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

Billy Beane's Spending and Oakland's Future

Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A's, has become synonymous with successful small market spending to field competitive teams. This off-season it appears that Beane has strayed from the norm. Beane has made serious pushes for high priced free agents Rafael Furcal, Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi and Garrett Anderson.

Oakland's payroll is currently just over $47 million which ranks 28th in the majors right now. Below are the Oakland's payroll rankings since Beane was appointed GM in 1997:

1997 - 28th
1998 - 28th
1999 - 24th
2000 - 25th
2001 - 29th
2002 - 28th
2003 - 23rd
2004 - 16th
2005 - 22nd
2006 - 21st
2007 - 17th
2008 - 28th

The A's have never been in the top half of the league in terms of payroll so why are they making a push now?

Cisco Field, Oakland's new stadium will be ready in two years which means the the A's revenue will drastically increase, providing Beane with more money to spend on players.

Oakland's farm system currently rates as one of the top three in baseball, which is not new for the A's. However there is large difference in how they have been acquiring players this season. The A's signed Michael Inoa, the top Latin-American prospect on the market, for $4.25 million, the highest signing bonus to any non-Cuban international player in history. Beane also broke away from his trend of selecting college players in the first round of the Amateur Draft when he selected pitcher Trevor Cahill in the 2006 draft. Cahill is expected to make his major league debut sometime this season.

This off-season Beane traded away highly touted rookie Carlos Gonzalez to the Colorado Rockies for all star outfielder Matt Holliday. Holliday will be a free agent next year, which means Oakland will probably try to re-sign him.

All of the pieces are in place for Beane and the A's to go on a huge spending spree over the next two off-seasons. With Beane's talent recognition that helped the A's make the playoffs with inferior payrolls, the A's could be very dangerous with his hands on big market money.