[The Elephant Walk is my somewhat regular column on Oakland Athletics baseball. Results, performances, transactions or other thoughts I might have about the A’s]

Sweet merciful crap. What a season so far. I think the total number of players who have been on the DL this year is up at 22? I believe that’s the number, and if so that means that roughly 75% of the A’s active roster has gone down to injury at some point this season.

Either this is the baseball gods’ smiting of Billy Beane for questing the value of the stolen base or one of the unluckiest .500 teams in baseball history. Honestly, considering everything that has gone wrong to date, the simple fact that the A’s are probably going to finish a .500 team is a miracle on par with one of Britney Spears’ kids growing up to be “normal”. It just doesn’t happen this way folks.

What really pisses me off too is why we’ve lost so many guys this season; hamstring pulls and back problems galore. Who’s the friggin strength coach in Oakland anyway.. David freaking Wells? Man, Bobby Crosby on the DL I get (fractured hand). Some of these other guys are sitting for two weeks with crap that couldn’t have kept me out of a little league game. It’s always going to be hard for me - a guy who played 3 weeks of college rugby with a broken collarbone - to understand how professional athletes have been allowed to become such giant pussies. It’s mind boggling to the point that Cal Ripken, Jr - for sure - is rolling in his grave.

[Ed. Note: okay, so Cal’s not exactly dead yet. My bad.]

So now where does that leave me? Well, it’s not even September and I’m already going to start looking ahead to 2008 because unless the team planes for the Mariners, Yankees and Tigers somehow collide in some freak occurrence, I don’t see the A’s making up the 10 games they are out in the Wild Card right now.

So on to 2008 and what might be in store for the team:

First Base
Catcher probably won’t be any surprises; Kurt Suzuki will be the number one guy. This is a good thing too because Jason Kendall’s offensive stat lines might have been at the level of an 8th grader. Anything beats a .226/ .261/ .281 stat line.

First Base
Who in the hell is going to be the A’s first baseman? It’s not going to be Dan Johnson… oh, please tell me it’s not Dan Johnson… crap, it’s going to be Dan Johnson.

The A’s would love to be able to trade Dan Johnson, and I would love that too. Johnson is probably one of the better AAAA players out there but it’s hard to be successful with AAAA talent at a position where you need to get production. I think that the A’s will probably open with Johnson on the roster - likely platooned with Daric Barton - until they can trade him for relief pitching or an obscure minor leaguer.

In the end though, it’s Daric Barton’s job to lose starting the first day of Spring Training. Swisher is still a nice backup plan though and can keep playing some first base and outfield to help bring Barton along slowly.

Second Base
Mark Ellis has this covered for now; Donnie Murphy’s development becomes important since 2008 is going to be Ellis’ “contract year”. Ellis could actually be traded along with Johnson before 2008 even begins considering that the A’s also have uber-utility man Marco Scutaro. I like Ellis, but I secretly pray for an Ellis-Johnson-Chavez trade for someone super-fantastic.

Shortstop
Bobby Crosby is the starter; no arguments there. The question is who will be the replacement when Crosby makes one of his quad-annual trips to the DL? This probably comes right back to Donnie Murphy and Marco Scutaro. Case closed.

Third Base
Is it wrong of me to want nothing to do with Eric Chavez? The guy has All-Star talent and the body of an 85 year old geriatric woman. You just can’t depend on both Crosby and Chavez on one side of you infield. New acquisition Jack Hannahan is another quad-A player; not an option. My prayers would be answered by a Johnson-Ellis-Chavez trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Andy Laroche and
Clayton Kershaw, Bryan Morris or Scott Elbert.

That’s my dream, and I guy can dream… but to be “realistic” I have to grudgingly state that Eric Chavez will man the hot corner for the first half of 2008; the second half will see him back on the DL… again.

Corner Outfield
Jack Cust, Travis Buck, Nick Swisher - three corner outfielders who will all: draw walks, strikeout, and hit homeruns at higher than average rates. Chris Snelling makes for an AAAA option.

Centerfield
Ah yes, Mark Kotsay and his spaz-tastic back is first in line. Former prospect turned surgeon’s playtoy Chris Denorfia - who was the Red’s minor league player of the year in 2005 - is a Billy Beane kind of guy; a 0 tools prospect who seems to get things done on effort. He will back up CF and probably spot start in all three outfield positions if he is healthy.

Starting Pitching
Rich Harden? Maybe? Although I think I’d rather see a permanent move to the bullpen, I’m not so sure they’re ready to give up on Harden as a starter just yet.

Other starters in 2008 will be Esteban “sit out 90% of 2007 with a bad neck/ knee/ back” Loaiza, Dan Haren, Joe Blanton, and one of the following: Chad Gaudin, Lenny DiNardo, Jason Windsor, or Colby Lewis. It’s not overwhelming, but they have been getting the job done this year and I don’t see the A’s making any moves this offseason for starters considering how inflated that market is going to be.

Hell, Carlos Silva with his 4.10 ERA and 10-12 record is probably going to get $2-3 million per year in this offseasons’ market. I might just throw my hat in the ring to see if I can get any takers at $20-30 thousand with that kind of inflation on pitching. There’s going to be a whole lot of money thrown at worthless crap this year; thank goodness the A’s can’t afford to be in on that.

Relief Pitching
Houston Street, Justin Duchscherer, Alan Embree, Santiago Casilla, Jay Marshall, Kiko Calero, and Andrew Brown…. Taken care of, but still I could see Beane tweaking with this in the offseason.

Designated Hitter
Here is the only real place in this that I actually have to make a bold leap. Considering the A’s potential outfield depth, Jack Cust could DH and play the outfield along with Nick Swisher. So here it goes: what does Billy Beane like? Walks. And who walks? Well, Sean Casey does.

Casey is boring, not a lot of power, but good OBP. I can see the A’s offering a contract to Casey and then possibly trying to sign Mike Piazza again as a backup plan.