Oakland A's Offseason Thread

Saw this on another A's MB, the one socal I think posts at a bit, pretty optimistic A's article done at some site named dugoutcentral.

Quote:

Published by Paul Catalano on October 14, 2009 05:26 am under A's

By now, we’ve all heard the story of Billy Beane. The Wunderkind using a laptop and statistics instead of scouts. The Sabermetrics Guru. A movie based on the book Moneyball being made starring Brad Pitt.

Only thing is, the poster boy’s team flopped this year. (And the movie was put on hold).

But next year. That’s a whole different story.

Let’s chew on a few facts here. After going 19-29 in April and May, the Oakland A’s improved almost every month to finish the year 17-10 in September, the best in the American League West.

How ‘bout this: Despite the fact that of the six starters the A’s used prominently this season, none of them were over 25. Yet, the A’s had the 4th best ERA in the AL (4.29) and closed the season in Sept/Oct with a team wide 3.70 ERA. They have two pitchers (Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill, ranked 7th and 11th in Baseball America’s 2009 Top 100 prospects) who are 21-years-old and had double digit victories. They have a rookie 25-year old closer who had a 1.84 ERA and a 0.876 WHIP. They have two other pitchers (Dallas Braden and Josh Outman, aged 25 and 24) who had ERA’s of 3.89 and 3.48 respectively, in 34 games started.

Add to that, the A’s get Joey Devine back next year. Devine, you recall, had a 0.59 ERA in 45-2/3 innings in 2008. Devine joins a bullpen that was American-League best in 2009, with a 3.54 ERA.

The potential the A’s have with their staff is limitless—possibly better than Mulder, Hudson and Zito in the early 2000s.

Where the A’s lagged this year was in hitting, and especially in slugging. The A’s were decidedly middle of the pack with a .262 team BA, and were downright bad with a .397 slugging percentage. However there is hope. And with Beane, it comes in the form of young talent acquired by judicious drafting and from trades for A’s veterans.

Daric Barton, still only 23-years-old, seemed to arrive in the fall. In his last 21 games the first baseman slugged .500. Ryan Sweeney—acquired in the Nick Swisher trade—in the last month of the season, batted .364 with 7 doubles. Twenty-two year-old outfielder and 2007 first round draft pick, Sean Doolittle, while dinged up this year in AAA, showed power potential in 2008 with 22 home runs in AA. Twenty-year-old Brett Wallace (acquired in the Matt Holliday trade) slugged .505 in 44 games in AAA ball. OF Matt Carson, a greybeard at 27, had 25 HRs and 29 doubles at AAA. 25-year old Aaron Cunningham—number 55 on Baseball America’s 2009 Top 100 Prospects, batted .302 in AAA this year and seems ready to contend for a job in spring training.

Possibly the most talented of the many A’s prospects is Chris Carter. The 22-year-old hit 39 HRs in 2008, and between AA and AAA this year hit 28 HRs. He also batted .337 in the Texas league and won the MVP before being prompted to AAA at the end of the year. Billy Beane went on record saying that he would like Carter to start in AAA, but have him come up to the big club some time during the season.

Again, even with all this young talent, the A’s just went 75-87 this year. However, there is a big difference between going 75-87 with aging expensive veterans, disgruntled and mouthing off to the press, and going 75-87 with young talented kids, taking their lumps and improving throughout the season. The A’s on a self-imposed “five-year rebuilding plan” —beginning with the trade of Dan Haren in 2007—are content right now to lose, if it means learning lessons and winning down the road. Which, it seems, is exactly what is occurring.

Now this isn’t to say that the A’s are on a rocket ship to the World Series in 2010; however, with the embarrassment of young talented pitchers and a horde of young talented position players beating at the door, don’t be surprised if the Oakland A’s next year pull a Texas Rangers and contend for a playoff spot.

Some winter league observations...

-Carter is unreal. .218/.267/.679 with 4 HRs/6 RBIs but has 2 BBs/14 Ks. When he's actually put the ball in play, he's 6/14 with those 4 HRs.

-Weeks after a nice start 3/9 start the first two games, well in the last two he is 0/10.

-Desme looking good. .429/.500/.810 with 2 2Bs/2 HRs/4 RBIs. Does have 8 Ks but only 1 in his last 9 ABs/2 games.

-C.Brown was 6/17 with a HR/3 RBIs but with only 4 Ks and 3 BBs in his first four games, well he took an O for with 3 Ks today.

ESPN writer says the A's are "in the mix" for Cuban LHSP 21 year old defector Chapman.

Says he could land a 40-60 million dollar deal...very doubtful the A's will be serious contenders with it being reported that BOS and the NYY, SHOCKER, are the supposed front runners.

If the A's were willing to be interested in Chapman, why weren't they one of the top contenders for Sano the top international bat this past half season before he signed with another "mid market" team in MIN who also paid a ton for the top Euro positional prospect too this past season.

I'd honestly take Sano a big time bat over somebody like Chapman. Not saying wouldn't mind Chapman but the A's paid a huge amount for Ynoa who so far still hasn't thrown a real pitch in the minors yet.

A's have paid some good money internationally the past few years with Solano, Rosario, Box and a handful of others but they still haven't landed that big time international hitting prospect.

Basically sign the "Ynoa" of international positional prospects or at least one of of the top 2-3 bats.

Desme looking legit in fall league in ARZ.

Has two HRs today and gives him 5 in 7 games.

K's are an issue although has only 2 in his last 15 ABs but .419/.471/.963 line the first week against some of the top prospects in all of baseball is pretty good sign.

Desme with another HR, 7 now in 9 games.

You couldn't have scripted a better AZL for Desme who still has his huge non believers and probably justified until he shows a better K rate.

Even in AZL, last game he has 2 Ks which gives him 12 Ks in only 35 ABs. AA will be a good barometer on where Desme is as a prospect, just as many Carter detractors felt AA was going to tell how well some looked at Carter as a prospect last year at this time and we all know how well Carter played at AA MID this past season earning TEX League POY and even though he still K'ed a lot, his K rate dropped from where it was in 08 at A+.

Desme though hasn't run yet with no SBs which is a bit surprising since he went 40/45 to go along with his 31 HRs combined at A/A+ ball although I doubt even if Desme makes it to the bigs that he'll be a guy who steals a ton of bases. From scouting reports, he only has average speed but looks though as he has good instincts on the base paths which is something the A's are looking for more now.


Brown also hit his 3rd HR of the AZL. He has a .333 AVG with 1.112 OPS in 30 ABs so far.

WOW!

Desme goes 3/4 with ANOTHER HR Friday.

.436/.500/.1.026 with 11 runs, 2 2Bs, 7 HRs, 13 RBIs now for Desme in 9 games.

Good sign too is no K's today. 5 Ks in his last 27 ABs now. Not great but like he did from A to A+ this past season in the minors, he's improving.

Looks as CSNCA is gonna run a show called "final cut" tonight at 7.

Guessing it'll be a review of the 09 A's season.

Did you ever feel like you were alone in a room and no one was listening? LOL
47 of the 51 posts from you big guy. I have to commend you.. you are an incredible A's fan.

People are listening/reading, you don't get over 1000+ views, without at least some A's fans and others reading what's being posted to know what's going on with the team over the past few weeks.

Just none seem at this time willing to post much about the team after a miserable season for the most part and the "off the field" news isn't that interesting although the winter league performances by a few A's prospects should be something positive to follow until those are over days/weeks.

Originally posted by ninerpride:
People are listening/reading, you don't get over 1000+ views, without at least some A's fans and others reading what's being posted to know what's going on with the team over the past few weeks.

Just none seem at this time willing to post much about the team after a miserable season for the most part and the "off the field" news isn't that interesting although the winter league performances by a few A's prospects should be something positive to follow until those are over days/weeks.

I check this thread often. I appreciate your post. I don't post much myself, but I like to read others' thoughts.

Desme with another huge game today in ARZ.

2/4 with another HR and 3 RBIs.

.442/.500/1.047 with 2 2Bs/8 HRs/13 RBIs in 10 games.

Now the cynic will say the AFL this year is a complete launching pad, but even if that's true, Desme is still one of the best hitters in the league and he's facing some of the better prospects so not like he's facing the low A talent he was facing this season where some of his critics used against him.

Originally posted by ninerpride:
People are listening/reading, you don't get over 1000+ views, without at least some A's fans and others reading what's being posted to know what's going on with the team over the past few weeks.

Just none seem at this time willing to post much about the team after a miserable season for the most part and the "off the field" news isn't that interesting although the winter league performances by a few A's prospects should be something positive to follow until those are over days/weeks.

Yeah Im not goin to lie I get all of my offseason news from this thread and I jus read prides posts but don't post myself... maybe when it gets closer to spring training lol 49ers and Lakers right now...

Suzuki was on KNBR MON afternoon...

http://www.knbr.com/common/global_audio/201/13643.MP3

As for the "Final Cut" 30 minute special last night.

Nothing really special. Just showed some highlights of the season.

Babbit was on and gave a report grade on the A's this season...

SP-A...really don't agree with that. I'd give them a solid B though. Cahill, Gio, Mazzaro especially all had their long stretches of struggles. Anderson was a bit better than Cahill although it's been mentioned that he did get an extra day of rest the last few months of the season and that's why maybe he pitched so well so we'll have to see how well he does on a regular days of rest unlike what he faced last season late in the year when the A's went to a six man rotation. Outman, too bad he got hurt, as mentioned he could've had a breakout season ala Anderson did at least in terms of wins/losses. Braden, hopefully this funky foot rash/injury doesn't effect him into ST.


Pen-A...this is where I believe it's a good grade. Pen was one of the best in the AL.

Bailey, Ziegler, Wuertz, Breslow espcially for a good duration of the season was as good of a 4 man pen late in the game as you could get. Even Springer, he had 3 horrific outings in June but other than that, he was completely lights out the rest of the season with the A's before TB claimed him off waivers. The pen you'd think could only get better especially with a healthy addition of Devine next season and the youngsters who showed up well the last month or two of the season in Kibly/Gray/Meloan.


Offense-D...second half the A's were one of the top 5 offenses in baseball but you couldn't discount how bad they were in the first half. Basically Babbit said Carter/Wallace need to show up as legit 3/4 type of hitters down the road, although I highly doubt either will be that type of middle of the lineup type of hitters until really mid 2011 especially if both arrive sometime midway thru next season.


Coaching-B...obviously I'm not a Geren fan. I don't think he has a lot of respect of the fan base as they see him as Beane's right hand man and probably wouldn't have a MLB managerial job if he wasn't close to Beane.

Seems as the rumors we have heard over the past few seasons of players having issues with Geren have some truth to it and isn't some A's fan ploy to show why Geren shouldn't be the A's manager long term.

In Urban's mailbag, he said Giambi "wasn't a big fan of Geren" and that maybe a reason along with his horrible production why he was dealt and why Nomar who really kept to himself was kept the entire season.

Also Urban will have a piece on Desme tomorrow.

After Carter and Wallace, with Desme very good showing this season even though he was 23 playing at A/A+ although he missed basically the first 2 years of his pro career due to injuries and now his more impressive showing at the AZL, I'd probably put Desme in terms of a positional prospect behind the two mentioned above and jumps Desme ahead of the likes of Cardenas, Weeks, Brown, Doolittle, and Donaldson.