Posted By Jeff Fletcher on January 7, 2009 2:47 pm

Couldn’t believe the A’s got Jason Giambi for $4 million for 2009 (with a buyout of $1.25 million for next year). That is nothing short of a steal. (The A’s are benefitting from a lousy economy and poor Jason Giambi is paying the price. If only I had to settle for $4 million. Sigh.)

Giambi is not what he was during his first go-around with the A’s, but the guy still hit 32 homers, drove in 96 runs and had a .373 on-base percentage last year. That makes him waaaay more productive than any of the A’s previous Rent-an-Old-Timer acquisitions (Piazza, Big Hurt, Mike Sweeney, John Jaha, etc.) were at the time they were signed.

Giambi’s gonna play first base, allowing Jack Cust to DH and sending Daric Barton to the bench. At first glance, it looks like the A’s are taking a detour from the youth movement by shelving Barton, the one-time super prospect. Don’t worry. They’re really just shelving Barton or Cust. Or Giambi, if he turns out to be a bust, for that matter. I don’t really see that they’re losing anything in this transaction.

So here’s the 2009 lineup and batting order, as I see it…

CF Ryan Sweeney
2B Mark Ellis
LF Matt Holliday
1B Jason Giambi
DH Jack Cust
3B Eric Chavez
C Kurt Suzuki
RF Travis Buck
SS Bobby Crosby

That’s potentially not awful, except for the fact that it’s quite lefty-heavy. They could hit Giambi third and Holliday fourth, to alleviate that a bit.

As an aside, how bad would it have been if the Giants had signed Giambi? Sure, there would have been issues with his defense, but so what? Teams that hit 94 homers in a whole season don’t get to be picky.