I wouldn't place it ahead of DH or 3B. Upon return, Lowrie almost certainly platoons with Valbuena; that's a significant upgrade. Valbuena's OPS v RHs is .783 this year; Lowrie, for his career, carries a .796 OPS v LHs (which is a 200-point upgrade over Valbuena's .593 this year). Gattis essentially had a nice seven game stretch near the end of May; he's otherwise been below average this year. I'd just assume see what Santana or Singleton could do in his place. Or, upon Marishnick's return, assmung they want his D in CF - throw Tucker into the DH mix.
There's a strange buzz in the air re: trades. Wouldn't be surprised to see a trade go down with the A's either today or tomorrow.
No thanks to Haren (unless basically free). Leake isn't a real improvement (maybe a win). I'd love Buchholz, but doubt Boston actually trades him. Cueto or Kazmir would be great as well. Cueto makes us substantially better, especially for the postseason, while Kazmir would still make us better, but cost less and be more likely to re-sign.
He has a noodle for an arm, and anytime you get a guy on 1st with any sort of speed, you might as well just make it a double. I feel bad for the pitchers, because there's nothing they can do to stop it. Every time.
I know that would excite many CF people But I'm fairly certain Luhnow isn't looking for a replacement for his top run producer
Max Wildstein writes for Scout.com. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a> are the front-runners to acquire <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhiteSox?src=hash">#WhiteSox</a> Jeff Samardzija before the deadline, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/JimBowden_ESPN">@JimBowden_ESPN</a>.</p>— Max Wildstein (@MaxWildstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaxWildstein/status/616133285547278336">July 1, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Jeff has always been the number one target...With Feldman back soon, just get a front line starter. Screw it go for Cueto and let's win a championship.
I would be willing to bet Luhnow places next-to no value on accumulating RsBI; it's a by product of opportunity far more than it is talent. If you consistently hit 4/5 in a line-up that features some combination of Springer/Altuve/Correa hitting 1-3, you're going to total a lot of RsBI even if you're not paticularly good or are having a bad year. I don't want to run Gattis down too much; he's actually been pretty good with RISP. But, again, it's a situation that favors the hitter (usually), and his production is roughly on par with guys who drive in a lot of runs - it's not appreciably better, by any means and could likely be easily replaced.
Disagree with this part. It doesn't make sense to replace the top RBI producer on a 1st place team, especially mid-season.
I don't think Santana or Singleton is an upgrade like you do. I don't even think Singleton is an upgrade over Carter, who isn't hitting ahead of Gattis for a reason. Gattis is our leading RBI producer. You don't replace him with Santana/Singleton just to "see what they could do." That's crazy to me, especially considering how well the team and our offense are performing.
I'm not sure I think they're an upgrade as much as I think Gattis can be easily replaced. Again, find me a decent hitter, bat him behind Springer/Altuve/Correa, and that player is going to drive in a lot of runs. The reason isn't because Gattis is good, though; the reason is that among significant underachievers, Gattis is the lesser of the two. My opinion of Santana/Singleton/Tucker is two-fold: I'm not convinced they'd be worse; I'd much rather see what two young hitters - both with a lot of potential - could do than watch Gattis/Carter suck their way through the season. I'm genuinely not convinced Gattis is anything more than beneficiary of other people playing well. I certainly don't think this offense is good because of a guy with a .269 OB%. If Carter were hitting 4th... I'm not sure there'd be a significant drop-off. And I'm not sure there'd be a significant drop-off if Santana/Singleton/Tucker were hitting 4th. I just think you're overvaluing "run producing" - that isn't a skill. Hitting the baseball is the skill, and Evan Gattis does that very poorly.
I think this was the same kind of logic that Beane used to try and justify trading away Yoenis Cespedes last year. That didn't work out very well for the A's, even with a really nice pitching staff.
