The Scorched-Earth Policy

The definition of scortched earth via Wikipedia:

"a military tatic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy whilst advancing through or withdrawing from an area."

Almost every player is put on waivers where teams can claim a player in an order based on the current standings. If a player clears waivers, he can be traded to anyone. The process is abit complicated, so here is a detailed explanation of how the "waiver wire" works. More on this in a bit...

With the A's having lost 5 of 6 games, the leader of this club, Eric Chavez and Bobby Kielty have spoken out to the media about neededing more help:

Eric Chavez - "To me, it's pretty apparent that another hitter would really help, especially this late in the year," he said. "I think the guys in here have hit a little funk, but remember, I didn't wait to say this now -- I was saying this a month ago. Just a big presence, that's what we could use."

Bobby Kielty - "These are the dog days right now," said Bobby Kielty. "Some of us aren't feeling too well with the way we're swinging the bat right now."

As the team is starting to struggle offensively, the A's are at a crossroads in the sense that if management gets another hitter, the players know that there is support from the front office with their play. By getting the best player from the pool of those who have cleared waivers, the A's are able to: move past other teams, rejuvenate the existing players, move Hatteberg into a part time role, and for postseason/franchise success.

So who's cleared? Well, the information is sketchy at best but two players who are known to have cleared are:

Mike Piazza. The Catcher with the DH Bat.

Dmitri Young. Above average DH bat who can play LF and 1st adequately.

I have gathered their stats along with a control, Phil Nevin, to compare and contrast the two possible acquisitions.

Mike Piazza:

SEASON	TEAM	G	AB	2B	HR	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	#P/PA	GIDP	GB	FB	G/F	XBH	BB/PA	BB/SO	IsoP
1992	LA	21	69	3	1	4	12	0.284	0.319	3.50	1	29	12	2.42	4	0.054	0.33	0.087
1993	LA	149	547	24	35	46	86	0.370	0.561	3.73	10	211	157	1.34	61	0.076	0.54	0.243
1994	LA	107	405	18	24	33	65	0.370	0.541	3.54	11	151	129	1.17	42	0.075	0.51	0.222
1995	LA	112	434	17	32	39	80	0.400	0.606	3.44	10	150	119	1.26	49	0.082	0.49	0.260
1996	LA	148	547	16	36	81	93	0.422	0.563	3.54	21	226	117	1.93	52	0.128	0.87	0.227
1997	LA	152	556	32	40	69	77	0.431	0.638	3.49	18	218	151	1.44	73	0.109	0.90	0.277
1998	LA	37	149	5	9	11	27	0.329	0.497	3.33	3	62	37	1.68	14	0.068	0.41	0.215
1998	NYM	109	394	33	23	47	53	0.417	0.607	3.64	12	160	103	1.55	56	0.105	0.89	0.259
1998	Fla	5	18	0	0	0	0	0.263	0.389	2.79	0	7	10	0.70	1	0.000	0.00	0.111
1999	NYM	141	534	25	40	51	70	0.361	0.575	3.58	27	194	182	1.07	65	0.086	0.73	0.272
2000	NYM	136	482	26	38	58	69	0.398	0.614	3.47	15	161	163	0.99	64	0.106	0.84	0.290
2001	NYM	141	503	29	36	67	87	0.384	0.573	3.71	20	171	162	1.06	65	0.117	0.77	0.272
2002	NYM	135	478	23	33	57	82	0.359	0.544	3.81	26	161	156	1.03	58	0.105	0.70	0.264
2003	NYM	68	234	13	11	35	40	0.377	0.483	3.52	11	88	83	1.06	24	0.128	0.88	0.197
2004	NYM	129	455	21	20	68	78	0.362	0.444	3.67	14	162	137	1.18	41	0.129	0.87	0.178
2005	NYM	97	351	23	14	34	60	0.326	0.444	3.52	6	133	103	1.29	37	0.088	0.57	0.185

Dmitri Young:

SEASON	TEAM	G	AB	2B	HR	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	#P/PA	GIDP	GB	FB	G/F	XBH	BB/PA	BB/SO	IsoP
1996	StL	16	29	0	0	4	5	0.35	0.24	3.50	1	8	10	0.80	--	0.118	0.80	0.000
1997	StL	110	333	14	5	38	63	0.34	0.36	3.69	8	148	74	2.00	22	0.101	0.60	0.105
1998	Cin	144	536	48	14	47	94	0.36	0.48	3.52	16	210	139	1.51	63	0.080	0.50	0.172
1999	Cin	127	373	30	14	30	71	0.35	0.5	3.51	10	162	90	1.80	46	0.073	0.42	0.204
2000	Cin	152	548	37	18	36	80	0.35	0.49	3.28	16	240	130	1.85	61	0.061	0.45	0.188
2001	Cin	142	540	28	21	37	77	0.35	0.48	3.19	22	242	150	1.61	52	0.063	0.48	0.180
2002	Det	54	201	14	7	12	39	0.33	0.46	3.31	12	84	47	1.79	21	0.056	0.31	0.174
2003	Det	155	562	34	29	58	130	0.37	0.54	3.69	16	200	131	1.53	70	0.091	0.45	0.240
2004	Det	104	389	23	18	33	71	0.34	0.48	3.46	8	143	96	1.49	43	0.076	0.47	0.208
2005	Det	105	400	23	18	25	87	0.32	0.47	3.62	12	155	95	1.63	44	0.057	0.29	0.208

Phil Nevin:

SEASON	TEAM	G	AB	2B	HR	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	#P/PA	GIDP	GB	FB	G/F	XBH	BB/PA	BB/SO	IsoP
1995	Det	29	96	3	2	11	27	0.318	0.33	4.03	3	28	29	1	6	0.100	0.41	0.12
1995	Hou	18	60	1	0	7	13	0.221	0.13	3.38	2	22	22	1	1	0.103	0.54	0.02
1996	Det	38	120	5	8	8	39	0.338	0.53	4.15	1	36	23	1.6	13	0.062	0.21	0.24
1997	Det	93	251	16	9	25	68	0.306	0.41	4.01	5	78	69	1.1	26	0.090	0.37	0.18
1998	Ana	75	237	8	8	17	67	0.291	0.37	3.92	6	87	52	1.7	17	0.065	0.25	0.14
1999	SD	128	383	27	24	51	82	0.352	0.53	3.85	7	120	126	1	51	0.116	0.62	0.26
2000	SD	143	538	34	31	59	121	0.374	0.54	3.81	17	187	126	1.5	66	0.098	0.49	0.240
2001	SD	149	546	31	41	71	147	0.388	0.59	4.06	13	168	137	1.2	72	0.114	0.48	0.28
2002	SD	107	407	16	12	38	87	0.344	0.41	3.8	12	151	109	1.4	28	0.084	0.44	0.13
2003	SD	59	226	8	13	21	44	0.339	0.49	3.9	9	81	66	1.2	21	0.085	0.48	0.21
2004	SD	147	547	31	26	66	121	0.368	0.49	4.03	16	191	146	1.3	58	0.106	0.55	0.2
2005	Tex	16	64	4	2	3	15	0.265	0.38	4.26	5	16	24	0.7	6	0.044	0.20	0.16
2005	SD	73	281	11	9	19	67	0.301	0.4	3.88	2	96	81	1.2	21	0.062	0.28	0.14

So after looking at their cumulative stats, lets look at the dollars and sense of this:

	2005 Salary	2005 Remain	SLG	Delta SLG	dSLG:d$ ratio
Piazza	$16.071	$3.952	0.444	0.084	2.51
Young	$8.000	$1.967	0.473	0.113	8.28
Nevin	$9.492	$2.334	0.399	0.039	2.25
Hatteberg	$2.450	$0.602	0.360

In that last column, you have the percentage of the ratio between the diffence in SLG and Dollars with Hatteberg; clear and away, Young provides the biggest margin in which acquiring him would be the best upgrade. But the problem with Young is that he has vesting option for 2006...

DH/1B Dmitri Young, Tigers. His $8 million option for 2006 vests if he reaches 500 plate appearances this season or 1,000 combined in '04 and '05. He's closing in on both totals.

A's would have to be able to either get the Tigers to take on a little bit more of his contract, or they may be willing to bite the bullet as there is a bit of leeway in next year's budget.

Said Forst: "A lot of it is that we like the team we have. And guys who get through waivers oftentimes are guys with big-money contracts. ... But certainly, ownership has made it clear adding payroll for this year is something that they would consider."

In past conversations, Wolff has mentioned that the goal of building a new park is to have a larger season ticket fanbase which helps prepare the yearly budgets with up-front funds. Even though the A's are having some nice attendance figures, Wolff is unhappy with day of game sales as they are not forms of guaranteed money. So as he pushes his new ballpark plan, a postseason push would allow for more sales of 2006 season tickets.