Prospect Alert: Systems Audit: Oakland Athletics

Posts: 4543 · Posted: Oct 30, 2006 3:49 pm

Prospect Alert: Systems Audit: Oakland Athletics

Systems Audit: Oakland Athletics 1. Daric Barton, 1B, AAA. Though Barton's '06 campaign was cut short due to injury, the...

Posts: 7089 · Posted: Oct 30, 2006 4:12 pm

The A's are definitely lacking in the pitching prospects so I'm hoping they can bring some guys in via the draft. Cliff Pennington has been really disappointing and needs to do something to improve his bat before he winds up being a career minor leaguer. Also do you project Kurt Suzuki > Jeremy Brown?

Everything looks about right on - their system is loaded with talent but they have the OBP guys they covet.

Posts: 7989 · Posted: Oct 30, 2006 4:16 pm

quiksilver wrote:

The A's are definitely lacking in the pitching prospects so I'm hoping they can bring some guys in via the draft. Cliff Pennington has been really disappointing and needs to do something to improve his bat before he winds up being a career minor leaguer. Also do you project Kurt Suzuki > Jeremy Brown?

Everything looks about right on - their system is loaded with talent but they have the OBP guys they covet.

Kurt Suzuki is going to be better than Jeremy Brown in my opinion. I don't think the Jeremy Brown experiment is going to be successful, though he'll be the most famous flopped draft pick thanks to Moneyball.

Posts: 7089 · Posted: Oct 30, 2006 4:21 pm

kschellenger wrote:

quiksilver wrote:

The A's are definitely lacking in the pitching prospects so I'm hoping they can bring some guys in via the draft. Cliff Pennington has been really disappointing and needs to do something to improve his bat before he winds up being a career minor leaguer. Also do you project Kurt Suzuki > Jeremy Brown?

Everything looks about right on - their system is loaded with talent but they have the OBP guys they covet.

Kurt Suzuki is going to be better than Jeremy Brown in my opinion. I don't think the Jeremy Brown experiment is going to be successful, though he'll be the most famous flopped draft pick thanks to Moneyball.

Yeah so far it's been years of waiting for the day when he busts out. He still has the tools but can't piece them together. It doesn't help that he's stuck behind Kendall and the crowd at firstbase. At least he got some major-league at-bats this season.

Posts: 5239 · Posted: Oct 31, 2006 8:06 am

In defense of the A's, they have a pretty young rotation already, so pitching prospects are a huge must.

Harden's 24, Haren 26, Loaiza's locked up for two more years, Joe Kennedy's 28, and Saarloos is 27? (Zito's gone.)

Posts: 7989 · Posted: Oct 31, 2006 8:52 am

dpaullin wrote:

In defense of the A's, they have a pretty young rotation already, so pitching prospects are a huge must.

Harden's 24, Haren 26, Loaiza's locked up for two more years, Joe Kennedy's 28, and Saarloos is 27? (Zito's gone.)

You're right. The only problem is that Harden and Haren are locked up through '08 and '09 (they might both have options though) and Kennedy and Sarloos are approaching arbitration. For the A's that generally means a departure. It isn't a terrible situation, but injuries, age and arbitration are concerns for their current rotation's long term status in Oakland and unlike the last time there was a great migration, there isn't anything to replace it with at the moment. (Which means in the June 2007 draft Oakland will be drafting primarily college pitchers)

Posts: 7089 · Posted: Nov 14, 2006 3:37 am

Koby, do you have any information/insight on Marcus McBeth? He converted from outfielder to pitcher just last season and apparently has been impressive in the AFL...I'm not sure if there's buzz around the guy because he has good stuff, or just because he recently took up pitching (Jesse Foppert comes to mind when I think of stories like these, lot's of hype only to never put it together).