A's trade Swisher, does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Billy Beane knows talent and he knows that the White Sox gave up prime prospects in this deal. Baseball America ranked Gio Gonzalez the third best prospect in Chicago's system. He earned a 9-7 record and a 3.18 ERA with the Birmingham Barons in 2007. In 150 innings, Gonzalez struck out 185 batters, gave up just 116 hits, and lowered his walk total to 57. He was named a Southern League all-star. At the beginning of the 2007 season, OF Ryan Sweeney was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 1 Prospect in the White Sox organization. Pitcher Fautino de los Santos

gets tremendous drive. His fastball sits at 91-95 mph, touching 98 at times; it also has late movement, and he commands it very well. His breaking pitch is a power curve with hard late bite, and it's a true out pitch when he’s on.

He was rated the #1 Sox prospect at the end of the 2007 season. Talk about a trade for the future! Watch out for the A's in the next couple seasons....

I'm a little surprised, but they're receiving in return the top two pitching prospects in the Sox system, along with a formerly hot prospect in Sweeney.

Swisher still comes relatively cheap ($3.5m next season) for a guy with good power and a high OBP. I guess Beane feels, though, that they may as well go all-out on the rebuilding, and he's not likely to find a much better deal than he's getting here. I don't have their stats in front of me, but I know that Gonzalez has a nice fastball and breaking pitch, and strikes out a lot of guys.

With this trade, Gonzalez has now been dealt three times - for Jim Thome, Freddy Garcia, and now Swisher!

I am a White Sox fan and I like the trade because Swisher's power numbers will probably go up with us and although I will miss Sweeny, who i believe to be the person that was the biggest lost on our side of the trade.

Sad day for A's fans. Swisher was the heart of the team last year, he played with passion, he had fun, he was always smiling, etc.......With that said now we have to find someone to replace him in the lineup. We have revamped our minor leagues, but what does that accomplish if we don't have many major league ready players to even compete? Last year was our first losing season in a while, and Beane calls for a complete overhaul of the team.

Usually, I support Beane's decisions with trading away to get prospects, but now I'm not so sure where Beane's head is at! We, had a lot of injuries last year, which also helped bring down the win loss record. So, do I really see a need for a complete overhaul of the team? No! I see a team that just needs to be healthy. It's a sad day for A's fans now that Swisher is gone.

O.K. They traded Huddie and Mulder a while ago to make money and get prospects, and they did.

They eventually got rid of Zito and Dye to make more money.

Now, they traded Haren (had him for 2 seasons) to get porspects and Swisher for nothing basically. I guess even though they got the finincial space they needed in loosing the big three, they still need money. What a bad payroll!

I remember when Mark Shapiro was trading everyone we had even though it seemed as if we already got money and prospects. For a few years, no one came to the ballpark, but then they started to win, and everyone came back.

Billy Beane is the man, he will have the A's contending by the year 2010. It may seem like a long time away, but it will come sooner than you think.

I think that sucks.Swisher was like the superstar of the team , he was everyones favorite player.Whenever it was his turn to be at bat the whole crowd would go crazy.It sucks bein an A's fan.All my favorite players got traded this year. Scutaro ,Haren ,Swisher.If Swisher is out the possibilities are endless.I was surprised when Haren got traded,but i never ever saw this one coming.Everyday my uncle calls me and tells me ''Swisher got traded " as a joke ,and i always say no he didn't ,that would be stupid ,but today he's gonna be tellin me the truth.

not surprised, if you play for the As dont expect to stay long.

ex: haren, zito, hudson, mulder.

this was a great trade for oakland. kenny williams is gonna get canned for this one. swisher is a lifetime 250 hitter and is 28 years old. and 1 of the minor leaguers is ryan sweeney who is arguably the white sox top prospect. he alone is better than swisher.

Good move for the A's.

Nick Swisher is terrible. .250 hitter and a strikeout machine.

Call me old fashioned, but I'd like a guy that has 404 K's in his career to have more than 80 HR's. Especially when he's never hit over .262.

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Not at all..... Dave Henderson, Rickey Henderson, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Tim Hudson, Nick Swisher and Dan Haren among others.....

The Oakland A's have always never been able to hold onto their star and franchise players! I'm not sure why they let them go before they are able to hit their prime.....

Swisher was good, but not all that great.

He didn't hit for a very good average, though he can rake.

I think the A's are committed to rebuliding and they just saw a chance to sell high and they did.