30 A's in 30 Days – Landon Powell

Acquired: Drafted in first round (2004).
Contract: One year thru 2010. (Not yet eligible for arbitration.)
Position: Backup catcher

Projected BA/OBP/SLG: (.227/.314/.399)

Over/Under: Last May, Landon Powell injured his hamstring while running down the first base line. My A's – as an organization – are almost comically tight-lipped about in-season injuries, but when a 260-pound player whose job description is "infrequent squatting" hurts his leg, the disabled list is inevitable. Unless your team only carried TWO catchers on its 40-man roster. Putting Powell on the 15-day DL would've required the removal of someone from the 40-man, if the A's promoted a catcher from the minors. This led to a gimpy Powell missing just six games immediately after his injury.

I like the OVER on his projection. Powell had some surprising bursts of productivity during the season – most of which was spent on just one leg. This year, he was one of the first players from this year's A's to be featured in the annual Spring Training puff-piece profiles. Translation: he's in the best shape of his career!

By the Numbers: .505 – Powell's slugging percentage last year (in 111 plate appearances) vs. RHP. He also hit .316/.372/.658 with runners in scoring position – again, in a small sample size.

Surefire 2010 Prediction: I went back through almost every year of the Oakland A's team pages on Baseball Reference.com to find this, but Powell and starting catcher Kurt Suzuki will be the first pair of A's catchers to hit 10 home runs in a season since 1970. Move over Frank Fernandez and Dave Duncan!

Tupac Track for the Season: Part Time Mutha