2009 Oakland A's thread

Sickels puts Leon as his A's candidate to break thru in the minors this season...

Quote:

Arnold Leon, RHP, Oakland Athletics

Oakland fans, who tend to be very well-informed, know about Leon, but the rest of us might not. From Mexico, he split last year between Saltillo in the Mexican League (4.30 ERA, 21/2 K/BB in 15 innings) and Stockton in the California League (2.86 ERA, 28/9 K/BB in 28 innings). 20 years old, he's not a tall guy at 5-11, but he gets his fastball into the 90s and mixes it with a cut fastball and big-breaking curve. His control is sharp, and like many Mexican pitchers he has a good feel for his craft. We need to see more from him, but there are clearly things to like here.

Saw Wolff sent a letter out publicly that stated that he doesn't want the A's to stay in Oakland.

Well for A's fans who aren't blind and deaf, that has been pretty obvious from the past two ownership groups that they never game Oakland a legit shot of keeping the team even the times the city extended their hands towards the A's, they were turned away and this time, it's the 3rd time.

First time was in mid 02 when the A's hired HOK to look for sites but the A's under Schott/Hoffman didn't send any rep to those Oakland city council meetings but month(s) later, Schott himself went to a south bay city council meeting when their plans to build a park were way behind what the city of Oakland had done during those meetings with HOK.

Second time was before Wolff unveiled his massive coliseum north plan, but before that the city/business officials here in Oakland extended their hand in working out a plan but Wolff rejected the offer for help.

And now this with the city of Oakland wanting to still work out a plan and Wolf basically saying it's "over" for the A's in Oakland long term.


A's hopefully get this par done in SJ within the next 5 or 6 years but Wolff will always be a lying SOB in my book, even if he "saves" the team by keeping them in the bay area. Just say you never wanted the A's in Oakland to begin with and stop with this charade.

Geez, sounds as Duke may start the year on the DL and who knows if the A's who have hinted they may wanna move him back to the pen because he'll stay healthier there than the rotation...what will the rotation look like then.

Some have thought the opening day rotation with Duke on the DL would be...

Eveland
Gallagher
Braden
E.Gonzalez
Mazzaro

...so no Gio and Anderson/Cahill/Williams most likely start the year in the AAA rotation at Sac. Don't know where Gio ends up, in AAA along with those three mentioned or starts the year in the A's pen.

That rotation doesn't really give me a lot of security when Eveland is the #1 and even though he's looked good in ST, he's at best IMO a 4 in a good rotation.

Ouch........in Curt Young we trust.

Well in regards to SAT's game, first game televised...

-Braden looked decent. Got hit hard after the first time thru the lineup but the change up looked great. Not saying he'll have the type of year in 09 as he did for that 6 stretch start of games he had in the second half in 08 with....

36.2 IP, 36 hits, 11 ERs, 8 BBs, 18 Ks, 2.70 ERA

...but I think he can win 10-12 games with a mid 4 ERA.


-first time seeing Simmons the A's 07 first rounder and wasn't all that impressed. He too got hit hard and had Wimbley not made a great leaping catch in the 7th when there were runners on base, Simmons' # would look worse than they actually were. He isn't making many swing and miss and he's allowed 13 hits in 7 IP. Even in the minors, he's getting hit hard a lot having a BA against of .308 in AA during his half season there albeit in only 29.2 IP but even last season his BAA was .282 in 136 IP. He's still only 22 years old and even in ST as he's done in the minors, he's not having problems with control with only 2 BBs in ST so far...but Simmons wasn't as impressive as I hoped..although maybe setting my sights on him to be too high with the way Mazzaro, Anderson, and Cahill have pitched this ST. But makes it worst that Porcello who the A's passed on in 07 is pitching great for DET and saw on MLBN that they think he maybe a candidate for DET's 5th spot in the rotation to start the season.

FA LHRP Beimel considering offers from the A's and a couple of other teams.

He'd be a solid veteran LHRP to have in the pen this season but read he wants 2-3 million? That's a lot of money to give for a LHRP and at this point I would think the A's may just wanna give that job to Gio who so far in ST has done a solid job.

I'd still rather use that money they might give to Beimel and try to land a veteran SP although don't know whos out there, Mulder?

Originally posted by ninerpride:
Well in regards to SAT's game, first game televised...

-Braden looked decent. Got hit hard after the first time thru the lineup but the change up looked great. Not saying he'll have the type of year in 09 as he did for that 6 stretch start of games he had in the second half in 08 with....

36.2 IP, 36 hits, 11 ERs, 8 BBs, 18 Ks, 2.70 ERA

...but I think he can win 10-12 games with a mid 4 ERA.


-first time seeing Simmons the A's 07 first rounder and wasn't all that impressed. He too got hit hard and had Wimbley not made a great leaping catch in the 7th when there were runners on base, Simmons' # would look worse than they actually were. He isn't making many swing and miss and he's allowed 13 hits in 7 IP. Even in the minors, he's getting hit hard a lot having a BA against of .308 in AA during his half season there albeit in only 29.2 IP but even last season his BAA was .282 in 136 IP. He's still only 22 years old and even in ST as he's done in the minors, he's not having problems with control with only 2 BBs in ST so far...but Simmons wasn't as impressive as I hoped..although maybe setting my sights on him to be too high with the way Mazzaro, Anderson, and Cahill have pitched this ST. But makes it worst that Porcello who the A's passed on in 07 is pitching great for DET and saw on MLBN that they think he maybe a candidate for DET's 5th spot in the rotation to start the season.

Whenever I think of Simmons I think of Porcello and it really p*sses me ofd. I've nevr been very impressed with Simmons and I think he'll only turn out to be a Joe Blanton type of pitcher at his peak.

I'd be hugely excited if Simmons turns into a poor man's Blanton. IMO Blanton has been one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball his first three years. He was sort of a poor man's Mulder in terms that he'd work quick and throw strikes but he wasn't as nearly talented as Mulder was from 01-04, especially the first three years.

If Simmons can be a decent 4 or solid 5, I'd be happy. 12-14 wins with a mid 4 ERA and I'd take it. As for Porcello, yeah, he'll make a lot of teams regret in not drafting him even if they had to pay 6 million for him to sign. Even though he doesn't have the high K #s you look for, the guy has front of the rotation type of potential.

Also consider the A's that offseason paid 8 plus million to Piazza and the year before paid 7 per for Loaiza for three years while giving up the 1st round pick, although doesn't seem to have f**ked up the A's in that draft considering they drafted Cahill in round two that year but still.

Anderson with another great outing today.

Started and went 4 scoreless. So far 2 ERs in 9.2 IP, has only 2 Ks though which I guess is the only "negative" to say about his ST performance. Still believe the A's will send him to AAA to start the season as I doubt they'll wanna put two rookies essentially in the rotation to begin 09 regardless if they did well in ST.

Cahill pitching tomorrow.

Correction, Anderson has only 1 K thru 9.2 IP.

Also tomorrow's game will be on radio here, 860.

Originally posted by ninerpride:
Anderson with another great outing today.

Started and went 4 scoreless. So far 2 ERs in 9.2 IP, has only 2 Ks though which I guess is the only "negative" to say about his ST performance. Still believe the A's will send him to AAA to start the season as I doubt they'll wanna put two rookies essentially in the rotation to begin 09 regardless if they did well in ST.

Cahill pitching tomorrow.

I think we should start Mazzaro in the rotation to start the 09 season. That would give him some early starts so if he messes up he could identify his mistakes later on in the season.

At this point, I have no objects to having Mazzaro starting the year in the bigs especially if Duke starts the year on the DL

Eveland
Gallagher
Braden
E.Gonzalez
Mazzaro

I think that's the rotation heading into the season. Mazzaro seems like he's the most mature of the youngsters right now having spent the most time in the minors, 3+ years even though he's had only one good or very good season last year in 08 at AA and then at AAA garnering the AA Texas League pitcher of the year award.

Mazzaro like Cahill has that dominant sinker and we've seen a lot of pitchers recently who keeps the ball low and gets ground balls succeed in MLB at a very good rate of the past few years.

The encouraging news about Mazzaro is his fastball has been clocked in the mid 90s this spring when most scouting reports had him in the low 90s. Now who knows if he can maintain it that fast, probably not, but I'd take a 92 MPH fastball on average from Mazzaro to go along with his dominant sinker.

Read in today's outing, Anderson broke might've broken 8 or 10 ABs so good thing that the hitters aren't getting good wood when they're making contact.

Although something that isn't good is that there are "rumblings" that Gallagher's spot in the rotation may not be set in stone.

I don't know why, sure his ST #s look bad but in his last start, the last outing he's had, he was coming off a bug that's been spreading in the locker room this spring and that may have effected him as he probably wasn't nearly 100% as he was scheduled to pitch the day before but was scratched.

I still say Gallagher should start the year in the rotation and IMO will end up being a good pitcher for the A's. He just needs to attack hitters more, he has good stuff, but he I guess at this point doesn't trust his stuff as much you'd hope for.

Mentioned the thing about Gallagher, here was part of the Q&A about Gallagher's stuff and mentallity on the mound...

Quote:

12:54
[Comment From Toni]
is Gallagher better than his numbers? And if so what exactly does he need to do to "put it all together"?

12:55
Interesting that you bring him up. I think he's got the best pure stuff of the rotation candidates who have appeared in the majors so far. He needs to get a little more aggressive with it and not nibble. I always mention this because I think it's amazing, but Aaron Rowand last year compared Gallagher's repertoire to Lincecum's. Gallagher doesn't have the mindset of "Here it is, hit it," though.

Some other encouraging news from today's game is that Williams who at this point probably is out of the rotation to start the season had a perfect two innings of relief.

He's looks solid this ST, like Anderson, not exactly K'ing a ton of people like Anderson has only 1 K but he'll start the year off in the AAA rotation and IMO should be one of the first to come up if there are problems with the major league staff.

I'd honestly like to see him given a chance before lets say a Cahill or Anderson. I'm rooting for this kid and wanna see him given at least one legit shot at the majors.