Check out the 2007 organizational stats for these two Oakland A’s relievers:

Outstanding numbers, and eerily similar. Is it a trick question? Are they from the same guy? Nope…

The first reliever is Huston Street. The second one is Andrew Brown, the player the A’s got in the Milton Bradley trade.

As lines on a spreadsheet, Street and Brown look identical. As physical specimens, they look about as much like twins as Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Street is listed as 6’0", 185 and throws with a near-sidearm delivery, while Brown brings his 6’6", 230 frame over the top, with a funky delivery that reminds me a lot of Kevin Appier:

When the A’s acquired Brown, I thought the A’s were just dumping Bradley for, shall we say, reasons of personality. It made little sense to me at the time otherwise, as the reports I’d heard about Brown made him sound like just another dime-a-dozen reliever the A’s could have picked up anywhere.

But obviously, Brown is much more than just staff filler. Now we can ask this question: would you rather have four months of Milton Bradley or four years of a second Huston Street? Granted, Brown accumulated more of the above stats at AAA than Street, and Brown is also 2 1/2 years older than Street, who just turned 24 this month. But Brown’s major league numbers so far are not any less excellent than his AAA numbers. Billy Beane’s deal is looking pretty darn good right now.