Philadelphia Athletics
Overview
Now two years removed from 101 wins, the Athletics' distant 3rd place finish is a little misleading. They held the league leadership in the early going and were still into it until around Labor Day. A doubleheader sweep of the Yankees on Labor Day was the high point. From then on they went 10-14. Granted, they would have had to have been unearthly over the same time to have actually won it, but you'd hope for a better finish than that.
This is not a team that looks to have a good chance going forward. They were 6th in the AL in runs scored last year, dead last in extra base hits, and second to the bottom in slugging percentage. The downfall of Walter Carlson was swift and cut a huge hole in the lineup. Jay Carbaugh was supposed to be the #2 punch and he was almost as bad. The pitching, which is beginning to age and might be seeing its window of greatness close, needed better output than that.
John Glenn is the A's manager, at least for now. No stranger to the hot seat, Glenn's pre-Athletics resume includes four seasons with the Yankees, including 2 pennants and a World Series title, but also a sacking following their disappointing 1930 season. The A's did take a step forward compared to 1932 but will that be enough for Glenn to keep his job? With a career mark of 500 wins and 424 losses, Glenn is probably the best major league manager who stands a better than even chance of losing his job before the year is out.
Pitching
Somebody help these guys!
Peter Brewer took his lumps all season long, tying for the league lead in losses despite posting the 3rd best strikeout to walk ratio in the AL. It's a long way to fall for a guy who just 2 years earlier went 23-9 and took home the AL Pitcher of the Year award.
Al Montieth enjoyed a nice rebound season from '32 (12-19, 5.61) to lead the team in victories, but he's not the staff ace that some fans think he is.
Things were a bit shaky after the top two. The club brought in
Matt Snyder to aid in the pennant run; he won just 5 of 13 decisions before announcing his retirement.
Raul Carillo was the #2 starter for the first half of the year but then went down with an shoulder injury in the second. He looks on pace to return for spring training.
Brian Barnes,
Nathan Christy, and
Dallas Demers also enjoyed long runs in the rotation with varying degrees of effectiveness. And Bob "Blue" McKamey had yet another dominating season as the A's closer, a position you wouldn't expect an 83 win team to use as much as they did.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA
*Peter Brewer 29 15 20 0.429 40 40 0 335.1 310 95 12 69 178 2.55
*Al Monteith 36 20 13 0.606 38 38 0 302 248 89 14 78 127 2.65
Matt Snyder 38 5 8 0.385 17 17 0 130.1 133 51 6 36 30 3.52
Raúl Carrillo 27 6 7 0.462 17 17 0 126 122 39 2 48 35 2.79
Brian Barnes 26 7 7 0.500 23 12 0 115.1 133 61 6 40 44 4.76
Nathan Christy 26 8 4 0.667 18 13 0 113 98 40 6 37 42 3.19
Dallas Demers 32 3 7 0.300 12 12 0 70.2 104 50 6 31 12 6.37
Bob McKamey 26 9 3 0.750 40 0 15 67.2 66 15 2 11 64 2.00
*Walt Eberly 27 5 0 1.000 8 5 0 49.2 38 12 0 15 15 2.17
Randy Danford 37 1 1 0.500 23 0 1 40 37 10 0 12 9 2.25
Charlie Nickles 32 4 1 0.800 21 0 0 39.2 51 17 0 8 11 3.86
Juan Mendoza 30 0 0 0.000 4 0 0 4.2 5 3 1 0 1 5.79
Todd Kirk 21 0 0 0.000 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.00
Kyung-chor Kim 34 0 0 0.000 1 0 0 0.2 0 0 0 1 1 0.00
Team Totals 30.1 83 71 0.539 263 154 16 1396 1345 482 55 387 570 3.11
Catchers
Herman Cain was an island of consistency in the sea of chaos that was the Athletics' roster last year. His raw numbers were just a tick down from 1932, which probably made him slightly more effective given the rest of the league. He's not a great fielder by any means but with the league moving in the direction of fewer and fewer steals every year, that seems to not matter as much as it did 20 years ago. The fans voted him into the All-Star Game last year so clearly we aren't the only people who see his value.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
C *Herman Cain 28 133 131 471 68 132 20 4 12 68 0 1 86 15 0.280 0.390 0.416
C Randall Sheets 30 23 17 65 5 13 4 0 0 6 0 1 7 6 0.200 0.278 0.262
Infield
The fact that
Corey Jones was limited to just 362 at-bats last year probably cost the Athletics five victories in the standings. The best news about the 1932 RBI champion's season was that the two and a half months he missed was due to three completely unrelated injuries (to his thumb, ankle, and rib); expect a full recovery in 1934. In his stead,
John Shin showed that he might have a future in the majors, and
Paul Schaal did not.
Shin's development may be accelerated a bit with the A's trade of
Gustavo Pena to the Chicago White Sox at the deadline last year. It's likely going to come down to him and fellow 21-year-old
Joe Firth, who got a chance to prove himself last year but didn't really take advantage of it. However, moving Shin to second might be a bit of a stretch. Should either man falter, the team also has
Mike Grow, who hit .348 last year in the minors but who isn't rated nearly as highly as the other guys for some reason.
Dustin David played most of the year at third and was pretty average. The best that can be said about him is that he was not part of the problem. It's iffy if he'll be part of the answer for an A's team that can seriously challenge the White Sox and Yankees.
Jaime Gonzales is beginning to look increasingly overmatched at shortstop but given the way this team's roster is set up it's unlikely he's going to move off the position except in case of dire need. Last year he did play 33 games at second, which did little else but highlight
Tim Braley's lack of development. Braley is only 22, though, so all is not lost, and his 19-5 walk to strikeout ratio is encouraging.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
1B *Corey Jones 27 95 95 362 48 130 17 2 5 52 2 1 50 37 0.359 0.435 0.459
1B Paul Schaal 35 32 23 89 8 19 2 1 1 8 0 0 7 8 0.213 0.278 0.292
1B *John Shin 21 36 16 85 9 25 3 0 0 10 0 0 3 3 0.294 0.315 0.329
2B #Gustavo Peña 36 93 93 375 51 104 11 6 1 43 9 6 49 19 0.277 0.361 0.347
2B Joe Firth 21 50 35 149 17 38 9 0 0 18 0 0 15 8 0.255 0.317 0.315
2B Jim Martin 23 39 29 99 10 8 2 0 0 9 2 2 23 4 0.081 0.248 0.101
2B Jack Ambrose 26 24 19 83 9 20 1 0 0 2 0 1 8 2 0.241 0.308 0.253
2B Mike Grow 25 4 2 9 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 2 0.111 0.200 0.111
3B Dustin David 27 96 94 374 51 98 13 5 5 40 7 2 36 30 0.262 0.325 0.364
3B Harry Fry 19 11 9 44 3 13 4 0 0 4 1 1 0 6 0.295 0.289 0.386
SS *Jaime Gonzáles 25 111 111 425 72 131 21 8 3 43 10 5 81 22 0.308 0.420 0.416
SS Tim Braley 21 78 60 237 21 59 10 0 1 24 4 2 19 5 0.249 0.304 0.304
SS Bill Anderson 28 32 19 86 9 26 2 1 0 17 1 1 4 10 0.302 0.340 0.349
Outfield
Left field was the A's position of death last yer. Between
Walter Carlson and
Jay Carbaugh, the team didn't just get poor performance out of the spot, they got the kind of negative performance that, if replaced by a league average player and Corey Jones playing the whole year, might have put them back into contention. Carlson was so bad that the team cut him 2 hits shy of 3,000. Carbaugh at least stayed above the .200 mark but was almost as bad otherwise and what's worse alienated the team with his dour clubhouse attitude.
Converted catcher
Mark Bergeron hit a lot like a backstop and fielded like a spectator. A disastrous experiment in center field was aborted after 33 games and 10 errors. He did a bit better in right, although the arm he displayed behind the plate in the minors was conspicuously absent.
Warren Carpenter had a great second half of the season and could vy for the job.
After the Bergeron experiment concluded,
Steve Dunton captured the job for much of the year. The utility man didn't hit particularly well but there is some value in being able to play both the outfield and the infield. We expect a long career from this young man. The same may not be true of Zach Levin but he did do very well against left-handed pitching last year, and that's got some value of its own.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
LF Jay Carbaugh 36 82 82 327 37 76 12 6 4 45 5 3 22 43 0.232 0.281 0.343
LF Walter Carlson 38 63 53 212 25 42 10 1 1 20 5 2 30 26 0.198 0.294 0.269
LF Ji-man P'aeng 30 30 17 81 12 29 3 1 1 15 0 0 8 6 0.358 0.411 0.457
CF *Steve Dunton 23 96 96 342 38 95 12 5 0 36 11 9 14 25 0.278 0.306 0.342
CF Zack Levin 27 45 22 98 12 30 1 0 0 14 5 3 5 9 0.306 0.346 0.316
CF *Bill Looper 30 31 7 51 8 10 2 0 0 2 1 1 5 2 0.196 0.263 0.235
RF Mark Bergeron 25 108 97 415 37 113 20 3 0 50 0 1 24 30 0.272 0.309 0.335
RF *Warren Carpenter 23 75 57 259 28 79 10 2 2 29 1 0 11 23 0.305 0.339 0.382
RF Jerry Joseph 26 34 33 123 8 20 5 3 0 11 2 1 4 19 0.163 0.185 0.252
RF Justin Boykins 24 15 15 60 9 13 4 1 1 4 2 0 4 4 0.217 0.266 0.367
Team Totals 28.1 1699 1386 5385 630 1405 208 52 37 607 69 44 522 424 0.261 0.325 0.339