At the beginning of the season I had great hopes for the Oakland Athletics. With a lineup that had proven veterans like Eric Chavez, Mark Kotsay, Milton Bradley, and Mike Piazza sprinkled in amongst the young talents of Nick Swisher, Dan Johnson, Bobby Crosby, and Travis Buck had me quite excited. The pitching staff was going to consist of Rich Harden, Dan Haren, Joe Blanton, Esteban Loaiza, and Chad Gaudin. Again, I was pretty excited about the possibilities.

Harden and Haren were both popular picks to be the AL Cy Young. Common sense led me to believe Joe Blanton would improve on his numbers from last year (16-12, 4.82 ERA). Loaiza would give his usual veteran performance and Gaudin was the wild card this year. While Haren has lived up to the hype (10-3, 2.33 ERA), Blanton has been steady (8-6, 3.36 ERA). and Gaudin has surprised (8-5, 3.39 ERA), Harden and Loaiza have spent most of the year on the DL. Loaiza actually hasn't pitched in a game this year and Harden only has 25.2 innings pitched. He has pitched well, but not often enough to help make an impact on the team. Harden is making 2.25 million this year and two year away from free agency. I think that now would be the time to trade him to a team that has a need for pitching, a ton of prospects in their system, and wouldn't be afraid to take a gamble on his health. So who would that be? I'll get to that in a moment, but let me name another player that needs to be traded as well.

It pains me to say this, but Bobby Crosby needs to go. After he won the Rookie of the Year in 2004, he hasn't hit more than 10 homeruns or played in more than 100 games in a season. Including this year, he is only a career .239 hitter. He has also struck out in about 20% of his career at bats (334/1582).

So, who would take these two players? It's tough to say, but both are still young and have the tools to be great. It would make sense to me to make a trade to Tampa Bay because they have the need for pitching, plenty of prospects, and they have been known to gamble on players before. I would send both Harden and Crosby to Tampa for a combination of Jorge Cantu, B.J. Upton, and Elijah Dukes or Rocco Baldelli. Steve Phillips agrees with those players being available.

I trust that Billy Beane knows what he is doing, but it's time to start winning!