A’s Deal Swisher To White Sox
I was somewhat surprised to see today that the A’s traded Nick Swisher to the Chicago White Sox for a package of three prospects. Even though the A’s are clearly rebuilding, I was sort of assuming that the team would keep Swisher around as an ambassador to the fans since he was signed through 2011. However, from a baseball perspective, it makes sense to deal Swisher now if the team isn’t planning to compete for a few years.
Over the past three years, Swisher has become one of my favorite players on the team for his enthusiasm and his bubbly personality. For that reason alone, I am sad to see him go. From a baseball performance perspective, however, I think that while the A’s will miss Swisher’s bat next season, they will have an easier time replacing him than it would seem initially.
Although Swisher might end-up playing in center for the White Sox next season, he isn’t a great option for center long-term. Swisher is a good hustle player, but his speed is below average for a centerfielder and playing the position appeared to wear down his body over the length of the season last year.
Ideally, Swisher would play in right field or possibly at first base. As a right-fielder or a first baseman, the A’s have a number of options to fill Swisher’s shoes offensively. At first, the A’s have Daric Barton, who is a similar player to Swisher offensively, in that he has a patient approach at the plate. Barton doesn’t have as much power as Swisher does right now, but it isn’t unreasonable to think that Barton could get close to reaching the 22 homer total that Swisher had last season. Barton is a more balanced hitter than Swisher and he won’t strike out nearly as much while drawing more than his fair share of walks. Defensively, Barton is a downgrade from Swisher at first right now, but Barton has made strides with the glove and shouldn’t hurt the team defensively.
In right, the A’s have a number of options to replace Swisher, as well. Travis Buck, who was the A’s starting right fielder while Swisher was manning center, is an excellent candidate for that role. Buck, like Barton, doesn’t have as much raw power as Swisher currently, but Buck is an extra-base hits machine who, if healthy, could collect more than 50 doubles and 10 triples and should reach double-digits in homeruns. Buck did an excellent job leading off for the A’s last season and he runs a little better than Swisher. Defensively, Buck was surprisingly good in right last season and should be at least as good — if not better — than Swisher was in the field.
The A’s also have a trio of outfielders that they acquired in the Dan Haren and Nick Swisher trades who can compete for the final two spots in the A’s outfield. Carlos Gonzalez, Aaron Cunningham and Ryan Sweeney are all a year or less away from being major league ready. All three are capable of playing center, although Sweeney may be the best fit there long-term. Sweeney will likely be in the A’s outfield at the start of next season, and Gonzalez could join him there by mid-season or sooner. Gonzalez projects as a 25-30 homerun hitter in the big leagues, while Cunningham and Sweeney both could reach the 20 homer mark down-the-road if their power continues to develop, so at least one of these players could be replacements for Swisher in the number three spot of the A’s line-up in the future. In the short-term, the A’s also have Chris Denorfia and Mark Kotsay available to fill outfield spots until the youngsters are ready to take over.
Of course, the biggest haul that the A’s made in the Swisher trade was on the mound. Both Gio Gonzalez and Fautino De Los Santos are exciting pitching prospects. Gonzalez led all of the minor leagues in strike outs as a 21-year-old last season while pitching at Double-A. He has a knee-bending curveball to go along with a low-90s fastball and good command. Gonzalez will probably start the year in Triple-A, but could join the A’s rotation soon. De Los Santos was one of the best pitchers in the minor leagues last season while pitching in Single-A. He held batters to a .163 BA in 122 innings last season and appeared in the MLB Futures Game.
With the Haren and Swisher trades, the A’s now have a bevy of starting pitching prospects from both the right and left side. From the right-side, De Los Santos heads the list with Trevor Cahill (A’s top pick in 2006 who dominated the Midwest League as a 19-year-old last season), James Simmons (A’s top pick in 2007 who pitched at Double-A as a 20-year-old), Andrew Bailey (big right-hander who can throw in the mid-90s with excellent movement) and Henry Rodriguez (right-hander with a 100 MPH fastball) right behind him. From the left-side, Brett Anderson (acquired for Haren) and Gonzalez lead the list with Greg Smith (another Haren acquisition) and Dan Meyer behind them. In addition, the A’s have two young lefties with minimal MLB experience — Dana Eveland and Dallas Braden — who have good minor league track records and could develop into fixtures in the rotation.
The A’s are most likely not done trading yet, but even if they were to stop today, they are in far better shape for the future than they were a month ago. Their talent in the outfield has deepened considerably and they have a large enough group of pitching prospects that even if half of them fail, they could still have a dynamic pitching staff in two years. And that list prospects doesn’t even include Chris Carter, a power-hitting first baseman/DH type who some feel could be like Jermaine Dye as a hitter, who was also acquired in the Haren deal.
The 2008 Oakland A’s will likely be difficult to watch in terms of winning big league games, but if you live in the Sacramento, Midland, Stockton, or Geneva areas, the A’s affiliates in your area will be fun to watch.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Players, Transactions, General, Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
THE AUTHOR
RECENT ARTICLES BY DIVISION RIVALS
ARCHIVE
SPONSORS
Online Seats
Oakland A's Tickets SF Giants Tickets
Ticket Specialists
Oakland Athletics Tickets Oakland Raiders Tickets
Tickets4U
Oakland A's Tickets MLB Playoff Tickets Oakland Raiders Tickets
Coast to Coast Tickets
Oakland A's Tickets Oakland Raiders Tickets Sacramento Kings Tickets San Francisco 49ers Tickets Concerts Ð Theater Tickets
Great Seats
Oakland Athletics Tickets Sacremento Kings Tickets SF 49ers Tickets Oakland Raiders Tickets Tickets - Event Broker
17 Responses to “A’s Deal Swisher To White Sox”
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I am sick of this BS. I have been following the A’s all my life, and I am tired of them being the AAAA’s for the rest of the league. Name one great player who came up through the A’s system who played the bulk of his career in Oakland… Name ONE… There ISN’T ANY!
Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi…. They all came up in Oakland, then were sent to the four winds.
Chavez is still with the team, but won’t be for much longer. He has also been a disappointment. It seems that he hits somewhere south of .003 when its time for the clutch.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!
Baseball needs a salary cap, and Billy Beane needs to quit trying to out genius himself.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
And before anyone says that I am overreacting because these are great prospects, that doesn’t matter… The could pan out to become Hall of Famers, but they won’t be in Oakland that long anyway.
Losing and rebuilding I can handle. Being a farm team for the rest of MLB is a joke.
But commissioner Bud Selig is too busy patting himself on the back for the Mitchell report to realize that he is ruining his sport because he has to be the most incompetent commish in any sport.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
[…] at Athletics Supporters says that the A’s farm team games could be pretty exciting this year: The A’s are most […]
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
But the theory, at least, is that this will be the last firesale for awhile. They’ll compete for playoff spots in a few years, and then be able to afford contracts for the new stars thanks to the new stadium.
The Marlins traded off their stars immediately after winning their first World Series. They were lousy the next season. But, they had traded wisely. Several similar 3-for-1s panned out, and the returns from trading those stars helped lead them to their next World Series triumph a few years later. Let’s hope Haren, Swisher, and current-A’s-yet-to-go can serve as seeds for our Series triumph in ‘12 and ‘13 (after beating the Rays in the playoffs)
However, these 3-for-1s and 6-for-1s do make you wonder why they couldn’t get more for Loaiza (and arguably Bradley and Kendall).
January 4th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Joe Blanton - next
January 4th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
As a A’s minor league stats type, I love the activity that is taking place this winter. As a much older Athletics fan, I am accustomed to seeing the players come and go. I feel that these new kids will make the team interesting for years to come. Sure they will eventually get traded off as well, but such is life. There are few players that now spend their entire career with one team. My problem is going to be with all the new players with the same last name and identifying them; it is going to take awhile. Already there were 2 young catchers named Smith on the same team.
This coming season and the A’s success will still boil down to Harden and the other injury cases and whether or not they produce in 2008, assuming they are still on the team. The newcomers will be welcomed to the big league team soon enough..
Go A’s and all of their teams in 2008…. Hooorah.
January 4th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I’m very sad to see one of my favorite players in baseball leave my favorite team, but the A’s didn’t really have a spot with Swish in the long term. He’s not a great outfielder, and apparently Barton is the long term answer at 1st base. The team as it was constructed before these deals was mediocre with many very high injury risks (who are still there unfortunately). Standing pat would only serve to hinder the A’s in the future when the reward for keeping the players is a mid-level team in ‘08.
If the 5 of the 9 guys in the Haren and Swisher deals pan out, the A’s will be loaded in 2010. Yes, I agree that it sucks to be building for 2 years down the road, but as A’s fans we must recognize our place in the financial landscape of baseball.
Beane appears to be trying to create the same type of team as in the late 90’s/early 00’s. That team in ‘99 had Giambi rounding into an MVP candidate while Chavez, Tejada, Hudson, Mulder, Zito, and Hernandez were blossoming into very good players. The money we are saving now, I’m guessing, will be used to add veterans around the young stars similar to when he added Damon, Dye, and Isringhausen.
If Barton blossoms into the superstar he seems to be forecasted as, he is the Giambi with Gonzalez, Buck, Suzuki, Cahill, Simmons, De Los Santos, and Anderson being the other soon-to-be stars the A’s need to compete. We’ll probably get another 10 years out of that group and need to reload.
I would much rather see my team deal off its best players from a mediocre team to be excellent in a couple of years than watch them struggle to patch holes like the White Sox are doing with the Swisher deal. Teams like that tend to be perpetually average to below average and very rarely have seasons of exciting baseball. This is why teams like the Orioles, Pirates, Reds, Cubs, and Rangers have been bad so many years. Sure they may sprinkle in a good year here and there, but for my money I’d rather have 10 consecutive seasons of competitive baseball.
January 4th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
It’s always sad to see your team rebuilding, but the A’s are doing it properly. If you’re going to do it, go all out. The A’s are already a future force with the kids they’ve acquired for Haren and Swisher, and any additions they’ll get for Blanton this offseason and Street, Chavez and Kotsay later on will only further boost the chances of fielding a competetive young team in a couple of seasons. Teams often try to rebuild and win at the same time, but it never works out that way.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
It COULD be building a backbone for 09-12 or whatever, or it could be a repeat of the early 90s when the team went right into the pot.
Until baseball fixes its financial system no one will truly be able to keep up with the Yankee/Red Sox oligarchy.
January 5th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Even if Swisher didn’t have good numbers with the A’s, he was the heart of the team. Scutaro was the clutch guy we all love. And Swisher was the fun guy. The A’s are always the care-free team, and losing the heart of that hurts.
The firesale hurts, but I still trust beane enough
January 5th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Yes it COULD be a repeat of the early 90’s, but the problem in the early 90’s was a lack of a farm system, not too much emphasis being placed on it. Stockpiling arms of all sorts is never a bad way to build a franchise back up, and that’s what the A’s appear to be doing. Of course it’s not a certainty that all of these guys will pan out, but that’s why you have a scouting department. The A’s now have one of the deeper farm systems in baseball and we get to watch them all grow up together.
If the A’s just sat around complaining about the financial state of baseball, it would get them nowhere. Instead they have found a way to field competitive teams for just short of a decade. Maybe this time around the ball bounces the A’s way instead of the red socx/yankes. If the Marlins can win one, the A’s can win one.
January 7th, 2008 at 3:41 am
I can’t say that I trust Billy Beane as well as I used to. Last season seemed to spell the doom of moneyball. It always seemed that at the deadline he could pull some insane trade out of his hat to get the A’s over the hump.
Keeping Chavez over Tejada, Letting the Big Hurt walk to get Piazza… these are not the moves of a genius.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Moneyball is the idea of finding and identifying assests that are undervalued. In the beginning, it was OBP and college pitchers. Then it moved to defense and veterans willing to take a short term deal to prove themselves. Beane has now identified young pitching as an asset he can exploit. With the cost of quality pitching skyrocketing again, Beane has stockpiled more arms than they A’s can use at a time, thus giving him a surplus of the most desired asset in the game: young high ceiling pitching.
They had a run of 8 1/2 seasons of competitive baseball from ‘99-1st half ‘07, and Billy is reloading for another run. Last season was not the “doom of moneyball”, the A’s lost Harden, Crosby, Street, Duscherer, Chavez, Kotsay, Piazza, Bradley, Loaiza, Keilty, Buck, Snelling, Calero, and Kennedy to injuries over the course of the season. No team can compete with that amount of injuries.
Every GM will make some mistakes, but raking him over the coals for not resigning a 39 year old DH to a 2 year deal and choosing the defensive wizard over a roided out (allegedly) SS is not something I’m ready to do. 4 division titles, 1 wild card berth and an ALCS in a 7 year span is very impressive. It’s not his fault Byrnes didn’t touch home, Tejada stopped running, Giambi didn’t slide, etc.
There is no GM that does more with less and the A’s have gone from a team in limbo to a team with a clear direction and bright future. Following the A’s is essentially like following a college athletic team: You have to root for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Trusting Beane doesn’t mean he signs the best player 100% of the time. It means that overall, his decisions will be better than most, he has solid reasons for them, and in the long term you think they will work out.
It’s always easy to see the decisions with the best results in retrospect. Take Chavez or Tejada. Chavez is younger, and hit .282/.350/.514 in 2003 compared with Tejada’s .278/.336/.472. Who would you pick? The younger player with the better bat. Throw in the constant rumors connecting Tejada with PEDs, and it was the right decision.
I like an analogy to coin flips. Let’s say I have a coin that is weighted to come up heads 55% of the time. If you call heads and lose, calling heads was still the right decision, and in the future you should continue to call heads. That doesn’t mean you’ll win every time, but if you continue to make the most rational decision based on the best available data, you will come out ahead in the end.
It’s sad that the A’s can’t pay players as much as we would like them to, but there really are only two teams who can. The Braves eventually had to let go of Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz. The Indians lost Thome and Manny. Seattle lost Griffey and A-Rod. If it makes you that upset to lose players, be a Yankees fan. For me, the process of watching young players come into the league and establish themselves is a large part of the fun of baseball. 2008 could be painful, but not nearly as bad as 2007. There’s nothing worse than watching a team try to hold on to what it was three years ago and wallow in mediocrity.
January 7th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
it’s a classic double-edged sword that beane is falling on. trade high and stockpile is exactly the right thing to do with a mediocre or less team. but it was also beane’s overinflated reliance on his moneyball/OBP/hungey vet voodoo that underinflated the farm system.
yes, a lot of his theories make sense. make enough 3-for-1 deals and you can get yourself back into position. (Soon to be in a book titled Marlinsball.)
but the Hall of Fame quotient to be regarded as a great GM is, once you’ve (re)built a team, to make the move that puts them over. On that count, BB has swung, missed and left winning runners stranded.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I’m sorry Crash, but that’s a ridiculous statement.
Connie Mack’s A’s went 3,582-3,814, for a .484 winning percentage. So far, Beane has a 1044-899 and a .538 winning percentage.
The point isn’t that Beane is better than Mack - they operated in much different environments - but it’s simply ridiculous to suggest that anyone in baseball strings together endless WS titles. There are really only a couple times it’s been done, and always by teams with more money than their competition.
Even with their financial limitations, Beane has made the A’s one of the most successful teams in baseball over the last decade.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:11 am
To not regard Beane as a great GM is absurd. In his 10 full years at the helm, 3 teams have a better record (Bos, NYY, Atl) and 2 teams have more division titles (Atl, NYY). The difference in payroll between those teams and the A’s is comical.
To say he has swung and missed while leaving runners on is even more ridiculous than the saying he is not a great GM. How about getting Appier and Dye as midseason moves? What about his recognizing the window of opportunity was closing on the team he had put together and traded Ben Grieve for Johnny Damon, Cory Lidle, and Mark Ellis? That was one of the greatest heists of all-time.
As I stated before, Billy cannot control everything such as Byrnes not touching home, Tejada not running out the interference play, Giambi not sliding, or Jermaine Dye breaking his leg on a foul ball. All he can do is put together the best team possible for now and in the future using the resources that are made available to him. He may not be quite a Hall of Fame GM yet, but if he does this for another 10 years he will be.
Leave a comment