Was Signing Coco Crisp a Mistake?

I don’t think so.

The criticism in some corners is that the A’s already have two outfielders with similar skills in Ryan Sweeney and Rajai Davis, and also have Scott Hairston and newly acquired Michael Taylor crowding the outfield for playing time, plus Aaron Cunningham and Travis Buck at the back of the mix.

The A’s need plenty of outfielders because the guys they have are not without doubts.  I think Ryan Sweeney has to have a job to lose unless he is just terrible in Spring Training.  After Sweeney, though: Coco Crisp — Can he stay healthy? Rajai Davis — is he for real? and Michael Taylor and Aaron Cunningham — are they ready?

As for Scott Hairston, well, he has value as a right-handed hitting platoon player and pinch-hitter.  He has a career OPS against left-handed pitchers of .867 and a career OPS against right-handers of .702.  Scott got too much playing time last year and had a feeble .653 OPS in 233 AB’s with the A’s, after a much better start in San Diego.  It’s a good thing for the A’s in 2010 if they have enough outfielders that they can keep Hairston hitting mostly against left-handers.

Travis Buck has fallen away profoundly since he looked like an incipient star at age 23, when he posted an .851 OPS in 82 games in 2007.  I can’t see anyway he doesn’t start the season at AAA Sacramento, unless he is THE BEST hitter in A’s Spring Training.

If I were the A’s, I’d want to go into Spring Training with extra outfielders.  If they find they have one too many, there will be teams needing another outfielder due to injury or under-performance by the end of Spring Training and continuing through the trade deadline.