25-year old lefty swinging 1B Daric Barton is having a pathetic season with a bat in his hands. He has played in 61 games for the A’s so far this year and he is 48 for 222 (.216 avg, .600 OPS) with 25 runs scored, 0 homers, 17 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Barton is starting to do a little better so far in June. He has played in 9 games so far in June and he is 9 for 33 (.273 avg, .688 OPS) with 4 runs scored, 0 homers, 4 RBIs an 1 stolen base. The A’s need to bench Barton and move Josh Willingham to 1B with a better defensive player replacing him in LF. Barton just doesn’t have the power or the bat to be an asset at 1B in the majors.

33-year old right swinging starting 2B Mark Ellis played well in 2010 for the A’s. He played in 124 games for the A’s last year and he was 127 for 436 (.291 avg, .739 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 5 homers, 49 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. The A’s thought that Ellis would be solid again for them in 2011, but that just hasn’t been the case yet. Ellis has played in 39 games for the A’s so far this year and he is 26 for 134 (.194 avg, .490 OPS) with 7 runs scored, 0 homers, 6 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Ellis has been a solid player for the A’s for a long time, so he likely has until at least the All-Star break to turn things around before the team even thinks of replacing him.

Starting 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff is off to an all-around terrible start as he isn’t hitting or playing good defense so far this year. Kouzmanoff has played in 9 games for the A’s so far this year and he is 5 for 29 (.172 avg, .394 OPS) with 2 runs scored, 0 homers, 2 RBIs and 1 stolen base. He has also made 3 errors already this year after making only 12 in all of 2010! The A’s were trying to replace Kouzmanoff all winter long but they couldn’t get a 3B who was better at the price they wanted to spend. So for now, Kouzmanoff appears safe, but if he continues to have problems the A’s might turn to Andy LaRoche at 3B.

The Oakland A’s were expecting a power surge out of 29-year old righty swinging 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff when they acquired him over the winter in a deal with the Padres. After all, Kouzmanoff had averaged 19.7 homers and 82 RBIs in his three years with the Padres playing half of his games at Petco Park. This season though, Kouzmanoff has actually shown less power than when he was with the Padres and I’m positive the A’s GM Billy Beane didn’t see than coming. Kouzmanoff has played in 137 games for the A’s this year and he is 132 of 526 (.251 avg, .683 OPS) with 56 runs scored, 14 homers and 69 RBIs. The A’s hope he gets his act together in 2011.

I honestly have no idea why A’s GM Billy Beane signed 30-year old lefty swinging outfielder Gabe Gross as he has stunk his whole career and 2010 was no different. Gross has played in 93 games for the A’s this year and he is 49 of 208 (.236 avg, .584 OPS) with 22 runs scored, 1 homer, 23 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. He has now played in 645 games in his 7 years in the majors and he is 345 of 1,447 (.238 avg, .714 OPS) with 198 runs scored, 40 homers, 184 RBIs and 22 stolen bases. I think the A’s would have been better served to give a youngster like say Travis Buck the 200+ empty at bats that they gave Gabe Gross.