In the span of a month the Oakland Athletics made moves to shore up their two weakest positions.On December 18th the A's signed star Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima. And on January 16th the A's acquired catcher John Jaso from the Seattle Mariners in a three-team trade. Suddenly, Oakland appears to have upgraded their lineup from 1-9 and are definitely showing a win-now attitude many have claimed Billy Beane and upper management did not have.So assuming the A's avoid any disaster in Spring Training injury wise (ala Scott Sizemore in 2012), the lineup seems to be improved for 2013. But what ...
With the recent addition of John Jaso, as well as signing all arbitration-eligible players to one-year contracts, the Oakland Athletics appear to be done with roster moves and focused on spring training.The A's, like every other team, have added some players and lost some players. The question is, have the additions cancelled out the losses?The Athletics' key losses were Jonny Gomes, Brandon McCarthy and Stephen Drew via free agency, and they also traded away Cliff Pennington and a top pitching prospect in A.J. Cole, among others.Their additions include Chris Young, who is assumed to replace Gomes as an extra outfielder. ...
Before the 2012 season, the Oakland Athletics were trading veterans for young prospects with an eye for the future, like pitcher A.J. Cole.As it turned out, some of the young players, like Tommy Millone and Jarrod Parker, helped turn the A's around faster than expected, as they won the American League West title.Going into the 2013 season, the Athletics are hoping to defend their division title and have shown that they are willing to part with some young prospects in order to make the big league club better. One of the prospects they parted with was pitcher A.J. Cole.According to ...
Yesterday, the A's upgraded their catcher position by being part of a three-team trade that will land them John Jaso of the Mariners.As soon as news of the trade broke (via the Washington Post), many fans and experts, myself included, were thinking that Jaso, coming off a career year—a .302 batting average, .394 on-base percentage and 10 home runs in 294 at-bats over 108 games played—would be the everyday starter.Now that the dust has settled and we have had time to look closer at Jaso, he is still an upgrade over George Kottaras, whom the A's designated for assignment to clear ...
Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane swung a deal to steal catcher John Jaso from the division rival Seattle Mariners on Wednesday.According to multiple sources, the A's acquired Jaso from the Mariners and sent pitching prospects A.J. Cole, Blake Treinen and a player to be named later to the Nationals—who flipped slugger Michael Morse to the Mariners to complete the three-team deal. The A's then designated catcher George Kottaras for assignment to open up a spot for Jaso (via MLB Trade Rumors, citing a team press release). The A's were fifth in the league with an 8.9 percent walk rate last ...
Billy Beane is definitely still active this offseason. Today, the A's appear to have improved another deficiency by acquiring catcher John Jaso from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for two minor league players (A.J. Cole and and Blake Treinen) and the always curious player to be named later (news via Jane Lee of MLB.com, among others). For what it's worth, Seattle acquired slugging outfielder Michael Morse from the Washington Nationals, and the three Oakland players will be headed to D.C.In the short term, this is a nice move for the A's. Like the shortstop position, Oakland's catchers were not very productive ...
The Oakland Athletics acquired catcher John Jaso from the Seattle Mariners as a part of a three team trade. The A's gave up minor league pitchers A.J. Cole and Blake Treinen and a player to be named to the Washington Nationals.Jaso just hit for a career-high .276 batting average in 2012 to go with his career-high on base percentage of .394. The film Moneyball educated everyone that the A's like players who get on base.The Jaso trade does two things for the A's.First of all, it gives them a proven veteran behind the plate that they have lacked since trading away Kurt ...
Oakland A's shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima is going to win the 2013 A.L. Rookie of the Year Award. Say that again? Sure. Oakland A's shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima is going to win the 2013 A.L. Rookie of the Year Award. The 30-year-old Japanese-born infielder is not only new to the Athletics, he'll be taking his first stab at Major League Baseball as well. That qualifies him as—you guessed it—a rookie. "Hero" stands a great chance at winning the award in 2013. Now before you think I'm off my rocker, consider these reasons. If you're still not a believer, by all means, call ...
Ryan Delgado, the designated hitter/catcher for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks of the Independent American Association, has had his contract purchased by the Oakland Athletics. According to a January 11 press release from the AA, Delgado is the fifth RedHawks player to have his contract purchased by an MLB club this offseason and eighth this year. Delgado was originally drafted by Atlanta Braves in the 32nd round of the 2010 MLB draft out of Azusa Pacific University. His statistics (courtesy of Baseball Reference) are deceiving, though this may be another case of a late bloomer finally ...
Baseball is a funny sport in that you never really know for sure if a player will ever live up to their promise. Guys like Todd Van Poppel and Brien Taylor were phenoms that never amounted to much as professional pitchers. On the flip side, you have players like Mike Piazza, who was famously drafted in the 62nd round in 1988 as a favor from his godfather, then-Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. All he did was become the best offensive catcher in the game's history and a surefire Hall of Famer. There's also the best active hitter in the game, ...