The Oakland A’s Are Back!

Finally!  The baseball season is upon us!  Tonight, the Oakland A’s kick off the regular season with a four game series against the Mariners at home.  Before we get there, let’s take a quick look back at the moves the club made in March to finalize the opening day roster – also covered below.

As you can imagine, there were a number of transactions in March, as the team looked to wind down the roster down to its final 25 men.  Many of these moves were simply optioning some of the farm talent back to the minors as the regular season drew near.  While some fans might like to argue for one player or another due to personal biases, there weren’t too many surprises. 

Those that were optioned to the minors included Grant Green, Michael Taylor, Jemile Weeks, and Shane Peterson.  The name most surprising (and disappointing) name on this list is Weeks.  I was expecting him to come into this spring with a lot of passion and win back the starting spot at second base.  He would bring a unique element of speed to the team – both in the lineup and on the field. 

Earlier this weekend, the team designated Daric Barton and Travis Blackley for assignment.  First, that will end Mr. Barton’s Athletics career and you won’t hear me complain about that whatsoever.  After a terrible spring, the team decided that it had to let Blackley go due to the performances of quite a number of others that were positioning themselves for a spot in the bullpen. 

Finally, the team claimed first baseman Nate Freiman from the Astros and RHP Josh Stinson from the Brewers within the past two weeks as well.  While Stinson was optioned to the minor leagues, Freiman will be with on the opening day roster. 

With all of that movement, here is what the 25 man roster looks like: 

Starting Pitchers:

Brett Anderson, Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone, AJ Griffin, Dan Straily (who will be replaced by Bartolo Colon, once his PED suspension expires)

Relief Pitchers:

Grant Balfour, Jerry Blevins, Ryan Cook, Sean Doolittle, Pat Neshek, Chris Resop, and Evan Scribner

Catchers:

John Jaso, Derek Norris

Infielders:

Brandon Moss, Nate Freiman, Eric Sogard, Jed Lowrie, Josh Donaldson, and Scott Sizemore

Outfielders:

Josh Reddick, Chris Young, Coco Crisp, Seth Smith, and Yoenis Cespedes

Disabled list:

Hiroyuki Nakajima and Adam Rosales will begin the season on the DL.  It will be interesting to see who may struggle in the beginning of the season and who these two might wind up replacing when they are available to return.  It will also be interesting to see if Nakajima can in fact beat out a few of the guys playing the middle infield positions for the A’s over the next week or two. 

With all of that out of the way, here is tonight’s starting lineup:

1. Crisp (CF)
2. Jaso (C)
3. Reddick (RF)
4. Cespedes (LF)
5. Lowrie (SS)
6. Moss (1B)
7. Donaldson (3B)
8. Smith (DH)
9. Sogard (2B)
10. Anderson (SP)

The Oakland A’s are back!  It will be great to see the 2012 AL West Champions back in action!  Looking forward to tonight and the start of some meaningful baseball!  Let’s go Oakland!  (Complete overuse of the exclamation point!