FanHouse BobbyCrosby

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the...
Most average team in the league. It's weird, because there don't seem to be many real weaknesses on team -- but can you really find a bunch of strengths? I hate the term "very average," but this team is pretty close to the mean across the board. As you scroll through ADP charts, you'll find the A's aren't often towards the top of the lists, but they are definitely there. As I said, average.

The Oakland Athletics have had a strange winter when you compare it to how they generally treat their offseason. Usually they spend the winter months trading away players in return for prospects to keep the low-budget team afloat and competitive. This year they've been adding veterans and payroll. They traded for Matt Holliday and signed Jason Giambi, then on Monday they signed Orlando Cabrera and are now on the verge of signing Nomar Garciaparra as well.

The latest moves seal Bobby Crosby's fate with the team. He has gone from being the starting shortstop in Oakland to a bench player the team hopes can be a "super sub." Crosby, though, is hoping to be traded.

Yet another Type A free agent has finally signed a contract with a team for 2009 after spending weeks negotiating. Dodgers fans, I'm sorry to report that it's not Manny Ramirez. He's still spending his time being insulted by the fact that the Dodgers only want to give him $25 million this year.

Instead it's shortstop Orlando Cabrera, who has finally agreed to a deal with the Oakland Athletics, signing a contract for one year and $4 million on Monday afternoon.

The A's really don't want Bobby Crosby to be their starting shortstop. Already this offseason they've tried their hardest to sign Orlando Cabrera and Rafael Furcal and placed Crosby on irrevocable waivers.

In the past month, they seemed resigned to sticking with their former shortstop of the future, but today John Heyman is reporting that the A's are again poking around the Cabrera market.

Heyman says that Cabrera's price would likely have to drop to about $5 million a year for Oakland, and that's a huge bargain given the upgrade he'd be over Crosby.

It must really suck to be Oakland Athletics shortstop Bobby Crosby this morning. After having to deal with all the rumors that the Athletics were going to sign -- and thought they had signed -- free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal, the deal fell through and Furcal went back to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Crosby probably felt relief knowing that he was going to be keeping his job, and just when he started to feel good about himself again, the A's kick him when he's down.

Since the team missed out on Furcal, they've decided to turn their attention elsewhere and now, according to Jon Heyman, elsewhere would be Orlando Cabrera. It's not hard to blame Oakland for wanting to find a replacement for Crosby, as Bobby does have a tendency to go on the disabled list every time the wind changes direction, and he did put up an unimpressive line of .237/.296/.349 last season in 145 games. He also had the second worst season of his career defensively, committing 17 errors and seeing his range factor drop to a career low of 4.17.

In Cabrera the Athletics would not only be getting a Gold Glove shortstop, but also an improved offensive player, even if he is getting up there in age, at 34 years old. Not to mention, thanks to the many years he spent with the Angels he has a good knowledge of the teams in the AL West.

What confuses me about all of this, though, is the direction the Athletics are taking. Remember the good old days when the Athletics would trade their soon-to-be rich players for a truck full of prospects? Now the team is doing nothing but bringing in high-priced veterans. Sure, the Furcal deal fell through, but the team still managed to get Matt Holliday from the Rockies, brought Jason Giambi back, and now they're going after Cabrera. What's next? Andy Pettitte?

It's as if the bad economy is actually helping the A's compete on the open market.

It should've been clear when the A's entered the Rafael Furcal sweepstakes that they weren't entirely happy with Bobby Crosby manning the shortstop position for them. When the A's lost out on Furcal, everyone assumed the A's would press on with Crosby for the 2009 season. That's likely what will happen, but it doesn't mean the A's are just blindly accepting that path.

Today, Jon Becker is reporting that the A's placed Crosby on irrevocable waivers, meaning that any team in the league can claim him so long as they're willing to pay his $5.25 million salary next year for a guy who is injury prone (he's only played 150 games once in his career), a terrible hitter, and has really only been a decent fielder over the last three years.

If Crosby is claimed, the A's have a few options outside of the system to play short for them in 2009. They could always trade for the eternally available Jack Wilson, who's a similar hitter to Crosby but has a better glove. He's even more expensive than Crosby, though the Pirates would likely be willing to pay some off his salary to get a deal done. Beyond that theres's David Eckstein. Can you imagine what would happen if Billy Beane signed David Eckstein? Heads would explode. I don't even want to think about that.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

It's obvious that Billy Beane doesn't understand the concept of Footprints in the Snow. You see first, we tell major league GMs what they oughta do, then we predict what they will actually do. After that, the GMs go and do something nobody expects and they show us why they're running baseball teams and we're blogging about it.

Beane has the order wrong. He's not supposed to go and leave his footprints in the offseason snow before we write about it? What fun is that? But that's exactly what Billy did yesterday as he went and traded for Matt Holliday. So what you're about to read is a second draft done through the prism of the Holliday trade. Thanks a lot Billy. Next time, could you take better notes at our meetings?

With the trade deadline right around the corner, our MLB editor brings you the top five rumors every day until July 31.

- Sometimes with trade rumors, it's just a matter of connecting the dots. The Dodgers have a scout in Tampa Bay for this week's Rays-A's series, and with Los Angeles tied with Arizona atop the NL West, you can bet he isn't there to check out Evan Longoria. Back in Tinseltown, manager Joe Torre announced his intentions to showcase give Andy LaRoche plenty of time at third base over the next few weeks.

Even considering Ned Colletti's apparent antipathy for young players, LaRoche is the one prospect who seems to have been jerked around the most. Oakland GM Billy Beane appears willing to deal just about any of his established big leaguers, and the Dodgers could use help just about everywhere. Reliever Huston Street is the obvious target, but shortstop Bobby Crosby and starting pitcher Justin Duchscherer could also end up on the move. LaRoche would be a more than handsome return for any one of those players.

- Brian Fuentes continues to be the hot commodity on the relief market. According to Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News, scouts from seven different teams have watched Fuentes pitch over the last few days, including almost all of the big boys from the American League. Fuentes gave up five runs in a loss on June 30 and since then has been utterly dominant, striking out 13 and walking none in his last seven appearances. Elsewhere, the Cardinals are reportedly stepping up their interest in Baltimore closer George Sherrill.

Don't look now, Bobby Crosby is coming on strong for the Oakland A's. Many baseball fans will remember a few years ago when Peter Gammons predicted Crosby to win the AL MVP award (of course, John Kruk also predicted Randy Johnson would win 30 games that year, so maybe it was all a hoax). Is it Crosby's time to finally shine? Maybe. Or maybe not. He's not going to suddenly become an All Star and stay healthy for an entire season, I tend to believe, but he does have a very nice schedule this week. That means you should probably start him, and you should probably also work on selling high while you can. There's very little chance Crosby can reach the 22 home runs that he hit as a rookie and consider that he's doing his "heavy damage" right now at only a .310 or so batting average; he'll average out but I think it's a good week to play him anyway.

Jose Reyes plans to play on Tuesday, assuming no further setbacks, so I think you need to start him, unless you have some ridiculous second option at short. Stephen Drew is heating up early this season as well, and the guy can hit -- he just has the "Drew Work Ethic", which is notorious for involving couches and riding your talent. Still though, he's a ridiculous talent and worth adding in most leagues.

It's probably worth at least trying to avoid Derek Jeter if you can, although he should be back by the middle of the week at worst, so if you can't afford to lose anyone on your roster, just try to ride him out.

Player	Team	MON	TUES	WED	TH	FRI	SAT	SUN
H. Ramirez	FLA		ATL	ATL	ATL	PHI	PHI	PHI
J. Reyes	NYM		WAS	WAS	WAS	at PHI	at PHI	at PHI
Furcal	LAD	PIT	PIT	PIT		at ATL	at ATL	at ATL
Rollins	PHI		HOU	HOU	HOU	NYM	NYM	NYM
Crosby	OAK	at CHW	at CHW	SEA	SEA	KC	KC	KC
Y. Escobar	ATL		at FLA	at FLA	at FLA	LAD	LAD	LAD