MVN: Most Valuable Network

Today the Oakland A's made the surprise announcement that two of their young players -- Daric Barton and Greg Smith -- will be joining the already long list of players recovering from surgery this off-season, a list that includes Eric Chavez, Justin Duchscherer and Ryan Sweeney (who had surgery on a torn ligament in his thumb). Even though all of these injured players are expected to be 100 percent at the start of spring training, one can never be certain how injured players will be able to perform until they actually get out on the field in the spring.

Given the large number of health questions on the A's roster and the large number of young players, I think it is going to be very difficult for the A's front office to plan out the 2009 roster this off-season. The A's pride themselves on using projections and other statistical analysis to help guide them on making roster decisions, but given the sheer number of young and injured players on the A's 40-man roster, it will be difficult to make those projections with any sort of certainty.

What the A's have learned over the past few years is how valuable depth is to a successful team. I have always thought that the advantage big money teams have had historically over small money teams is the ability of the big money teams to stock their "second level" with players who could be starters with other teams. The Yankees, for instance, could afford to carry a Ruben Sierra on the bench, where the A's could not. Often that was the difference in the short series in October.

This past season, the A's bolstered their pitching depth through off-season trades and crafty minor league free agent signings (i.e. Kirk Saarloos and Brad Ziegler, who re-signed with Oakland as a minor league free agent last off-season). The depth helped the team post a 4.01 ERA (good for 10th best in all of baseball), despite losing pitchers such as Rich Harden, Duchscherer, Chad Gaudin, Joe Blanton, Keith Foulke, Huston Street, Santiago Casilla and Andrew Brown at various points thanks to injury or trade.

This off-season, the A's would be wise to try to create a similar level of depth in their infield. While the composition of the team's outfield remains up for debate, there is no question that the A's have enough players who have the talent to be MLB-caliber starters (or at least MLB-caliber platoon starters) already on the roster (Carlos Gonzalez, Travis Buck, Ryan Sweeney, Jack Cust, Aaron Cunningham, Rajai Davis, Matt Murton and Chris Denorfia). However, the infield depth is another story.

Despite their words of caution going into spring training, it is clear that the A's were expecting Eric Chavez to play significantly more than he did this season, as the only true back-up they had on the roster for Chavez was Jack Hannahan. Hannahan had played well with the A's at the tail-end of the 2007 season and he is a solid fielder at third, but his minor league track record didn't scream major league regular. As it turned out, Hannahan's lack of offense was a significant drain on the A's line-up all season.

On the other side of the diamond, the A's entered spring training with three options at first: Barton, the veteran Mike Sweeney and long-time A's first baseman Dan Johnson. Johnson was clearly not in the A's plans from the outset of spring training, so it was no surprise when Oakland released him in mid-April. However, by releasing Johnson, the A's were left with only the oft-injured Sweeney as a back-up to Barton at first. When Sweeney was befelled by injuries a few weeks after Johnson's departure, Barton was left as the only true first baseman on the roster. At Triple-A, the A's had two solid minor league performers at first in Casey Rogowski and Wes Bankston, but neither had made their major league debuts going into the season. This lack of depth became a glaring problem for the A's when Barton fell into a four month slump that lasted from May through August and the A's didn't have anyone to replace him. Now they will have to be concerned about Barton's health, in addition to whether he can recover from his poor 2008 season, going into the 2009 campaign.

Up the middle, the A's had a similar situation. Mark Ellis and Bobby Crosby were the incumbent starters, with Donnie Murphy acting as the back-up. Crosby, surprisingly, had a relatively healthy season in 2008, spending only one stint on the DL. However, Crosby was unable to produce even replacement-level offense despite his relative good health. Ellis struggled with a sore shoulder, which appeared to be a drain on his offensive output, and he missed the final six weeks or so of the season.

For the most part, the A's had to stick with Crosby and Ellis when they were struggling because their "second level" up-the-middle didn't present any obvious improvements. Murphy struggled from the outset of the season and eventually lost his roster spot in July. The A's brought in a series of infielders from the minor leagues in Gregorio Petit, Cliff Pennington, Brooks Conrad, Jeff Baisley and Eric Patterson. There were a few good moments from this group, but all of them were just getting their feet wet at the big league level and there were significant growing pains with all of them.

The one good thing about last season is that guys like Petit, Pennington, Baisley and Patterson did get some big league experience, something that should make their next appearance in the big leagues a little more comfortable. However, if the A's enter 2009 with the same set of infielders that they had at the end of this season, they will have to do it with their fingers-crossed, hoping that Chavez can suddenly become the hitter he was in 2004 (while playing third base), that Crosby can recapture his 2005 form, that Ellis can put in a full-season and that Barton can hit closer to .300 than .200. All of these things are certainly within the realm of possibilities, but it would take a stroke of incredible luck for all of those things to go right and for all four of these guys to remain healthy all year.

I think the A's would be better served making their luck for themselves by going out and getting some reinforcements for the infield. One of the posters on the A's Scout.com messageboard suggested Casey Blake as an option, and I think that is definitely an angle the A's should think about pursuing. Blake can handle third and first and he is a veteran right-handed bat who has put up pretty solid numbers the past five seasons. Having Blake on the roster would allow the A's to rest Chavez at third regularly and also spell Barton against tough left-handers (or Jack Cust at the DH spot). He also wouldn't embarrass the A's if he were to become the everday starter at either of those positions because of injury to either Chavez or Barton. Blake would be an expensive bench piece, but chances are that he would get close to a starter's number of at-bats with the A's.

Another option would be to bring in a veteran shortstop to challenge Crosby for playing time (or a left-handed hitting shortstop to platoon with him). An open competition for the position might spark something in Crosby, and if not, the A's would have a viable alternative to him should he continue to struggle. Either way, I think that the success of the A's off-season will have a lot to do with how they address their infield situation.