Oakland Athletics

It was the year in which Henderson led the Oakland Athletics to their third straight World Series appearance. It was also the year he won MVP. That Athletics team won 103 games, won the West by nine, swept the Boston Red Sox before running into the 90’s version of the Big Red Machine. Henderson batted .325, had 28 home runs, 119 runs scored and 65 stolen bases. That year he beat out Cecil Fielder and his 51 home runs (back when that was still considered an impressive number) and Roger Clemens’ 21 wins, 209 strikeouts and 1.93 ERA

Continue reading "Rickey Henderson Slides in Easy -- ..."

This could be a short post.  No, no one will bite and claim Bobby Crosby and his $5.25 million contract.  For the sake of completeness, though, let's run through who might conceivably pick up Crosby. 

Continue reading "Bobby Crosby on Outright Waivers...Will ..."

        Rafael Furcal finally decided his future- he is staying with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  This is the wrong decision.  Furcal would have done the best had he signed with Oakland.  In Oakland, he could have taken his pick of which position he would want to play, which spot in the order he would bat, and even which days he would want to take off from playing in the field and just DH. By staying in Los Angeles, he has pigeon-holed himself into the shortstop role and the lead-off batter position.  I mean, don't get me wrong- even with the Atlanta Braves, Furcal was the natural leadoff hitter that they have sorely missed since his departure to Los Angeles.  And although he has had an unlucky streak of injuries recently, he still remains one of the top shortstops in the NL, and even in Major League Baseball.

Continue reading "Rafael Furcal- Playing for the wrong ..."

With Rafael Furcal turning down the A's and going to play for the Braves, the A's now have to look at other options of what to do with the money they had budgeted to signing Furcal.  Most of

Continue reading "Dance Over - Furcal Goes Home with ..."

It looks like the A's are once again in the hunt for Rafael Furcal.  It looks like the A's are willing to up their offer by one or two million a year up to a four year - $44 million deal, and that Furcal is considering it.  It's right in the range of figures I guessed he'd get. so if this turns out to be the final deal I'll be happy. 

Continue reading "FA Bargain Bin, Also Furcal Dance Continues"

Nothing big happened for the A's at the Winter Meetings in Vegas, but they have made a few minor moves over the past few weeks.  Here are there moves in reverse chronological order:
12/11/08 Selected OF Ben Copeland from the Giants in the Rule 5 draft.

Continue reading "A's Minor (League) Transactions"

Apparently, the A's are about to sign Jason Giambi to a free agent deal.  I'm a bit skeptical, so more on this if/when the deal is officially announced.

Continue reading "Giambi to the A's?"

A few days ago I outlined a plan for the A's to take this offseason now that they were no longer interested in Rafael Furcal.  In my analysis, though, I missed two options the A's have for turning their roster into a contending one for 2009.

Continue reading "Two Options I Overlooked"

Apparently the A's offered 4-year $40 million take-it-or-leave-it deal to Rafael Furcal, which he turned down.  This means the A's are no longer pursing him as a replacement for Bobby Crosby.  I'm disappointed by this, but I can't say that this wasn't a smart move.  I may have left the deal on the table longer, but at the end of the day, if Furcal wasn't going to accept the A's top offer they weren't going to get him.  Should they have offered more?  Maybe a million or two per year, but guaranteeing the 4th year was the big deal and if that wasn't enough to satisfy him, who knows how much more it would take?  Now the A's can take their money and spend it on other upgrades, which they'll definitely need to make to compete in 2009 (which they should since that's how long they're likely to have Matt Holliday).

Continue reading "Report: A's out of Running for Furcal...What's ..."

Shortstops are changing places left and right.  In the past two days the Giants signed Edgar Renteria, the Cardinals traded for Khalil Greene, the White Sox traded for Brent Lillibridge, and Jack Wilson looks to be on his way out of Pittsburgh.  That leaves the A's, Dodgers, Orioles, Padres, and Tigers as teams that may be looking to add a shortstop, though it looks like Wilson may be on his way to Detroit.  Assuming Wilson does go to the Tigers, that leaves four teams who have holes at shortstop and might be interested in signing Rafael Furcal.  The Braves, once thought to be in the running for Furcal, appear to be set, as a Furcal signing appeared to be contingent upon trading away Yunel Escobar for Jake Peavy.  Now that they've acquired Javier Vazquez, it is less likely they'll make that deal.

Continue reading "Where the A's Stand in Shortstop Roulette"

Being an A's fan and going to school in San Francisco in the late 90's made me a little defensive at times.  The Giants were either 1st or 2nd in the NL West every season but two from 1993-1998 while the A's were awful in that time span, never winming more than 78 games.  While the A's-Giants rivalry isn't a big deal to most, and not even that big of a deal to me most times, there are days when I am truly grateful to be an A's fan.

Continue reading "Why I'm Glad I'm not a San Francisco Giants Fan"

I like to write longer, more thoughtful pieces, but I had a few thoughts in my head that don't really relate.  That means it's time for a Blogger Special (AKA bullet article).  I was rig

Continue reading "A's Bullets"

Monday is the deadline for all MLB teams to offer their free agents arbitration.  The A's have two players they need to make decisions about; Frank Thomas and Alan Embree.  Both are type-B free agents.  This means that if the A's offer either player arbitration, they decline and sign elsewhere, the A's will receive a compensatory pick between the first and second rounds of next year's amateur draft.  Generally, teams should offer arbitration to their free agents (if they're rated as either type A or B) unless there is a chance that the player will accept arbitration and he has no role on the team (and the team doesn't want to pay his salary).  Both Thomas and Embree might fall into this category.

Continue reading "A's Face Arbitration Decisions"

Baseball Prospectus' Marc Normandin has a great write-up on what to expect from Mark Ellis and Daric Barton for 2009. Correctly estimating what these two might do in 2009 is essential to determining what the A's need to do to increase their offensive output this season.  While the A's are committed to Ellis (which is fine because of his excellent defense), they may need to consider finding ways to increase their offense at other positions if they presume Ellis won't be productive at the plate.

Continue reading "Notes on Mark Ellis and Daric Barton"

Rafael Furcal is rumored to be headed to a new team soon, with the A's, Giants, and a mystery team being the supposed bidders.  Furcal would be a great fit for the A's, replacing Bobby Crosby's anemic bat in the lineup and giving the A's a true leadoff hitter with both on base skills and speed. 

Continue reading "Furcal Bidding Wars - How High Should the A's Go?"

The A's pitching staff was the key to the team being not horrible in 2008.  They were essentially tied with Boston for the fourth best staff in the league, giving up 4.29 runs a game.  There's good news and bad news in these numbers and what they mean for the 2009 season.  First, the good news: every returning pitcher will be 31 or under next season and at least five will be under 25.  What this means is that there's likely to be some intermal improvement, without much decline.  The bad news from last year's numbers is that it includes the numbers of Rich Harden, Chad Gaudin, Joe "I Homered in the World Series" Blanton, Greg Smith, and Huston Street.  This means the A's will have to replace over 500 innings of dominant (Harden) to mediocre (Smith, Blanton) pitching.

Continue reading "A's Pitching - Where it stands now"

In my post yesterday I presumed that the A's would need to make some improvements to their team in order to compete in 2009.  What did I base that on?  Well, nothing, or more accurately it just seems like they'll need to do more than just add Holliday.  That's not good enough for me so I'm going to try to see if my assumption was correct.

Continue reading "The A's Cannot Compete for a Playoff ..."

The Royals acquired Coco Crisp today for Ramon Ramirez, a deal the A's should have made (acquiring Crisp, that is).  The A's have basically the same player as Ramirez in Santiago Casilla, who is probably the A's third best right handed reliever.  Casilla is a little more than a year older than Ramirez and has virtually the same amount of service time (a little over two years).  Ramirez has been a little better over his major league career, with an ERA of 3.62 compared to Casilla's ERA of 4.74, but Casilla had better minor league numbers with awesome peripherals.  Regardless, if the A's could have had Crisp for a decent reliever they should have made the deal.

Continue reading "Oakland should have been coo coo for CoCo (Puffs)"

Most people presume that the A's won't re-sign Matt Holliday after this season and will only have his services for one season at most.  This is consistent with the A's behavior in the past as they've allowed almost all of their free agents walk at the end of the year or traded them before they reached free agency.  The only players they've signed to long term deals that went more than a year or two past their arbitration eligible years were Jermaine Dye and Eric Chavez.

Continue reading "Can the A's re-sign Holliday?"

One of the underrated benefits of the Holliday deal is the flexibility the A's now have.  As I see it, there are four distinct options the A's now have.  From worst case to best case scenario, they are:

Continue reading "After Holliday, What's Next?"

With the MLB playoffs set to begin, there is a subtle difference in the air compared to start of any other postseason. In the NHL, fans can potentially look forward to a great Canadians/Bruins series that is not only exciting, but has a historical kick to it. Likewise basketball fans always have the chance to see if the Suns can finally get past the Spurs and football fans love seeing the rivalry of the Eagles Vs the City of Philadelphia when the Eagles so much as get tackled for a loss.

Continue reading "The Ups and Downs of the MLB Playoffs"

Hello Everyone!

If we haven't talked yet, my name is Zach "Z.V." Sanders and I have been writing here since May.

This past January I set up another sports site called 24/7 Sports Stop as a side project of mine. My current writing staff has gotten lazy and stopped posting, and I am looking to add new writers.

Continue reading "To All Bloggers"

Recently, I also did a rundown of a few of the teams that could be the busiest come deadline day. Now, a look at the specific players that could be moving:

Catcher

Bengie Molina, Giants: Both the Yankees and Marlins have been said to approached the Giants about the catcher. Both of those teams have had injuries to the position lately, and could be looking for an immediate replacement. The price has been said to be turning some off of the idea. You have to remember, you are not just getting a replacement catcher, you are getting one that can hit and knows what it takes to win a title. I'm secretly rooting for the Yanks to acquire him, because who doesn't want an all Molina catching squad? Now if only Yadier was for sale.....

Continue reading "The Trading Post: Player Edition"

The other big trade that happened recently was the Cubs’ acquisition of the oft-injured Rich Harden from Oakland. This move is typical of Oakland’s business model, which involves shedding young stars before they get too expensive, often in exchange for other young or undervalued stars. In this way, they’re similar to the Florida Marlins, except that the Marlins tend to load up for concentrated runs at the championship (they have as many championships in the last decade as big-market Boston, and more than the Cubs have in the past hundred years), while the A’s tend towards consistent competitiveness.

Continue reading "NL Central Trade Analysis, Part Two"

From Chris De Luca's article:

"The Cubs have spent a lot of time on the phone recently with Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane trying to pry away right-hander Rich Harden. Expect the phone lines to start burning a little hotter beginning today.

Continue reading "Harden to the Cubs?"

The Mariners lost a good one. The M's lost 4-3 at the expense of the Oakland Athletics.

On the night after the Mariners lost in 15 innings, they needed a solid start from Jarrod Washburn. The bullpen was so tired, that Jamie Burke had to pitch an inning last night. Washburn knew this going in. He made sure he got it done. Washburn went 8 innings, and threw 102 pitches. He gave up 4 earned on 7 hits, no walks and 5 Ks. Sure, it's not perfect, but it usually should be good enough to win a game.

Continue reading "Washburn Solid, but A's still provail"

For some of you who don't know, I am a fantasy sports fanatic. I enjoy the crunching of number, and the drafting of players. This is an example from one of my leagues (my team is SPeff Starz, having an unusually bad season for my standards.)

Continue reading "All Stars and Winning Fantasy Baseball: Relation?"

Here I take time to answer questions sent to me, or questions posted in public forums worldwide.

Q: What does it mean when you see on the scoreboard at the park there will be a P then numbers below for each team like example 35 23 whatever

Continue reading "Q&A and Random Thoughts"

There is one problem however, the system from which Boston runs was taken from the Oakland Athletics.

Theo Epstein is not a baseball mind, he never played the game at a competitive level. He is however, a statistical mind. He got most of his ideals from Billy Beane. In fact, that is one of the reasons the Red Sox hired him. Right before Epstein was hired, the Red Sox had a contract all worked out with Billy Beane. In return for letting Beane take the GM job in Boston, the Sox would send 1B Kevin Youkilis, a player the Assistant and replacement GM Paul DePodesta coveted, to the A's. Imagine, Billy Beane could be running the Sox right now, and "Moneyball" would not be as obscure as it is today.

Continue reading "Mariners should emulate Athletics"

due to an injury, the Angels offense instantly boasts more pop than they demonstrated last year.

Oakland Athletics

Can Rich Harden and Bobby Crosby finally stay health?

And to follow up on that question, if they are healthy, will they still be in Oakland at the end of the season?

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: American League West"

One of the most underrated outfielders in baseball is no longer a member of the Oakland Athletics. Mark Kotsay was traded to the Atlanta Braves for a couple of young arms, in a move that will ensures that Travis Buck will have the most experience in the outfield next season barring a return from Shannon Stewart.

Continue reading "Kotsay, we'll miss you!"

To be an Athletics fan, one has to understand why Billy Beane makes the decisions that he does, that until Cisco Field in Fremont is built, the Elephants will be a small market, low revenue team that is constantly in the position of being unable to sign our big name free agents to extensions and coax others to move to the East Bay.

Continue reading "Pledging Allegiance"

Reliever Justin Duchscherer avoided arbitration, agreeing to a $1.2 million, one-year deal with the Oakland Athletics, according to the Associated Press.

This is excellent news for both the team, as well as Duke. The A's get to hang on to one of their top pitchers from the last few years - Justin made the All-Star game in 2005 - and Duke gets a year to show the organization and the rest of baseball that he can be a starter. Pending any more trades (and injuries), a rotation with Joe Blanton, Rich Harden, Cahad Gaudin, and Duke could bode well for a team in rebuilding mode.

Continue reading "The Duke Signs On For Another Year"