[Kevdog1020]

Season Preview
April 3, 2016

Hey guys, David here. This is my first journal entry, I’ll be doing these from time to time to give you my thoughts on anything and everything going on with the Oakland A’s and Major League baseball. Looks like those guys over at the Oakland Tribune really ripped into us this morning. Now granted, we don’t have the best team this year and we’ll probably lose more than we’ll win. But this is an exciting time to be an Oakland A’s fan. In 2013, 2014 and 2015 we made the playoffs and won 94, 96 and 88 games respectively. Not an easy feat for a team with a consistently low payroll. Sure, our team doesn’t look great on paper but what’s on paper today will not be what’s on paper on the day the season ends. You can take that one to the bank. I’m looking to get my own fingerprints on this team and Billy has given me tremendous freedom now to do what I think is right.

So now I’d just like to interject a few of my thoughts on the construction of this team.

Batters - Lineup

CF Billy Burns
1B Yonder Alonso
LF Khris Davis
RF Josh Reddick
3B Danny Valencia
C Stephen Vogt
DH Billy Butler
2B Chris Coghlan
SS Marcus Semien

Batters - Bench
C Josh Phegley
1B/LF Mark Canha
IF Jed Lowrie
CF Coco Crisp

My Thoughts: So the lineup isn’t exactly how I would’ve structured it, but I’m also not the Manager so we’ll just have to see how it goes. I’m hoping we’ll have some platoon work available for Mark Canha because he’s got solid power and I’d like for him to get at-bats since he drove in a bunch of runs for us last year. But the two guys I’d really like to see in the lineup are Coco Crisp and Jed Lowrie, especially since they make up close to 25% of our player payroll. Those two, along with Billy Butler are probably three of the biggest candidates to trade should we fall too far behind in the playoff race. The one thing I really like about our lineup this year is the flexibility we have in plugging many of our players in many different positions so that will be something to look for as we shape the future of our team.

Starting Rotation
RHP Sonny Gray (14-7, 2.73 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 169 K in 208 IP)
RHP Kendall Graveman (6-9, 4.05 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 77 K in 115.2 IP)
RHP Chris Bassitt (1-8, 3.56 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 64 K in 86 IP)
RHP Jesse Hahn (6-6, 3.35 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 64 K in 96.2 IP)
LHP Rich Hill (2-1, 1.55 ERA, 0.66 WHIP, 36 K in 29 IP w/ BOS)

Bullpen
CL Sean Doolittle (1-0, 4 saves, 3.95 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 15 K in 13.2 IP)
SU Liam Hendriks (5-0, 2.92 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 71 K in 64.2 IP w/ TOR)
SU Ryan Madson (1-2, 3 saves, 2.13 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 58 K in 63.1 IP w/ KC)
RHP John Axford (4-5, 25 saves, 4.20 ERA, 62 K in 55.2 IP w/ COL)
LHP Marc Rzepczynski (2-4, 5.66 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 41 K in 35 IP w/ SD & CLE)
RHP Fernando Rodriguez (4-2, 3.84 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 65 K in 58.2 IP)
RHP Charles Brewer* (1-1, 2.92 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 7 K in 12.1 IP in AA)

*Brewer was signed on 3/31/2016 to a 1-year/$700,000 contract. Felix Doubrant was placed on waivers and DFA’d to make room for him on the roster.

My Thoughts: Our bullpen is definitely one of our strengths as a team. Doolittle, Hendriks and Madson should make up one of the strongest back ends in the majors this season. And Axford, Scrabble and Rodriguez aren’t too shabby themselves. The problem will be getting them the ball with the lead. We really have no idea what we’re gonna get from our starters not named Sonny Gray. Rich Hill was a reliever, albeit an excellent one, last season. Chris Bassitt spent some of last season in the bullpen. Kendall Graveman only pitched 115 innings last season – a career high. And Jesse Hahn has never pitched over 100 innings in a season. So our rotation will really be a wild card this season. We’ve got some potential down in Triple A with our 2^nd best prospect Sean Manaea almost ready for a call to the show and SP Zach Neal, who is a borderline major league SP but I’m hoping I do not have to make one of those calls this season.

Disabled List
SS Eric Sogard (60-day DL, strained groin, out 3 months)
RP Jarrod Parker (60-day DL, Tommy John surgery, out 4 months)
SP Henderson Alvarez (60-day DL, Tommy John surgery, out 2 months)
RP RJ Alvarez (60-day DL, elbow reconstruction surgery, out 2 months)
LF Sam Fuld (60-day DL, wrist soreness, out 6-7 months)

My Thoughts: Ouch! We had a lot of guys with big injuries entering the year. Parker and the Alvarez’s have the potential to shore up our rotation/bullpen in a few months. And Sogard could help improve our lineup when he returns but Fuld will probably not make any contributions this season. All in all, we shouldn’t count on anything from any of these guys and should look elsewhere for reinforcements.