Ryan Braun for Scott Hairston, Matt Carson, and maybe Sean Doolittle
or
Prince Fielder for Daric Barton and Sean Doolittle or Tommy Everidge.

Nah. Not unless Milwaukee's GM wants to commit career suicide.

Won't happen. Brew crew has already stated they are not shopping Prince and in fact talking extension.

Plus the A's are way high on Doolittle and Barton itself. Dealing Hairston? Yeah, they'd do it, but don't be surprised to see him starting in LF opening day....in Oakland.

Naw, I don't see that happening. I think BB will suffer with Barton at 1B until Doolittle is ready for prime time. Unless Barton catches fire at the MLB level and sustains that performance, he's outta here.

Rrrrrrrrrrraptorman

Here's one I'd love to see, though - that might be realistic:

Since the Dodgers are presumably gonna be shopping Juan Pierre; I'd love to see us trade Daric Barton, Scott Hairston, and Santiago Casilla (or perhaps a pitching prospect) for him, if they'd go for it. We could really use a guy like that in left field. And he wouldn't break the bank.

He's not a power guy. But he hits for average, gets on base a lot, and steals a $hitload of bases. His defense is pretty good, too!

Barton, Hairston, and Casilla (or a pitching prospect) may not be the most attractive trade package in the world. But I think the Dodgers just want to be free of Pierre's salary, more than anything else. It's not a terrible contract ($10mil in 2010 and $8.5mil in 2011). It's just too much to pay for a fourth outfielder. And they have Manny, Kemp, and Ethier ahead of him on the depth chart.

Juan Pierre would be an okay trade, but do we really need another fast guy. What we need is a power guy.

Also, think about this: What would you have said if I had suggested the Matt Holliday trade a month before it happened?

I agree that it would be ideal to have a power guy in left field. But we'd have to give up far too much to acquire one. And the only guys I can think of that might be available on the trade market are Carlos Lee and Adam Dunn.

I'd just as soon keep Jack Cust around, than give up much of anything for either of those guys.

What I'd LOVE to see happen - is for us to sign Jason Bay. But I know it probably isn't realistic.

With any luck, Chris Carter will be able to play left field. That would help us out TREMENDOUSLY - since we have so many other first base options in the system. Wherever he winds up in the field, though - he's most definitely gonna add a ton of power to the lineup!

Which Holliday trade are you referring to? The one where we acquired him? This time last year, I would have said it was nuts! But after it happened, and I had time to digest it - I completely understood why we did it. Our offense was the worst in the league in 2008. And Billy Beane wanted to change that. And on paper, there was no reason to think that we shouldn't have been contenders with that roster. Unfortunately, though; Holliday and Cabrera took forever to heat up, Giambi stunk on ice, Cust regressed, and Chavez went down again.

So it turned out that our youngsters were the guys we needed to be leaning on, all along. And I think we should stay on that course. If I were GM, I'd do my best to either sign Jason Bay, or to attempt the Juan Pierre trade that I suggested. Then I'd sign Jerry Hairston Jr. to spell Ellis, Pennington, and whoever winds up playing third base. And I'd re-sign Duchscherer and Tomko. Then ride this team 'til the wheels fall off! :)

Are are you really advocating for Juan Pierre? Juan effing Pierre?

OK, Batting average has always been good for Pierre. That’s one of like, 2 and a half baseball things he does good. But there are 2 problems with this. 1. batting average is stup!d. And 2. batting average is really, really stup!d.

Last year Pierre had less than 400 at bats and his numbers were decent. Actually, the best numbers he’s put up for a long time, OPS-ing a league average .757. In 2008, Pierre OPS-ed .655! This was only slightly worse than the year before, in which he OPS-ed .685. You know who this reminds me of – Crosby, OPS-ing .652 and .645 in his last 2 seasons. And getting on base is something that Pierre doesn’t do well at all. Between 2005 and 2008 Pierre’s highest OBP was .331. But last year his OBP soared to a mediocre .365.

I would argue that Pierre would be better suited to be cast in the movie Juno than be atop a major league lineup. Raj Davis stole more bases than Pierre did last year, in only 10 more plate appearances, and costs like 16 million dollars less than Pierre over the next 2 years. Ryan Sweeney pretty much does everything else better than Pierre, except wear his cap cockeyed (Pierre is fighting with CC for that title). And we’ve got like a bazillion prospects in the minors ready to come up and play left field. Trade Hairston for some cookies. You’ll get more value out of that than you will Juan Pierre.

Juan Pierre is a professional longshoreman who has convinced a baseball team to pay him tens of millions of dollars despite the fact that he cannot get on base, cannot hit for power, runs borderline-insane routes in the outfield, and has an arm so feeble he struggles to open jars of kalamata olive tapenade. This is not a guy we need to be spending 18.5 million on.

I have all the faith in the world in Rajai Davis and Ryan Sweeney! Did I intimate otherwise?

I love those two guys. But they're very likely to remain our center and right fielders, next year. So we need an upgrade in left field, in my opinion. And why not Juan Pierre?

Would you prefer sticking with Scott Hairston? I wouldn't. And who else can we put there? Cust? Patterson? Cunningham? Buck? Denorfia? Thanks, but no thanks.

Putting Chris Carter in left field MIGHT be an ideal scenario. But he we have no idea if he can handle the outfield, or not. And there's no guarantee that he'll be on the Opening Day roster, anyway.

Brown or Desme might be good solutions in 2011 or 2012. But that's assuming that they even make it to the majors. They look really good, right now. But there are never any guarantees with prospects.

Also: When did I suggest that I wanted Juan Pierre for his batting average? I said that he "hits for average", and left it at that. You're acting as if I said "His batting average is so good, we'd be complete fools to not go after him!".

You're making WAY too much out of this, bro. It's just friendly conjecture. ;)

Cunningham and Buck would be much better options than Pierre, if for no other reason than the fact that they are young and have the potential of becoming good players. Pierre is a bad baseball player. Why pay him 18.5 mil to be a bad baseball player when you have guys in AAA that can be bad baseball players for a fraction of the cost and could possibly become good baseball players in the future?

I'd prefer to see Carter in left. Or Cust. Or Hairston, Buck, Denorfia, Cunningham, Patterson, or anyone else you can think of. If you want to trade Hairston, I'm with you on that. But not for Juan effing Pierre. If you want to pick up a bad contract, bring Milton Bradley back. At least the guy can hit.

I only mentioned Davis and Sweeney to show how Pierre compared to a couple of guys getting paid the league minimum.

Adam Dunn would actually be a good guy to put in Left Field. The guy OPS-ed like over .900 this last year and is usually in the .800's. I don't know why you dont like him. He's certainly not the best fielder, but he adds power to a lineup that desperately needs some.

The other guy I was thinking of for left field that is said to be available is David DeJesus. He's not necessarily a power guy, but a better option than Hairston. Not sure what we would have to give up or if it would be worth it, but he would definately be an upgrade.

The same Scott Hairston who has regressed at an astonishing pace since being acquired? The same Travis Buck who hasn't done squat since 2007? The same Eric Patterson who has had only one decent month at the plate in his MLB career? The same Chris Denorfia who is lucky to even be on the 40-man roster? And the same Jack Cust who everyone agrees should never be anything more than a DH?

If that's your opinion, I respect that. Cause like I said; this is all just conjecture. And don't get me wrong. I'd love to see every last one of those guys prove me wrong. But for now, I'd much rather try going with a guy who was so hungry to become a starter again, that he had the second best year of his career, while filling in during Manny's suspension.

Given another chance to be an everyday starter, I have no doubt in my mind that he would be a really good asset for us.

I do like Aaron Cunningham a lot, by the way. I just don't think he's close to being ready for the majors, yet; despite his great AAA numbers. And when he does get here, I only see him as a fourth outfielder. Albeit, a solid one.

I've just never been a fan of him (Dunn), for some reason. I guess I kind of see him as a "rich man's Jack Cust". Dollar-for-dollar, I believe Cust is just about as good as Dunn is.

DeJesus is okay. But I'd actually rather give Hairston another chance, before going after a guy like that, though.

I just don't understand why you want Pierre. Hairston has better numbers than him and hits for more power. Buck's line is very similar to Pierre's but Buck is younger and can possibly become a solid ballplayer. And yes, Pierre is hungry to become a starter again, but so is Buck, Cunningham, Carter, etc. Pierre did horrible as an everyday starter for the Dodgers for several years. And he is just getting older. I just don't know why you think he is worth the money.

To be perfectly honest, Juan Pierre has never really been on my radar until just very recently.

I wanted to see us go after a left fielder in free agency. But in looking at the free agent market, the only guy I saw that I really liked - and considered a good fit - was Jason Bay. And I know that trying to sign him is unrealistic. So I started looking at potential trade candidates. And thought that Juan Pierre sounded very intriguing.

I guess one of the main reasons I like him so much right now, is because we've kind of become the 'island of misfit toys' in recent years - with guys like Adam Kennedy, Nomar Garciaparra, Rajai Davis, Jason Giambi, Mike Wuertz, et cetera. And you can even go back to '05 when we brought in Jay Payton at the deadline, and he played really well for us that year. And, of course Frank Thomas in '06.

Those were all guys that no one else really wanted when we acquired them. So we brought them in and gave them a chance to play. Some worked out. And some didn't. But I have a strong hunch that Pierre would be one of those kind of guys that actually *will* work out very nicely for us.

I realize that it seems like a big contract to take on. Especially for us. But as of right now, we only have $31 million dollars in commitments for 2010. And who else are we gonna spend money on?

I'm hoping we can re-sign Duchscherer and Tomko, and a solid utility player like Jerry Hairston Jr. And there's a chance that Kennedy will be brought back to play third base. But it's not like any of those guys are gonna break the bank.

I just believe in my gut that it would be worth the risk - assuming the Dodgers would be willing to deal him for next to nothing.

howcome no one has mentioned jermaine dye?

I'm still a big fan of Jermaine Dye. But I also still worry about his health quite a bit. And for some reason, I kind of doubt he'd even want to return here.

Plus, Texas has already set their sights on him. And I'm pretty sure they'd defeat us in a bidding war.

I'd definitely prefer him over 90% of the other free agent outfielders, though - as long as the price (and length of contract) is right.

I've mentioned the guy multiple times over. Get him on a 2 yr deal. Let him play RF in yr 1, he drops 25+ hrs and 90+ rbis, just fine. Slide him to DH in yr two and by then, letting Cust fly is not a big deal b/c by then any of the Carter, Doolittle, Desme, Cunningham, Petersen, Carson, etc can take the reigns from there.

The other F.A. guy I like is Rick Ankiel.

I love Dye too. A local Vacaville kid.
I seriously don't see him coming back to Oakland though. I personally wouldn't mind it, but remember Lew said in a statement that he was done bringing in "veteran" stars thanks to the failures of Giambi and Holiiday.
I think think the A's are going very young this year.
If they do go for any older players I think they should get some veteran pitching to help out the youngsters.

I will never forget being at that play off game when Dye's leg shattered all over home plate.
I became instantly depressed and of course we lost that series.

I'm with you all the way on the two-year deal for Dye (if the price is reasonable). But if we do sign him - I'd prefer to keep him as an everyday corner outfielder both of those years. Because my hope is that we can get rid of Cust this offseason. And let Powell, Everidge, and Carter share time at DH over the next couple years.

As far as the OF prospects you mentioned:

I wouldn't count on Carson or Peterson to ever amount to anything. But that's just me.

I like Carter and Doolittle a lot. Especially Carter. But assuming Barton doesn't have a breakout year, one of those two will most likely wind up being our starting first baseman by 2011.

I like Cunningham a lot. But I think he's more likely to be a solid fourth outfielder, than a starter.

Now Desme, on the other hand!? As long as he keeps progressing - he's likely to be one of the best outfielders we've ever had!!!

Corey Brown is another guy we should all be keeping our eye on! :)