Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Last offseason, brought the return of pitching coach Curt Young back to the Athletics after a brief and tumultuous year tending to the beer swilling, fried-chicken loving. underachieving staff of the Boston Red Sox. The news of his reunion brought little fanfare however to the A’s faithful, as many of us were too busy creating mass panic at the loss of Gio Gonzalez and company. As I recall, the news of Young’s return was trumped by the five-alarm fire caused by a misinterpreted tweet that the A’s has expressed interest in inflated Aruban felon, Sydney Ponson. Thankfully, that rumor never saw the light of day. Ponson, stayed safely out of an XXL A’s jersey and Young returned home to Oakland where he has spearheaded the second best pitching staff by ERA in the American League.

Coaches for the most part, don’t get the notoriety they deserve in professional baseball. After all, the job entails spending endless hours of coddling, honing, and molding players to be the best they can be. Much of their duties are behind the scenes, but integral to the success of the team. In many ways they are equivalent to the teachers and educators of our society. Unheralded, unselfish heroes who are responsible for the brightest, the best. and everything in between.

Curt Young, is amongst the best in the business.

Following a 69 win, 11 year career pitching primarily with the Athletics, Young embarked on his new career as a pitching coach in 1996 with the A’s rookie league affiliate in the Arizona league. Over the next eight seasons, he elevated up the minor league coaching ranks, before taking over for  pitching guru Rick Peterson at the big league level in 2004. Relieving the popular and respected Peterson was no easy task, as his predecessor  was responsible for the maturation of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito into the Big 3 and was a generally regarded as one of the best pitching coaches in the game at the time of his departure to the New York Mets. Despite opposing styles and personality, Young transitioned into the role quite nicely bringing a structured professional method to managing a pitching staff.  Before his first tenure in Oakland ended, he oversaw the development of pitchers such as Gonzalez, Dan Haren, Joe Blanton, Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Dallas Braden and Rich Harden into quality major leaguers.

Under his guidance, the A’s pitching staffs carried on over a decade of excellence and dominance. The pitching statistics on his watch speak for themselves. From 2004 to 2010, The A’s lead the American League in ERA, lowest opponent batting average, and fewest home runs allowed. He has personally overseen eight different pitchers be anointed All-Stars with Ryan Cook the latest, and two closers in Huston Street and Andrew Bailey crowned AL Rookie of the Year. In all respects, various pitchers have responded and excelled under him especially rookies. This season has been no exception. Rookies Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone, and Dan Straily compose 3/5 of the A’s rotation and others have filled in with great success including A.J Griffin and Travis Blackley. Relievers Jerry Blevins and Jordan Norberto have evolved into trusted bullpen stalwarts and no longer suffer through cringe worthy sub par outings, and Cook has emerged out of nowhere to fill the closers role. In short, Young has had his hands full with the ever changing roster, injuries, and lack of experience on his staff. However, he has handled every challenge with great aplomb and watched his pitchers blossom.

A teacher is only as good as his students, and Curt Young is living proof.

Bob Melvin is mad as hell, and he's not gonna take it anymore! (Jim Cowsert-US PRESSWIRE)

Today’s game versus the Texas Rangers was a perfect example of that phenomenon taking place.  The Ballpark in Arlington has always been hostile territory for the A’s, and bad things seem to always happen there.  Today it almost did, in a perfect example of why MLB needs to implement some kind of replay system beyond just the home run calls, home plate umpire Laz Diaz ruled that Brandon McCarthy failed to catch Elvis Andrus’ pop up bunt, allowing the go ahead run to score.  It was a miscarriage of justice that may very well could have cost them the game.  I loved seeing Bob Melvin and Brandon McCarthy come unhinged in Diaz’s face, surely Diaz had no intent or bias against the A’s, but that seems to be the way things go in the world of Oakland Athletics baseball.  I give major credit to the resilience of the A’s to come back and win that game, Josh Reddick for continuing his All-Star caliber season thus far, Ryan Cook for his 2 innings of shutout baseball, and the Kila Monster for smoking a ball against Mike Adams to take the lead in the 10th.  This was a beautiful win, and desperately needed going into the ultimate enemy territory… AT&T Park.

It’s no secret the A’s are in a fight for their lives.  It’s been hotly debated as the stadium situation continues to stew and we are left with no answers, some want the A’s in Oakland at all costs, some simply want the A’s to stay within driving distance (I fall in this category), and some want us gone (the San Francisco Giants).  The last few years have been difficult for A’s fans because of a perfect storm of adversity that has run the team into the ground, and their most bitter rival into the stratosphere.  Prior to 2010 at least we could immediately retort sarcastically that the Giants hadn’t won a single World Series since they were the New York Giants.  Now with the Giants riding the high of their championship still, and their fans still gloating, wearing a an A’s logo is akin to wearing a scarlet S right here in our own backyard.

If you go on any given baseball site, any article about the A’s with a comment section, I guarantee you will see comments from people taking shots at the A’s.  It’ll either be about how they have poor attendance, they trade all their good players when they start to get expensive, Moneyball never worked and Billy Beane is a joke, or they haven’t won a World Series since 1989 (the most common Giants fan insult now).  The remarkable aspect of this is the fact that these cheap shots are being taken by Reds fans, Royals fans, Marlins fans, anyone.  What in the world do these fans have agains the A’s?  A team they claim is so inept and insignificant, yet they strike a nerve with them by virtue of their very existence to take to the internet and blast the team.  I honestly don’t know why people hate the A’s, but they really do seem to.

This all brings me back to this weekend series against the Giants.  For this writer, it’s not just about bragging rights, it is personal.  The Giants are the major player standing in the way of the A’s and their continued success, and I want the A’s to take out all our frustrations on them.  It won’t save the team, but I’d love to see Josh Reddick take a lifeless Tim Lincecum fastball into McCovey Cove Sunday afternoon, I’d love to see Ryan Cook strike out Buster Posey in a clutch situation with an unhittable slider, and I always enjoy seeing the A’s pound Barry Zito into oblivion.  Jarrod Parker leads the A’s tomorrow night against the aforementioned former A’s lefty.  The “yard” is sure to be rocking, and I hope the A’s fans who brave the sea of orange and black, ridiculous animal hats, and the Giants bandwagoners make their voices heard.  I want to see WWE Championship belts for Reddick, rage dancing for Grant Balfour, 707 signs for Jonny Gomes, and hear tons of “LET’S GO OAKLAND!” chants ringing throughout that place.  It’s about time the A’s fans get rowdy and bring down the newest evil empire.

Check me out on Twitter @SeanD25, see my take on everything else baseball at Baseball Obsessed, and follow everything Swingin’ A’s @FS_SwinginAs.

Apr 19, 2009; Toronto, ON, Canada; Oakland Athletics third baseman Eric Chavez (3) bats against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays beat the Athletics 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE

Over the past several years, I have taken a liking to fantasy baseball. It is, in my mind, anyway, a great way to keep on top of things in the world of baseball and is an even greater tool for expanding one’s knowledge about the sport in general. The last two or three years, though, have been really eye-opening. In past years, I have, near the end of my fantasy drafts, invested my draft picks on several former A’s players for nostalgia’s sake.

Former Oakland greats like Eric Chavez and Barry Zito often found spots on my fantasy roster, even though I knew neither player would significantly contribute to my team’s overall success. Both players might have had a few games here and there, but those “great” games were few and far between. Chavez, now with the Yankees, was on my fantasy team in 2010 and last year, but I’ve decided, after much consideration, to cut ties with the former A’s third baseman this year.

I often saved my final draft pick for either Chavez or Zito, but this year was a tad bit different. I guess I was basically upset with both players continually failing to produce the same type of numbers they did back in their hay-day with the Athletics.

Chavez landed on the DL more often than not, while Zito struggled to channel his inner-Zen en route to a 12-18 record with a 4.52 ERA during the years 2010-2011. 

In his final season with the Athletics, Chavez hit a measly .234/.276/.333 with a home run and 10 RBIs over 33 games. Those numbers, as you may have already imagined, did not lead to much success in my head-to-head fantasy league on ESPN.com.

Instead, I found myself utilizing the DL spot on my roster for Chavez’s ailing and shaky body. Still, despite his questionable health and lifeless bat, I held out hope that he’d eventually turn things around and return to the power hitter that was responsible for some of the best A’s runs during the early 2000′s.

Unfortunately, however, the A’s former third baseman didn’t come around and neither did my fantasy team. Last year was no exception, either. The Yankees may have resigned Chavez this year for roughly $900,000, but they certainly don’t count on Chavy being an everyday starter for them. He did, however, put up better numbers compared to his numbers during his final year in Oakland. Injuries, though, still continue to weigh Chavez down.

Zito didn’t help things either. After posting 102 wins with the Athletics from 2000-06, Zito has posted just 12 wins over the last two years. He’s essentially become a $126 million bust for the San Francisco Giants. Like Chavez, though, during those rough years I held out hope that Zito would pitch well enough to repopulate the “Planet Zito,” and win back some of the Giants’ fan base.

That of course, hasn’t happened. Zito has been rocked this spring and the Giants are wondering whether or not they’ve got a $126 million No.5 starter or a really, really expensive reliever on their hands. Zito posted a 5.60 FIP last year in 9 starts while also posting an unimpressive -0.9 WAR. I was tempted, I must say, to draft the guy with my 25th round draft pick.

As tempted I was to draft either Zito or Chavez, I ultimately decided to take Angels 1B Kendry Morales with my 25th round draft pick. I have moved on from my deep rooted nostalgia for former Athletics. The two still remain available for pick up in the free-agents list…just in case.

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