April 30, 2012; Boston, MA, USA; Oakland Athletics right fielder Josh Reddick (16) rounds second base after hitting a three run home run during the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-US PRESSWIRE

Each month, Swingin’ A’s will revisit three of the biggest trades that the A’s made this past offseason. We’ll start by revisiting the Andrew Bailey-Ryan Sweeney trade that went down last winter. In the deal, the Athletics sent their All-Star closer Bailey and high-average hitter Sweeney to the Red Sox in exchange for outfielder Josh Reddick, pitcher Raul Alcantara, and infielder Miles Head. 

The A’s entered the offseason with one goal in mind: continue the rebuild in an effort to prepare for the future. General manager Billy Beane set out to accomplish this goal by trading some of his better talent to teams willing enough to send him talented prospects in return. The trade that went down between the A’s and the Boston Red Sox is just one way Beane set out to accomplish the goal of rebuilding.

Oakland sent their All-Star closer Andrew Bailey as well as outfielder Ryan Sweeney to the Red Sox in exchange for a handful of prospects. The A’s did give up a lot in Bailey and Sweeney and at first glance, the trade looked lopsided in Boston’s favor. The A’s really got an outfielder and two bonus pieces in Alcantara and Head, but looking at the deal today, the A’s may have gotten the best of the trade.

Boston has lost Bailey for an extended period of time due to injury, while the A’s continue to benefit from having Reddick in their everyday lineup. He went deep during Monday’s game in Boston, blasting a three-run homer in the 7th inning against starter Clay Buchholz. Oakland has seen Reddick hit .277/.299/.479 with 4 HR and 9 RBI in 23 games this season. He’s exceeded my projections so far and I must say I’m definitely taking a liking to the guy.

Sweeney, though, hasn’t been a pushover for Boston. In 19 games this year, Sweeney has hit .373/.394/.567 with 8 RBI. He’s off to a fast start and while he’s not hitting for power, the Red Sox have a high-average hitter at their disposal. He’s also considered a plus-defender as well in the outfield. I was saddened to see him go in the trade last winter, but the A’s have made things easier on me with their acquisition of Reddick.

So, one month into the season and the A’s have seemingly won this trade. There’s still a lot of baseball left this year, though, that could lead Sweeney and the Red Sox to victory in regards to this trade.

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Follow me on twitter @oaklandace75 and for more A’s related analysis, stories, and opinions, follow us on twitter @FS_SwinginAs or like us on Facebook.

December 14, 2010; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane (right) smiles while addressing the media as designated hitter Hideki Matsui (left) looks on during a press conference following Matsui signing with the Athletics at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

With the 2012 season officially underway, all eyes—especially mine—will be focused on Billy Beane and the rest of the Athletics’ management as the team enters yet another rebuilding phase.

The Athletics are not expected to compete this year given their demolition of their starting rotation this offseason and because of their unproven offense.

Instead, this season feels destined, really, to be another chapter in Billy Beane’s painfully-penned rebuild.

Oakland has been in this position before, namely back in 2007 when the team sent fan-favorites like Nick Swisher and Dan Haren packing in various trades that landed the A’s plenty of young prospects.

Beane’s inconsistencies in addition to the A’s ever-growing stadium problems have made the team’s rebuilding attempts extremely difficult to watch.

This touchy topic has been covered religiously on this site, especially by our very own Staff Writer Jason Leary, but the A’s rebuilding attempts serve as a reminder that not all clubs succeed in building a winning product. Beane has done a fine job in recent years of acquiring young talent, but holding onto that talent and having the patience with those prospects are another thing.

Perhaps the biggest mistake Beane has made in recent years was the decision to trade for outfielder Matt Holliday prior to the 2009 season. The A’s certainly thought they’d get a lot from Holliday, but for the amount of talent the team gave Colorado in exchange for Holliday and the overall timing of the deal didn’t make complete sense.

For one, the A’s gave up the talented young outfielder Carlos Gonzalez as a way to acquire the older Holliday. In hindsight, that was not a great decision on Beane’s behalf. It should speak volumes of Beane’s abilities to scout young hitting talent.

I just never felt that the A’s gave Gonzalez much of a chance in Oakland. He was shipped out of town essentially for a rent-a-slugger. Holliday, as you’ll all remember, didn’t last in Oakland and was traded by the 2009 trade deadline to St.Louis.

That was the biggest mistake the A’s GM made, in my opinion, anyway, as it disrupted his rebuilding efforts. The A’s were kidding themselves if they thought they could compete in 2009.

Guys like Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill were barely bursting onto the scene and even with an offense that featured Holliday, Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera, and Nomar Garciaparra—all of whom with the exception of Holliday, were old and inexpensive sources of veteran leadership acquired by the A’s—the pitching staff wasn’t up for the task of competing.

I think the A’s learned during the 2009 season that rebuilding is harder than it seems. You have to scout well, draft well, and more importantly know how to develop young talent once you have it in your minor league system. Looking at this season, the A’s have yet again laid out a solid foundation of young pitching.

Pitchers like Jarrod Parker, Brad Peacock, Sonny Gray, and A.J. Cole are just a few of the names the A’s are currently waiting for to emerge onto the big league scene. The A’s turned their focus onto their rebuilding efforts this past winter with the Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill, and Andrew Bailey trades, but their commitment is still relatively unknown.

One minute they’re wheelin’ and dealin’, and then the next minute they’re forking over $14 million to Coco Crisp and $36 million to an unproven outfielder named Yoenis Cespedes. The A’s are trying, I think, to build a winning club, but Beane’s recent attempts may not matter in the end.

The A’s are still waiting around —for three years now—for MLB and Bud Selig to deliver their findings about the Athletics’ stadium situation in Oakland. The team is desperately fighting for a spot in San Jose, a territory that the Giants claim as theirs. San Francisco isn’t budging on those territorial claims and the A’s are stuck in the vortex called O.co Coliseum.

So, citing Beane’s inconsistencies during the last few rebuilding years is only part of the organization’s problem. The A’s do need to have better consistency when it comes to evaluating talent and developing talent, but they also need MLB and Bud Selig to step up to the plate and finally deliver their decision regarding the San Jose mess.

Selig has kept the A’s waiting long enough. These past few years have made Beane’s job a little harder and have definitely put a strain on the ever-thining fan-base. No one likes to lose, but the A’s are not in a position to go out and sign a bunch of free-agent talent.

Instead, the team has been forced to tear down, rebuild, assemble, tear down, and rebuild. Will MLB deliver a decision before the A’s are forced to give up on their new crop of young talent (I’m talking about you, Parker, Peacock, Gray, and Cole)?

It’s become an excruciating process.

Beane can assemble all the young talent he wants. Heck, he can even have the patience to develop all that young talent in a way that produces a few wins here and there. But without a place to play, those wins won’t matter, will they?

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Follow me on twitter @oaklandace75 and for more A’s related analysis, stories, and opinions, follow us on twitter @FS_SwinginAs or like us on Facebook.

He Can Hit: Is Miles Head a top Oakland prospect or just another minor leaguer? (Photo Credit: Powershowcase.com)

Over the next couple of days Swingin’ A’s will take a closer look at some of the prospects the Athletics scored in the Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, and Andrew Bailey trades. Next on our list is prospect Miles Head, whom the A’s acquired in the Bailey trade. 

Relax, A’s fans. Billy Beane and the A’s appear to have run out of trade chips. Oakland’s December exodus was painful, but it is, in my mind, finally over. The A’s could trade a few other players, but the big trade chips are now off the table.

Now, it is up to Beane and the rest of the team’s front office to stay the course of this recent rebuild. The A’s have been in this position before, but Beane’s execution has been shaky at best in recent years. That Matt Holliday trade from a few years ago still has many people scratching their heads in confusion.

Oakland, in trading away their biggest players, have replenished their farm system with a few good names. Those names, though, need to stay in Oakland and out of the trade rumors.

Beane did well in both the Cahill and Gonzalez trades, but people were less impressed by the Bailey deal. The A’s scored top prospects with the Cahill and Gonzalez trades, but the team didn’t get as much from Boston in exchange for All-Star closer Bailey. (more…)