2005/2006 A's offseason thread

[DirtyKash]

According to FOXsports.com, the A's are close to getting Esteban Loaiza.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5117882

The A's are close to signing free agent Esteban Loaiza to a three-year contract for slightly more than $21 million, FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports.

Perhaps increasing the chances of a Barry Zito deal. Loaiza would join a rotation that includes Zito, Rich Harden, Danny Haren and Joe Blanton, leaving no room for Kirk Saarloos or Joe Kennedy. One of the two lefties almost certainly would go. Loaiza's mediocre numbers outside of RFK Stadium last season give us pause, but compared to what some of the other free-agent starters could get, $7 million per year might not be so bad. At least he's a good bet to stay healthy

[General]

Anybody named Esteban is a badass.

[Providence A's]

pfft, I'll believe it when I see it

[Providence A's]

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/NAS...=.jsp&c_id=oak

Well, there it is...hmmmm...

[love_that_reefer]

LOLOLOLOL $7 million a year? That is the worst move thus far as far as money goes. Simply amazin!! What the hell is Thomas, Piazza or Nomar going to get now?

[A'sDiehard]

We overpaid. Does this mean Zito is going to be traded? Again:

I don't mind getting him but like I said we overpaid. If I'm wrong, I'll wash Billy's car and eat some crow yada yada yada.

[MarinersFan87]

I wanted Loaiza for the M's. As a #4 guy. For 4 million a year.

[Providence A's]

LOLOLOLOL $7 million a year? That is the worst move thus far as far as money goes. Simply amazin!! What the hell is Thomas, Piazza or Nomar going to get now?

sorry, the BJ Ryan deal takes the cake (5 years for 47 million).

$7 million a year for 3 isn't that bad. He has good K:BB for the last 3 years and is a fly ball pitcher coming to a pitcher's park w/ lots of foul territory, which he will benefit from.

Thomas and Nomar are most likely to get incentive laden contracts as they haven't been healthy in a while.

Someone will be traded, but it may not be who you think.

[Providence A's]

We overpaid. Does this mean Zito is going to be traded? Again:

I don't mind getting him but like I said we overpaid. If I'm wrong, I'll wash Billy's car and eat some crow yada yada yada.

didn't you eat enough crow this season?

Trust billy man. He's building toward something.

[Providence A's]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/13268031.htm

Not moving Zito may be A's best move

By Tim Kawakami

Mercury News

Will Billy Beane trade Barry Zito, the last trace of the old aces, by Christmas?

You know that the A's hyperkinetic general manager is tempted to do it, because Beane loves leaping ahead of the curve and thinking of things that others dare not conceive.

But there's another daring thing Beane could do, and it's just cockeyed enough for Beane to contemplate:

Hold onto Zito, shoot for the short-term, and damn the free-agent torpedoes when Zito, due $8.5 million in 2006, hits the market next winter.

Hold onto Zito, and see if you can catch fire and pitch your way deep into October 2006. The White Sox did it, couldn't the A's?

Give A's fans a holiday gift this year, Billy: Just hold on, because holding on can be smart and creative, too.

Not because the teeny-boppers love Zito and he plays guitar on the radio and he's quirky. Hold on because he can pitch, and reliable pitching still is baseball's most precious ingredient.

I know, it's a lot to ask of Beane, who is preparing for next month's winter meetings and watching Jim Thome go to the Chicago White Sox, Carlos Delgado go to the New York Mets and Josh Beckett go to Boston.

Beane is pacing. He hates doing nothing and he craves doing everything. Which are the traits that have made him baseball's most fascinating, and best, executive for years.

And it's not difficult to find reasons to dangle Zito for a young, proven power hitter to join Eric Chavez, Bobby Crosby, Mark Kotsay, Nick Swisher & Co.:

• Zito, still only 27, is a great trade asset because he is left-handed, he bounced back from a bad 2004 with a sharp 2005, and he's supremely durable (his 174 starts in the past five seasons are tops in the majors).

If you're a pitching-starved team and you don't land A.J. Burnett, Kevin Millwood or Matt Morris, a deal for Zito could be enticing enough to offer a young, 30-homer stud.

• Beane proved he can land a mother lode last December when he received Danny Haren, Kiko Calero and prospect Daric Barton from St. Louis for Mark Mulder.

(Of course, Beane also proved he could whiff when he acquired Juan Cruz, Dan Meyer and Charles Thomas for Tim Hudson.)

• The A's need more hitting -- the 155 home runs and .407 slugging percentage were the franchise's worst totals since 1998.

It's a hugely unbalanced roster: As long as so much money goes to catcher Jason Kendall and Kendall produces so feebly (zero homers in 601 at-bats in 2005), there will be offensive questions.

• Even without Zito, the A's still have Rich Harden, Haren and Joe Blanton as rotation anchors, and possibly a healthy Meyer ready to join in by midseason.

But there is a counterpoint for all of those reasons to trade Zito: The A's are talented enough to win right now, and giving up Zito could harm that.

That is, if you believe Kotsay and Crosby will be healthy and that Swisher and Dan Johnson will blossom into consistent power hitters.

Isn't that (sort of) why Beane allowed Ken Macha to return as manager after Macha initially declined Beane's contract offer? Because keeping Macha probably ensures the best possible run in 2006?

This is the time to be fine with the risk of losing Zito for just draft picks next winter; back when the A's were winning 100 games a year, Beane didn't sweat losing Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Johnny Damon and others.

Remember, Beane dealt Hudson and Mulder because he felt the A's overall talent level had dropped and he needed a fast replenishment.

So is there a need to dump Zito for, say, a speculated package from the Mets that could include Aaron Heilman and Lastings Milledge?

Probably not. There's enough talent on the A's roster and in their system to make it OK to stand still, for once.

Plus, wouldn't it be nice, Billy, to deliver a playoff team for new owners Lewis Wolff and John Fisher, who could bask in postseason revenue and October glory while they argue for a new stadium?

Wouldn't it be fun and daring to shock us again, Billy, by the trades you don't make and the roster shake-up that never happens?

Zito may not be the one moved after the Loaiza signing anyway, but who knows I guess.

[DirtyKash]

No kidding, the BJ Ryan signing is absolutely stunning. Not necessarily the amount of money, but how do you give FIVE freaking years to a closer? Because of the Ryan signing, Wagner's deal got bumped from 3 to 4 years. Unfreakingbelievable.

[Providence A's]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...PG00FV99A3.DTL

With the addition of Loazia, the A's have six major-league caliber starters, and Zito will be a free agent at the end of the 2006 season, the same position Tim Hudson was in last winter when he was dealt to Atlanta. And when baseball's winter meetings get under way in Dallas next week, many high-profile teams will be looking for a top-flight starter such as Zito, while Oakland has a very specific need: a right-handed hitter with power.

The A's preference is generally to acquire younger players they can lock up for several years, and some teams that need starting pitching have some strong young hitters, most notably Mets prospect Lastings Milledge, Arizona's Conor Jackson and Carlos Quentin and Tampa Bay's Jonny Gomes.

I read today that Beane said he doesn't have to and may not trade anyone. He saw the market and had to act. Cornering the market as it were. If it stays as it is, our rotation would be the best...Zito, Harden, Loaiza, Haren, Blanton.

[Providence A's]

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/NAS...=.jsp&c_id=oak

"This was an opportunity to add a player without subtracting one," Beane said at a press conference to introduce Loaiza to the Bay Area media. "I wouldn't necessarily read anything into this that this is a precursor for anything that's coming down the pike."

There may not be any trades of who you think.

And Beane stopped well short of issuing a guarantee that Zito, whose contract expires after the 2006 season, will be wearing green and gold come spring.

"In our marketplace, in our position, we're always going to listen [to trade offers from other teams]," he said. "We're always going to do that."

Just listening to offers like usual.

Loaiza, Beane said, will be part of the 2006 starting rotation, and he essentially put an "untouchable" tag on young righties Harden, Blanton and Haren. That means Saarloos and Kennedy, should they remain with the team, are ticketed for the bullpen. Saarloos was a closer in college and has been a reliever at various times in Houston and Oakland. Kennedy made 11 relief appearances for the A's after being acquired in an All-Star break deal with Colorado, but finished the year as Harden's injury replacement in the rotation.

"You can never have enough pitching," Beane said. "This not only gives us depth in the rotation, it strengthens our bullpen."

Asked point-blank if he planned on trading a starter, he replied, "We don't have to. That's the good thing."

Harden, Haren, and Blanton are going nowhere.

According to The Associated Press, Loaiza's deal includes a $3 million signing bonus, spread out over a payment schedule, and yearly salaries of $5 million for 2006, $6 million for 2007 and $7 million for 2008. The option for 2009 is at $7.5 million, with a $375,000 buyout.

Not $7 million a year.

"People are going to look at the Hudson and Mulder situations here and say, 'Oh, they have to do something [with Zito] now,'" he said. "But you can go back to the years when we had [Jason] Giambi and Miggy [Tejada] in the final year of their contracts, too. If we feel like we're in a position to win the division, we're not afraid to keep a guy we think will help us do that.

Zito may stay.

Zito, who will make close to $8 million in 2006, agreed. He also noted that the apparent precedent set by the Hudson and Mulder trades doesn't necessarily apply to his situation.

"Here's the way I look at it: The only teams that are going to want to trade for me are teams that are pretty sure they're going to sign me to a long-term deal, because they're not going to want to pay my salary for a one-year thing," he explained. "And I know that with the Huddy and Mulder deals, before they were made, there had already been some talks with Atlanta and St. Louis about being able to keep those guys around. There haven't been any of those kinds of talks in my situation."

Makes sense to me.

[Providence A's]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...PG20FVK5O1.DTL

Free agents aren't usually the A's bag, especially starters. On Monday, however, Oakland hit the open market and added to its already impressive stockpile of pitchers, while beating out the Giants, to boot.

Esteban Loaiza, who started the 2003 All-Star Game for the American League, signed a three-year, $21 million deal with the A's that includes a team option for 2009.

With the pickup, not only do the A's have the deepest rotation in the league, they also have a total of seven big-league starters -- for now. Monday's announcement could spell the end of Barry Zito's career in Oakland, given the team's surfeit of pitching and its need for a right-handed power hitter.

A's general manager Billy Beane told reporters not to jump to conclusions about Loazia's signing, saying, "I wouldn't necessarily read into it that it's a precursor to anything coming down the pike.''

Still, Zito will be a free agent after the 2006 season. Tim Hudson was entering the final year of his contract when he was traded to Atlanta in December. Zito is also the team's most expensive pitcher, at $8.5 million, though, according to Beane, under new owner Lewis Wolff, the A's will not have to move Zito in order to make room for Loaiza's salary. There might be enough money in the A's budget even to add a free-agent hitter, although not a big-ticket item such as Paul Konerko. Beane said the A's have had some talks with free-agent hitters, although nothing serious has developed yet.

In the less-than-certain event that A's can fill their need for a hitter through the open market (Frank Thomas, say, or Mike Piazza), or if they can get a younger hitter such as Tampa Bay's Jonny Gomes for a package that includes erstwhile fifth-starter Kirk Saarloos and prospects, they might be able to hang onto Zito, giving them a rotation of Rich Harden, Zito, Dan Haren, Loaiza and Joe Blanton.

Chances are that the A's will need to part with Zito in order to get a top-flight young hitter such as Mets prospect Lastings Milledge or Arizona's Conor Jackson or Carlos Quentin. (Harden, Haren and Blanton are essentially off-limits when it comes to trade talks.) The Rangers also have expressed interest in Zito and they have Alfonso Soriano to offer, but Soriano is likely to earn $10 million or more in arbitration.

Beane called acquiring another bat "the next order of business.''

The Giants pursued Loaiza with an offer that was similar but that did not include an option, and the decision was nip-and-tuck, according to Loaiza and his agent, John Boggs.

"It was close, it went all the way to the edge and I decided to go this way,'' said Loaiza, who cited returning to the AL and the A's fine reputation as reasons. "I think I landed pretty good, with young guys, nice guys.''

Loaiza, who will turn 34 on Dec. 31, was 12-10 with a 3.77 ERA for Washington last year. He finished second in the Cy Young voting after going 21-9 for the White Sox in 2003, the season in which he really mastered his most important pitch, a nasty cutter that he now throws in lieu of a slider.

"A couple of years ago, he was so hard on us that I took a couple of his tapes home to see what he was doing,'' A's manager Ken Macha said. "His command was tremendous, he could put the ball wherever he wanted.''

The two-time All-Star won't need much time to familiarize himself with the American League, in which he has spent more than half of his 11 big-league seasons, or with A's catcher Jason Kendall. Loaiza and Kendall were in the Pittsburgh organization together.

"We got along very well,'' Loaiza said. "It will be good to see him behind the plate, putting down his fingers.''

Loaiza, who is from Tijuana and now lives near Dallas, will earn $5 million in 2006, $6 million in 2007 and $7 million in 2008; he will also get a $3 million signing bonus spread out between the three seasons. The A's hold a $7.5 million option for 2009 that includes a $375,000 buyout.

The A's will lose their first-round pick in the June draft to Washington as a result of signing Loaiza. Given the emphasis on the draft in Oakland, this is tough for Beane and his staff.

"(Boggs) can tell you, I kept moaning about it,'' Beane said. "We haven't called our scouting director (Eric Kubota) yet because no one wants to break it to him.''

Oakland is unlikely to gain any first-round draft picks for losing its free agents because the team does not want to risk offering arbitration to either Octavio Dotel or Erubiel Durazo, who are both coming off elbow surgery. The A's have had at least two picks in the first round of each of the past four drafts, including four in 2002.

[Providence A's]

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_3261224

OAKLAND — In the four decades that there have been two major league baseball teams in the Bay Area, it's rare that both teams heavily pursued the same free agent. It's even more rare for the Oakland Athletics to win a bidding war.
But that's what happened over the Thanksgiving weekend, as the A's and Giants exchanged escalating contract offers for free-agent starting pitcher Esteban Loaiza.

John Boggs, the agent for Loaiza, said the offers "didn't vary much in money at all."

A bunch of teams offered two years, the Giants offered three years, but the A's were Loaiza's choice with a three-year contract plus an option for 2009 worth a guaranteed $21.375 million.

"I never thought I would get what I'm getting," admitted Loaiza, an 11-year veteran who came to spring training in 2003 with the Chicago White Sox making $500,000, then added a deadly cut fastball to his repertoire and became the Cy Young runner-up.

"It was close (between the A's and Giants),"Loaiza added. "It went all the way to the edge. I know Oakland has a great atmosphere and has fun. That's what it's all about. I think I've landed with a good group of young guys."

Loaiza will be paid yearly salaries of $5 million, $6 million and $7 million, plus a $3 million signing bonus spread out. The A's option for 2009 is for $7.5 million or a $375,000 buyout.

General manager Billy Beane spent most of Monday's press conference at the Coliseum insisting this signing wasn't the precursor to another move, namely a trade of Barry Zito.

"Normally, that would be the case," Beane admitted. "There really isn't. It's something exciting about having those five starters."

Barring a trade, the A's rotation of Zito, Rich Harden, Dan Haren, Joe Blanton and Loaiza will be one of the best in baseball. Joe Kennedy and Kirk Saarloos would move to the bullpen, unless another move is made.

Beane never guaranteed he wouldn't trade Zito, continued his stock answer that he will always listen to trade proposals and admitted a right-handed power bat is the team's next priority.

But the GM also stressed he doesn't have to trade Zito. He believes Loaiza's 200-plus innings a year will improve the bullpen and take pressure off younger starters Haren and Blanton. And it's possible the A's will sign a free-agent hitter with an expanded payroll.

Beane said he talked Monday to Arn Tellum, the agent for Zito, but it wasn't about an extension for Zito. Tellum is also the agent for free agents Frank Thomas and Nomar Garciaparra.

The Chicago Tribune reported Monday the A's are a possible destination for either of the former superstars who have been plagued heavily by injuries the last three years.

The Giants made the first offer on Loaiza just before Thanksgiving, and the proposals escalated quickly. Boggs was surprised the A's remained in contention, figuring Beane would need to make other moves first to afford Loaiza.

"(Beane) kept matching, blow for blow," Boggs said. "They were very serious. Billy did say, 'we really like Esteban, and he's a No.1 (priority) with us. We were going to go with the most aggressive teams."

In previous years, the A's couldn't have reacted as quickly, but Beane credited a clearer line of communication with new owner Lewis Wolff and president Mike Crowley to make it possible.

Beane was most disappointed the A's will lose a first-round pick by signing Loaiza, a Type A free agent.

It's doubtful the A's will get a draft pick in compensation for reliever Octavio Dotel or designated hitter Erubiel Durazo. They would have to offer arbitration, which is too risky because the minimum offer is 80 percent from last year's deal, which was about $4.5 million for both.