A’s Acquire OF Chris Young from Diamondbacks

The A’s offseason got off to a fast start this weekend, when the team sent Cliff Pennington to, surprise surprise, the Arizona Diamondbacks for OF Chris Young.  The deal also included the A’s prospect Yordy Cabrera going to Miami through Arizona as the A’s also took cash back ($500,000). 

Let’s start with the departure of Cliff Pennington and what that means for the A’s moving forward.  I liked Cliff’s glove at SS and 2B, but his bat had become a tremendous hole in the lineup.  With several other weak bats throughout, there needed to be a change somewhere and I think we found our answer.  Cliff’s departure likely/hopefully means that there is a deal in place with Stephen Drew, whether that is the option in his contract or a new deal for a few additional seasons.  The FA list for the SS position is incredibly weak, so I hope this doesn’t come back to bite the team.  At 2B, it looks like there will be an open competition between Sizemore and Weeks (and Grant Green). 

Bringing in Chris Young adds more depth to the A’s outfield, who lost plenty of games (75) between the injuries to Coco Crisp and Yoenis Cespedes.  In the CSN article linked to above, Billy Beane provides a nice 10 minute overview of what the deal means to the team and says that this does not spell the end to the Coco era.  I think it is a good idea to keep these three guys + Reddick on the roster, allowing for days off and rotations without losing too much in the lineup day in and day out.  Young brings a little bit more pop with his bat, along with some speed on the bases.  He had back to back 20-20 years in ’10 and ’11, before injuring his shoulder this past season.  Young says he is now fine / healthy and is looking forward to joining the Oakland clubhouse. 

However, this will impact the rest of the roster, most specifically who the team keeps around to DH and play 1B.  I can’t imagine Chris Carter and Brandon Moss are going anywhere, particularly Moss given the need another left-handed power bat.  This leaves Jonny Gomes and Seth Smith in question.  I would prefer to see Gomes back on the squad versus Smith, but from a rotational standpoint, and again, a need for another left-handed bat, I imagine Seth Smith would be the priority and that Gomes will be looking for a new team.  The only argument I see against this logic is that retaining Coco and Drew, while playing Weeks at 2B gives you three LHB’s available for the lineup, with Reddick.  In fact, I hope that is the logic and Beane decides to keep Jonny around over Seth.  Someone please pass this logic along. 

Perhaps the biggest news from this weekend’s trade and interviews is that Beane confirmed that the team will be adding payroll for the 2013 season.  Yes!  If you give this FO $75 million or so to work with, I think they can do the necessary patchwork to improve this team and allow it to continue to contend moving forward. 

What did you think of the move and the ramifications it may have on the rest of the roster? 

Let’s go Oakland!

Happy Halloween, from the Oakland A’s

While still working through an offseason priority list for the A’s (vote in the poll on the right hand side of the page) I thought it would be nice to show some holiday cheer, Athletics-style.  The A’s put 10 pumpkin stencils on their site for download in time for Halloween. 

My favorite is probably the “Balfour Rage” stencil and if I had any artistic ability (and patience) to carve a pumpkin, I would go in this direction.  What’s your favorite? 

Happy Halloween from the 2012 AL West Champions, Oakland Athletics!  

The A’s Season Comes to an End

My silence and lack of writing over the past week during the ALDS against the Tigers was more or less due to a whirlwind personal schedule and a desire to not sound like a whining homer.  Overall, while ignoring the final outcome, I thought the series was filled with good baseball and a ton of exciting moments.  No one ran the gamut of emotional ups and downs more than Coco Crisp of course. 

Game 1 started off with a bang, literally, as Coco led off the game with a HR.  Parker pitched good enough to win, but the A’s could not do anything after the HR against Verlander – who I’ve grown to hate in one calendar week. 

Game 2 was the crushing defeat that the A’s couldn’t stand to make.  While Coco became the goat of the game, I don’t think that is necessarily fair.  The rest of the lineup left way too many runners on base and each of our “big three” from the bullpen had a rocky inning of relief work to give up runs.  This game was for the taking and it should have been won.

After game 2, my thoughts were already on the feasibility of beating Verlander in game 5.  However, I didn’t realize how much excitement would be coming over the next few days.  In game 3, Brett Anderson returned to the mound to pitch an absolute gem, with the A’s taking it 2-0 to force a game 4.  Game 4 was absolutely amazing.  In the words of Glen Kuiper, this was “un-be-lievable!!”  I was traveling for work and believe I woke up half the floor at the hotel when this game ended.  It was the perfect personification of the A’s season, walking off in the 9^th inning after doing virtually nothing for 3+ hours. 

Going into game 5, I could only think of one thing – how were the A’s bats going to come to life against Verlander.  In two words, they didn’t.  There were so many bad at bats and strike outs, that it isn’t even worth calling one or two players out on it (not to mention a wildly exaggerated strike zone).  However, when you lose 6-0, you can’t blame the strike zone.  Oddly enough, I actually prefer losing in this manner vs. a game that comes down to the end.  By the bottom of the 9^th inning, I was already in a positive-angle frame of mind and thinking about what a great season it was. 

To that end, let’s not forget what the A’s accomplished this season and the amount of fun that it was, for both the players and the fans.  We had the “Bernie Lean”, the pie celebrations, a collection of rookie pitchers playing their hearts out, and a lineup that had a flair for the dramatic.  It was a great run for the team who wildly overachieved vs. expectations. 

Beane has already stated that he wants to keep this roster together.  There are a few small decisions to make based on this past season’s roster (Gomes, Drew, etc.).  I’ll be putting together some thoughts on the offseason this coming week, but take a look at the new poll on the right hand side and let me know what you think the priority should be for this team.  

For now, let’s remember what a great year it was for the 2012 AL West Champions, Oakland A’s!!  Let’s go Oakland!   

The Oakland A’s Win the AL West!

(Photo credit to @newballpark)

Unless you live under a rock you are already well aware that the Oakland A’s pulled out the miracle comeback to sweep the Rangers, win the AL West, and avoid the one game play-in tomorrow (Friday).  Look at that cover photo and the crowd from Tuesday night?  Awesome!  The reward for all of this is a trip to Detroit to play the first two games on the road as a 2 seed.  Would someone in MLB please impeach Bud Selig?  

The sweep was completed yesterday in typical, relaxing fashion.  By relaxing, I mean going down 5-1, playing terrible defense, and then scoring 11 unanswered runs.  By relaxing, I also mean having the end of the A’s bullpen – Doolittle, Cook, and Balfour – pitching in their 4^th, 4^th, and 5^th games in a row respectively.  Needless to say, the day was filled with a lot of anxiety and a lot of celebrating.  It was also nice to see a packed house at the Coliseum.  There have been plenty of articles written about the A’s, their comeback, the success, and everything with it.  I found this article to be one of the better ones if you are interested in more material for your bathroom break. 

The A’s are now on their way to Detroit for a best of 5 series and have yet to release their playoff roster or pitching rotation.  As others have suggested, I would be surprised if it wasn’t Parker.  From there, I would love to see Anderson return but the A’s aren’t leaking anything.  The schedule for this series couldn’t be worse for me personally.  Saturday and Sunday games aside, the remaining games are Tuesday through Thursday and during a business trip.  The weekday games are in Oakland and better be late starts.  Do you hear me Selig?!

Game	Matchup	Day	Date	Time ET
Gm 1	OAK @ DET	Sat	Oct. 6	6:00 PM
Gm 2	OAK @ DET	Sun	Oct. 7	TBD
Gm 3	DET @ OAK	Tue	Oct. 9	TBD
Gm 4*	DET @ OAK	Wed	Oct. 10	TBD
Gm 5*	DET @ OAK	Thu	Oct. 11	TBD

The A’s and Tigers met in mid-September with the Tigers taking two of three.  To be honest, I hope the locker room forgets that series because it was a pretty abysmal showing in the two losses.  Over the course of the season, the Tigers won four of seven total head to head match-ups, so this is a pretty even series heading in.  The A’s bullpen will have a few days of much needed rest and we’ll see who the team decides to put on the playoff roster and who they omit.  Putting the lack of playoff experience aside, this has been too good of a run to end anytime soon; Prediction time: A’s in 4! 

Unfortunately, with all of the good comes some sad news from the A’s clubhouse.  Early this morning I saw the news that Pat Neshek and his wife lost their baby less than 24 hours after birth.  I can’t even imagine what the family is dealing with.  My condolences to the entire Neshek family and hope for the best in the days and weeks to come. 

Let’s go Oakland!   

The Oakland A’s are going to the playoffs!

How awesome is that .gif file?  No, really, how awesome is that .gif and how awesome are the 2012 Oakland A’s?  (Thanks for creating this!)

When is $50 million worth more than $150 million?  Take a look at the MLB playoffs standings right now and see where the A’s sit relative to where the Angels sit.  If I didn’t see it with my own eyes last night, I’m not sure I would believe it, but the Oakland Athletics are heading to the (insert enthusiastic curse words here) playoffs!  At the very least, they have clinched the right to play in Friday’s wild card play-in game.  Depending on how things go tonight and subsequently tomorrow perhaps, the A’s could be looking at a division title and avoiding the one game elimination altogether.  Rather than getting ahead of ourselves, let’s take a quick step back. 

The A’s have the second lowest payroll in baseball, a mere $100K more than the SD Padres for the lowest spot in baseball.  The team’s stadium situation remains in chaos thanks to Bud Selig and a handful of other issues.  Billy Beane spent last offseason gutting the pitching staff for more prospects and younger, cheaper talent.  The season started off with some pretty bad baseball in April and May.  The team started to turn things around, playing just over .500 ball in June and then July hit, where the team went 19-5.  They have the best record in baseball since the All-Star break.  At that time, I had already given up on this season ten times.  Yet, here we are, going to the playoffs and control of our own destiny to the division title! 

Read that entire paragraph again.  It still doesn’t make any sense to me either.  I can’t wait for tonight’s game.  Obviously, I hope the team can pull this one off and then go into tomorrow afternoon’s game with the chance to really deflate the Rangers locker room, while at the same time, avoid Friday’s one game playoff.  Tonight’s game is going to be tough, with Blackley starting on the mound for the A’s and facing Harrison, an 18 game winner this season already.  One game at a time, let’s do this! 

Let’s go Oakland!