Just over the Bay from the main act at the circus, Billy Beane is carefully crafting yet another Championship calibre team. Without delving perhaps pointlessly into the 'Moneyball' debate again, it's perhaps pertinent to just give kudos to Beane for how efficient and astute a GM. Who else would have touched Frank Thomas last year and look what happened. Beane landed another title, and Thomas landed a new mammoth contract. Anyway onto the roster...
Starting Pitching :-
While they have obviously lost Barry Zito and really lack what we might term 'a stopper', this rotation is extremely solid and bodes well for the new season. Dan Haren might finally have that breakout year people have been talking about since his move to the Bay Area. He has composure for such a young man, but he just needs to trust his stuff a little bit more. He may turn into the staff ace by mid season, but Rich Harden will most likely be the opening day number one. Esteban Loaiza seems to re spawn every year and it will be a big test to see if his arm holds up again. Joe Blanton was again solid last year, but much like Haren, it's about time he had that breakout year that his stuff warrants. The kid has great control and a cool presence on the mound. Joe Kennedy should be the fifth starter after a solid year out of the bull pen, but he has struggled as a starter before and it will be interesting to see just how many innings the A's expect to get from him.
Bull Pen :-
If it remains injury free (and unfortunately for the A's there's no great track record here) the bull pen should be good enough to hold any lead. They have two bona fide young closers in Duscherer and Street, although in a kind of funny way the guy who had the worst season by far of the two is likely to start the season as the ninth inning guy (Street). Street blew an incredible 11 saves last season and although I can't put my finger on a MLB stat, that must have been the highest in the entire league. Nevertheless, it's not exactly a problem for Beane to have two closers. Further down comes the wily old set up guy (and in my opinion one of the best pick ups of the off season) Alan Embree, a good club house presence with a tonne of experience to pass on to this young pitching staff. Brad Halsey is probably pencilled in for long relief, but could challenge Kennedy in the rotation with a solid Spring.
Offence :
Well the main pick up here is obviously Mike Piazza. People have been talking for years about putting Piazza in purely as a DH with no catching duties, and while he may well get the odd start there, at last someone has seen fit to do it. Piazza without the wear and tear of every day catching is still a great hitter despite decreasing power, and of course he brings a great presence to a young offence. Nick Swisher is so incredibly gifted all round, but the main problem is his desire to slug every pitch out of the park. If he could cut down on his bad hacks, which for some reason seem to start to increase as the season goes on, he will be real MVP material.
Eric Chavez was once the total poster boy for this franchise but like some of the pitchers, we're really waiting to see him put all the parts of his game together. One can expect Rolen-esque glove work, Aramis Ramirez type thunder at times, but can he stop hacking at simply terrible pitches. His strike out numbers have shot up in recent seasons which explains his lack of batting average stats, and a Swisher like need to crush every ball making yourself easy fodder for good pitchers.
As for the best of the rest, Jason Kendall is a total one off, a catcher who is a prtotype lead off hitter. He looks at pitches, makes contact, walks his ass off and has good wheels. Kendall is a real offensive catalyst and a great player. Milton Bradley may finally shake off his injury problems and produce what LA fans knew he was capable of. With Milton though there's always a countdown to his next implosion.Overall, this is a team bursting with potential and with a few typically classy trades in June by Beane there's no reason why this team can't
seriously challenge and win over 90 games. The A's will be good, but just how good is hard to tell.
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First, we'll start with Billy Beane. If he were a player then people would be asking when he was going to take the next step and become an elite performer because the A's always seem to contend for the pennant but never look likely to do anything come the playoffs and this year should be no different.
The only real reason they made the playoffs last season was due to a sloppyness epidemic in Anaheim and thats the only way they'll win the west again this year...oh and if Rich Harden finally manages to put a whole year in (as unlikely as that sounds). Harden is really the only genuinely top drawer player on a team of good to average players.
The lineup lacks a serious power threat and even if Piazza had a renaissance, he, Chavez and Swisher are all guys who do well to get into the mid-30's in homeruns rather than serious mashers capable of carrying a team for an extended period. They don't even supplant the lack of real power with a credible running game. In a nutshell, they will not score enough runs especially when matched up with the better teams in the league.
The pitching is better, especially if the tremendously gifted Harden stays healthy. Haren and Blanton do have talent and you can never be sure what Loaiza will do (he's a curious guy who seems to be so-so most years and then he'll pull a blinder out of nowhere) so the rotation is fairly dependable. The bullpen however is less secure with Huston Street not doing so well in his sophomore year. If he struggles again there is no obvious replacement unless Santiago Casilla pulls it together very quickly which is a shame because the rest of the bullpen is pretty solid and I have to agree that Embree is a great pick up.
So what do we make of Oakland? They have good pitching which includes a guy who could win a Cy if he could muster up 30 starts and a solid line-up that lacks speed or a genuine threat with the bat which should see them middle of the pack (at best) in terms of scoring runs. Seattle and Texas have too many holes to really win consistently which means they only have to worry about Anaheim (there is no way a team from the West will win the Wild Card) which puts them in the same scenario as last season and they are the reigning division champs.
This is a good team that will win more games than they lose but if the Angels show up this year then they will be left in the dust. If the Angels stutter like last season then, like last season, they could once again be raising flags and crashing out at the first hurdle in the playoffs. No team will win a World Series with Kendall catching for them thats for sure.
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Well Pete and I have never agreed about Oakland, about Billy Beane, and about the more wide ranging elements of baseball philosophy that this Oakland organisation brings to the table. Firstly let's start with the jibe at Beane. One might level the same accusation at Joe Torré and Brian Cashman with the Yankees... when are they going to step up in the playoffs and win the WS again. Despite having the best team on paper every year they just can't, and the same goes for Oakland, except that they DON'T have anything close to the best team on paper.... yet Beane manages to sign players who will bring this team to the post season almost every year. The playoffs are a lottery, let's face it. I am a huge Beane fan in the way that he gets results through ruthless means, even if he has to cut half the squad as he has done before.
How can anyone say that Nick Swisher will do well to hit 30+ home runs? He hit 35 last year in only his second full major league season. There is absolutely no way to predict hat his out put will be, and based on the trends of similar players, one should only expect his HR numbers to rise. I don't know about Chavez but if he 'does well' and gets around 30 bombs, I think the front office will be happy enough.
This is an organisation that always finds a way to improve itself even without throwing millions of dollars around, and once again the As are at least as good as last year. Maybe Piazza won't be as effective a DH as The Big Hurt, but the pitching is more promising with Harden threatening to put together a dominating campaign, and Huston Street prehaps ready to become dominant againa fter shaking off the niggling injuies he siffered with last year. Even if he doesn't how is Duscherer not an able replacement when he is arguably better !
Okay, the As only really have to compete with one team to win a division title, but why should we bet against Beane's savy, the Cult of Swish, the legend that is Jason Kendall (who is by the way improving defensively all the time and will only benefit from the tutelage of Piazza) and the general confidence that this organisation has? Give me a reason !!!
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Well Pete and I have never agreed about Oakland, about Billy Beane, and about the more wide ranging elements of baseball philosophy that this Oakland organisation brings to the table. Firstly let's start with the jibe at Beane. One might level the same accusation at Joe Torré and Brian Cashman with the Yankees... when are they going to step up in the playoffs and win the WS again. Despite having the best team on paper every year they just can't, and the same goes for Oakland, except that they DON'T have anything close to the best team on paper.... yet Beane manages to sign players who will bring this team to the post season almost every year. The playoffs are a lottery, let's face it. I am a huge Beane fan in the way that he gets results through ruthless means, even if he has to cut half the squad as he has done before.
How can anyone say that Nick Swisher will do well to hit 30+ home runs? He hit 35 last year in only his second full major league season. There is absolutely no way to predict hat his out put will be, and based on the trends of similar players, one should only expect his HR numbers to rise. I don't know about Chavez but if he 'does well' and gets around 30 bombs, I think the front office will be happy enough.
This is an organisation that always finds a way to improve itself even without throwing millions of dollars around, and once again the As are at least as good as last year. Maybe Piazza won't be as effective a DH as The Big Hurt, but the pitching is more promising with Harden threatening to put together a dominating campaign, and Huston Street prehaps ready to become dominant againa fter shaking off the niggling injuies he siffered with last year. Even if he doesn't how is Duscherer not an able replacement when he is arguably better !
Okay, the As only really have to compete with one team to win a division title, but why should we bet against Beane's savy, the Cult of Swish, the legend that is Jason Kendall (who is by the way improving defensively all the time and will only benefit from the tutelage of Piazza) and the general confidence that this organisation has? Give me a reason !!!
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