It appears that the Billy Beane Player Emporium is still open for business as Beane just traded Nick Swisher to the White Sox for a bunch of prospects. The house-cleaning continues.

Swisher batted .262 with 22 home runs and 78 RBIs, all career highs, and he appeared to be on the cusp of being one of the A's Big Dogs. More importantly to all those stat-heads, he had high numbers in things like walks, pitches seen per plate appearance and on-base percentage against left-handed pitchers. He was also wildly popular with A's fans for his laid-back demeanor and friendliness. The prospects the A's received in return were Gio Gonzalez, pitcher Fautino De Los Santos and outfielder Ryan Sweeney. All of the prospects the A's received were among the best in the Sox system but are all a very bright shade of green.

With this trade and the Haren trade, the A's seem to have restocked and retooled their farm system and added depth to the team. And Beane always seems to know what he's doing, but, as an A's fan and coworker just exclaimed when she heard about the trade "I hate this stupid team" and disavowed her fandom. We should also note that while reaction on Athletics Nation hasn't quite filtered through, one of the tags given on a post about it was "suicide." For what it’s worth, Sox think Beane pulled a fast one on the Sox GM.

Still, it's not easy being a fan of the gold and green.