Matt Holliday is in. Jason Giambi is back. Justin Duchscherer has signed a new deal. maybe Eric Chavez will be back healthy for the whole season. so can we seriously think about winning the division again this year? will Billy Beane find the veteran presence that our starting rotation looks to be lacking? i'm very excited about this season. here's hoping we can avoid the crippling injury lists that have blighted the last couple of years.
frasermc- I know your a die hard celtic fan and your from scotland. but how did you choose the A's as your baseball team? any connection or just cause you like them? I'm just a little curious because most people I know from europe are mostly yankee, boston, or LA fans.
It started with the NFL about 20 odd years ago. I'm a Raiders fan and when my son was born I found myself up a lot at night with 3am feeds. So I started watching baseball on NASN and CH5. I found that the more I watched the more I enjoyed, to the point where I now enjoy baseball more than NFL. I needed a team to support so I decided to look to Oakland again and plumped for the A's. I've been watching baseball for about 8yrs now and subscribe to MLB TV to see as many A's games live as I possibly can. Oh, and they play in great colours as well.
thats cool that your into a american sport like baseball. Its really not as boring as people make it out to be. A's have a decent shot this year to contend. I hear Mark McGwire has been teaching Holliday and Crosby how to hit and both are saying there better off now after his advice. IMO pitching is always a ? coming into every season but Billy Beane seems to always make the right call when it comes to his pitchers. Duchschere was a great signing. Was hoping he would be available this year. I think with Giambi, Holliday, Crosby, a healthy Chavez and Cust( lives right by me and I work for his father) your lineup shouldn't be that bad at all and should be able to contend with the angels.
it'll be interesting to see how Bobby Crosby does this season considering he was pretty much deemed expandable a couple of months ago if we had grabbed Furcal. our hitting is surely going to improve which in turn will give the pitchers some more breathing space when on the mound. Chavez getting healthy could be a key part to our season. Jack Cust is great at the plate and will probably see a lot more time at DH this season as his fielding skills aren't good for ones heart. i'm looking forward to seeing Ryan Sweeney continue to improve this season, hopefully.
Hey there frasermc, I think we have a decent squad this year. We have also have a decent chance at the division this year. The lineup has been greatly improved with Holliday and Giambi. Ellis was re-signed. Our starting pitching worries me. Duchscherer is our ace and he's as good as advertised. However, his health is a question point. Sean Gallagher is probably our #2 starter and even though he does have a high ceiling, he is still young. The #3 guy is Dana Eveland. 4/5 slots will go two of the following: Gio Gonzalez, Dallas Braden (who pitched very well the second half of last year), Josh Outman. I would consider this a subpar rotation. Although we do have some blue chip starting pitching prospects (Anderson and Cahill) who will start the season in the minors and will probably be called-up to the majors at some point in the season.
i have a good feeling about this year. hopefully we can push all the way in the division race. i take it with the return of Giambi that Daric Bartons time will be severely limited and he may even be moved on? it seems to be a strange situation as our starting rotation has been one of our strong points for a while now. Dana Eveland doesn't inspire me with a lot of confidence but hopefully we can produce a few more runs per game and give them a little more breathing room on the mound.
i suppose it's safe to say with the soon to arrive Orlando Cabrera(Thursday,Friday) and Nomar that Bobby Crosbys A's career is close to an end.
Crosby will be hard to move as he makes $5.25 million this year (his final year on contract.) We'll probably have to eat most or all of his salary in any trade made. Cabrera is a big upgrade. We got a deal on him. $4million/1 yr especially considering Renteria signed with SF for $18.5 million for 2 years. Nomar is a nice pick-up because he is so versatile. He can play 3B, SS, 2B, DH, 1B. He can fill-in for Chavez or Ellis, who are injury prone. Also, he gives us a right-handed bat off the bench. Things are looking good offensively. Pitching might be another story. However, the A's have a stellar bullpen, good defense and play in a pitcher's park. They also have a large quantity of starters that they can turn to so hopefully the starting pitching is good enough this season.
that's my main worry and it's a strange one to have as an A's fan. well, for as long as i've been an A's fan we've lived and died on the strength of our pitching and our rotation in general. now i read that The Duke probably wont be ready for opening day which will be a blow. what do you project as the starting 5 without Duchscherer?
Eveland, Gallagher, Braden, Gio Gonzalez, Jerome Williams/Edgar Gonzalez/Josh Outman Eveland is durable and underrated. He's an innings eater but not exactly ace material. Gallagher has a very high ceiling. Take away his poorest two starts last year and he has very respectable numbers. Braden had struggled early on in his career but was solid the second half of last season as a starter. Gio Gonzalez came over in the Swisher trade last year. He has yet to impress at the major league level. Jerome Williams, Edgar Gonzalez and Josh Outman will fight for the fifth spot. My money is on Williams. He was good with San Francisco but his career has fallen off a cliff. He is trying to resurrect his career with the A's and he's still only 26 years old so its not as if he's washed up. Edgar Gonzalez is a Mexican that was signed just a few weeks ago. He's a journeyman but has good stuff. Outman we acquired in the Blanton trade from Philadelphia. In AAA we have three top prospects: Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Vincent Mazzaro. Each one of these guys can be fast tracked into the big leagues if necessary. On paper our starting rotation looks mediocre at best. However, we have plenty of depth. Things that should also help us include having a good bullpen, a much improved offense, solid defense and the fact that we play in a pitcher's park. If we're still in the hunt for the postseason in the middle of the year my guess is that we will trade for an established starting pitcher. We have plenty of trade fodder in our system.
so as expected, the Duke will start the season on the DL. a blow yes, but not a totally unexpected one. hopefully Chavez and Ellis wont suffer any problems from their season ending injuries last season. Garciaparra offers plenty of cover for the infield slots but i'm hoping we can steer clear of injuries a lot more after the last couple of seasons.
Dallas Braden has been confirmed as our opening day starter. he played against the Cubs last night and finished spring training 1-0 with a 5.12 ERA. and this looks like being the rest of the rotation for now anyway - Trevor Cahill Dana Eveland Brett Anderson Josh Outman. Sean Gallacher is struggling to make the team.
for obvious reasons our season opening series was cut a game short but after being held scoreless in the first match up, which was a pity for Braden as he had pitched well, we then won the next two games. plenty of hits, both the starting pitching and bullpen were good. very early days of course but encouraging nonetheless. haven't managed to watch a live game on MLB.TV yet but i'm hoping to stay up through the night to watch our home opener against the Mariners. I have to admit to being excited about Anderson's debut tonight. looking forward to it.
A poor home start to the season. Swept by the Mariners. There were plus points and minus points through the series. I think the starting pitching has been pretty good. I thought Anderson pitched well and regained his composure well after a tough 2nd inning when he gave up, rather unluckily, 5 runs. He looked the part on the mound. Even better though was Trevor Cahill tonight. He deserved to get the win after a sterling effort that included a no hitter through 6 innings. If Rajai Davis hadn't messed up his read on Mike Sweeney's line drive then he could well have gotten that W. Our clutch hitting deserted us in this series. Hopefully it'll return for the Red Sox tomorrow.
didn't get to see a lot of the series against the Red Sox. just glad we got a couple of wins to start the ball rolling at home. have seen quite a bit of both Blue Jays games. nice to see Crosby come up with the bases clearing triple that brought us back into the first game and was the catalyst for us to go on and win it. another outstanding effort by the bullpen against a team that is hitting unbelievably well at the minute. i thought Outman was trying to pitch too many strikes too soon. he just seemed too eager to get ahead of the hitters and the way they are crushing the ball at the minute was always going to end up with him in trouble. it was another great effort by the bullpen last night that came up short in 12 innings. i'm happy to be 1-1 with the way the Blue Jays are hitting right now. Cahill made the important pitches when he had to i thought. but we need a good 7 inning effort from Braden tonight, similar to his last start, as the bullpen need a break.
The offense has been horrible. The A's are in dead last in batting avg. in MLB. Going into the season the thought was that the A's would be an offensive force and that the hitters would give the young pitchers some margin for error. So far, it's the other way around. The pitching has been very good, the batting poor. I think Giambi and Holliday and the rest of the offense will warm up. When that happens, the team will be good. I just hope the bullpen doesn't become overworked.
We're on a shockingly poor run at the minute. The main bright spot is the bullpen and to an extent, some of the starting pitching. I really liked the look of Andrew Bailey. Hopefully Braden can halt the slide tonight. Although knowing that he only has a one or two run margin of error just piles more pressure on the guy. I hope I'm wrong but Chavez looks finished. He just doesn't look to have anything in his swing anymore. Giambi and Holliday need to get hot ... soon.
A good series win against the AL defending champion Rays before we head off for Texas. Braden pitched well again before coming out in the 6th inning with a minor hamstring niggle which thankfully, hasn't amounted to anything. The bullpen did its job again. Giambi got off the mark with his first long ball and it went a mile. Nomar had a great clutch hit bases clearing double and Travis Buck took advantage of his start with his first home run of the season. Hopefully he'll get more at-bats in the coming days as we'll be facing a lot of right handers. Eveland even looked in control today as we won the final game 7-1. Plenty of hits and Kurt Suzuki continues to impress both with the bat and also with his overall play behind the plate. A nice little build up of momentum. Lets see if we can continue it in Arlington.
Ellis and Garciaparra have been placed on the DL. Both with calf problems. The thing with calfs is that they take a long time to heal. The A's still need their offense to get in order. They should feel lucky they are in the AL West. It could be the worst division in the league, however Seattle has looked pretty good thus far.
Are you watching the Rangers game at the minute? 0-5 with RISP. Sums up our season so far. And the past one's as well... Braden has thrown 90 pitches in four innings. Our starters don't seem to get many 'cheap' outs.
Bob Geren is doing his best to lose this game for us tonight. Why the hell is Gonzalez still pitching when it's clear to see the guy has pitched all he can tonight? Why has he gotten Bailey up warming up three times in the bullpen and still not used him? We had a three run lead in the top of the 13th and threw it away. Tied now into the 14th.
Great. We should have left Seattle with a series win but end up losing it 2-1. I don't know who to be more frustrated with. Geren for his lousy game management or Eveland for throwing away another potential win. Even when this guy doesn't start he still manages to lose games. Hopefully the one good thing to come from this is maybe Gonzalez will take Eveland's place in the 5 man roster. Although I won't hold my breath...