Available CF, 3B, 2B, Lead-off Hitter

Why on earth are you worried about 3rd? Eric Chavez is the best all-around 3rd baseman in the AL by a wide margin.

There are many Japanese players that could fill those spots. Off the top of my head, Yoshitomo Tani could lead off and play a solid center field; Kazou Matsui could play 2nd in a pinch; and Hiroki Kokubo would be a solid option at 3rd -- he's no Chavez, however. Both Matsui and Kokubo can be free agents after next season. Tani, on the other hand, would have to be posted to play in the Majors anytime soon.

Matsui wouldn't be a good fit for the A's. He's not a patient enough hitter to be of any interest to Billy Beane.

- He's not a patient enough hitter to be of any interest to Billy Beane.

Huh? Kazuo has a career .361 OBP -- and you can bump that up to .374 over the past three years.

Um... not patient enough? Please check out his OBPs for the past few years here. High-.300s is plenty good for Beane. Besides, Beane is also a realist. Check out his recent acquisition of Jose Guillen. If one can hit and get on base, that's even better than a walk.

And never once could you multiply his walks by 10 and have a higher number than his at bats. That's a rule of thumb when judging patience. Billy Beane will not promote any player at any level to the next level if they can't get enough walks to multiply it by 10 and get a higher number than their at bats.

Matsui isn't patient enough to play for the A's, and will cost too much anyways.

- And never once could you multiply his walks by 10 and have a higher number than his at bats.

Where are you getting your numbers? He walked 56 times in 539 at bats in 1999.

Billy Beane says that one who walks tends to keep that trait longer than hitting for one that hits well. Matsui's stats will drop a little when he goes to the majors, which is expected. If his hits go down, the walks aren't there to make up for it.

May I recommend buying the book "Moneyball"? Very good read and you'll understand what I mean when I say Matsui isn't patient enough of a hitter to play for the A's.

As a matter of fact, I doubt that the A's will resign Tejada due to the mere fact that he isn't patient. Billy Beane himself doesn't like Tejada for that reason, and it's talked about in the book.

Why would you be worried about second? Mark Ellis is one of the A.L's top prospects.

I don't know what the A's fan is worried about. You're going to be pretty solid at almost every position except for the fact that you don't have a true leadoff hitter. Matsui really isn't a Beane player, imho, and he would cost more than team ownership wants to spend.

Tani would be a fine add and he would solidify the A's second rate outfield defense, but considering that Yoshitomo played in the industrial leagues before joining Orix, he will be too old by the time he is ready for free agency. Same goes for Ogasawara.

They could take a run at Iguchi. He should come relatively cheap (though the Mets are said to be interested in having Iguchi and Matsui be their opening day keystone combo with Reyes moving to third). But if you look at his history, 2003 is his career year as an overall player. He has been decent with RISP this season, but abysmal in the past. His OBP is likewise. I don't think Oakland will do it. Kokubo won't happen (he would be a solid MLB player, though). Chavez is a real stud at third. He is just having an off year. It happens.

If Oakland is going to go shopping in Japan, I think they could take a shot at Akinori Otsuka, who has a nice K/BB ratio (last season it was something like 9-1, iirc), he can hump it up to 94mph (more consistently around 91-92) on occasion before feeding hitters that disappearing slider. He also has closer experience. L.A. has expressed interest in the past. It will be interesting to see what kind of interest he draws this time around after procedural questions torpedoed his bid to be posted this past offseason.

For 2005, Akinori Iwamura, who may be posted, could be a good add providing that the wrist ligament injury he had earlier this season doesn't affect the remainder of his career ala Futoshi Nakanishi. He normally plays third, but can play second base.

Nice to hear from you, Gary.

- Matsui really isn't a Beane player, imho, and he would cost more than team ownership wants to spend.

I agree that Matsui likely would cost more than the A's would want to spend, but I think this business about him not being a "Beane type of player" is overblown (unless by that you mean cheap). His recent acquition of Jose Guillen, already mentioned above, is an excellent example. Jermaine Dye hasn't been a walk-machine across his career either.

Moneyball is a great book, but it's also misleading and exaggerated in many parts. [Jim Callis chat]

- They could take a run at Iguchi. He should come relatively cheap (though the Mets are said to be interested in having Iguchi and Matsui be their opening day keystone combo with Reyes moving to third).

Other than the Mets, who do you see making a run at Iguchi?

- Kokubo won't happen (he would be a solid MLB player, though).

In my defense, I suggested Kokubo back in October of 2002, before his injury derailed his free agency.

- It will be interesting to see what kind of interest [Otsuka] draws this time around after procedural questions torpedoed his bid to be posted this past offseason.

I was wondering why no teams bid on Otsuka. Can you please provide a bit more detail? What were the procedural questions, for instance?

Get Real. The A's are a cheap organization with one of the worst stadiums in MLB. Using the reasoning that Beane and the A's won't pursue Matsui because he isn't patient is just plain stupid. Additionally, the A's are not going to resign Tejada because the are cheap, cheap, CHEAP, not because he isn't patient.

If the A's didn't have pitching then they would be a really sorry team. Look at the stats from today's game: they don't have a single position player hitting over .280.

Big named players the A's go after are only rentals. Through the draft is where they find their patient hitters. Sure they have some guys who aren't patient, but they would never pay top dollar for one. Look at Nick Swisher and Jeremy Brown.

Another main reason you'll probably never see Beane sign a Japanese player from Japan is his limited resources. He doesn't listen to his scouts much, so he only has few of them. He won't spend money to get guys in Japan finding prospects for him. He uses stats for his resource, and as of late, it's been shown that the stats a guy puts up in Japan has hardly any reflection on what they will do in the States. This is the same reason why he won't draft high schoolers.

- He uses stats for his resource, and as of late, it's been shown that the stats a guy puts up in Japan has hardly any reflection on what they will do in the States.

On this point, I beg to differ. There certainly are powerful distortions which must be corrected for if one wants to see what a Japanese player would do in the majors. However this can be done. Before the 2003 season, I wrote this article [BaseballGuru.com]. It accurately depicted Ichiro, Taguchi, and Shinjo, though it isn't as good for pitchers. I'd say right now, it's reasonable on H. Matsui as well, especially when one considers he's in a new league, etc., etc. His current stats, projected to 162 Yankee games, are:

AB:   650
H:    194
2B:    48
3B:     0
HR:    21
BB:    59
AVG: .298
OBP: .357
SLG: .469

Yes, his power and walks are a little down from what my projections say he's done in Japan, but with all the adjustments (new league, city, team, language, country, better pitching, to name some of the biggest), I don't think the projection is in any way as useless as you suggest. Further, those season projections, if anything, are probably a little low, given that they include his sorry first two months or so.

Billy Beane and his minions are certainly capable of understanding these facts. However, he may well lack the means to go after Japanese players.

Jim Albright

Additionally, the A's are not going to resign Tejada because the are cheap, cheap, CHEAP, not because he isn't patient.

I wouldn't say that they're cheap, since Oakland is a pretty poor market to play in, plus they have to compete directly with the Giants for fans. Let's not forget they did offer Jason Giambi $15 million a year before he left. Kazuo Matsui could slide into Oakland's lineup, especially since they have Fulke's $6 million contract coming off their payroll, in addition to Tejada's if he leaves.

To be honest though, the A's would be better off by saving their money, and signing their pitchers long term.

- He normally plays third, but can play second base.

I've noticed in box that Iwamura's played center a few times since coming back, too. I haven't seen him play myself, but if he can play a credible outfield, he'd have to be one of the more versatile guys in Japan.

- I've noticed in box that Iwamura's played center a few times since coming back, too. I haven't seen him play myself, but if he can play a credible outfield, he'd have to be one of the more versatile guys in Japan.

The main reason why he's been playing a little bit of center field recently is because he just came back from injury. With Ken Suzuki at 3rd base and Todd Betts at 1st base, both hitting over .300, Wakamatsu decided to play Iwamura at center. Because he has decent speed, he fared pretty well in center, but he moved back to 3rd base, his original position, when Suzuki started slumping.

- He normally plays third, but can play second base.

Yes, Iwamura can play second base, as he did in last year's Nichi-Bei Series. With Norihiro Nakamura playing 3rd base full-time, Iwamura only got playing time at 2nd base. In the couple of innings that he did play there, he even made a couple of really nice jumping throws, probably leading people to believe that he can play 2nd base, because with the Swallows, during the regular season, I doubt that he has ever played 2nd base.

- With Norihiro Nakamura playing 3rd base full-time, Iwamura only got playing time at 2nd base.

Not to nitpick, but Iwamura started game 1 of that series at 3rd.

Mark Ellis is one of the A.L's top prospects.

Ellis is hardly a prospect, nor would his numbers justify him being a top player, but the A's do have one of the better SS prospects in Crosby.

Agreed, Cyril. Ellis is no prospect. Crosby is a top shortstop prospect who is just about to go 20-20 in AAA. German is the closest thing the A's have to a second base prospect, though I hear Bynum is decent.