http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/03/as-exercise-2011-options-on-coco-crisp-and-mark-ellis/ Baseball. Baseball. And then a bit more baseball. Thu, 20 Jun 2013 12:22:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/03/as-exercise-2011-options-on-coco-crisp-and-mark-ellis/comment-page-1/#comment-89450 Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:09:08 +0000 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=24065#comment-89450 [...] Ellis will be back in Oakland for another year.  The A’s picked up his $6 million option and will start him at second base again in 2011.  He was superb defensively this year with decent [...]

]]> http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/03/as-exercise-2011-options-on-coco-crisp-and-mark-ellis/comment-page-1/#comment-89315 Fri, 05 Nov 2010 04:06:17 +0000 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=24065#comment-89315 [...] Ellis will be back in Oakland for another year.  The A’s picked up his $6 million option and will start him at second base again in 2011.  He was superb defensively this year with decent [...]

]]> http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/03/as-exercise-2011-options-on-coco-crisp-and-mark-ellis/comment-page-1/#comment-88938 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:17:18 +0000 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=24065#comment-88938 The Ellis thing surprises me a little bit. Two possible explanations:
1) with so much money coming off the books (Chavez, Sheets) the payroll drop may have elicited union interest
2) They actually did not want to risk Ellis going free agent a la Scutaro, because they wanted him to help mentor their rising crop of young middle infielders. After all, a 102 WAR isn’t great unless you compare it to a 90.

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