Kane County through the 2010 season. The young pitchers will be happy with that decision, but the hitters will not be!

3. Henry Rodriguez was re-promoted back up to Double-A last week, this time as a reliever. He pitched 1 inning of scoreless ball back on the 21st, but then surrendered 1 run in 1 IP with 4 walks and no strikeouts last night in the Hound's loss to rival Frisco. I've never been really that high on H-Rod to begin with (poor control and lack of well-rounded pitching repertoire was destined to be exposed by advanced hitters) and his curious problems pitching in the Texas League have exacerbated that skepticism. I guess it's too late to trade him in while his perceived upside was through the roof?

4. With a 7-4 victory over Fresno Saturday night, the RiverCats clinched their 2nd straight PCL South Division championship. They will now go on to defend their PCL leaguewide championship and their unofficial Triple-A championship in the PCL playoffs beginning September 3rd.

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This game actually began quite surprisingly and optimistically for the A's. Jack Hannahan of all people played the roll of the gallant knight battling the fire-breathing (or flame-throwing) pitching dragon King Felix. Hannahan took the 8th pitch of the game, a mis-located changeup, and blasted it into the right field bleachers to give the A's an early 1-0 lead. Dan Meyer would then pitch admirably for the first 2 innings of his outing, holding the Mariners scoreless via a couple strikeouts, some nice velocity and an effective changeup. Hannahan would then strike again in the top of the 3rd with a SECOND solo homerun to right off of King Felix. Career game for the Jackster that bumped his season average up to .225 and his OPS up to a robust .656! A's lead 2-0 after 2 innings!

Yet, just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, Meyer's control abandoned him in the 3rd inning as he issued back-to-back walks to open the inning and then surrendered back-to-back run-scoring hits before recording an out. Meyer would miraculously get out of that inning after allowing only 3 runs total and then went on to only allow a solo homer to Johjima in the next two frames. The 5 inning, 3 hit, 4 run outing wasn't terrible but not really encouraging or a step in the right direction for Meyer at this point in his development and with his precarious standing with the organization. He still seems to struggle finishing off his pitches and was consequently working in the upper part of the strikezone as a result.

The A's bats would tally 1 more run on a Rob Bowen solo homer in the 5th (the first of two strong drives by Rob, the second of which died at the warning track) and then another solitary run after a single by Barton, a double by Pennington and a run-scoring groundout by Patterson in the 7th. While Barton still has a long ways to go, he looked good this series and we can always hope that his month of September 2008 will bear some resemblance to his performance of September 2007.

Mop-up man Captain Kirk Saarloos would give up 4 runs on 5 hits in only 2 innings to put the game effectively out-of-range for the A's in the later innings. Casilla actually pitched a nice, quick bottom of the 8th to give the A's one last chance to bridge the 4-run deficit in the top of the 9th, but we all know that never happens to this team.

So, like a pretty standard Sunday matinee made-for-TV movie, the A's did a few things early on in the plot to grab your attention and appeal to your curiosity, but eventually followed the outline of most every other game of the past month and a half. I guess it was just too much to ask for the A's to actually WIN a series against one of the worst teams in all of major league baseball.

After assuring themselves of not losing a series for the first time since Joe Blanton and Rich Harden were still with the squad, the A's will look to clinch the 4-game set this afternoon. On paper, the matchup doesn't look particularly favorable to the Green and Gold. Dan "Failing to Inspire" Meyer will take the hill for the A's. Dan previously faced Seattle late last season and gave his customary run-an-inning effort in 4 2/3 innings to take the loss. Dan is the oldest, least promising and least-roster-friendly hurler currently in the A's all-lefty rotation, so at this point in his career he's probably auditioning for a spot on some other team's roster. Hopefully, Dan can just chew some innings today and for the rest of this season, give the A's a chance to win some games and show enough of his former top-prospect talent in the process so that someone might give him a chance next year.

Countering Meyer will be longtime Oakland nemesis Felix Hernandez. King Felix has been kryptonite to A's bats ever since breaking into the majors as a teenager in 2005. He has a 6-3 record and a 2.43 career ERA against the A's. It's not just that Felix is a good pitcher against every lineup (which he is) but also that he's particularly well-suited to dominating the A's since he throws lots of strikes, limits the walks and is very efficient. Every year I approach these matchups with the same thread of optimism, thinking to myself, "Well, most of the Oakland hitters Felix will be facing this time are rookies and maybe this group will finally figure him out." I've been wrong every single time before, and I don't expect to be right this time, although there are a few reasons to be reasonably optimistic today:

- Ziggy is well-rested and should be good to go for another 2-inning save, should the opportunity arise.

- Cust actually had some success against Felix last season, going 2-for-7 with a homer and two walks against him...however that was back when Jack had two good eyes at his disposal.

- Ellis might have singularly signaled a new era in A's injury management after saying (about his shoulder), "When it feels good, I'll be out there"...wow, that sounds nice and simple...I would have like to have heard that from Gallagher and Duke a few weeks ago and Chavez and Harden a few years ago.

- Cliff Pennington gets his first start at shortstop for the A's! Maybe he can make Crosby irrelevant sooner rather than later...

At the risk of stepping on Nico's toes, I thought I'd borrow his idea and give my scouting reports on some of the A's young hitters, after he did the same with the pitchers last week. Here goes:

Ryan "Swooney/Good/Bad/But Never Ugly" Sweeney

Really good 4th Outfielder? Average Regular? Potential Superstar?

Sweeney took his lumps during April getting acclimated to being a full-time major leaguer, however since that time he's been one of the more consistent hitters on the team and arguably has been the A's best hitter - at least in terms of batting average - for much of the season. He's also flashed some serious leather , especially in right field, often to his own detriment!

Sweeney's swing is a pretty thing. It isn't long or loopy, it stays pretty level and occasionally he can open up and put a healthy charge on a ball (like he did in Toronto a few weeks back). He's got very quick wrists which really help him let the ball travel far into the zone before he comes through with his stroke. Basically, he's got the ideal contact-oriented, high-average swing. Unfortunately, this type of swing doesn't produce a lot of power, as evidenced by Sweeney's .377 slugging percentage and only 4 homers on the year.

Overall, Sweeney is an interesting case to me. He's got the build of a slugging corner outfielder but the swing (and the results) of an opposite-field oriented, gap-to-gap leadoff hitter (as evidenced by the fact that he hits about 40% of his balls in play to center or left field). He's pretty good at what he does with the bat and he's a great athlete, with good speed for his size, a strong, accurate throwing arm and the ability to play every outfield spot without embarrassing himself. Ideally, he'd be a very good and often-used 4th outfielder on a very good team, however, I see this team relying a little too much on him due to its offensive ineptitude.

One huge plus for Sweeney going forward: this latest DL stint notwithstanding, he's a pretty tough dude that will likely find a way to stay on the field and play through plain. That's certainly a very positive attribute for his chances to improve going forward, but I just don't see him as a future star due to his lack of power.

Daric Barton

It sure seems to me like Daric Barton wakes up every morning, looks at his atrocious slugging and on-base numbers and concludes that during the day's game he is either going to a) work on the OBP by taking every borderline pitch that comes his way in hopes of working a walk, or b) work on the slugging percentage by lifting every hittable pitch in the hopes that his flyballs will catch the jet stream and carry out for a homer. As you can imagine, this strategy has not exactly worked wonders for Barton's overall numbers.

I think overall, Barton is just a really confused kid right now. He is no longer getting the balls-and-strikes calls he got as a minor leaguer against inferior competition and as a result, he's tried to change his approach to become a more aggressive hitter. That's a shame, because Barton's strength is working the count and waiting for his pitch to hit and not forcing the issue.

One thing that jumps out at you when contrasting his batted-ball charts from this season and from last year at Sacramento is that Barton is hitting about 10% more groundballs to the right-side of the infield, and about 20% less fly balls to left and center fields. What that indicates to me is that Barton is pressing or even guessing at pitches, getting out in front of them and not letting them travel far into the strikezone. Since Barton is probably never going to be a homerun-hitter, he will need to get back to relaxing at the plate, letting pitches travel far into the zone (thereby allowing him better reads on balls ans strikes) and then driving balls to left and center and go gap-to-gap. He's shown glimpses that he can do this and also glimpses of an ability to work a favorable count and then jump on a telegraphed fastball. However, he needs to combine those two concepts and do it consistently.

Mychael Urban, in his latest mailbag, makes a good point for all of us that would like to see Barton optioned to AAA ASAP:

What if he struggles at Sacramento, though? Then he might head into Spring Training next year with even more doubt about his ability to hit big league pitching than he'd have if he continues to struggle with Oakland. On the flip side of that, what if he starts to figure some things out in the final five or six weeks? Then he heads for Arizona next February with some confidence.

I understand your frustration, but I see a lot of logic in keeping him in the lineup. The A's aren't going anywhere this year, and the only way to solve big league pitching is to face big league pitching.

I understand that logic and i guess at this point in the season there's no reason to send him down, but if he continues to spiral downhill the rest of the year, the A's have got to consider starting him in the minors next season and looking for alternative long-or-short term options for 1st base.

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