Luke Gregerson has authored 5 brilliant seasons coming out of the Padres Bullpen. He has a 2.78 ERA and 1.092 WHIP in his 347 IP worth of work. The 29 Year Old from Park Ridge, IL originally, has averaged appearing in 68 games a year.  The A’s will use him as a late inning arm with Jim Johnson, Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle also being capable inning’s eater to nail down shut victories.  Gregerson is in his 3rd Year (made $3.2 MIL) of Arbitration before he hits the Free Agent Market in 2015.

By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024

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Billy Beane ended his whirlwind day on Tuesday. by flipping just signed OF/DH/PH Seth Smith to the San Diego Padres for Relief Pitcher Luke Gregerson.

In what can only be described as shock, I can’t believe the Padres could be this brutal in talent evaluation.

Beane has continued his pillaging from all other franchises.

The result was that he never touched any of the 9 Starting Players from his offense, zero from his Rotation, and only 2 Minor League Players from last season, to acquire 2 potential Closers/late inning relievers, a premiere CF defender, and a nice #5 Starter in return.

Luke Gregerson Interview from 2012

There is no doubt that Seth Smith is a ‘nice’ professional hitter, – with a Career 3 Slash Line of .265/.432/.798 – but you have to be cautious when believing all of the hype – as he has played the majority of his career at Coors Field – where he was .299/.370/.937 for the Rockies. His Athletics numbers probably reflect more of his real totals. In 751 AB from 2012 – 2013, the OF/PH/DH hit .246/.331/.748.  At least he is really familiar with the NL West.  On a positive note, the man has hit really well at Petco Park, with an OPS of .812 in 79 AB while playing in San Diego.  Smith was just tendered Arbitration hours before he was dealt for Gregerson.

I think that the Oakland A’s GM is not done either.  He is cooking up something else.  He has an abundance of Starting Pitching, (where he could definitely offload Brett Anderson‘s $8 MIL deal in 2014.)

The Athletics have also given themselves options beyond the 2014 season.  But for now. we should talk about this specific deal.

Luke Gregerson, a former 28th RD Draft Pick for the St. Louis Cardinals (pause now for a moment to remember the Joe Pesci moment where he says “there is a f’n surprise” to Fred Gwynne in the movie ‘My Cousin Vinny”) – has put forth 3 great consecutive years for the Padres Relief Core.

Seth Smith has been living off of his Coors Field inflated numbers.  I am not saying that he is not a legitimate OF in the MLB, because he is, this is just a case of determining value for value.

Both of these men are in the last year of their Arbitration Clocks, and will hit Free Agency in 2015.

A lot of the Athletics fanbase was wondering if the management was even going to tender Seth Smith for 2014.  When it was revealed that he was, I knew he was cooking something up.

We praise Beane on this site a lot because he deserves it.

A few days ago, he was sitting with a roster that wasn’t sure who the Closer was going to be, and had to be fearful of outbidding any of the to other franchises to fix this problem via Free Agency.

Oakland simply can’t afford to address their squad every year by signing a bunch of guys to multi-year deals – worth mega bucks.

In the last 48 hours, the man has given a perfect assembly of late inning arms to close out games.

The A’s already have quality arms out of their Relief Core in Ryan Cook, Sean Doolittle, Jerry Blevins and Dan Otero.

The 7th Inning and beyond looks great now by adding Gregerson (who has Closer experience) and Jim Johnson.

Beane has given himself great flexibility for duplicating similar transactions next year again.  The guy is the perfect ‘Baseball rounder’.

What the A’s also now is the time to strike is now…The window is only going to be for a few years.

Coco Crisp, Alberto Callaspo Jed Lowrie join Gregerson and Johnson as players in their last years of their team control and Yoenis Cespedes is free to leave after the 2015 year – with John Jaso, Jerry Blevins up for Free Agency in 2016.

It is impossible to keep up with the payroll for the 2 time defending champions.  Beane seems to have done enough creative maneuvering to have his team competitive again for 2014.

Billy Beane – and the Athletics have seen their team post the best record in the MLB during the regular season for the last 2 years (190 Wins). The franchise has completed the most incredible amount of wins per dollar spent. Enough so, that they should really come out with the movie MoneyBall 2.  The underlying theme will continues as “How long can he do this much – with so little.

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Chuck Booth – Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner and author of the Fastest 30 Ballgames:   To learn more about my  “The Fastest 30 Ballgames Book” and how to purchase it, click here .

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