We’re still waiting for our first big free agent signing of the offseason out here in Oakland. Though the biggest move to date may be addition by subtraction, as another MLB club has finally taken Jack Cust of our hands. The A’s have been seemingly trying to get rid of Cust for a few seasons now, and today the Seattle Mariners took a chance on the slugger/walker/striker-outer. At the beginning of last season, the A’s designated Cust for assignment, hoping another team would claim him. After he cleared waivers, he reported to AAA-Sacramento until injuries on the big league roster would force him up. He played uninspired ball the rest of the season and helped the A’s to another underwhelming offensive campaign. Cust made popular the “three true outcome player.” Each of his at-bats would surely end in one of three outcomes: a home run, walk, or strikeout. Problem is, two out of every three ended in a strikeout. His homers never seem to come when they counted, and his walks were mostly the result of resting the bat on his shoulders for 6 or 7 pitches. Throw a breaking ball, and you’ll surely strike him out. I know what the Mariners were thinking, he’s a guaranteed 20 HRs a year, but does this mean they’ve been sitting there for the last three years thinking, “where can we find a left-handed Richie Sexson?” Seriously, Mariner fans, that’s what you should be thinking right now.
Cust has got to be my most loathed player on the A’s in the last decade. There aren’t many, since the A’s have a knack for having blue-collar hustle guys. Pitching, defense, and basically fundamentals reigned supreme. Cust is none of these. Instead, he occupied the fat, lazy designated hitter spot and led the league in strikeouts three consecutive years. His 197 in 2008 
were particularly impressive. I won’t even get into his defensive shortcomings. The good news is this opens up a spot for a power hitter the A’s so desperately need. I share Chappy’s sentiment in that I don’t want them to break the bank on an older player who’s best days are behind them, but that may be our only option. And, if you give me a choice, I’ll take anybody over Cust. Right now it’s looking like Hideki Matsui, but I’d be happy with Doris Matsui at this point. Alright, so Cust isn’t that bad; I’m just happy for a change.
“You want to go where you’re wanted,” Cust said. “In Oakland, even though I always did pretty well there…I’m sure they’d say I struggled in spring and what I did the three years before wasn’t good enough to make that team, I guess…..When I talk about Oakland last year especially, it’s definitely not a very positive experience for me. So I’m trying to block that out a little.”
Aren’t we all, Jack. Aren’t we all…..
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
December 8th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Great stuff man! We can finally say this is it! I think we said something like this last year, but he snuck back on the team. THANK YOU SEATTLE!
December 8th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
And the rich get richer.
The BoSox sign Crawford for a bucketload of money.
Woe is the Rays fan.
Looks like it’ll be the same old American League East.
December 9th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Damn that’s weak. At least he didn’t go to the Angels I guess…
December 9th, 2010 at 8:24 am
mceezy
chappy and I were discussing this very same thing with regard to the merits of Cust and the Rays’ Carlos Pena . We agreed that both players strikeout a lot but I said to him that I believe that Pena is way better defensive player because of his Gold Glove credentials . The Mariners’ front office is almost as bad as that of the Pirates which actually isn’t saying a great deal at this juncture !
Few and far between ……….. ah the memories must’ve been so infrequent ? Cust will be sorely missed by A’s fans like a hole in the head !
😦
tophatal ……………………… 🙂
December 9th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
I agree, I would take Pena in a heartbeat. Even though he hit under the mendoza line, he hits more home runs and strikes out less. It’s a lot less painful. But speaking of painful, the A’s traded him in his younger years (along with Jeremy Bonderman) for basically Ted Lilly. That one always hurt.
December 10th, 2010 at 7:19 am
mceezy
This is the silly season within MLB ! All hell breaks loose and it’s all because of uber-agent Scott Boras and his antics once again . He and the owners in conjunction with the league’s hierarchy have done more to make the game a complete spectacle . There’s no common sense here when it comes to any sort of financial or business reasoning.
As for Cust there’s no doubt that the A’s are better off without him ! Here in Tampa the Rays’ GM Andrew Friedman thinks that in strengthening the team’s bullpen they’ll be able to content and compete with Red Sox and Yankees this upcoming season. I guess that the Rays will be playing in front barren crowd at the Trop this season .
Will be spending my time this weekend hopefully seeing Koscheck getting his a_s beaten to a pulp be George St Pierre in the UFC welterweight title bout !
tophatal …… 🙂
December 9th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
PS- Even this Jack Cust “highlight” reel bored me! Notice how only like two of them are after the 5th inning.
December 10th, 2010 at 7:22 am
mceezy
That’s what tends to happen in such cases . Should I have put a tape of Roseanne Barr singing the Star Spangled Banner instead ? The choice is yours ? LOL,LOL,LOL !!!
tophatal ………… 🙂
December 15th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I’ll tell you what, if you put Roseanne in a uniform and batting helmet, I wouldn’t be able to tell you which one is which (her and Cust)
December 14th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
[…] on base than Cust. Maybe the Asian bias comes in a little, but he is a big upgrade over Cust, which MCeezy already expressed. Who knows since the A’s never say anything that was said behind closed doors. It already […]
December 16th, 2010 at 7:13 am
mceezy
So you’re saying that Cust’s chest size is comparable to that of Roseanne’s ?
tophatal ……..
December 20th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
[…] that Magic fans have about him, but maybe not. All in all it was like the how the A’s finally rid themselves of Jack Cust. Addition by […]