Swingin’ A’s Mailbag: 2015 and Beyond

It’s time for another edition of the Swingin’ A’s mailbag thanks to all of your great questions over on our Ask.fm profile. With all of the uncertainty surrounding the Oakland Athletics right now, it is no surprise that many of the questions coming into the Swingin’ A’s mailbag are focusing on 2015 and beyond. Sadly, these questions are all answered by Jason and me even though Jennifer is the one with the future telling abilities so all we can really do is speculate but speculate we have and here are the results.

"Everyone keeps pointing to 2012. But we had Reddick (career year), Crisp, Cespedes, Gomes’ last good year, Seth Smith, Donaldson, Moss… how can 2015 possibly be that again?"

Because Reddick’s second half of 2014 was on pace to match his 2012 so he’s still got it in him. Billy Butler is one piece of advice away from being a 25 hr hitter. Brett Lawrie is every bit as good, if not a hair better defensively, than Josh Donaldson, especially in 2012 and the pitching staff is even stronger than 2012. It’s being optimistic to make the comparison but it’s not being totally unrealistic.

"Do you think the As will contenders next year? Or do you think our team will need a year or two to get some experience?"

At the risk of being called a homer, I absolutely believe the A’s will contend next year. That being said, it is very possible that they’ll be fighting for a wildcard spot as I believe three teams in the AL West could make the postseason in 2015.

"Out of all the players we have obtained which do you believe is the best one?"

Brett Lawrie could truly be the acquisition that A’s fans will be celebrating Billy Beane for at the end of the season. I wrote a piece today about his potential All Star season that he could be entering, provided he stays healthy and gets some meaningful playing time in. Check out my piece where I compare him to JD and see what you think.

"How do you think mark canha will do this year?"

It’s impossible to say. I wrote out some of his AAA stats in the announcement of his acquisition. As a Rule 5 draft pick, he has to stay on the 25 man roster all year or they lose him so I’m sure he’ll get some playing opportunity. Remember, Nate Freiman was brought to the A’s in the same way.

More from White Cleat Beat

• Oakland A’s giving Drew Rucinski a chance to prove himself
• The pain of the Oakland A’s first round draft picks
• David MacKinnon joins Oakland A’s alumni overseas
• Oakland A’s select Walker Jenkins in first MLB mock draft
• Cody Thomas worth Oakland A’s hanging on to

In AAA, Canha had some good numbers with a .301 avg, solid OBP and some homers. That tells me that he has power AND hits for average which the A’s haven’t seen in a while. If his minor numbers translate well into the majors, we may see quite a bit of Canha in the lineup.

If you’ve got a burning question that you don’t think we’re going to write a full article about, submit it at our Ask.fm profile and we may use it in our next Swingin’ A’s mailbag.