Fire Sale: A's are the second coming of the Marlins

The A's swapped OF/1B Nick Swisher to the ChiSox for prospects Ryan Sweeney, Gio Gonzalez, and Fautino De Los Santos. All of the prospects had been top-5 prospects in the White Sox system. Swisher is a powerful bat with a solid batting eye, although he could use some help in the batting average department posting a .262/.381/.455 (AVG/OBP/SLG) line in 2007.

So far, the A's have traded their best hitter (Swisher) and pitcher (All-Star starter Dan Haren). Next up, starter Joe Blanton, starting reliever Rich Harden, and reliever Huston Street. If Street and Harden come at reasonable price (with Billy Beane? Yeah, right.), I would like to see the Yankees go for them. An ideal price would be two top relief prospects (H. Sanchez, K. Whelan, J. Cox, D. Robertson, M. Melancon, R. Ohlendorf, E. Ramirez, etc.) and a top prospect or young player (I. Kennedy, A. Jackson, M. Cabrera, etc.) for Street, and one player less for Harden. I don't see this happening, though. Swisher would have solved our 1B problem, though, but the package would be the equivalent of losing Alan Horne, Melky Cabrera, and Dellin Betances, not something I would do given that Mark Teixeira is a free agent next year, and Carlos Pena and Miguel Cabrera are the year after. As for Street, if the price is too high, we can sign Francisco Rodriguez as a FA after 2008, and Street would be a free agent the year Mariano Rivera's contract is up. Interesting.