Oakland Athletics

After years of being a seller, A’s GM Billy Beane spent the winter of 2008-09 in the uncharacteristic role of buyer, adding OF Matt Holliday (via trade) and 1B/DH Jason Giambi (via free agency).

At this time last winter I wrote the moves “(had) placed the organization in a position where it can either compete for the division title or, if the team is non-competitive in mid-summer, flip soon-to-be-free-agent Holliday for prospects at the trade deadline.”

Going into the offseason following the 2009 season, the Oakland Athletics' had depth at the outfield position.

The question was what to do with Rajai Davis, Ryan Sweeney, Jerry Hairston, Travis Buck, Aaron Cunningham, Eric Patterson, and Jack Cust.

Then they started a plethora of off-season moves including the signings of Coco Crisp and Gabe Gross, and trading for Jake Fox and Michael Taylor. The question is still the same, only half the outfielders in question are new faces.

Going into spring training, the Oakland Athletics had a highly touted battle for the fifth rotation spot between Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, and Vin Mazzaro. Truth be told, I'm not sure how many people ever considered it a three-man race.

Cahill had just completed a full year at the major league level, Gonzalez has shown he has nothing left to prove in Triple-A, and all Mazzaro has done at the big league level is hurl two great scoreless starts in 2009 and then fall back to Earth... and then some... to the tune of a 5.32 ERA in 91.1 big league innings.

The A's had a formidable bullpen in 2009, and the A's are looking to continue that trend. They their AL Rookie of the Year Andrew Bailey, Breakout reliever Michael Wuertz, solid arms Brad Ziegler and Craig Breslow and Joey Devine coming back from a lost 2009 season with Tommy John surgery.

Who else will start the year in the A's bullpen? Here's what the remaining candidates in A's camp have done so far:

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This was an article I wasn't going to dare trying to include all 100+ years of A's history on, so I chose to just focus on the Oakland years. Ranking these moments was out of the question too, so I just listed them chronologically. Older A's fans who lived through the 1970's World Series runs, please correct me if I missed any significant moments there.

This is my third and final "Evergreen" assignment from bleacherreport.com as part of an agreement in becoming a featured columnist. I'm glad to have these assignments behind me so I can continue writing the articles I want to write.

Once a proud franchise that spent much of the early part of the last decade as contenders in the American League West, once a franchise that was hailed all across the world of baseball as a club that practiced the once revolutionary method of "Moneyball" under the direction of general manager Billy Beane, once a franchise that fans could count on to challenge the New York Yankees for American League supremacy, the Oakland Athletics are now one of baseball's failing franchises—a downward spiral that has taken place over a mere three seaso

In this article, like the Top 10 Pitchers article is a project given to me by Bleacherreport.com, I guarantee will forget some major personalities since I've been alive for roughly 1/4 of the franchise's history. I'm going to take a crack at it anyway. If I see I've forgotten significant enough people I WILL revise. That's half the fun in this assignment is that I get to learn about the history of the A's.

The Oakland A's would like nothing more than to see Eric Chavez make a miraculous recovery from yet another season-ending surgery. 

However, like Chavez, the A's are being 100 percent realistic about the Gold Glover's chances at making a significant return in 2010.

Chavez, who is in the last year of that six-year, $66 million contract he signed in 2004, is at least making some strides towards a healthy return. 

Bleacherreport.com tasked me with ranking the top 10 pitchers in Athletics history. Considering the Athletics' considerable history, it was quite daunting. Who are my top 10? What order do I rank them? There's the obvious inclusions of Hall-of Famers Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersley. Everyone else had success with the A's more recently or required research.
You're not a diehard fan unless you know ALL of your team's history. As an A's fan, you must culture yourself if you've never heard of Eddie Plank.

I also contemplated the kids game "Red Rover, Red Rover, send the A's offense on over!" The last few years I'd say the offense has bounced harmlessly off of the locked-together arms of the opposing side.