A better defensive LF than Eloy Jimenez?? Unpossible!! :-)

Nothing against Vaughn who might be the rich man's Konerko for all I know, but the "slugging" Swiss Army Knife put up a line of 235/309/396 last year which was a 92 OPS+ and a league average ISO. bWAR puts him at 0.2, -1.4 WAA last year ... and -8 Rfield. Good for Vaughn that he's willing to play wherever the team wants him and I hope the bat come around ... and maybe scouts, etc. project him to get better ... but he's not a high price to pay for 2 years of Montas.

Not that Montas looks super-special or anything. Everything in his track record looks "good but not great." But the Sox are trying to go for it, so go for it. Still, if you can slot in a so-so prospect instead of Vaughn, that's probably a good idea.

Yikes, I see that so far this year, Eloy has all 3 starts in LF and Vaughn 2 at DH ... maybe he's not better defensively than Eloy. (Or maybe the Sox just think it's better to give Eloy a consistent assignment.)

A’s Want Andrew Vaughn for Frankie Montas

They might settle for Ricky Vaughn when all's said and done.

They'll cry "UNCLE" and take Robert Vaughn.

Throw in Julio Franco, and we'll send you Von Hayes.

Nothing against the author of the article, but this is a special sort of stupid. The writer makes out Andrew Vaughn to be some sort of hybrid of Babe Ruth and Ben Zobrist. The reality is that Andrew Vaughn, at this point in his career, is a first baseman, and anyone who watches him play can see that he is regardless of where LaRussa sticks him in the field. Maybe Vaughn can develop into a passable left fielder- Kyle Schwarber appears to have done so, so anything is possible. But right now Vaughn is a defensive liability anywhere on the field except at 1B.

That said, Andrew Vaughn looks like he is going to hit. Basing an evaluation on him just on his rookie year is useless, especially considering he was trying to learn new positions while adjusting to big league pitching. I would put his floor at Paul Konerko, and that’s a pretty high floor. As the A’s are looking for young, MLB-ready talent for Montas, Vaughn is a perfectly reasonable ask. If the White Sox are truly all-in right now, then making the Vaughn-Montas deal is sensible since Montas has two years of control left and Jose Abreu ain’t going anywhere soon. Personally I wouldn’t do it since I think Vaughn will have a fine MLB career and the Sox have a lot of other young talent around him. But if I thought I had a legit shot at the title and lacked the resources to keep Vaughn long term along with Eloy, Luis Robert, Tim Anderson, and their young pitching, then I would make the trade.

Why did Vaughn play a game at 2B? Was Sid Fernandez pitching?

Here's the box.

Not El Sid but Carlos Rodon who is a reasonable analogue for Sid one would think. Day game after a night game that had gone extras. Looks like LaRussa was giving some folks a break. Moncada at DH, Leury Garcia played 3rd, Abreu had the day off, Eloy had just come back and been pinch hit for late the night before and didn't play for a few days so he probably wasn't 100%.

That said, Andrew Vaughn looks like he is going to hit. Basing an evaluation on him just on his rookie year is useless, especially considering he was trying to learn new positions while adjusting to big league pitching. I would put his floor at Paul Konerko, and that’s a pretty high floor. As the A’s are looking for young, MLB-ready talent for Montas, Vaughn is a perfectly reasonable ask. If the White Sox are truly all-in right now, then making the Vaughn-Montas deal is sensible since Montas has two years of control left and Jose Abreu ain’t going anywhere soon. Personally I wouldn’t do it since I think Vaughn will have a fine MLB career and the Sox have a lot of other young talent around him. But if I thought I had a legit shot at the title and lacked the resources to keep Vaughn long term along with Eloy, Luis Robert, Tim Anderson, and their young pitching, then I would make the trade.

This seems right. It's an ambitious ask by the As that they should be making. The White Sox may do it or might not. I'd be surprised if the As gave up Montas for much less since 1) unlike the other people they've traded Montas is cheap and has an extra year of control, and 2) they Manaea to a bunch of teams before pulling the trigger, and I'm sure they'd do the same with Montas.

I think it's a reasonable ask. When you have zero defensive value, you have to hit a ton to be really valuable.

The A's could use a good first baseman. They should ask the Braves about a Montas-for-Olson deal.

If the As had been able to pull off a Montas for Pache, Langeliers, Cusick and pitcher filler deal, they would need to write two books, one on the As one on what the Braves were doing.

The As situation is discouraging but it’s also weird that a story about the As asking too much for a player gets met with people mocking them for giving people away. They’re definitely trading all their expensive players but my impression is the world of baseball people has been impressed with how much they’re getting back and how well they’re having teams bid against each other.

During the A's game yesterday, Ken Korach or someone mentioned news that the Chisox are no longer interested in adding a starter. FWIW.

Also, Montas looked really sharp last time out.

The A's also want a pony.

The A's also want a pony.

They’ll ask for a pony but will settle for a puppy…

Or a bunch of feral cats.