TEAM PREVIEW - 2010 Oakland Athletics

Oakland Athletics
Mgr. Bob Geren, #17
2009 record: 75- 87
4th place AL West

If Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane has something up his sleeve it’s about time he pulled it out. For the past three years the A’s finished the season with almost exactly the same record losing one more game in 2009 than they did in 2008 and 2007, finishing last in the 4 team AL West last season and 3rd in the previous two. The first place finish in 2006 seems like more than four years ago, when everyone from ESPN Baseball Tonight commentators to fellow GMs and number crunching statisticians were touting his “Moneyball” philosophy and new age approach to putting a team together.

The A’s have made only one post season appearance since the book’s publication in 2003. Last year Beane threw us for a loop, acquiring a pair of high-priced sluggers that seemed like the traditional accompaniment to a youthful squad of homegrown talent but alas neither Matt Holliday nor Jason Giambi lasted the entire season. Four months and 40 RBI into his $4 million contract, Giambi was simply released.

Holliday, whose $13.5 million contract was picked up by the A’s when they obtained him from Colorado, was dealt to the playoff bound St. Louis Cardinals just after the all-star break for three of the anonymous kind of prospects that we’ve come to expect Beane knows more about than us. In exchange for Holliday the A’s received third baseman Brett Wallace, right handed pitcher Clayton Mortensen and outfielder Shane Peterson. Wallace hit a combined .293 with 20 home runs at three high level minor league stops. Mortensen made two forgettable starts with the A’s after posting mediocre minor league numbers for the Cards triple- A club in Memphis. Peterson hit a combined .288 for two AA teams and one single-A club with 10 home runs and 63 RBI.

Why such a severe dissection of this trade? Well because there just isn’t much else to say about the A’s last season or the team’s prospects this year. The lone bright star on the A’s horizon is relief pitcher Andrew Bailey who made a great first impression with the A’s last spring and went on to capture the American League Rookie of the Year Award, converting 26 of 30 save opportunities with a 1.84 ERA and 91 strikeouts in 83 innings.

The rest of the A’s relatively unknown pitching staff wasn’t really all that bad with a third best in the American League 4.26 ERA although no regular starter had a winning record. Twenty-one-year- old Brett Anderson, 11-11 in 30 starts spanning 175 innings, led the staff in victories and strikeouts. Trevor Cahill (10-13) also 21, led the team in losses, starts (32) and innings pitched (178). Dallas Braden, the elder statesman of the staff at 25, was 8-9 with a 3.89 ERA in 22 starts, while Gio Gonzalez, 23, went 6-7, with a 5.75 in 17 starts. Vin Mazzaro, 22 (4-9, 5.32) and Josh Outman, 24 (4-1, 3.48) were the only other A’s hurlers with more than 10 starts.

A punch less A’s lineup hit an American League low 135 home runs, DH Jack Cust led the team with 25. Catcher Kurt Suzuki hit 15 home runs with a team-high 88 RBI and a .274 average. Before their departures Holliday and Giambi each hit 11 home runs. Third baseman Adam Kennedy led the team with a .289 batting average. In the fifth year of six-year $66 million contract, Eric Chavez had three hits in 31-at bats before undergoing season ending back surgery. A six time Gold Glove award winner at third base, Chavez has now spent most of the last three seasons on the DL. Although the team insists it hasn’t given up on Chavez, the A’s dealt outfielders Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham to the San Diego Padres for third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, (18 HR and 88 RBI) who should be a welcome addition whether or not Chavez is back healthy and ready to play.

In his second season with the club Rajai Davis earned the starting center fielder’s job hitting .305 with a 5th best in the AL 41 stolen bases in 125 games. Davis will be joined by newly acquired free agent Coco Crisp who missed most of the season with the Kansas City Royals last year due to rotator cuff and labrum surgery in both shoulders.

Barring any unforeseen miracles the A’s don’t really figure to be in the race this year the team’s greatest hope lies with its young pitching staff which should continue to develop.

Arrivals: 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff, OF Coco Crisp
Departures: 1B Bobby Crosby, OF Scott Hairston