A's Fan BLOG on how to land Rasmus

The Final Sell-Off: How the A's Can Land an Elite Hitter

I hadn't realized how much Izturis's performance has slipped lately, or how few walks Kennedy draws.

Crosby, as much as he's maligned here, is actually quite an upgrade over the Cards' Cesar Izturis.

Player   Ag   G  AB   R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO  BA   OBP  SLG SB CS OPS+Crosby   28  88 348  41 88 26  0  4  38 28 60 .253 .308 .362  5  3  85Izturis  28  78 231  25 53  7  2  1  13 20 15 .229 .302 .290 10  3  59

Izturis is probably the better fielder, but Crosby would still be something of an upgrade.

Ellis is the most questionable inclusion on this list: would the Cardinals be willing to bump out incumbent 2b Adam Kennedy, even though he's making $3.5MM this year and owed an additional $4MM for '09? Perhaps they should, considering that Ellis is an obvious upgrade over Kennedy, and would be an ideal plug for their second-base hole for years to come if they liked what they saw and re-signed him this off-season.

Player   Ag   G  AB   R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO  BA   OBP  SLG SB CS OPS+Ellis    31  89 341  48 80 18  2  9  34 47 47 .235 .332 .378 12  2  97Kennedy  32  71 225  21 61 11  1  1  22 15 30 .271 .317 .342  5  1  75

I was a little surprised to see that Ellis has the better OBP despite a significantly lower BA. He's also clearly got more pop than Kennedy. His .996 fielding percentage is also quite a bit higher.

Still, right now Aaron Miles is the superior offensive performer.

Player   Ag   G  AB   R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO  BA   OBP  SLG SB CS OPS+Miles    31  77 240  30 77  9  1  3  23 15 21 .321 .359 .404  1  2 103Ryan     26  58 164  24 40  7  0  0   8 11 27 .244 .295 .287  6  2  56

The real bonanza would be the additional pitching.

Player       Ag  G  ERA  W L SV GS SHO   IP   H  R ER HR BB SO ERA+Duchscherer  30 17 1.87 10 6  0 17  1  115.7 77 29 24  7 26 70 206Street       24 39 4.19  2 3 17  0  0   43.0 38 20 20  6 12 42  92Embree       38 44 4.34  1 3  0  0  0   37.3 37 18 18  4 14 34  89

This is Duchscherer's first turn in the starting rotation, after missing most of last season, but he's been a superior pitcher throughout his time in Oakland. Definitely an improvement over Boggs/Garcia/Parisi/Mulder for the #5 spot in the rotation and insurance just in case Wainwright and Carpenter don't return to their previous level of performance.

Street and Embree have only 2 fewer blown saves together than Isringhausen and Franklin. I don't see them as much of an upgrade, unless Duncan has some magic which he can work. The big advantage of Street is his youth, but I've heard a rumors that he's got some physical problems.

To me, it really boils down to Rasmus for Duchscherer, with the others tossed in as good measure for cannon fodder. I don't know that Duchscherer is good enough to be worth Rasmus even if we could sign him to an extension.

One thing about it, the Cards would be dealing from a position of strength. With Ludwick, Ankiel, Schumaker, and Mather, they really don't need Rasmus all that badly. However, I think we'd be better served by installing Rasmus in center, moving Ankiel back to right, installing Ludwick in left, and making Schumaker the utility outfielder, with Mather or Barton the right handed backup and Duncan a distant memory.