Excerpt: "Offseason Catchup, AL West"

"Maybe the biggest thing to see here is the depth. The A's won the West last year with one reasonable MVP candidate -- Josh Donaldson -- and a whole lot of players who just managed to not hurt the team. Of the A's with significant playing time, just Brett Anderson, Chris Young and Nate Freiman contributed sub-replacement performance, and Young just barely. Eighteen players were worth at least one win, while just two -- Donaldson and Bartolo Colon -- were worth at least five. In that pile of stuff Beane brought in, you see more of the same, players who through defensive skill, baserunning, keeping the ball down, getting righties or lefties out, will contribute more than they'll take away."