Oakland's Billy Beane staying busy

Oakland GM Billy Beane has been a busy man early on this off season. After winning the rights to Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, Beane & Co. then turned their eyes toward improving Oakland's less than stellar offense.

On Wednesday, Beane swung a deal with the perpetually rebuilding Kansas City Royals for veteran outfielder David DeJesus. The 30-year old DeJesus is coming off an injury-plagued season during which he compiled a batting line of .318/.384/.443 over the course of 91 games. DeJesus is a plus fielder with good range and figures to play left field for the A's with Rajai Davis manning center and Ryan Sweeney in right. DeJesus is an obvious upgrade both offensively and defensively over Gabe Gross, who hit just .239 with 25 rbi in 105 games.

In the deal for DeJesus, Oakland sent Kansas City 23-year old Vin Mazzaro and 22-year old Justin Marks, both pitching prospects with decent ceilings. Mazzaro figures to vie for a rotation spot next season.

After upgrading the outfield, Oakland then snapped up third baseman Edwin Encarnacion off waivers from Toronto. The Blue Jays will receive no compensation for losing Encarnacion however, with the third baseman coming off a season during which he hit 21 home runs (in just 96 games), odds are good he would've received a decent raise over the $5.1 million he made last season.

The Encarnacion move is a curious one as he doesn't appear to be an upgrade over last year's third baseman, Kevin Kouzmanoff. Both have similar power numbers and hit for around the same average, while Kouzmanoff is clearly a more well-rounded fielder. While I suppose it's possible Oakland will offer arbitration to both players, one wonders where they'd both play. A platoon situation would not appear to be part of the plan as neither player hits right-handed pitching particularly well.

Oakland is said to not be done looking for upgrades to their offense, including rumors of heavy interest in Florida Marlins second baseman and 2-time all-star Dan Uggla, who most recently turned down a 4-year contract extension reportedly worth $48 million.

Oakland on the verge of adding MORE pitching?!?

An obvious team strength may be about to get another boost as it appears the Oakland A's have won the bidding for the rights to negotiate with Japanese star pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma.


Arguably the second best pitcher in Japan (after the ridiculously dominant Yu Darvish), the 6'3", 170 pound, 29 year old right-hander has posted a record of 49-24 with an ERA of 2.70 over the last four seasons with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Iwakuma has a 3/4 delivery and is a fastball/slider/two-seamer/forkball pitcher with extreme ground ball tendencies. With Oakland sporting one of the best fielding infields in baseball, this would appear to be a perfect fit.

The former Pacific League MVP did suffer some injury issues in late 2006 into 2007, which forced him to learn a new way to pitch in an effort to relieve some of the stress on his arm. Prior to the injury, his fastball came in around 94-95. It now rests at 90-91 but is not seen as an issue as he has such fine control over all his pitches.

Oakland will now have 30 days during which time they retain exclusive negotiating rights to the pitcher. Since Japanese teams don't post players without understanding they'll likely lose them, the negotiations should move forward without much issue.

Most scouts believe the pitcher projects as either a decent 3rd or solid 4th starter in the big leagues.