Aggressive A's Following Giants' Blueprint

Don't look now, but the A's are positioning themselves to be the chic pick for a breakthrough season in 2011.

For the second time in a week they added a piece to their dismal offense, hoping to bring it up to be a better complement to the best young pitching staff in the league. (If this sounds familiar, keep reading.)

The latest acquisition is third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, claimed on waivers Friday from the Blue Jays. Encarnacion is the second third baseman on the A's roster, joining Kevin Kouzmanoff, but that's just a formality because manager Bob Geren has a few months before he needs to fill out a lineup.

"This gives us some options," A's assistant GM David Forst told FanHouse. "Luckily we don't have to decide tomorrow who our third baseman is."

Encarnacion is certainly not a sexy name this winter, but he did hit 21 homers in 96 games last year, with a .482 slugging percentage. He's going to be 28 years old. He doesn't have much of an on-base percentage (.305 last season, .336 career) and he's not very good defensively, so he doesn't quite fit the A's mold, but they could alleviate one of those problems by using him at DH.

Last year the A's designated hitters combined for 15 homers with a .386 slugging percentage, so Encarnacion definitely rates as an upgrade.

This move comes two days after they added David DeJesus, so the A's have already improved two of the top five spots in the lineup, and they have all nine spots filled. Now they can continue to shop for a real impact DH without feeling the pressure to overpay. If they get one, they can always move Encarnacion to third and trade Kouzmanoff.

They'll most likely be looking at players like Lance Berkman, Aubrey Huff, Hideki Matsui, or even an Adam Dunn or Paul Konerko if they decide to loosen the purse strings a little more.

The A's have cash this winter because they are free of Eric Chavez ($12.5 million in 2010), Ben Sheets ($10 million) and Justin Duchscherer ($1.75 million) and likely will non-tender Jack Cust ($2.65 million). Most of the rest of the roster is dirt cheap. The top four starting pitchers and the closer, with three All-Star selections among them, will make less than $6 million combined in 2011. As of now the highest-paid players are Mark Ellis and DeJesus, who will each make $6 million.

Encarnacion made $4.75 million last year, and he has more than five years of service time, putting him near the top of the arbitration class, so he'll be due around $6 million. Kouzmanoff, who has just over four years of service time, made $3.1 million last year, so he'll jump to around $4.5 million. (The deadline for offering arbitration is Dec. 2. If the A's have another slugger by then, they could non-tender Kouzmanoff or Encarnacion to save some money.)

If the A's don't spend another dime on players from outside the organization, they can put out a lineup that is better offensively and defensively than the one that helped them to an 81-81 record in 2010.

They have an outfield of Coco Crisp, Ryan Sweeney and DeJesus, an infield of Daric Barton, Mark Ellis, Cliff Pennington and Kouzmanoff, with Kurt Suzuki behind the plate and Encarnacion at DH. They also have powerful prospect Chris Carter, who could fit in at DH if he makes the adjustments necessary to transfer that minor league power (98 homers over the past three seasons) to the big leagues.

That's an exceptional defensive lineup, but it is lacking some pop. Encarnacion is the only one who hit 20 homers last year. Other than Carter, it's not likely that any of the others even have a chance to improve to 20 this year.

If the A's can add one more piece – or even if they can't – they will go into 2011 looking like a team set on following in the footsteps of their neighbor from across the Bay. The one that just had the big parade.

In 2009 the Giants had one of the best pitching staffs in the majors and one of the worst offenses, just like the A's in 2010. The Giants got some surprises from a few cast-off hitters and plugged in one stud prospect of their own, and they went from 14th to ninth in the NL in scoring, which was just enough to get them four extra wins that got them into the playoffs. Once they were there, the pitching took over.

Which brings us back to the A's -- who, for the record, ranked 11th in the AL in scoring this year. They believe they've improved the offense already with DeJesus and Encarnacion, and it could upgrade even more if they can somehow manage to keep Sweeney and Crisp off the disabled list.

If they do land another slugger, that should help even more.

The A's also believe that the pitching could be better with the addition of Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma, who is expected to sign near the end of the 30-day negotiating window next month.

Iwakuma would be added to a pitching staff that had a league-best 3.58 ERA -- significantly better than the second-place Rays, at 3.78.

It's still a leap of faith to assume that none of the A's young pitchers will regress or get hurt or that the offense won't be again ravaged by injuries. For now, though, there is certainly reason for cautious optimism that the A's busy November might lead them next year to something they haven't had since 2006 -- a busy October.