Ok, so by the sound of things the A's are 99.9% sure about 4/5 members of the starting rotation (I'm leaving room for a margin of error). With Duchscherer coming back, we'll have him along with Braden, Anderson, & Sheets. So far so good, in my opinion, but we'll see how Sheets performs, especially after missing an entire season due to an injury. But with all the feedback I've been getting, I'm pretty confident he will do well in Oakland - Thanks Everyone!

Well, those are my opinions for tonight...we'll see how the A's narrow down the last spot in the rotation (should be interesting)

Well it must be that time of year again...Billy Beane has gone trade crazy! As usual when I get on the computer, one of the first websites I go and check out is the A's. And the news for today is all of the trades that have suddenly occurred with our team. So let's try and figure them all out together, shall we?

First off: Wuertz and the A's have agreed on a contract to keep him in Oakland! I know this doesn't have anything to do with the trades, but he's staying in Oakland and Beane didn't release him!

Ok, now on to the trades:

As of Sunday, we picked up Gabe Gross who was a free agent, and recently with Tampa Bay. From my quick research I see he's been with Toronto & the Brewers as well, and his batting average is only in the low to mid 200's. Not too great, but hopefully that will improve with his time in Oakland. However, I hope this isn't Beane's way of replacing Sweeney! Because we definitely need Sweeney and Davis in our outfield this season.

And to finish Sunday's trading, we also received Steve Tolleson from Minnesota's waivers. I hear he's an infielder, but that's all I'm seeing right now. I'm guessing the A's are going to try and put him wherever we need the most help. Which sounds like over at first base, even though I think Barton does really well there. I mean any guy that is willing to fall into the splits to make sure he gets an out for his team is dedicated (but that's just my opinion).

Now onto today's trades...Adam Rosales and Willy Taveras were picked up from Cincinnati for Aaron Miles (and either another player or money - which we don't seem to have much of compared to most clubs).

With all of the trades we're now over our limit for the 40-man roster. This means our players are going to get shifted around. Taveras, after getting picked up is going straight to assignment alongside Eveland, and someone else is going to get moved because they want to make room for Tolleson.

Whew, that was a lot of info!

If anyone has any info about these players the A's just picked up I would be glad to hear about it...Thanks!

The A's just picked up starting pitcher Ben Sheets from the Brewers today for a good $10 million. From what I've read he missed all of last season, but really impressed the scouts at a throwing session last week, which is definitely good news. Our rookie pitchers last season have really been impressive, but since we were sadly without Duchscherer, our boys didn't get a long enough break in between games.

Now I'll admit I hardly read the sports section of our local newspaper...mainly because I'm on the A's website numerous times a day. But this morning I came across an article on the front page about the A's, so I decided to take a peak.

I pretty much agreed with the article at first...especially the part about Billy Beane trading all of our players faster then they can get fitted into a uniform. But as I read on, one sentence really got to me. It was when the writer called us fans "suckers" for attending games! I was in shock!

Sure we haven't been playing to our fullest potential, but us die-hard fans don't give up on our team. The last game we went to was back in September, at the point where we knew there was no chance at making the playoffs...but that didn't matter one bit! I had a blast cheering our A's on, play by play (and for the win against Texas).

It doesn't matter if we're in first or last place, we go to the games because we enjoy being there...and we are not "suckers"! We're A's Fans (and proud of it)!!

GO A's!

It's so refreshing to hear a new player actually excited about coming to play in Oakland. I just read an article on the A's website about how Coco Crisp is really looking forward to playing as an Athletic, and he hopes/thinks we can be a really good team this year that goes far. Now this is the kind of positive attitude we need on our team! Sure it's going to take a lot more, but it's a great way to start.

It's a lot more refreshing compared to last seasons start. While attending fan appreciation day, they were interviewing a few of our players on the field while us fan were getting autographs. I remember one part where Matt Holiday was being interviewed, they basically asked if he was excited about being in Oakland, and his answer was not so great (in my opinion). I will admit, it's been almost a year, so I'm not about to quote anyone...but to me, I got the impression that Holiday wasn't thrilled about being on our team, but he was going to make the best of it. That really puts a sour taste in your mouth from a fans perspective.

But, enough about the past, lets focus on the future! We just agreed to terms with Rajai Davis!! That right there is enough to make me happy about this upcoming season! Not only is he a great player, but he's great with the fans.

I can't wait for this season to start on April 5th!

A big congratulation is in order for Andrew Bailey! He was awarded the AL Rookie of the Year earlier today. Not only his he a great player, and deserved the award (with out a doubt in my mind), but he's an Oakland Athletic!! This is huge for not only Bailey but our team as a whole. It shows we have great players on our roster; we just need to get in gear, and step up next season. And not only did Bailey take the win, but our very own Brett Anderson was listed as a nominee and came in 6^th place. This is a step in the right direction for our A's...Billy Beane better not mess it up and trade all of our good players like in the past. We can't perform as a team, when our players keep leaving. But today's announcement isn't about Beane, so let's not worry about him. Great job Bailey!

Go A's!

Well, sadly none of our players were awarded a Gold Glove this time around. Sure, the majority of people would say it's because we ended in last place for our division. But I'm setting that sad fact aside. In my opinion Suzuki definitely deserved to win this season! When it comes to defending the plate, Suzuki is one of the best. And you could almost always be sure that if a pitcher hit Suzuki, he was going to come back and hit a Home Run at his next at bat, that's baseball!

Now I haven't seen the recipient Mauer play much this season, so I can't judge. But I've heard announcers say that Suzuki is right there with Mauer, and maybe just a notch below. Well I guess that small notch pushed Mauer ahead to get the award this time.

I was really hoping they would give it to Suzuki, because he's done such a great job with the amount of rookie pitchers we have, which that within itself provides its own set of challenges. I also think if it wasn't for Ellis going on the disabled list, he could have had a chance. I'm calling him the come back kid!

Hopefully next season we will not only see more wins, but a few Gold Gloves would be nice. Go A's!

Well we put up a good fight, especially in the month of September, but sadly our season has come to an end today. Our winning streak just came to far towards the end of the season where we knew we wouldn't have a chance at a comeback. It would've been nice to at least take 3rd place in our division, but I guess it just wasn't our season. I must say that the team we have put together since September is one I would love to see carry into 2010. In fact there are only a few players that I would swap out. If we stick with the ones I'm thinking of we can really have a chance at doing some damage next year. I'll definitely be posting my thoughts throughout the of season as to who I think should and shouldn't be playing each position. I might even attempt the starting pitchers as well as the bullpen.

It was really great though to see our bullpen play the entire game today. Kilby really has an arm, and played very well for the first two innings (heck, we should have let him stay in a few more). But I understand...everyone deserved a shot at playing, and it was great to see it too. Nomar did strike out at his last at bat, but he played great today, and got a standing ovation from the crowd (since he will most likely be retiring from what I hear).

We played hard against the Angels today, we just sadly couldn't pull out a win. But hey, there's always next year!

Go A's!!

Okay, it's bad enough when we lose to Seattle, but when we lose to a pitcher that's a local boy...that's rough! Usually you would want to chear on a local guy, but not when they're the opposing pitcher and beating my A's. I will admit though, Morrow pitched a great game tonight, so much in fact we couldn't get a single run in! Heck we didn't even get a hit until the 4th inning, thanks to Davis. Now this is not the A's we've been seeing during September....what happened?!? Sure it's the end of the season, but let's try and go out with a bang.

Then to top off the night, Griffey decides to repeat exactly what he did to us last night. Last night he hit a 3 Run Homer against Cahill early in the game, and I swear I thought I was having Deja Vu, because he hit another 3 Run Homer against Mortensen tonight! Are you kidding me here? I mean honestly, we need to walk him from here on out whenever there are 2 runners on. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

On a better note, we only have to face Seattle tomorrow and then that's it for the season, Go A's!

Last night's game against the Angels was amazing (well for us that is). Can we say comeback?!?! The night started off well, we were up 2-0 in the top of the 1^st, which is really hard to do against the Angels. But no sooner could we blink an eye did they come back and get ahead 3-2. And for the next couple of innings I must say it looked really bad for us, especially when we were down 9-2. The odds did not look like they were in our favor to say the least, but then the turning point hit.

We ended up scoring 4 runs in the 5^th inning, which included a 3 run Home-Run by Cust (great way to be aggressive and take the first pitch!) After that we were down 9-6, and even if the game had ended there, and had taken a loss, that inning alone would have been great to brag about. Luckily for us though, our luck continued to not only come back to tie, but to get the win! This led to an amazing 15-10 win over the Angels, which sounds more like a football score then total runs scored in baseball.

Sure it was a game filled with its: ups & downs, highs & lows, but it didn't matter. We somehow came back and won against the winning team in our division.

Now that's baseball!