A’s Offseason Summary & Thoughts thru December

It was a relatively quiet December for the A’s, despite MLB’s winter meetings at the beginning of the month.  However, two of the three transactions for the team were significant; one of which was good, one of which was bad and sad. 

Let’s start small and get that out of the way with the news that the A’s sent Collin Cowgill to the Mets for infielder Jefry Marte.  Cowgill had very little chance to see time in the majors with Oakland next season based on the assumption that Billy Beane is true to his word and has no intention of moving Cespedes, Reddick, Crisp, and/or Young.  That four man rotation may not be topped in the big leagues.  Marte played in AA last season and has been groomed into a third baseman that could also sparingly fill in at first base or the outfield.  I don't expect to be rooting for Jefry in an A's uniform anytime soon, if at all.    

The bad/sad news for December was Brandon McCarthy’s departure from the club, signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks – who are becoming the National League’s version of the Athletics.  If McCarthy can successfully recover from the line drive off his head and other nagging injuries, he should have a very strong season in Arizona with the move over to the NL.  I really didn’t see this one coming at all and thought Brandon (and Amanda) would be back in the green and gold in 2013.  However, the 2 years and $15.5 million in the contract were more than expected or what I would have looked for the A’s to offer.  There are very few times that I’m not upset when the A’s lose a quality player to another team willing to offer more money.  This is one of them, as I wish nothing but the best of luck to Brandon in his attempt at a return to big league pitching. 

The A’s finally resolved the million dollar question for the offseason and have their shortstop for 2013.  Almost immediately after Stephen Drew signed with the Red Sox, Billy Beane finalized a two year deal for Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima worth $6.5 million.  Yes, we are getting Nakajima for two years for approximately 67% of the cost of having to pay Drew for the 2013 season only.  This has been a relatively polarizing topic among A’s fans but I’m definitely in the pro-Nakajima camp and taking a flyer on him and his potential to succeed in MLB vs. watching Stephen Drew hit .260 and bounce around the lineup during hot and cold streaks.  Sprinkle in the inevitable injury for Drew (given his track record) and this deal is a no-brainer for me. 

During Nakajima’s press conference, he completely won over the vast majority of the fan base with his responses to a few questions.  If you read through the comments from the “two year deal” hyperlink above to Athletics Nation, you’ll find a few of his responses highlighted.  Scouting reports suggest that Nakajima is relatively solid defensively and has a little bit of pop in his bat to go along with some speed.  This is perfectly “OK” with me.  He doesn’t have to come to Oakland and be a superstar or the second coming of Yoenis Cespedes – although if he wants to produce at that level, by all means, feel free.  Nakajima needs to come in and be a net positive / solid contributor that doesn’t become a black hole / automatic out at the bottom of the A’s everyday lineup – like the team has trotted out in recent years. 

With the answer now available at shortstop, it will be interesting to see what Beane can or will do the rest of the offseason.  Will he try to improve the starting rotation, find depth at other infield positions, or try to upgrade the farm a bit?  While the Angels continue to take all the headlines (read: signing Josh Hamilton and losing pitchers) the A’s have solidified their starting lineup (for now at least) and look to carry over momentum into 2013 as the defending division champions.  Taking a high level view of the transactions across the division, as well as adding in the Astros into the equation, I love what I’m seeing in the A’s future and their chances at going back to the playoffs next season. 

(Photo credit: http://mlb.mlb.com/cutfour/index.jsp?partnerId=aw-7227006434829460008-996#)

A’s Offseason Summary & Thoughts thru November

Well, another month of the offseason has come and gone (thankfully) and the Athletics still do not have a starting shortstop to plug into the lineup.  With the Winter meetings coming up this week (12/3 – 12/6), we’ll hopefully have a resolution to this issue soon. 

November was a pretty quiet month for the club, announcing a few minor deals and seeing one major component to the 2012 club sign with another team.  (Note that my October summary went up a week into November and I covered the Bartolo Colon signing from 11/3 there.)

On 11/16 the A’s completed a trade with the Padres sending P Tyson Ross and minor leaguer AJ Kirby-Jones for P Andrew Werner and IF Andy Parrino.  Werner is a lefthander that will come in from the bullpen while Parrino could be a utility infielder that helps plug holes and gives others a day off here and there, similar to the role Adam Rosales has played most recently for the club. 

I’m a little surprised that Ross was dealt, but not necessarily disappointed.  He has been given several opportunities to fill different roles on the A’s pitching staff and it never really all came together for him.  I thought that the club would give him one more season in a defined role (from the bullpen, where he belonged in my opinion) to see if he would succeed.  Alas, we don’t have to give this anymore thought. 

Several days later (11/20), the A’s decided to protect the following players from their minor league system: RHP Arnold Leon, IF/OF (what is he this week?) Grant Green, OF Shane Peterson, and RHP Michael Ynoa.  At the same time, the team designated Jim Miller and Brandon Hicks for assignment.  There’s some real good banter on this over in a Fanpost on Athletics Nation if you want to go check it out.  Similar to several people’s thoughts over there, I’m pretty surprised that Jim Miller was designated and Jesse Chavez was not.  I didn’t catch a single appearance from Chavez that remotely warranted him being on the club next year.  Did I miss something?

Brandon Hicks’ tenure with the A’s came to an official end on 11/26 when the A’s traded him to the NY Mets for the infamous cash considerations.  Hicks had a relatively poor showing in 2012, hitting just .172 with three home runs in 22 games.  One of those home runs was a walk off against the Rangers, but I think it is safe to say the A’s will make it through next season without him. 

Two days later, on 11/28, the A’s announced that they had come to terms with RP Pat Neshek.  Neshek came over from the Orioles in August and played an important role on the team towards the end of the ’12 season, including several strong outings as the A’s caught up to and passed the Rangers to win the division.  You likely also remember that in the playoffs, the Neshek family lost their newborn child, only to see Pat come back and pitch an inning of relief days later.  I’m glad to see Neshek back in the fold given his performance this past season, but also because of his unique pitching delivery to mix things up coming out of the bullpen. 

Saving the biggest news for last in the November summary, as Jonny Gomes reached an agreement on a two year contract with the Boston Red Sox.  The deal with Boston is reportedly worth $10 million.  I would have loved to have Gomes back in the A’s clubhouse in 2013, particularly over a few of the spare parts remaining on the roster.  However, this price tag is way too high for Oakland to be paying.  That isn’t to say Jonny doesn’t deserve the deal by any stretch, it just isn’t a number that the A’s can commit to a player like Gomes, particularly when the outfield is already overcrowded.  Teams need a player in the clubhouse like Jonny and it is disappointing to see him go.  However, knowing that it was beyond reason to meet a contract like the one he signed, all you can do is tip your cap and say “good luck”. 

UPDATE: 12/1/12

Further proof that I should have just waited until the actual end of the month and not worrying about posting the article on the weekend, there were a few contracts tendered to members of the A's roster, specifically Daric Barton and Adam Rosales.  There has yet to be an announcement on Brandon Moss, Seth Smith, or Jerry Blevins.

Regarding Barton, the only reason I am OK with this deal is because it is a non-guaranteed deal.  I can't imagine Daric is on this club in 2013, but why lose him for nothing.  Hopefully, the A's can find a partner in a bigger trade and Barton will be included.

Rosales is a nice player to have on your bench and spell guys here and there.  Given the earlier trade for Parrino, I wouldn't be surprised or hurt if Rosales also isn't on the club in 2013.

The players that we've yet to hear anything on are all more concerning and bigger names for the 2013 club.  Blevins became an important part of the bullpen, while Moss and Smith both made positive contributions over the course of the season and during the stretch run.  Hopefully all three are resolved already and the club is just late in the announcement or working out some final details with each.

A’s Offseason Hardware

The 2012 A’s season was certainly one to remember.  It was so good in fact, the A’s are actually being acknowledged by others around the league and those that cover MLB.  Both players and management were in the running for some serious recognition this offseason and the majority have panned out. 

This all started with Josh Reddick receiving a gold glove for his outstanding play in RF for the team this past season.  When Reddick was acquired from the Boston Red Sox last offseason, I thought this was a decent move that might pan out over time.  In no way, shape, or form did I think the A’s would be the beneficiary of the deal so fast.  While his bat struggled towards the end of the season, his defense never skipped a beat.  Reddick’s 15 assists from right field were third most in the AL in 2012 and by the time we got to the All-Star Game, teams were largely done testing him. 

Before we get to management’s new hardware, it is worth noting that Yoenis Cespedes came in second place in this year’s AL Rookie of the Year voting.  He was up against a player who had an MVP-type season, let alone a strong rookie year.  In just about any other season, Cespedes takes the award for the type of season he had.  Also noteworthy, Jarrod Parker finished in fourth place in the same poll.  Congratulations to them both and we hope to see much more success from them both in their future. 

Earlier this month, Billy Beane was named the Sporting News’ MLB Executive of the Year.  I don’t believe we need to go over Beane’s accomplishments in great detail.  With the second lowest payroll in baseball, Beane put together a team that won 94 games, beating out two teams that were seen as far superior in the Spring to win the AL West.  Last offseason, Beane once again retooled the pitching staff, trading Gio, Trevor, and Andrew Bailey away for various packages of players that all paid dividends over the course of the 2012 season.  He brought in a handful of serviceable players to plug holes and keep the clubhouse fresh.  Finally, he somehow managed to land Yoenis Cespedes, which will hopefully be paying off for years to come. 

In somewhat of a trickledown effect from Beane’s award, earlier this week Bob Melvin was named the 2012 AL Manager of the Year.  Melvin did a masterful job of plugging holes throughout the season due to injuries, pushed the right button the vast majority of the time, and knew when to ride someone’s hot streak or find a replacement during someone’s cold streak.  He oversaw a team that had 17 rookies, including a starting pitching rotation full of rookies down the playoff stretch in September and into October. 

Melvin received 16 first place votes, outpacing his closest competitor, Buck Showalter who finished with 12 first place votes.  Acknowledging a total bias here, but I don’t think this should have been this close at all.  It isn’t our fault that Baltimore has heavily underachieved for so long despite having a pretty heavy payroll, nor is it our fault that they play in the heavily competitive (and promoted) AL East.  Sure, Showalter oversaw a revitalization of the franchise, but the cards he was dealt were much stronger than what Melvin was playing with throughout the season. 

Congratulations to all of the Athletics players and management on their awards!  Hopefully the team can build on this moving forward!  If only Bud Selig cared enough to resolve the A’s stadium issues … (I really wish he would retire from his post)

A’s Offseason Summary & Thoughts thru October

The lack of updates to this A’s blog is due to a number of reasons:

1.     The offseason

2.     A hurricane

3.     A vacation

4.     The Timberwolves season began

5.     The offseason

As mentioned in the last post, the A’s offseason got off to a quick and early start with the trade for Chris Young.  Since then, the team has remained relatively busy and left me with one head-scratcher; who is going to be play shortstop for this team in 2013? 

The A’s wisely picked up Grant Balfour’s option but surprisingly passed on Stephen Drew’s one year option.  When I first saw this news, I assumed it would be quickly followed by another signing, trade, or wrapping up Drew to a longer term deal vs. his one year option.  To date, the question remains, who is going to play shortstop for this team in 2013?

In a surprise move (to me at least), the A’s resigned Bartolo Colon to a one year, $3 million deal.  I thought for sure we saw the end of the Bartolo era with the team, but the length and price tag of this deal is appealing enough to keep him around to see what is left in the tank … while off PED’s of course.  This brings up a good question about what’s next for the rotation and Brandon McCarthy’s impending free agency, but does not answer the question, who is going to play shortstop for this team in 2013? 

So I can only imagine you see the $100 million dollar question that remains for this team.  The good folks over at Athletics Nation have been talking about this quite extensively as well.  I’ve seen/read all of the thrown out options – resigning Drew, moving Cespedes to the infield, signing a free agent, etc.  However, if you take a look at that free agent list/link, you’ll see that Drew is a top-two choice on the list and that several of the options are a significant downgrade.  I’ll add that Scutaro isn’t an everyday SS, so I don’t necessarily consider him an option.  While the thought of moving Cespedes to SS is intriguing, I think the team would have made that announcement already if it was legitimately on the table.  Right?  I hope Beane has something up his sleeve because this could really come back to hurt this team’s chances of building off of this past season’s successes. 

In other news around the clubhouse, congrats to Josh Reddick for winning his first gold glove!  Josh is the first A’s outfielder to win the award since 1985, when Dwayne Murphy took home the award.  While I don’t say this too often anymore, I’m too young to really remember the player that Murphy was, as he was with the club from 1978-1987 and that is right around the time I started following the team while playing Little League. 

So, I’ll ask one last time, who do you think is going to play shortstop for the A’s in 2013?!  Let’s go Oakland!

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!