2009 Preview: Oakland Athletics

2008 was not a bad year for the Oakland Athletics. The team consisted of a majority of young players, so it was a year of growth throughout the team. They did not have a superstar on the team to lead on the field, so they were pretty average at all phases of the game. One nice story from the Athletics last year was the first half play of Justin Duchscherer. Known to be injured a lot, Duchsherer was finally healthy and he won 10 games in the first half of the season and was named to the All-Star Team. The nice story was ruined when he went down with injury, again, but it was nice to see him healthy and perform well in the first half. So this off-season Billy Beane wanted change up his team and improve on their last year's record of 75-86.

Projected Lineup:
C - Kurt Suzuki
1B - Jason Giambi
2B - Mark Ellis
SS - Bobby Crosby
3B - Eric Chavez
LF - Matt Holliday
CF - Ryan Sweeney
RF - Travis Buck
DH - Jack Cust

Project Rotation:
#1 - Justin Duchscherer
#2 - Dana Eveland
#3 - Sean Gallagher
#4 - Gio Gonzalez
#5 - Dallas Braden
Closer - Joey Devine

Position Battles:

Closer - This is the only major position battle for the Athletics this year and it is between two men, Brad Ziegler and Joey Devine. Both are very good and very qualified, which will make this battle a very good one to watch this spring.

2009 Outlook:

With the addition of Matt Holliday and Jason Giambi, the Athletics definitely improved and I think passed the Texas Rangers in the process. The offense should be the anchor of the team due to the bats of Holliday, Giambi, Cust, and Chavez (if he can stay healthy). The pitching is the weaker part of the team, but it is still not bad. If Duchscherer can stay healthy, he is a very good number one starter. The rest of the rotation really needs to step up if they want to make a serious playoff run this year.

The Athletics have two excellent pitching prospects in Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson, who probably will not make the team out of spring training, but will most likely come up at some point in the second half. They could be like David Price (last year) and Joba Chamberlain (two years ago), where they get called up late in the season and make a real impact on the team. I am sure that is something that Oakland would love to see.

Projected Finish: 2nd Place, AL West