As you might have read this past week, we are doing a baseball round-table within the Blogs By Fans network.  Jim from over at The Halo is Lit is a big Angels fan and he has sent his questions on over to me.  Check out the responses from his questions here!  Now, let me get to the questions that were posed to me from Jim:

1.  Oakland made an offer to Rafael Furcal which was rejected.  Do you think there's still a chance that the A's sign him?  If not, will Bobby Crosby be at short next season?

  I do think that there is still a chance to sign Furcal, but I really don't think that he is worth more than the $9 mil a season that the A's were going to give to him in the offer that was rejected.  Maybe he will realize that there isn't a huge market out there and will take less than the $13 million that he is wanting.  If not, then I really don't see the A's going after another shortstop, unless they make an unexpected run at Orlando Cabrera or trade for one.  I'd expect to see Crosby at short this season if Furcal's deal doesn't get done.

2. What's up with the A's pitching rotation?  Are there any plans to get one or two starters or will the pitchers who are already there be enough to give the Angels some competition?

Oh man, what a tough question!!  After trading away Harden, Blanton, Gaudin, and Smith, there doesn't seem to be a rotation left.  Right now, it looks like The Duke, Dana Eveland, Dallas Braden, Gio Gonzalez, and Sean Gallagher right now.  It remains to be seen if they will bring any of their younger arms up this season, but with Duchscherer being the only pitcher over 25 (he's 31) in the rotation, I would think they might even try to trade him.  I have not read anything on signing pitchers other than Randy Johnson, which would be a waste of time and money, in my opinion.  I wouldn't mind seeing Beane go after Jon Garland or even Brad Penny as innings-eaters.

3. Do you think there will be much of a decline, if any, now that Matt Holliday isn't playing in Colorado?  What kind of year are A's fans expecting from him?

I would expect a decline in Holliday's production since he isn't playing in Colorado anymore, but he only hit 25 homers last season, so I hope it isn't a huge drop.  What is going to drop is his batting average, because he doesn't have much offensive support around him and he is going to get less and less to hit as the season goes on.  I would expect 20/75/.280 this season.  Unfortunately that .280 average would probably be leading the team by about 20 points!

4. Brad Ziegler was a stud last season.  Now that Huston Street is gone, can Ziegler keep it up or do you see the A's using someone else to close out games?

Ziegler was a very nice surprise last season and earned himself the closing role going into this season.  However, I could see the A's using a multitude of guys in that spot.  The bullpen is deep with guys like Andrew Brown, Joey Devine, Santiago Casilla, and Ziegler.  This could be the strongest part of the team this season.

5. Who's going to win the AL West?

I really don't see anyone competing with the Angels this season unless Texas can get some pitching help.  Oakland is a weaker team now and Seattle is just terrible.  I wouldn't be surprised to see LAofA win the division by 20+ games.

That's all I have and I'll be sending on my questions to Ricky and the gang over at TUP, so look for their Sox answers.

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