Which way do you want Eppler to go?

[ten ocho recon scout]

7 hours ago, eligrba said:

Buying for the 2017 wildcard would be short sighted. Instead of whether to be buying or selling, how about building a sustainable, competitive team?

 

Agreed. 

Personally, the team thus far is a feel good story...better than expected for sure. Getting some guys back they could even be pretty solid....but theyre not a contender.

If we do some smart things this year and next, they very well could be next year or 2019.

Maybe not the right thread for this, but i was thinking earlier today. I made a dumb joke in another thread about our DL being a good squad. But honestly they are.

Take all the guys on the DL and put them on the big club. Add in the suddenly solid pen, maybins solid year, etc, and they actually do have a pretty good team. And pujols aside, theyre all pretty reasonable in contracts. 

Further, only trout, pujols and richards are team vets, really. Skaggs sort of, street i guess. But give eppler some credit...hes had very little wiggle room, and has actually done a pretty damn good job putting a good team together.

Its kind of for that reason id rather not rush him. Give him time to put together a really good team in 2019 rather than a hope we catch lightening team this year or next.

[Taylor]

9 hours ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Well Cron's been pretty horrible so that shouldn't be hard to replace. You can add a power 1B for probably 8-10 million in the offseason that hits .250 with 25 home runs(Mitch Moreland? Adam Lind?). Would be an upgrade to be honest

 

I know Cron has had some success the previous 2 years and could still bounce back, but the guy has a .562 OPS in mid-June. Patience has got to be wearing thin with Eppler

Cron isn't going to net us anything useful in a trade.

[WeatherWonk]

22 hours ago, GrittyVeterans said:

And nor should he sell unless this team falls out of the wildcard race completely. You get 4 or 5 guys healthy (Trout, Skaggs, Shoemaker, Richards) going down the stretch, Maybin/Calhoun/Simmons keep playing like this, this team has a chance at advancing. They have the best player in the world on their side

 

 

Every year, there are probably 6-8 teams that never really "fall out of the WC race completely" until the last few days of the season.

But the reality is that four or less have a real shot because they are often playing each other and everyone cant lose, every day, to allow a team five games back (with a week to go) to advance. It might be statistically possible but it is so improbable that auctioning more of your future isn't very sound thinking. At least, not when things are looking better for us in 2018-2020, in terms of finances and this incredible backlog of controllable starters on the DL, finally becoming healthy.

I agree, we should wait till late July to make any hard and fast decisions. I dont think anyone in this thread was advocating throwing in the towel and selling on June 20th. I believe Eppler will probably trade for pieces that make us marginally better (and with an eye towards 2018-19) but nothing that will gain us much nor cost us much. 

Looking at our schedule in July, I expect that we will be AROUND 10 GAMES BELOW .500 by the trading deadline. That is a murderous month ahead of us. And we still finish out June against the Red Sox and the Dodgers. Outside of playing TEX and SEA, all those game are against teams that are .500 or above right now. And TEX and SEA are only 1-2 games below .500. We just dont play well against good teams;  the series against the Yankees notwithstanding. The Yankees are in a funk right now.

August and Sept do look easier, mostly because we go back to playing the A's and the Mariners and the White Sox. Problem is, the trading deadline is late July.

We arent the 2014-15 Royals, guys. We cant add a Cueto or a Volquez or a Shields or a Kendry Morales because we have very little to trade. And we have no core like Moose, Hosmer, Perez, Gordon, A. Escobar, and Cain as a supporting cast to make any kind of a probable run at a WC.

Regroup, regroup!!!!! Live to fight another day, when conditions are more favorable. When we have more bullets in our gun.

 

[Troll Daddy]

A's have made a career of fighting for another day. Let's fight today! 

BUY

[Inside Pitch]

28 minutes ago, Troll Daddy said:

A's have made a career of fighting for another day. Let's fight today! 

BUY

LOL -- didn't you start the "trade Bedrosian" thread?    Don't get me wrong, I've been on the SELL boat since before the season started, just thought it was funny you're for selling in one thread and buying in another.   

[DMVol]

3 hours ago, Taylor said:

Cron isn't going to net us anything useful in a trade.

If they aren't going to give him much of a chance, should have traded him last off season, when his value was probably at its highest...

[T.G.]

I'd be thrilled if this team got a WC birth...

The goal is to make the post-season.  Get there and see what happens.  Baseball is funny in that is often not predictable.  Favorites don't always win, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I honestly think the idea that this team will go into a rebuild mode while Trout is under contract is completely wishful thinking (right or wrong).

[totdprods]

A little late to the party and some of this has already been mentioned....but I think we will play both parts. 
I think we will sell off a couple pieces that have internal replacements, regardless on how good they are (i.e., a reliever or two replaced by returning Street, perhaps Bailey, AAA depth) in which case we just hope for the best and that it keeps us in contention. I think Escobar fits this tier as well, as we should be able to slot Marte, Valbuena, or Cowart in at 3B in his void and get enough offense (or in Kaleb's case, defensive value) to keep the train chugging. Maybin has obviously taken care of lead-off, which is a big reason why Escobar was important to keep. I really want Maybin to get extended.

As much as I wish Nolasco or Chavez could pitch well enough to net even a fringe prospect, those dreams are quickly fading. More likely we see Petit and Norris dealt with Chavez moving into the pen once Skaggs and Shoemaker return to join Nolasco, Meyer, and Ramirez. 

But, I also think we may buy, to a degree. I could see something like a Bud Norris for Tommy LaStella and/or a Mark Zagunis, or a David Hernandez for Rob Refsnyder type deal, where instead of taking a prospect we take a fringey bench infielder and slot him into 2B/3B mix for next year. 

As much as I hate saying something like this, we could see a lot of talent return to the team in July between Trout, Skaggs, Shoemaker, Norris, and potentially Richards, Bailey with guys like Cron, Perez, Cowart, and Marte still MIA or able to play back into the mix. 

And I would still absolutely consider dealing Bedrosian. If someone makes a big offer on Kole or Shoe, I pounce there too.

 

[Richard]

36 minutes ago, DMVol said:

If they aren't going to give him much of a chance, should have traded him last off season, when his value was probably at its highest...

I believe they did try and got nothing.

 

[Troll Daddy]

37 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

LOL -- didn't you start the "trade Bedrosian" thread?    Don't get me wrong, I've been on the SELL boat since before the season started, just thought it was funny you're for selling in one thread and buying in another.   

Guilty as charged

I didn't promote trading him unless it was a big overpay. There's a art to buying and selling at the deadline that improves your chances now and in the future. 

Play Play isn't my idea of fun

[Stradling]

56 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

LOL -- didn't you start the "trade Bedrosian" thread?    Don't get me wrong, I've been on the SELL boat since before the season started, just thought it was funny you're for selling in one thread and buying in another.   

If you read the first page of that thread you'll laugh. 

[DMVol]

26 minutes ago, Richard said:

I believe they did try and got nothing.

Signing Valbuena relatively late in the off season was odd timing....and then pretty much anointing him your 1b against RHP seemed even stranger....not sure what went on....