I wonder how, if at all, this affects how Dave and DMZ view Johnny Damon.

I don’t see how this would effect their view on Damon at all.

One would argue that Xavier Nady is a much better fit that for this club than Johnny Damon is to begin with, seeing how he can play LF and 1B.

299 innings in logged at 1B in 2005, 240 in 2006, and one would probably convince a guy to be a RH platoon at 1B against tough lefties seeing how he’s coming off a pretty major arm surgery.

He may very well represent a good “buy low” candidate but he clearly won’t be the offensive upgrade Branyan was unless he breaks out in a big way — which of course is possible: his .362 wOBA in ’07 was close to Branyan’s .368 in ’09, and that was the last year he had a full-time job with the same team all season. Still, it’s a bit much to expect lightning in a bottle yet again (even Gutierrez isn’t going to be Gutierrez 2.0).

But he’s a LH batter without big platoon splits and he’s young, cheap, has some upside (with breakout potential). The “major illness followed by positional/organizational uncertainty” thing reminds me a bit of Carlos Guillen, actually.

Plus his name is easy to spell (though it’s not quite “Bill Hall”) and, hey, here’s something: you know all those first round players Zduriencik has been trading away? Kotchman was the 1st round pick (13th overall) for the hated Angels in ’01.

However, it reminds me a little of Adrian Beltre’s Dodgers career – one big season and an excuse for every other year.

Anyway, I’ll keep the faith and look for a solid season from Casey.

Kotchman’s minor league career left him at nearly a .900 OPS, and exhibited doubles power which often translates well into HR power as a player enters his prime. His career BABIP in the ML so far is just .279– it seems to be too low to be sustainable the rest of his career. That is terrible and I don’t expect it to continue.

It could be that Jack Z’s scouting instincts tell him that Kotchman is a guy who is potentially much better than what his previous numbers tell us.

Seems also that the Ms are satisfied overall with Lopez. Adequate defense, decent driving in runs (he had the 2nd highest percentage of men on base turned into runs — first? Gutierrez), and I’ll bet they are going to work on his plate discipline.

The one piece I think that Jack Z intends to add is another quality starting pitcher. Not going after a more costly first-base option may leave him the money to do so.

Can’t say until they start beating the ball with the bat, but on paper the move seems good to me.

I bet we simply needed a little extra cash to get Harang (and possibly another bat like Scott) into the fold, and this was the only feasible way for Zduriencik to do it.

Here’s where the cash savings in. To me it’s looking like either a signing (Sheets?), or a play for Harang or Liriano (which would also mean a 2B signing if Lopez goes). That’s my best guess, save at 1B to spend it on the best 3rd SP in the league that gets paired with Felix and Lee.

I would love to see one of Nady (better fit) or Garko (cheapest) or Scott (lefty?), and a pitcher with what’s left.

3. Nick Johnson (950)

The M’s just traded a backup (whom was next to free last year), likely low minor league scrub, and some cash for a 26 year old elite defender with a top prospect pedigree who has shown on base skills in the past and is at the age where he could start to show more power.

I realize there were better options out there to be gotten to fill the 1B hole, but I like this better than going 2 / $17M rumored to be offered by the Giants for Adam LaRoche.