Is this UTIL guy any better than the guys the A's already had?

Andrew Werner, undrafted free agent from the University of Indianapolis who the Padres signed after he spent 2009 and 2010 in the Frontier League. Pretty good that he's now worth trading for.

Parrino tore it up in AAA the last couple of years, but hasn't really hit in the bigs.
Werner clambered up to MLB after starting his pro career with two full years of indy-league ball, so I automatically like him.

From here, though, neither of these guys looks like more than a place-holder.

These small market teams need to stop selling off all of their players, holding the city hostage for public stadium money, and hoarding revenue sharing money.

The Tyson Ross era in Oakland ends not with a bang but a whimper.

If Petco is more difficult to hit HR's than Oakland I expect Ross will stay on for awhile. He seems to have decent stuff.