Barry Zito has agreed to a 7-year $126 Million contract with the San Francisco Giants.


There's a lot to be made of this signing and you can draw a lot from the decision.


Zito is gone, but not forgotten. Let's move forward with A's baseball.

The A's made little bit of noise by paying the Tampa Bay Devil Rays $100,000 for the rights to the first pick of the 2007 Rule V Draft. The Devil Rays did the A's bidding by picking up perennial Indians prospect Ryan Goleski.


Goleski never ranked very high on the Indians list of prospects simply because his high-end tools were already in place in more prominent players ahead of him. Pronk, Brad Snyder and Ryan Garko, to be specific. Goleski has the best power and the best outfield arm in the Indians system. Coming over to the A's, with their lack of outfield arms and power - Goleski inherently goes to the top of the list.


Goleski has an excellent chance at sticking for 2007. When a team drafts a player via the Rule V draft the player must remain on the team's 25 Man Roster for the entire season or be offered back to the team the player was drafted from for half of the cost ($50,000). The A's had Tyler Johnson from the Cardinals in camp in 2005. He didn't stick with the A's. But this season Johnson was dominant for the Cardinals down the stretch and into the playoffs.


The last Rule V player to stick around for the A's was Jeremy Fikac. Another shot in Ken Macha's bullpen locker.


Anyway.


The A's also picked up Jay Marshall from the Chicago White Sox. Not Sean Marshall for the Chicago Cubs, but both Marshalls and Johnson would make a pretty good 3-on-3 basketball team. All are 6'5" or taller and left-handed. Jay Marshall pitched more than 60 innings for the first time in his professional career after being made a full time reliever.


RYAN GOLESKI

Year	Team	Lg	Age	Level	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2001	E Mich	NCAA	19	NCAA	44	142	32	44	11	0	12	36	8	47	.310	.369	.641	1.010
2002	E Mich	NCAA	20	NCAA	58	218	62	83	17	3	22	70	28	49	.381	.461	.789	1.250
2003	E Mich	NCAA	21	NCAA	53	212	43	69	14	1	17	61	25	47	.325	.394	.642	1.036
	Mah V	NYPL	21	A-	64	243	39	72	15	2	8	37	21	66	.296	.358	.473	.831
2004	Lake Cty	SAL	22	A	130	505	83	149	22	5	28	104	55	100	.295	.370	.525	.895
2005	Kinston	Caro	23	A+	122	458	59	97	27	0	17	67	39	134	.212	.276	.382	.658
2006	Kinston	Caro	24	A+	38	121	28	40	7	0	10	43	25	30	.331	.441	.636	1.077
	Akron	East	24	AA	87	324	48	96	24	0	17	63	36	87	.296	.370	.528	.898
					563	2109	316	551	122	7	97	381	215	551	.261	.333	.464	.797

One of the things to look at when scouring minor league hitters with power is to also check the doubles column. Don't transfix on the HRs. If you have a player with a high HR rate, odds are that the strikeout rate is high, too. And the walk total is low. You could have a guess and swing hitter who hits a lot of long flyballs but who also strikeouts a lot. Even if there are a decent number of walks, you can't tell if pitchers are trying to get him to chase or if the player has a command of the strike zone.


In Goleski's case, the number of doubles against the number of HR looks a bit off. You can suggest that perhaps he's a station-to-station base runner and doesn't risk taking chances on doubles and would 'lay up' for singles...yah. That doesn't work. I'm very curious if Goleski has had some injury concerns. There is no questioning his arm strength which is why he is in the outfield. Were the Indians trotting him out there because of his arm and the players ahead of him at 1st base? With that arm, could Goleski be converted into a catcher?


JAY MARSHALL

Year	Team	Lg	Age	Level	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	H9	HR9	BB9	K9	WHIP
2003	Bristol	App	20	Rk	2	0	2.61	10	10	0	0	41.1	38	15	12	3	13	42	8.27	0.65	2.83	9.15	1.23
2004	Bristol	App	21	Rk	1	6	3.59	11	11	0	0	57.2	63	31	23	8	8	52	9.83	1.25	1.25	8.12	1.23
	GTF	Pio	21	Rk	2	0	3.45	4	2	1	0	15.2	19	9	6	2	6	17	10.91	1.15	3.45	9.77	1.60
2005	GTF	Pio	22	Rk	2	0	2.70	29	0	16	6	43.1	35	20	13	3	7	43	7.27	0.62	1.45	8.93	0.97
2006	WiSa	Caro	23	A+	5	1	1.02	58	0		4	62	46	11	7	2	8	44	6.68	0.29	1.16	6.39	0.87
Totals					12	7	2.50	112	23		10	220	201	86	61	18	42	198	8.22	0.74	1.72	8.10	1.10

Marshall is a big, lanky, LOOGY. Cheap and I suggested yesterday, if Forst is loading up on LOOGYs to corner the market, so much the better. Around June there might be a need for LOOGY relief with another team and the A's would have several options to barter with. This is the way the A's operate, efficient to the point of being cheap. That's why I root for the A's. Who wants to root for Microsoft and Proctor 7 Gamble and the IRS?




In the minor league rounds the A's picked up Andy Shipman from the Cubs in the first round of the triple a phase and Josh Alliston from the Brewers in the second round. Both are right-handed relievers. Usually this is where Beane and Forst try to cheaply fill up the minor league team rosters. Much easier than signing minor league free agents.


As far as losses, the A's lost Jared Burton to the Reds with the 15th pick of the Major League phase. Burton was effective as Stockton's closer in 2005. Effective, but not impressive. Burton was three years older than the average hitter and about two years older in Midland last year where he got knocked around. Burton was a starter in college and converted into a reliever. He has had a very good minor league career. It is still a question if he can be effective against major league hitters.

1. Travis Buck, of


2. Daric Barton, 1b


3. Kurt Suzuki, c


4. Matt Sulentic, of


5. Jermaine Mitchell, of


6. Javier Herrera, of


7. Jason Windsor, rhp


8. Marcus McBeth, rhp


9. Justin Sellers, ss


10. Trevor Cahill, rhp

The write up is by John Manuel and there seemd to be an editing issue in a few places.





I'll try to graph up some tables for you tonight..

Hey, there's been a dealy in information coming from my brain. Bank of American needed several hours of convincing that the $2045.66 deposited into my account was not mine. Amazing how much it takes to have a bank investigate an error rather than just cover it up.


Some poor sod was out $2045.66


'Course, now that he got 2,000 quid, he ain't so po' is 'e?


The A's signed Alan Embree, Ricardo Rincon's less flashy, but more effective twin today with a two-year deal and a team option for a 3rd. Embree made $850,000 last year, so the total deal has to be in the $2.25 Million area, including buyout. Embree isn't exactly a LOOGY.

	ERA	W	L	SV	SVO	G	GS	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	AVG
Total	5.00	8	10	1	4	211	0	0	157.2	161	96	87	21	40	128	.264
	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	HBP	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs. Left	309	0	82	15	1	9	45	16	2	67	19	4	.265	.299	.408	.706
vs. Right	302	96	79	24	4	12	53	24	1	61	6	0	.262	.311	.487	.798

Embree was decent as a reliever last season in San Diego and he was incredibly lucky away from PETCO. Embree is another one of those arbitrary pitchers that teams historically, "need to have in order to round out a bullpen". Embree doesn't provide much of an advantage over any other situational reliever even with his portsidedness. Hopefully David Forst is stocking the shelves with tradeable commodities.


The A's are also close on a decision by Mike Piazza. All things being unequal - Piazza more than likely will sign with Oakland. Would you want to sign with Texas for more money to catch in 100 degree heat? Yah, I didn't think so. Piazza's agent is smart enough to see what Frank Thomas did for his career in one season with Oakland. Imagine two.


There are some rumors swirling about the Mets with Aaron Heilman and Lastings Milledge for Rich Harden or Joe Blanton. I'm not sold on Milledge, he's 10 pounds of hype in a 5 pound sack. Harden or Blanton, can you tell me with some sound data analysis which will be the better pitcher in 2007 and in 2008? Heilman we know is good. Solid K/IP numbers and a groundball pitcher. I'd take Heilman over Blanton and Harden based on injury risk. The Rockies have long been wanting Milledge; Jason Jennings or Brad Hawpe or Matt Holliday sound like good compensation if he were to be spun off in another deal.

There doesn't seem to be anything up the middle in this year's free agent market. Those who were signed are overpaid and a few do not deserve major league jobs. You really have to wonder about the coaching at high school, college and in the minor league systems for middle infielders. There does not seem to be much in the way of ability at shortstop and second base. Even from the Latin American outlets. If Asian leagues want to exploit MLB - middle infield would be the route to go.

2nd Base
Player	Age
Ronnie Belliard	31		Still don't see it.
Miguel Cairo	32		Brian Cashman must be blackmailed on a regular basis.
Chris Gomez	35		At that age, he's going to fall. Fast. Wouldn't be a bad back-up/tutor for another team.
Mark Loretta	35		635 Abs, 5 HR. OBP is good. But, old and expensive and no range. 3rd base?
Chris Woodward	30		No.
3rd base
Tomas Perez	32		Career .291 OBP.
Jose Vizcaino	38		Career OPS of about .650.