For much of the past decade, the Giants and A's have been mirror images of each other - at least in terms of on-field success/lack thereof.  In the first half of the decade, both teams fielded competitive, marketable teams based around the presence of a highly visible core of players - Bonds for the Giants and the Big Three for the A's. From 2000 to 2004 both teams won more than 90 games every season and vaulted into the post-season regularly on the backs of these players. Since 2004, however, both teams have struggled to compete (with the exception of the 2006 A's) and have moved on from their early-decade glory years and the players that defined those teams.

But that's just about where the similarities end. The Giants rode the Barry Bonds train into a new stadium and largely ignored their farm system while slapping together "veteran" teams year-after-year in an attempt to keep the train chugging along for as long as possible. After awhile, Giants GM Brian Sabean became something of a lightning rod and laughing stock among baseball circles for his almost pathological devotion to aging, past-their-prime players such as Omar Vizquel and Moises Alou - not to mention his much-harangued epic failure in signing Barry Zito long-term.

Billy Beane, on the other hand and rightfully or not, became a beacon of enlightenment in the game, based on his perceived cutting-edge adoption of statistical analysis, reliance on his farm system and perpetual search for the "undervalued" commodity.

Based upon these stereotypes, Billy Beane was, again - rightfully or not, more highly regarded than Sabean by many in the baseball world as he seemed to be more creative, progressive and efficient than his Giants counterpart. But as of Winter 2008, that dynamic has begun to change.

While both teams entered this Winter at basically the same point in the competitive cycle - namely, rebuilding - Sabean has been unusually active in the free agent market by smartly buttressing his fantastic young pitching core with a better bullpen (Affeldt, Howry), better offense (Renteria) and a stabilizing presence in the middle of the rotation (Big Unit). Even then, Sabean doesn't seem to be done yet as he's been linked to Joe Crede and even Manny Ramirez. Ohhh, and that farm system he supposedly neglected for so long has been rebuilt fairly well over the past few years and will start to graduate some solid talent within the next few seasons (Buster Posey, Tim Alderson, Madison Bumgardner, Conor Gillespie, Emmanuel Burriss, Angel Villalona). Bucking conventional wisdom in a very un-Giants like-way, it sure seems like Sabean is on his way to walking that "contending while rebuilding" tight rope that so many before him have tried and failed.

By contrast, Billy Beane has seemed to have lost a step in his dance with Sabean this off-season. His trade for Matt Holliday was a promising kick-start to the Hot Stove season, but since that time he seems to be spinning his wheels, spending too much time courting players that never really intended to sign with Oakland (Furcal) and neglecting the players that might be more inclined to sign with the team and improve more critical gaping holes in the starting rotation - players such as Randy Johnson and Ben Sheets (the latter of whom Beane has never even inquired upon).

Since Beane has a solid track record of building competitive teams out of the hot stove ether and eventually getting who he wants, I guess it would be wise to give him a mulligan for his personnel moves (or lack thereof) so far this off-season. And while Sabean's moves have good looked so far this Winter, it's hard to argue that building a competitive team in the uber-soft NL West is a lot easier than building one in the AL West (where the Angels continue to feature top-tier starting pitching and a deep bullpen designed to win close games).

Even so, for once, it seems like Sabean is gaining ground on Beane in the court of public opinion. It remains to be seen if the current status quo will remain into Opening Day 2009 and, beyond that, who knows if Sabean's frenetic activity will prove more productive than Beane's patient scheming...but at this point in time it sure seems like Sabean, rightfully or not, is doing a better job of accomplishing what both men are striving for: "contending while rebuilding" or "supporting the young pitchers" or whatever the hell they are calling it these days...

I'd be lying if I said I was completely satisfied with the A's lack of activity since the Holliday trade.  Although I wrote last week about how I was content just looking forward to seeing Holliday playing for the A's, I'd be a lot happier if the A's justified the trade by improving their roster even more over the next month or two. There's simply no way that this team will be competitive next season as currently constructed. It will certainly be better than last year's team (or at least the team that took the field in August & September of '08) just by virtue of the presence of Matt Holliday and presumed better health for Ellis, Chavez, Buck and Duke (hence my prior euphoria). Yet, even perfect health from those four, plus 2008-like performances from Suzuki and Sweeney, would leave this team at least two pieces away from serious 2009 contention. Those two pieces, in my opinion, are a dependable 2/3 starting pitcher and a 1st baseman that can reach or exceed league-average production with the bat (I'm just gonna assume that the A's will have to live with Crosby at short for at least the 1st half of the season.)

Now, back a few weeks ago when it seemed like Beane had unlimited resources to address those (and other) needs, I felt confident that the A's would be able to spend some coin to address at least two areas of concern via free agency. I felt like Beane would be able to, say, nab Giambi with a 2-year deal and get Randy Johnson for 1-year and still come in under budget. Since that time, however, it's become apparent that Beane's previously-thought-of payroll flexibility has been significantly tightened in light of the financial crisis. We'll never know exactly how much of a hit Beane has taken, but what we can infer from the recent hot stove chatter out there is that Beane is now back trolling the waters for the bargains in free agency (Giambi/Dunn/Burrell) rather than going after the (relatively) big fish he had been linked with earlier in the Winter (Furcal).

With that in mind, he's possibly all-but-ruled out going after BOTH a starting pitcher and a 1st base bat. He simply doesn't have the resources he thought he did to delve into a two front negotiating war with the dwindling market for free agents. So, if Beane can't squeeze a starter and a 1st baseman into the budget, and has to choose one or the other, why is he focusing on 1st base when clearly the starting rotation needs as much veteran help as the offense?

Well, in my optimistic interpretation of the situation, I think Beane is playing the markets to his greatest advantage. At this point, there are more impact bats on the market than there teams that can pay them what they want. Abundant supply plus minimal demand means that at least one of these guys will come at a discount relative to his value. On the other hand, now that the Big Unit has signed with the Giants, there are very few free agent starters out there that will a) be a major impact pitcher next season, b) only be looking for a 1 or 2 year deal and c) be available for a workable (less than $12 million) per-year salary. In fact, the only two remaining arms in the free agent class that come even close to that bill would be Ben Sheets and/or Randy Wolff, both of whom come with injury histories and favorable numbers from spending their entire careers in the National League...and even then they still might be out of the price range, seeing as how every other pitching-starved team will be courting them. As much as I'd like to see the A's pick up Sheets, I just don't see it happening. The guy rejected arbitration after earning $12 million last season so he's obviously confident that he can get at least that much, if not more plus multiple guaranteed years, from a team on the open market. I don't think Beane wants to go over $10-12 million or more than two years for any pitcher, let alone an injury-risk.

That leaves Beane with all of his cash to spend on a bat. He's not jumping all over Giambi or Abreu or Burrell with that cash, but rather he's going to wait the market out and see which one falls into his lap at HIS price (say, $16 million for 2 years). At that point, I think Beane sits on the team for the time being. He'd have improved the offense overall and got two sluggers at major slugging-oriented positions (left field, 1st base) and would presumably still have some cash left over.

Say Chavez and Duke are 100-percent healthy for the 1st half of '09, Giambi/ Burrell/Cust do their things (walks/homers), the young players make a little progress and Holliday puts in another-MVP like half-season...then at that point Beane can re-assess the market (at a time when teams will have a much better read on their chances) and make a major move for another starter or even JJ Hardy or Tejada, who will be 1/2 year cheaper to acquire in July rather than right now.

Basically, what I'm seeing here with Beane, is that he realizes that a lot of things have to go right in order for this team to be truly competitive next season. Chavez, Duke and Ellis have to be 100-percent healthy, and then on top of that one of the young starters (Gallagher, Gio, Eveland) has to quickly emerge as a consistent, better-than-mid-rotation pitcher. That's a lot to ask for but not entirely implausible. Being a gambler, I could see Beane betting that those things happen (improved health and a breakout from a young pitcher) and then could see him elect to improve the offense around the edges (with Giambi/Abreu/Burrell) and then enter the season with both prospects and cash to spare for the trade deadline when the market for both shortstops and starting pitchers may improve when a more clear buyer/seller dynamic can be established.

Overall, I'm just trying to rationalize why we haven't seen much more activity out of the A's front office. Perhaps the plan is to improve the offense on a budget (the cheapest of Giambi/Abreu/Burrell), enter the season with payroll flexibility , see how the young pitchers perform in the 1st half and then make a play for the missing piece(s) at mid-season?

Then again, i really could just be totally mis-reading Beane altogether and we'll all see him go out and sign Garret Anderson as a combination starting pitcher/DH, thereby killing all his birds with one big, irrational and highly unexpected stone.

Over a month ago, Billy Beane pulled off a stunner of a trade and acquired perennial MVP-candidate Matt Holliday from the Rockies. At the time of the trade, the motivation behind the move was somewhat nebulous. The A's were clearly in the midst of a massive rebuilding effort, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith seemed to be serviceable and cheap long-term parts in that rebuilding effort and the Angels seemed poise to keep a stranglehold on the AL West division for at least the end of the decade. Thus, a one-year rental of a player highly-unlikely to sign long-term with the team seemed like a waste of resources.

However, in the next few weeks after the trade it became obvious that the A's were on a mission to make the 2009 team competitive and upgrade the team wherever possible, using recently-liberated payroll room to go-after free agents that normally wouldn't be within Oakland's sphere of influence. The first target was Rafael Furcal, whom the A's wined and dined and for whom the team was willing to overpay. Despite the attention and financial incentive to sign with Oakland, Furcal spurned the A's and threw a wrench into the team's off-season plans. To make matters worse, the team confounded it's shortstop problem by exposing Bobby Crosby to outright waivers only to find no takers for the disappointing former ROY.  Now it seems the team will have to find a spot in Oakland or Sacramento for Crosby and pay him his $5.25 million 2009 salary to boot. Clearly, shortstop is an area where the A's will be forced to disappointingly accept sub-standard production for one more season.

Other rumors indicated that the A's were simultaneously interested in free agent starter Randy Johnson to help front a young, untested and sure-to-be inconsistent 2009 starting rotation. Yet, that interest never seemed to really materialize into anything more than "exploratory talks" and now the Big Unit appears likely to sign with the Giants or another NL team, thus leaving the A's rotation without a clear option from whom to expect veteran leadership and solid innings.

While the A's are still interested in bringing Jason Giambi back to Oaktown for another stint, so far this off-season has been disappointing since the Holliday trade. Rather than upgrade the two weakest parts of the likely 2009 team (shortstop and the starting rotation) the team has been rebuffed in their efforts and, as of now, will not be surrounding Holliday with a team that could best take advantage of his enormous talent. While the off-season is still young, it doesn't seem like the Holliday trade has turned out to be just the opening salvo of a rapid and radical restructuring of the 2009 team as previously thought - rather, the trade itself may turn out to be the first and possibly only major addition Oakland makes to the 2009 team. With all that being said, I'm still happy to have Matt Holliday in Green and Gold - even if it will only be for a couple of months - and I'm still looking forward to the 2009 Oakland Athletics and am still confident that a few other actions can and will be taken to improve this team for 2009 and beyond.

First off, I think the price paid for one-year of Holliday was fair and while Cargon and Smith had a little value to the team long-term as cost-controlled, fairly healthy, slightly better than replacement-level players, they will surely not be missed and Street had already worn out his welcome with the A's. On top of that, Holliday will likely improve the A's lineup by his mere presence. I think Jack Cust could certainly post another .900+ OPS season with 30+ homers batting in front or behind of Holliday for example, while Eric Chavez could be a nice complement to both Cust and Holliday now that he won't be forced into the 3-spot or 4-spot in the lineup.

Also, in hindsight, at the time the trade was consummated, with the A's front office fully aware that they were likely to be aggressive in free agency, the decision to take the risk, give up a couple of non-crucial pieces to get a player of Holliday's caliber was certainly advantageous. It's disappointing that the A's have yet to follow-up on the Holliday trade with other radical roster improvements, but I'm still really glad that during this Holiday season I can look forward to another Holliday season starting off in a couple of months. Whether or not the A's turn into the contenders we thought they would be with the possible additions of Furcal and the Big Unit, the A's will still be a better team next season with Matt Holliday highlighting an offense that really has nowhere to go but up from 2008.

It seems like this is the most popular topic at-hand, so let's get a front page discussion going. Here's the latest on Furcal Watch 2008:

The A's are the only team believed to have offered Furcal a guaranteed 4-year contract - for, it's believed, a guaranteed $40 million.  The Dodgers are at 2-years guaranteed, with a 3rd year vesting option.  The Royals are mentioned as a 3rd team still in the running and Furcal's ever-ambiguous agent, Paul Kinzer, indicated that a fourth "mystery" remains in the running. God, I kind of hate this Kinzer guy...

Anyways, Yahoo's Tim Brown just published this about an hour ago:

Asked if, as things stand, he [Furcal] would take the A’s offer, Kinzer said, “I can’t say that yet.”

He added, “We’re going to make a decision soon. By (Tuesday).”

There seems to be a lot of yo-yo-ing around occurring in the Furcal camp. Various "informed observers" believe that Oakland is the place that Furcal least wants to play next season, at least among the four teams under consideration, and with the way he's extending this negotiation, you can kind of believe that he's trying to get the Dodgers or Kansas City to guarantee more money or years in order to make the decision to turn down the A's that much easier.

The big question being debated in the ru155's thread seems to be: since it seems like Furcal would rather play somewhere else besides Oakland, but still might HAVE to accept the A's offer, how do you think us fans should react to his (potential) addition to the current team? While the reasons for his reticence toward Oakland seem to be based on his familiarity with other locations (Los Angeles) or with the management of other organizations (Kansas City) - and not on some personal dislike of the Bay Area or the A's franchise - as a fan of the A's you'd probably still like to feel some more positive vibes coming from a potential big-money free agent signee and not get the feeling that he's backing into a deal with our beloved franchise...

Beane's mantra for the past year or so has been "young pitching, young pitching, young pitching". First, he made several trades to accumulate a cache of other organization's young pitching. Then he invested heavily in the 2008 draft to add even more depth to his own young pitching. Then he made even more trades for even more young pitching. And more recently he's making more trades and attempting to sign some free agents in order to give that young pitching some run support.

With all of that young pitching accumulated it's going to be awfully interesting to see how it all gels together next season. The 2009 starting rotation (now sans Greg Smith) looks like it will be Duke, Gallagher, Eveland, Gio and Braden/Outman to begin the season. Barring the addition of a Randy Johnson (unlikely - he wants to stay in the NL) or a Brad Penny (maybe not 100-percent healthy to start the year) that's certainly not a very imposing group. Duke was certainly a very good starter last season, but he's a major health risk and his BABIP luck will likely return to normal levels next season and his ERA will likely rise as a result. Gallagher has got the stuff to be a good starter but he's young and erratic. Eveland, with his new windup, is a nice pitcher but not really a number 3 starter on a contending team. Gio looked extremely erratic and hittable in his starts last season. Braden is a nice 5th starter but his ceiling is low and Outman may never really have the pitching repertoire to succeed as a starter (although his 96mph heater would be nice coming out of the pen).

Beane has already stated this off-season that he has no desire to add a veteran starter on a long-term deal (though he may add some minor league free agents for depth or get RJ or Penny on a 1-year deal if he's lucky), and yet he's looking to add offense and money to the payroll as if he's planning to contend immediately. What gives? The only thing that makes sense, IMHO, is that Beane thinks one or all of three things:

1) He really expects Duke to be healthy for most of the season,

2) He really believes that Gallagher and Gio (particularly) will have breakout seasons in 2009,

3) He really believes that Cahill, Anderson and/or Mazzaro are nearly major league ready and can have an impact on the starting staff immediately after being promoted.

Of those three options, number 3 seems to be the most believable. According to BA, there were times last season at High-A Stockton and at Midland where Cahill was so good that scouts remarked that he could dominate major league batters right now - or back then, as the case may be. His control still isn't perfect, but with that kind of praise and the stats to back it up, it's likely that Cahill is very close to breaking through. Anderson has totally carved up hitters at every stop and even made it up to Triple-A late last season while Mazzaro utterly dominated at Double-A last season.

Just a guess, but I'll bet the plan is for Duke, Gallagher, Eveland, Gio and Braden/Outman to hold down the fort for the first couple months of the season, letting the (hopefully) improved offense do to heavy lifting and keeping the team competitive, while Cahill, Anderson and Mazzaro fine tune and get going down in Sacramento. Then, come June, the young trio will gradually be mixed into the majors right when the team is hitting on all cylinders.

What do you think?

As I was driving down the 57 freeway on Friday through Los Angeles of Anaheim, I gazed to my right and observed Slegna Stadium in it's most radiant state: completely empty of rally monkey-ing, stat-hating, water bottle-launching, belligerent and foul-mouthed Angel fans.

My first thought was: "God, I hate that place with every fiber of my being." My second thought was, "But it's sure going to be nice to go there next season and NOT see K-Rod throw a single pitch." My third thought was, "But I'm a little scared that Reagins and Moneybags Moreno will re-sign Teixera and/or trade for Jake Peavy and/or sign Manny Ramirez and/or Brian Fuentes  and completely nullify the positive vibes I developed about the A's 2009 chances after the Holliday trade." My fourth thought was, "Should I even really care about what the Angels do with their roster this off-season?"

That fourth thought was the one that stuck in my head as I progressed deeper and deeper into the congested and smoggifed heart of the OC. As monkeyball pointed out yesterday, it's now known that the Angels have upped their offer to Mark Teixera into the 8-year, $160 million range and have at times been described as "desperate" to re-sign the slugger this off-season. While the Angels have to compete with a couple East Coast teams that are (probably) closer to Teixera's heart, there's no question that the Halos have the resources and willingness to over-pay for Mark's services. Given how much his presence improved and solidified the 2008 Angel offensive attack, the thought of seeing him in drab Angel red for the better part of the next decade should be of concern to us A's fans, right?

Beyond the Teixera front, there are rumblings that the Halos could make a play for Jake Peavy if Kevin Towers opens up negotiations with other teams (and Peavy's agent, Barry Axelrod, recently indicated that Jake would probably lift his no-trade clause to go to Anaheim). The Angels have also expressed interest in Brian Fuentes to fill the void that K-Rod's departure left in their bullpen and have even kicked around the idea of signing Manny if the Teixera negotiations fall through. With plenty of cash to spend and at least a few prospects that might  pique the interest of the Padres (Brandon Wood, Nick Adenhart, Jordan Walden, Peter Bourjos) it's entirely possible that the Halos re-sign Teixera AND trade for Peavy, and maybe even add Fuentes for good measure. Those moves would fortify pretty much every perceived weakness of the Angel team and would presumable make them very tough to beat in 2009.

My question is: should the A's base any of their moves on what the Angels do? I mean, say the Angels end up making all of the above moves and look unbeatable in 2009...should the A's forget about Rafael Furcal and/or Giambi/Dunn/Burrell, play Crosby's contract out at short, roll with Barton at 1st and invest their current budget surplus into the 2009 draft/overseas signings? Should they even consider trading Holliday or Duke before or during the 2009 season?

Personally, while it may seem I'm like concerned about what the Angels do, I'm really not. The stated goal for the A's front office this off-season was to improve the A's offense for the benefit and development of the team's young pitchers. Those young pitchers are going to need run-support no matter what the division standings look like...and to that end, I would hope that the A's front office continues to focus on adding offense without overpaying and also continues to see if a veteran starter might be available on a short-term deal to improve the 2009 rotation and provide even more breathing room to the young starters.

While baseball rosterbations don't occur in a vacuum, A's brass has never really yielded to the temptation to make reactionary-based decisions, and I think that's a good thing. The A's will live and/or die in the coming years depending on the development of their young pitching and every reasonable effort should be made to support the efforts of that young pitching, regardless of what the competition may or may not do with their own roster.

And so it begins! For non-stop rosterbators such as myself and none-too-few others here at AN, today marks one of the most exciting weeks of the year: the Winter Meetings! The Tigers and Rangers got the trade market going last evening by swapping Gerald Laird for a couple of pitching prospects.

Several non-A's hot topics to keep abreast of today:

- CC Sabathia met with the Yankees yesterday and will likely meet with the Red Sox soon.

- K-Rod was wined and dined by the Mets last evening and they might present him a formal offer sometime soon. They are also exploring deals for Brian Fuentes and/or Kerry Wood.

- The Cardinals have reportedly thrown their hat into the A.J. Burnett sweepstakes.

- The Cubs are still interested in Jake Peavy, but want to cut some salary and sign a left-handed hitting outfielder before they acquire him.

As for the A's, the team stands at an somewhat murky impasse. By trading a couple of nice, young trade chips earlier this off-season to get Matt Holliday, the team basically embarked on a goal of contending in 2009. However, since that time Beane has been rebuffed in efforts to further reload the A's offense...at least at the position it most needs it (shortstop).

The team likely has plenty of cash to spend in the free agent market and several nice prospects that would pique the interest of other teams. So it seems like Beane has the resources to do almost anything here at these meetings, which is a very exciting confluence of events, considering that in the past he has been wildly unpredictable even without the benefit of payroll flexibility or a strong farm system...

It's been a crazy off-season so far and with Beane and Company heading into the Winter Meetings in Vegas beginning tomorrow with a seemingly totally different set of priorities than they (reportedly) had even days ago, it's sure to get even crazier in the coming days. As has been reported in multiple outlets, Rafael Furcal turned down the A's offer of 4-years for between $35-$40 million.  That action obviously necessitates  a re-thinking of the current shortstop conundrum. The A's are willing to spend  on the free agent market to get some production out of the position, however Furcal would seem like the only candidate who could really do that, at least offensively. I would hope that the A's would avoid the Orlando Cabrera's, Nick Punto's and David Eckstein's of the world. Cabrera - because he'll cost a draft pick, is 34 and has no power. Punto - sub.700 OPS career hitter, no upside. Eckstein - no power whatsoever. Basically, all of the free agent alternatives to Furcal are varying degrees of Bobby Crosby, but are much older and arguably worse defenders. Beane made a competitive offer to the only free agent shortstop worth pursuing, so it's understandable that he's now backtracking a bit, waiting out the market and paying lip-service to the idea of "sticking with Bobby Crosby on '09. Beane could look to trade for a shortstop such as Miguel Tejada or JJ Hardy, but Tejada is a shell of his former self and would cost a decent prospect or two in addition to his $13 million 2009 salary. Hardy would likely cost several premium prospects, if he's made availabe at all.

In the meantime, Beane, ever the bargain-hunter, is shifting focus to veteran starting pitching and corner/DH type sluggers - both of which are not lacking in this year's free agent class - thus, both of which are likely to come at reasonable prices. Randy Johnson reportedly piques the most interest in the former category, while Jason Giambi, Adam Dunn and Pat Burrell are garnering interest in the latter category. Any of these guys, on short-term deals, will help the A's win more games in 2009. The question then becomes: what should be the team's priority going into the 2008 Winter Meetings?

Billy Beane, circa September 2004, from In Billy We Trust: Billy Beane Visits Athletics Nation, Part Two:

The best team that we've had here and the one that was the most disappointing, and this is going to sound crazy, but it was the 2001 team.  I thought that was a great, great team.  It had everything.  It was a dynamic club, it had speed, it had defense, it had everything you'd want in that kind of a situation.

(Italics courtesy of me).

Billy Beane's teams of the past decade-plus have not often been characterized as dynamic, speedy or particularly strong defensively...at least not all at the same time. And yet, the man himself believes his best work came when his team had all three such components back in 2001. I think that since that time, he's been attempting to re-create the multi-dimensional aspect of that club. But with limited payroll flexibility for the better part of this decade, he's had to settle for whatever he could cobble together with his meager resources.

But now with an owner willing to spend a little and a young, relatively inexpensive core to build around, Beane may finally have the "perfect storm" brewing from which to realize his goal of fielding a truly "dynamic" club for 2009. I think Beane took a big first step toward that goal by trading for Matt Holliday. Holliday not only brings a much needed righty power bat with good contact skills, but he's also a very good baserunner (28-for-30 in stolen base chances last year) and he's a solid defender in left field. Holliday is quite the offensive dynamo all by himself, but Beane is obviously not stopping there.

With his aggressive courtship of Rafael Furcal, Beane is giving the strongest indication yet that he's placing a premium on adding a "true" leadoff hitter and speed to the top of the batting order in an attempt to better balance the offensive attack. On top of that, Beane may also go back to his OBP/power roots and re-acquire Jason Giambi.

If the grand plan were to come together in such a way (i.e. free agent contracts to Furcal & Giambi) the A's could feature 4 players who could all conceivably hit 30 or more homers next season (Cust, Holliday, Giambi, Chavez) and 4 players who could conceivably steal 20 or more bases (Furcal, Holliday, Ellis, Davis). When was the last time that happened? That's what is called "balance" folks and Beane is definitely trying to build it into his system.

There's probably a lot more work necessary to make the pitching staff truly dynamic for 2009, but that's for another day...

7/24/2007: I was sitting up in the third deck, right field bleachers of Edison Field (right near the foul pole) when I thought for certain that I had just witnessed the birth of a star. This event certainly didn't occur in the evening sky amidst the smog-fueled ether of Orange County...rather, what I saw took place between the white chalk lines of the baseball field sprawled out in front of me. In the midst of a taut, well-pitched game that seemed like it would be a see-saw battle to the end, one player stood up and took over the game and "willed" the Athletics to victory...and that man was Travis Buck.

The mangy-haired right fielder did a little bit of everything for the A's that game: he destroyed Angel pitching by spraying an opposite-field double to the gap in left-center, pulling a line-drive single to right field and smashing a 2-run homer over the center field wall. He created havoc on the basepaths by stealing a base after his single, after which he eventually scored the winning run. He then helped preserve his offensive campaign by making several highlight-reel plays in right field to rob the frustrated Angel hitters of extra-bases. After it all, the A's had a 4-3 win to celebrate and the birth of a star to consecrate. But then 2008 happened...

Buck's 2008 was the very definition of a "lost year". He never seemed comfortable right from the start of the season and his minor league "get back on track" assignment was derailed by all sorts of strange medical issues. I'm not gonna lie to you, it was a little depressing for me to watch the once-proud Buck (who once brashly threw his helmet in the Yankees' face(s) after a particularly emphatic late-game victory in 2007)  flail so horrendously at the plate and visibly lose all confidence in himself. However, after an extended break from baseball activity altogether, Buck seemed like the old brash youth of yesteryear during his September '08 resurgence, where he hit .367 with 4 homers and had 12 RBIs in the final 12 games of the season.

Besides being a nice comeback-kid type story, Buck's recovery back to major league quality-hitter could not have come at a better time...now without Carlos Gonzalez, but with Matt Holliday and Ryan Sweeney in center, Buck now has a vote of confidence from management to jump right back out to right field and resume his ascendancy to stardom...or at least to consistent contributor on a competitive team.

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