The Oakland A's signed 20th century SB stud Shannon Stewart to a one-year deal, and The San Francisco Chronicle reports it as "...a move that seems to complete their outfield and make it more likely Nick Swisher will be playing first base." I first visited the question of whether Nick Swisher was the firstbaseman following some comments he made in the beginning of January on XM Radio's The Show with Kevin Kennedy and Rob Dibble. (Here)
This seemed to be coming to fruition when Ken Rosenthal reported the A's were closing in on Darin Erstad. I covered the fantasy implication for Dan Johnson (here). Fortunately for Johnson, Erstad signed with the White Sox - an unfortunate event for Brian Anderson and Ryan Sweeney.
Now Johnson's ticket has been punched with the signing of Shannon Stewart to player left field. This eliminates a cheap source of fantasy power (15-20 HRs) and replaces it with a weak-hitting player who is likely to spend the entire 2007 in the free agent pool of mixed leagues and make AL-only ones rue the day the paid for those 51 1998 SBs - or let that stat inflate his draft salary beyond the $8 or $9 mark in the hopes that phoenix will rise from the dead.