The Pastime

Wow. Apparently the rumors have been true, and Asst. GM David Forst has an offer on the table for Darin Erstad.

Oakland assistant general manager David Forst did not disclose financial details of the offer but confirmed that the club presented it last week to Erstad’s agent, Greg Genske, and Forst was hoping to hear back from Genske by the end of this week.”We know some other teams have expressed interest,” Forst said, “but we don’t have any idea how many offers have been made.”

As an Oakland fan, this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’d guess that they’re looking at Erstad as a defensive replacement in case Mark Kotsay’s back continues to degrade with spasms. Erstad is projected to hit .270/.327/.375, which reminds me of Jason Kendall’s 2005 season: .271/.345/.321, but with a little less patience and slightly more power.

Erstad has been injured often in the last few years, and at 34, isn’t exactly young anymore. He could likely still play above-average defensive center field, and that’s about all he can offer. The only person he can beat out on offense is Antonio Perez.

On the other hand, as someone born and raised in Nebraska, I have a favorable opinion of Erstad. I’m not going to claim he was an integral part of the National Champion football teams, but he was valuable to the Huskers in other ways. He was a great hitter and outfielder for three years at Nebraska, and he also donated $1 million to the University recently.

So, from an A’s fan perspective, I don’t think this is a great deal unless Erstad can stay healthy and hit .300, but from a Nebraskan perspective, I’m glad that Erstad might join my favorite team. Hopefully he can contribute.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 12th, 2007 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Oakland A's, Players, Nebraska Baseball, Rumors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.