I spoke to Jason Giambi the other morning, before he got into his uniform and went to work. Here is what we talked about.

Cohn: Do you feel like an Oakland Athletic?

Giambi: It's where I started my career and grew up and became the player I became. I feel like a rookie again. Aside from Chavez I haven't played with anyone. It's nice. It keeps you young being with youth.

Cohn: How good is the team?

Giambi: There's a lot of talent in this room. I'm seeing Buck develop like I saw Chavez and Tejada. This team will surprise a lot of people. Hopefully I can accomplish things I missed out on when I left. When we talked about coming back to the A's Billy said 'I want to win this year.' So he brought in Nomar and Holliday and me. Billy made us feel a big part of what he's doing. So we buy into it. He'll give me choices: "Who will fit in better?' He asked me about Nomar and Cabrera. This team is offensively as good as any time I've played on, very well balanced.

Cohn: Have you changed?

Giambi: I was the youngest. I hung out with Eck and Rickey and Steinbach. We developed together. With Stairs and Hudson, Mulder and Zito we had fun and were tight knit. If you don't have a huge payroll you better get along with each other.

Cohn: What kind of player are you now?

Giambi: I take walks and hit home runs, score runs and create situations. Billy really preaches this stuff. I'm his prototypical guy. I had that relationship with Billy. Billy and I love to talk about the game. This was home. To read my column on Billy Beane evaluating the A's click here.

To read my column on Eric Chavez click here.