30 A's in 30 Days: Chris Carter

Acquired: Traded from Arizona (with SP Brett Anderson, SP Dana Eveland, SP Greg Smith, OF Aaron Cunningham and OF Carlos Gonzalez) for SP Dan Haren (December 14, 2007).
Contract: Signed through 2011 (not yet eligible for arbitration).
Position: First baseman, left fielder or designated hitter of the future.

2011 Projected BA/OBP/SLG: .251/.330/.460

2010 Season: Carter entered the season as the A's top prospect after doing this (.337/.435/.576) at AA-Midland in 2009. Minor league expert John Sickels graded him an "A-" prospect and gushed "...I think [Carter] can be a special hitter." Baseball America called him the best power hitter in the organization. One lightly-read blogger even suggested that A's fans hadn't been this excited about a hitting prospect since Jose Canseco. He made his big league debut on August 9 after hitting 27 home runs in AAA-Sacramento. And, then it got ugly. Carter went 0 for 19 over a week's worth of games -- looking as if he'd never seen a slider before -- and was sent back down. He returned in September and went 0 for 14 before hit first Major League hit. He was a slightly less imposing Hulk last year.

2011 Over/Under: Through offseason trades (Josh Willingham), free agent signings (Hideki Matsui) and/or plain ol' incumbency (Daric Barton); the A's have made it clear that Carter is not in the plans for 2011. This team falls in and out of love with prospects as if they were grade school girlfriends. A's management continues to praise Carter at every turn, but his strikeout rate remains problematic and his defense -- at least in the outfield -- is abominable. This, unfortunately, is an easy UNDER.

By the Numbers: 3 – The number of home runs Carter hit with the A's last year after hitting 31 in the minors. I highly recommend watching him assault the ball.

Surefire 2011 Prediction: I'm not sure what Carter can gain from repeating Triple-A (and posting a .258/.365/.529 line in 551 plate appearances down there last year). Taking the Pacific Coast League environment into consideration, he'll hit more home runs than anyone on the A's MLB roster. Again.

Old School Rap Track for the Season: Build and Destroy, Boogie Down Productions