Oakland’s entire starting outfield group is up for free agency and with richer teams moving in on guys like Willingham and Crisp, the A’s may feature a completely different outfield setup in 2012.

Willingham, Oakland’s leader in home runs (29) and RBIs (98), is figured to receive a few offers from various teams throughout the league this offseason. But for Oakland, keeping a guy like Willingham should be their number one priority.

 Not since Frank Thomas have the A’s had a powerful presence in their lineup, and Willingham, who set career highs in home runs and RBIs, is a guy who can hit for power. (more…)

With the 2011 MLB regular season finally in the books, the Oakland Athletics can finally move on and begin preparing for the 2012 season. The A’s, considered contenders for the AL West crown before the season, never found their groove and failed to meet those lofty expectations that surrounded them during spring training.

Inconsistencies both on offense and defense killed Oakland this year, as they were never able to strike a balance between solid pitching and solid hitting. The offseason additions, with the exception of Josh Willingham, proved rather ineffective, and wasted Oakland’s offseason efforts. General manager Billy Beane, who entered the offseason with the goal of revamping the offseason, tried aggressively to improve his club, but as Oakland’s third-place finish this season seems to suggest, his efforts were all for naught.

In reviewing what went wrong for Oakland this season, it’s probably best to start with the A’s offensive woes in ’11. Oakland added key veteran players like Willingham, Hideki Matsui, and David DeJesus prior to the start of the season, and had hoped for a better offensive showing this year.  In 2010, Oakland finished 81-81, giving hope to many fans that 2011 would be a big turnaround, especially given the additions of Matsui and Co.

In fact, Oakland’s offense actually underperformed this year compared to last year. The A’s scored a total of 663 runs last season, but managed to score just 645 this year despite having Matsui, Willingham, and DeJesus on the team. Oakland pretty much underperformed in every major offensive category this year, posting a team .244/.311/.369 slash line with just 114 home runs (24th in MLB).  (more…)

The A's have become a team characterized by their inability to score runs, and their overly optimistic manager, Bob Geren...

The Oakland Athletics entered the season with a certain sense of optimism, but two months into the season, the A’s have fallen off the rails a bit. Led by manager Bob Geren, the A’s have been annoyingly inconsistent at the plate, and as a result, the team has failed to support a very talented starting rotation. Critics of the A’s will likely point to the team’s inability to score runs as the primary factor holding the team from reaching its potential, but there are other factors in play when considering the reasons why the A’s haven’t lived up to their potential yet this season.

One reason, as stated above, is the team’s inability to score runs. The A’s rank last within their division in runs scored with 208, while the first-place Rangers have scored 277 this season. The lack of production has really hurt the A’s this season, with the young starting pitchers in Oakland’s rotation being the primary victims of this lack of production. Guys like Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, and Gio Gonzalez have all made major strides this season, despite pitching with very little run support.

When you think back to the 2000′s, the A’s had their “Big Three,” in Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito, but they also had an offense to help support that pitching trio. Eric Chavez, Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, and other premiere hitters led a Moneyball offense that helped carry the team to the postseason during the early 2000′s.

The “Big Three” Version 2.0, however, does not have that type of offensive production as their predecessors did. Instead, this year’s squad is finding it difficult to pile up the wins as Hudson, Mulder, and Zito did during the early 2000′s. (more…)