One thing that was interesting to me in today’s rundown of Oakland A’s camp from Joe Stiglich of the San Jose Mercury News was his talk about Jordan Norberto. To say Norberto has struggled with his control at the MLB level is an understatement. In 39 appearances, spanning 26 2/3 innings he has managed to walk 9.8 batters per nine innings – a BB% of 22.5%. While yes it is a small sample issue, he has been consistent with 9.9 BB/9 with Arizona in 2010 and 9.5 BB/9 with Oakland last season. In the minors he hasn’t been that bad, but the less patient hitters of Triple A still walked an ungodly 4.7 BB/9 in 2011, an improvement from his 5.8 BB/9 at Triple-A in 2010. Of Norberto, Stiglich wrote today,

“Another reliever in camp, lefty Jordan Norberto, could also land a spot in the bullpen. He was acquired last season from Arizona in the Brad Ziegler trade but struggled with his command. Norberto worked as a starter in the Dominican Winter League this past offseason but has primarily been a reliever since 2008. Melvin mentioned the possibility of experimenting with Norberto as a starter in the minors if he doesn’t make the big league club out of camp.”

In the Dominican this year, Norberto pitched in 16 games starting six, tallying 33 innings of 4.1 BB/9 but 7.9 K/9 baseball with a 2.45 ERA. A rough estimate of his FIP (I don’t have exactly what the constant would be for the Dominican Winter League) is 4.14 showing that while the walks hurt he greatly benefited from allowing no home runs.

I would be shocked if Norberto made the rotation. Frankly, I am sort of surprised he is someone who could make the team at this point given that the walk rate is just so outside of the realm of even below average. I asked Stiglich about this on Twitter, and as always he was great with replying,

“@tvprcretireplan: Does the org feel they can improve his control? I have to assume they do but he needs to half (plus!) his BB’s – a tall order.

@joestiglich:Yes, and [Bob] Melvin mentioned cutting down the walks and holding runners better. But improving the slider was first pt he made.

@tvprcretireplan: Does improving the slider help his BB rate fall?

@joestiglich: Perhaps, if it helps him get ahead in counts more.”

It does show that the A’s have something vested in Norberto so my suspicions that he could be a casualty of the 40-man roster crunch whenever Yoenis Cespedes’ visa issues are solved seem off. For what it is worth, he has had a little more trouble throwing his slider for strikes at the MLB level with the stats from BrooksBaseball indicating that of the 51 sliders he’s thrown only 50.98% of them have been over for strikes, which is better but albeit not much better than the 59.51% of four-seam fastballs going for strikes. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out this spring, but Norberto is one player I was not expecting to hear much of this early. The A’s sure love their big tall left-handers.

The A’s have signed Manny Ramirez to a minor-league contract worth about $500K. While ESPN.com writes that he wouldn’t be eligible until June 2nd, I’m not sure if for whatever reason the two games in Tokyo don’t count because by my count his 50-game PED suspension would be up by May 30th, Ramirez’ 40th birthday.

Ramirez is one of the most prolific right-handed hitters in the history of baseball, a career .312/.411/.585 hitter, with 69.6 career WAR, an incredible .417 wOBA and startling 152 wRC+ never having had a season (excluding very brief stints last year and in 1993) with a wRC+ under 121 (1994). He instantly becomes one of the best bats in the A’s still relatively weak lineup. The deal being so cheap and not costing a roster spot at this juncture also makes it one of virtually zero risk with potentially high reward. This also could color how the A’s lineup going forward looks as it could spell a trade for a Brandon Allen or Kila Ka’aihue come his expected midseason return.

While my initial thoughts on this trade were strongly in opposition to it. I have really come around and think that you cannot go wrong on such a low-cost signing, especially for someone who – if not for the performance-enhancing drug issues – would be a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer. I look forward to getting the opportunity to watch Manny play in Spring Training and perhaps in the Coliseum as a member of the A’s as well. In 284 career plate appearances at the offense sapping Coliseum, Ramirez has only hit .316/.419/.527 with 12 home runs. One thing amazing about this deal is just how much baseball has changed in recent years with the return of normal aging curves. A talent of Ramirez’ ability, even at 40 would’ve commanded far more attention just five or six years ago than he has this year where the A’s get him for virtual pennies on the dollar. This will certainly make this team that much more interesting…

I’ve read countless commentaries regarding the A’s offseason. I’ve agreed with some, and I’ve disagreed with others. But one thing I think is overlooked, is whether moves are good or whether moves are bad is there one coherent plan to this offseason? I have to think no. There was some sort of shift in the New Year, that went into this reloading, not just for a year but for some undefined period because let’s look at what this team could look like and while we’re at it, let’s also go with the assumption they add Manny Ramirez (I think the Koji Uehara rumors are frequent enough that this likely gets done too but it is further down the way, so we’ll omit those) that will mean this offseason the A’s will have added:

Yoenis Cespedes ($6.5M)
Bartolo Colon ($2.0M)
Ryan Cook ($0.5M)
Collin Cowgill ($0.5M)
Coco Crisp ($6.0M)
Jonny Gomes ($1.0M)
Tom Milone ($0.5M)
Derek Norris ($0.5M)
Jarrod Parker ($0.5M)
Brad Peacock ($0.5M)
Manny Ramirez ($0.5M)
Josh Reddick ($0.5M)
Seth Smith ($2.4M)

Those guys we added represented a rough total (I rounded) $21.9M. Let’s compare that to what we let go in terms of players who we had years of control left with but let go, so guys like Hideki Matsui or Josh Willingham would not be included.

Guys the A’s let go (and their 2012 salaries) are:

Andrew Bailey ($3.9M)
Craig Breslow ($1.8M)
Trevor Cahill ($3.7M)
Gio Gonzalez ($3.3M)
Guillermo Moscoso ($0.5M)
Josh Outman ($0.5M)
Ryan Sweeney ($1.8M)

That’s a grand total of $15.5M, less than the $21.9M we have added altogether in the trades and free-agent signings since. So what if we didn’t do those trades?

I loved the Cahill trade as I don’t believe he is that great and we got a potential ace in Parker. I loved the Gio trade because we got back all these great prospects. But pitching wasn’t ever our problem. Those moves were clearly made to assemble an All-Star staff come 2015. They didn’t do anything to make the 2012 club move competitive. The Andrew Bailey trade one can argue filled a need in the outfield but by trading away Ryan Sweeney, sort of didn’t do that either. That trade too hinges largely upon what sort of pitcher Raul Alcantara becomes one day.

Those trades stand in stark contrast to what Oakland has done in January when they acquired talent that made the club better in 2012 but not necessarily in some cases, in 2015. What if there was one coherent plan, to compete in 2012? Could the A’s have competed?

Let’s say they don’t trade Cahill or Gonzalez that’s $7M they have now, of course that means we also have Breslow still so its a total of just under $9M. Offset that by not re-signing Coco Crisp and probably not needing Bartolo Colon anymore then there is Cook and Cowgill’s combined $1M. Financially we have basically a tie. Bailey and Sweeney for Reddick can still fit within the context of competing in 2012, especially if the A’s do go out and get a Uehara type so we’ll leave that trade be. The trade to acquire Seth Smith helps Oakland compete in 2011 so that stays. The free-agent signing of Cespedes of course stays as do those of Gomes and Ramirez.

Now we have a rotation that looks like this:

1. Gio Gonzalez
2. Trevor Cahill
3. Brandon McCarthy
4. Dallas Braden
5. Graham Godfrey/Tyson Ross

Certainly a lot more depth than what we have right now. Not much for the future, but Oakland hasn’t ever had trouble developing pitchers before. The lineup really doesn’t look that different. An outfield of Smith-Cespedes-Reddick, with Gomes and Michael Taylor/Brandon Allen as backups. The infield remains the same (now Brandon Allen being more valuable as if he loses a first-base job to Daric Barton he plays some in left field) as does catcher. The bullpen might be a little bit different and require some shoring up, but with three lefties now (Blevins, Breslow and Fuentes) we can deal one of them to get some more right-handed help or perhaps a #5 starter type. After all this we could still decide to sign Colon of course too. This isn’t radically more expensive but suddenly we have a team that while still not great or on par with Los Angeles or Texas, also looks a lot better.

But this hasn’t been a coherent offseason, so we are sort of stuck with this in-between team, part future/part present. Maybe there is a plan and I fail to recognize it. Let’s hope so.

This identical post was cross-posted this morning as my regular Sunday post on Athletics Nation. I encourage all my readers to go there to share their thoughts and opinions as it is a great big community of passionate A’s fans.

There has been a lot of talk on Athletics related websites about Seth Smith possessing “real power” that will translate despite leaving Coors Field and entering the home run rebuking O.co Coliseum. A blog commenter said yesterday,

“He doesn’t hit a ton of home runs, but the ones he does hit aren’t of the cheap, thin air of Denver variety. So, in regards to his confidence dipping because a ball dies on the warning track, he’ll still have at least 15-20, flying out of there.”

Using ESPN’s Home Run Tracker we have all the data on Smith’s home runs. What shocked me was this. In 2011, he hit home runs in just four ballparks, four. He had home runs unsurprisingly at Coors Field (nine), Great American Ballpark (three), Progressive Field (two) and PNC Park (one). Sort of strange, but none were on the marine layer affected west coast. Furthermore, aside from the one dinger at PNC Park (which would have been a home run at all but 29 stadiums), the others all came at stadiums that favor home runs with Coors being the 2nd best in 2011 homers, GABP being 3rd best and Progressive Field which is 12th.

Proving the effect of Denver’s thin-air to a degree is that of his home runs one mile high in Denver, 75.2% of them would be out of any ballpark in America, whereas 85.6% of the ones hit outside of Denver would’ve been out anywhere in the country. Meaning, that his home runs were amplified in Denver as they were home runs there, despite the fact they were less likely to be elsewhere.

When you look back at the rest of Smith’s career this doesn’t hold true. In 2010, Smith who had 12 of his 17 home runs come in Denver, would have had his Denver home runs land beyond the outfield fence in 87.5% of ballparks and that includes one serious outlier a September 8th home run off Bronson Arroyo that would’ve been a home run at Coors Field and Coors Field alone. Excluding that lone dinger, 95.5% of his home runs would’ve been out of any ballpark. In 2009, his home run split wasn’t as significant as he hit eight of 15 home runs in Denver when 93.8% of those home runs would’ve been gone anywhere else as well.

Last year’s numbers are very strange and though Smith has a home run at the Coliseum (coming in 2009 off of Trevor Cahill that barely cleared the right field fence), I would expect that hitting outside of Denver will effect his home run rate if he hits as he did last year and less like he did in years prior. However, when you go from a place that has a park factor for home runs of 1.354 to a place with a park factor for home runs .786 for 81 of your games, that will undoubtedly effect you.

On yesterday’s episode of TarpTalk: An Oakland A’s Podcast I sarcastically said that I would be writing about Kila Ka’aihue in haiku. It seems I have inspired myself.

A top notch hitter?
Is Kila Ka’aihue?
I think he isn’t.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Ka’aihue and Brandon Allen will both break camp with the A’s and head to Japan with the club. The A’s have a history of not letting their out of options players go and I suspect with these two, who have from time to time shown a lot of talent, and in Ka’aihue’s case a lot of OBP talent, will be no different. With options remaining on the late-to-start Daric Barton and the has-he-ever-started Chris Carter, I suspect those two find themselves sampling the delights of the 916 come April.

In the minors the Hawaiian Ka’aihue has been a force posting a .266/.390/.458 slash line with 165 home runs and a .192 ISO in 4,536 plate appearances. The A’s (and I am sure the Royals at one point) loved that he has 730 MiLB walks to 770 MiLB strikeouts. Unlike a lot of players who kill the low minors and slowly but steadily sink as the competition improves, Ka’aihue’s best work has been at Triple-A where he has 353 games and 1,498 plate appearances with the Omaha Royals/Storm Chasers owning a .281/.412/.497 slash line and 63 home runs and .216 ISO with a great 18.1% BB%.

Great in the minors,
Kila Ka’aihue has,
Missed Omaha.

 When called up to Kansas City, Ka’aihue has struggled mightily. 87 games spread across 2008, 2010 and 2011 he has 206 plate appearances, just a 12.6% BB% to a 23.3% K%. His slash line has dipped to .216/.309/.375 (getting progressively worse each year) and his ISO, still relatively decent at .159 is a far cry from him MiLB numbers.

The common refrain is that he has failed to hit lefties, though it is much more a problem of getting on base than hitting and really is quite evenly bad, .217/.253/.406 against southpaws and .215/.325/.364 against right-handed pitchers. But really it is a going out of the zone problem it seems. I am quite sure he didn’t amass all those walks in the minors swinging like this:

(2008)
 (2010)
 (2011)

Some of these things he is swinging on appear to be pitches that might be strikes in Omaha, but not where you are playing in Kansas City (them being far enough out of the zone to seemingly land in Omaha. But this seeming lack of plate discipline seeming to have significantly changed his game really is a mirage as his O-Swing% is below league average at 25.2% and his O-Contact% is about average at 65.0% so what gives? The percentage of pitches he sees in the strike zone at 44.4% is lower than usual but not alarmingly so. So the plummeting OBP doesn’t seem like it is a significant change in his game but it does seem like he isn’t getting good swings or contact which could account for his career .242 BABIP.

Take some pitches and
Kila Ka’aihue is,
a Beane valuable asset

If Ka’aihue can stop playing scared it seems (in Kansas City he was facing competition from both Billy Butler and later Eric Hosmer to keep his roster spot) he could be successful. Of course, in Oakland he has a lot to be scared of, whether it is competing with Daric Barton, Brandon Allen, Chris Carter and then an even bigger threat come May 30th in Manny Ramirez. That seems to be the big problem for him. He needs to take pitches, wait and drive the pitches he can. Of course this is all easier said than done. Look at how he has done on full counts in his career: .063/.348/.094 with a .105 BABIP. .105! It isn’t him striking out so much (his 14 BB’s in that scenario beat out his 13 K’s) it is that he has gone 2-for-32. These are pitches that should be at least near the zone more often than not. Even on a fat 3-0 pitch, he has yet to register an at bat letting that pitch go by for ball four all 11 times he’s had a 3-0 count – which I am not sure is necessarily bad, but does seem strange – though an admittedly small sample). So, I really in the end think it boils down to a contact problem. 2012 may be one of his last chances to prove that’s the case.

Yoenis Cespedes’ signing has given the A’s quite the logjam in the outfield. Cespedes, who has been a center-fielder, is threatening taking that position from A’s veteran Coco Crisp who previously was cemented in place as the club’s center fielder given his then team-highest salary. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle spoke to Coco Crisp about this where he said about potentially losing center field,

“I’m going to make all the plays. If someone feels there’s someone better than me, it’s hard for me to believe. Unless he’s a demigod come down from the heavens, no one is going to outshine me in center field.”

I love the confidence but, um… yeah… if it requires a “demigod” to outshine Coco in center field, the American League is chalk full of demigods. His 2.2 WAR ranked 18th among the 21 qualifying center fielders in 2011; his on-base percentage – incredibly important given his ability on the base paths, 19th. Let’s say he is a demigod in the field and not necessarily with the stick, FanGraphs had his fielding at a -5.5 and 14th among qualifying center fielders, second division fielding a demigod does not make. So anyhow, this assertion is laughable. But there are numerous stories which do make Crisp’s role on this team interesting.

In that same article regarding Crisp and his demigod status, Slusser wrote this,

“The A’s are likely to sign former Boston star Manny Ramirez just before or soon after the start of spring training. Ramirez wouldn’t add to the A’s outfielder total. He’d come aboard as a designated hitter after serving a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy.”

Though he doesn’t add to the logjam in the outfield, he does add to the roster crunch logjam as the two people who seemingly would be in left field (Jonny Gomes and Seth Smith) could’ve presumably been shuttled into the designated hitter role where quite a logjam existed and now a massive one perhaps exists. There is of course the chance that Cespedes could go to right field, meaning Josh Reddick, though his cannon of an arm would be overkill there, could shift to left perhaps platooning with Smith, leaving Crisp in center. Also, it seemingly leaves Collin Cowgill and Michael Taylor plying their wares at Triple-A Sacramento without doubt at this rate. That means designated hitter at least begins as a battle of the out-of-options Brandon Allen, Chris Carter  and the also out-of-options Kila Ka’aihue (and perhaps Daric Barton depending upon his health). Furthermore one could potentially add, the very likely Gomes to that mix, and possibly even Smith or maybe Reddick. Assuming Ramirez does well in spring-training and does well in his minor league assignment prior to his return the A’s would be presented with another decision but that is neither here nor there for now.

The move to acquire Cespedes and the seemingly pending signing of Ramirez do ensure one thing, that spring training will be absolutely fascinating with a whole range of position battles. Even getting on the roster of this team could be a challenge for a lot of players as backup catcher and backup infielder seem to be the only spots that aren’t seemingly full of Major League players – whereas for the outfield it is more a question of do you win a starting job or reserve role. In the past the A’s have also been very weary of letting out-of-options players go, as we saw the likes of Jake Fox and Eric Patterson make the squad in years past when facing a similar predicament, which could give Daric Barton – who will get a late start to the spring – a trip to Sacramento as well as two members of the 1B/DH logjam in Allen and Kila are without options. If you aren’t excited for spring training, you should be – it’ll be Survivor: Oakland Athletics.

Today Yankees Fan Unite ran an interview I did with them previewing the 2012 Oakland A’s. While much has changed in this last week that changes my thoughts about the A’s, I encourage readers of this blog to check it out and also to check out the site for good stuff about the Evil Empire. 

This morning’s big news has finally begun to settle. First off, as a reader corrected me, this isn’t the biggest international catch, Yu Darvish is and he is with the rival Rangers of course, but he is the biggest bat and given Oakland’s inability to produce bats and their inability to overpay free-agents to hit here it is a big deal that the A’s have landed Yoenis Cespedes, perhaps the biggest international signing that made sense for them. Reports say that he is a center-fielder, does this mean Coco Crisp is relegated to left field, where his arm certainly plays better but where his range has less impact? What does that mean for the presumed Seth Smith and Jonny Gomes platoon? Or does this make Coco Crisp – now Oakland’s second highest paid player – the most expensive backup in A’s history? Also let’s not forget, the A’s have landed big Cuban prospects everyone wanted before and they did not work out – we’re looking at you Ariel Prieto.

Then there are the reports from the likes of Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com who tweets,

“Sources: #Athletics still interested in Manny [Ramirez], but want a reliever first. Free-agent lefty Mike Gonzalez remains a possibility.”

Ramirez has been dropping suitors lately with apparently the Blue Jays and Orioles no longer seriously interested in the slugger. Also if the A’s go after someone like free-agent Gonzalez, or a trade with the Rangers to acquire Koji Uehara as had been rumored, the question has to be asked, might the A’s be able to compete? While these moves don’t add up to the additions in Anaheim of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, and the Rangers of course were leaps and bounds ahead of the A’s and then added Joe Nathan and the aforementioned Darvish, these A’s could very well be a “if everything breaks right” contender, dare I say it. This is conceivably a team that could creatively put together an 80+ win season. Where does that put the rebuild? Can these team rebuild and contend at the same time? Is this a sign that the A’s don’t have any faith in guys like Chris Carter and Michael Taylor? Even Collin Cowgill now seems buried on the depth chart. It’ll be interesting to see what the A’s do the next few weeks and how that impacts what is now shaping up to be an interesting 2012 club.

The Oakland A’s have been known for being tight-lipped, but what a surprise this morning! Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports broke the story writing,

“Yoenis Cespedes, the 26-year-old Cuban outfielder, agreed to terms Monday on a contract with the Oakland Athletics. Cespedes signed a four-year deal worth $36 million…

…The A’s are believed to have outbid the Miami Marlins, for weeks considered the frontrunners to sign Cespedes, who visited the club and its facilities last week.”

Unbelievable. This really makes murky what the A’s outfield this year will look like. But I’m alright with that as Cespedes is the international catch of the year and he will be in playing in Oakland – presumably this year. Details are still coming in regarding the contract, however it is reported that Cespedes will be eligible for free-agency at the end of it, which is somewhat unfortunate but hopefully coincides with the A’s becoming contenders and with the A’s moving into a new home. The immediate question is, who is bumped off of the 40-man roster? How does this change the composition of the outfield as it stands now? And how the heck did they pull this one off?

Dan Hennessey had a really great post yesterday at Athletics Nation looking at 2011 A’s sensation Jemile Weeks reviewing his two-thirds of a season with Oakland. He writes,

“In Weeks’ first 97 major league games, he hit .303/.340/.421 for the A’s, stealing 22 bases while being caught 11 times. He walked just 21 times in 437 plate appearances but struck out 62 times. All told, his fWAR breakdown is as follows (his rWAR numbers are comparable):

• Batting: 7.0 runs above replacement
• Running: 0.4 runs below replacement
• Fielding: 4.1 runs below replacement
• Replacement: 14.6 runs above replacement
• Positional: 1.5 runs above replacement
• Total: 18.6 runs above replacement = 2.0 WAR

Looking at the breakdown, I think it matches my perception of Jemile from the first four months of his career. He was a pretty good hitter, but not super (109 OPS+). He played a decent base, showing good range but making too many errors on ‘easy’ plays. And he showed up a lot, playing in 97 of a possible 101 games, starting 96 of them.”

I agree with him that the perception matches what we saw from Weeks and I highly suggest reading the full post as I agree with the rest of his assessment regarding areas of his game where we should both expect, and where he needs, improvement.  But there is one thing that I disagree with with respect to his post. He writes,

“The part that I’m most concerned about were the [lack of] walks.”

The part I am most concerned about is his health. The 97 of 101 games was impressive, but it was far from the norm for the young Weeks. Weeks was drafted by the A’s in the 1st round of the 2008 amateur draft and played 19 games with the Midwest League Kane County Cougars that year missing time with a hip injury that delayed his 2009. That year he split time between Stockton and Midland only appearing in 80 games due to the injury. 2010 was more of the same, where he split time between the AZL Athletics and Midland only accumulating 77 games. This past year he participated in 142 contests, split between Sacramento and Oakland eclipsing his previous record of 80 by over a third of a season. That’s pretty significant.

That’s why when I see all these projections of Weeks, (excluding CAIRO) I think that we won’t see anything close to them.

* PECOTA uses plate appearances but doesn’t provide at-bats, that number reflects plate appearances minus bases on balls, though it can be assumed Weeks will have HBPs and sac flys or bunts that’d change that number. Therefore it is a rough estimator of his playing time.

Of course what I take exception to is the fact that these projections all assume Weeks will play all these games. Of course projections don’t project season-ending injuries, but there is a high likelihood given his past that Weeks is more likely to play in 80 or so contests than he is to play a 150+ game slate. This spells trouble for the A’s as next in line to become your second baseman is at best Adam Rosales or Eric Sogard. Think whatever you want of Jemile Weeks, that his OBP is too low, his baserunning ill-advised, etc but he is undoubtedly better than either of those two. Even if you think about it and say Scott Sizemore has been a second baseman his entire career slide him over, it means that one of those two becomes your third baseman (unless the A’s get creative and move Daric Barton to third in order to get him and Brandon Allen or Kila Ka’aihue in the lineup). We aren’t competing this year for any crowns or even the wild card or second wild card, but still second base could become very messy very quickly if Weeks misses anytime, a proposition that seems more likely than not.

Today in her The Drumbeat post, Susan Slusser discussed several of the recent rumors surrounding the A’s. First and foremost she says that the A’s are higher on Manny Ramirez than they are on Magglio Ordonez citing the many injury concerns with Ordonez. If we are to sign one or the other my pick is very strongly to sign Ramirez who I feel is unquestionably the superior player. The more interesting part of the article however was this line,

“If the A’s do sign Ramirez, it is likely that Kila Ka’aihue would get the first crack at DHing until Ramirez is done serving his 50-game PEDs suspension. People I’ve spoken to in the A’s organization are intrigued by Ka’aihue’s power potential.”

That is surprising. It means the organization certainly is very down on Chris Carter, one can’t blame them because he hasn’t shown much of anything at the big league level but then again Royal fans can attest nor has Ka’aihue. In his 87 big league games, Ka’aihue has had 326 plate appearances, walking 12.5% of the time, striking out 27.1% of the time, demonstrating .122 ISO “power”, while posting a .216/.309/.375 slash line. His wOBA of .301 and wRC+ of 84 don’t show too much to look forward to and his career WAR mark stands at a paltry 0.2. Let’s remember he being considered for designated hitter. What’s fascinating is that most of his WAR is the result of his positive fielding at first base. He was worth a total of -5.1 RAR hitting, while he was worth 2.3 RAR from his glove.

In the interview I got to do with Bob Melvin,  he said this interesting line (it isn’t included on my interview of him as it was not a question I asked of him but the majority of the interview can be read on Athletics Nation),

“Brandon Allen, in my opinion, is a terrific talent that has never been able to work through a slump at the big league level. You look at his minor league numbers, gets to the big leagues, does well, as soon as he does poorly someone has already taken his job. So I think if he’s able to work through a slump, I think that’s going to be a big turning point for him. Daric Barton is another guy who had a tough year last year, physically, all the way around. Now he’s healthy, and I know he profiles into our system – he’s an ‘on base guy’. He’s a good defender and so forth, and I know he’s looking forward to re-proving himself again too. So, we can start with those two guys.”

That makes me wonder if he has a preference towards Allen. The report on Barton was far less-than glowing. So could the favorites going into camp be Ka’aihue and Allen for DH and 1B respectively? Barton also now is not expected to be 100% for the start of camp and will be beginning the spring only playing DH, which means a lot of his talent – his defense – will go unseen. I didn’t expect any of this. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out.