At 23, though, these type of arm/shoulder injuries are not an encouraging sight for a young pitcher. Anderson was sidelined twice during the 2010 season due to elbow inflammation, and his 2011 season was cut even shorter due to injuries.

He made 13 starts this year, going 3-6 with a 4.00 ERA over 83.1 innings. Luckily for the A’s, though, the team got extra help this year from Brandon McCarthy and Guillermo Moscoso to help ease the loss of Anderson.  (more…)

The A’s are not ready to shell out a hefty payload to the lefty at this point.  This has alot to do with, you guessed it, the stadium relocation to San Jose.  The currently injured Sizemore apparently is too much money to acquire and may be a gamble for Oakland because of that very injury.   For some reason though, I don’t think that Sizemore who has an overall record of .234/.314/.414/.728 will shed a tear if he is not an Oakland Athletic.   Surprisingly, he is also being sought by seven other ball clubs such as the Rangers,  Red Sox, Giants and the Yankees.  For the A’s unfortunately though, this match does not mesh. (more…)

What's an A's fan to do this winter? House has a few answers to your winter ailments (Photo Credit: Universal/NBC)

For teams like the New York Yankees, or any other professional team not named the Oakland Athletics, the offseason is a time filled some degree of excitement. From free agent signings to those grueling, yet equally intriguing trade rumors, the offseason for most teams, at least, is a time to upgrade and fine tune things before the start of the season.

For the A’s, however, this offseason is going to be filled with anxiety, anger, and most likely, disappointment. Last offseason, many A’s fans, including myself, were surprised by General manager Billy Beane and the rest of the A’s front office for being so aggressive in the early goings of the offseason. The A’s, if you can remember, went after Adrian Beltre with a very, very aggressive approach. For the penny-pinching A’s, the heavy pursuit of Beltre seemed a bit out of character.

The A’s were also rumored to be interested in free agents Lance Berkman and Adam Dunn. Oh, and there was that whole situation with Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma. The A’s were scared off by Iwakuma’s price tag, which was rumored to be in the Barry Zito range of ridiculousness. Still, the A’s made a conscious effort to upgrade the team last winter in more ways than none.

In the end, the A’s added Josh Willingham, Hideki Matsui, and David DeJesus to the offense. Oakland also beefed up their bullpen with the likes of Grant Balfour and Brian Fuentes. Beane’s efforts, in my mind, to upgrade his team last winter were met with mixed results.

The additions to the anemic offense did not pay off this year. The A’s best addition was Willingham, who set career highs in home runs (29) and RBIs (98) this year, but other than Willingham’s efforts the A’s didn’t get much help from Matsui or DeJesus. (more…)