Oakland's 2012 Rotation: Who's In and Who's Out?

Every Friday, Swingin’ A’s will make a prediction about the A’s 2012 season with the help of our “crystal ball.” The series, appropriately titled “Crystal Ball Fridays,” will continue through the week before Opening Night. Enjoy. 

Crystal Ball, what does Oakland’s 2012 starting rotation look like?

The A’s will likely enter the spring with a few questions surrounding the state of its starting rotation. With Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez both out of Oakland, the Athletics will need a few of their young arms to step up this spring and help fill the voids left by Cahill and Gonzalez.

It won’t be easy, but the A’s should enter spring training with more than a few viable options. The A’s did, after all, score a few good pitching prospects in both the Cahill and Gonzalez trades.

Tom Milone, Jarrod Parker, and Brad Peacock are all viable candidates to join the starting rotation this season. Oakland also has Dallas Braden, Brandon McCarthy, Guillermo Moscoso, and Josh Outman as other starting candidates this year, too.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to add Graham Godfrey and Tyson Ross to the mix as well. So, if it hasn’t become apparent already, the A’s will have plenty of help this year to fill the voids left behind Cahill and Gonzalez.

The A’s might not have the best offense around, but the team seems to always have plenty of pitching depth. This year, like last season, should have plenty of strong pitching performances. It’ll be interesting to see how McCarthy and Moscoso perform this year after stepping up big time last year.  (more…)

Closing Time: If the A's trade Andrew Bailey, who will be the team's closer? (Photo Credit: Ben Margot/AP)

If the A’s do, in fact, end up trading their All-Star closer Andrew Bailey, who will become the team’s closer? The A’s have a few options, but one player, to me at least, stands out as the best option: Grant Balfour.

Balfour, 33, was acquired by Oakland last winter and signed a two-year deal with the club worth $8.1 million. The Australia native, who transitioned nicely from the tough AL East to the weaker AL West this season, pitched well during his first year with Oakland.

He went 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA this year through 62.0 innings of work. During his three years in Tampa Bay, Balfour went 13-7 with a 2.98 ERA over 181.0 innings. He also pitched in a much, much stronger division that Oakland’s cushion soft AL West division.  (more…)

Rich Harden kicks off the series against his former club the Texas Rangers on Thursday. (Photo Credit: John Green/San Mateo Times)

Entering their final series before the All-Star break, the Oakland Athletics will need to get something going when they face off against the Texas Rangers in a key four-game set.

The A’s at 39-49 are 8.0 games behind the first-place Rangers, and can either sink further down the standings or make up some ground before the break. The A’s can achieve the latter by continuing to play solid baseball against the Rangers, who are 2-4 against the A’s this season.

Oakland’s pitching staff has been a major reason why the team still has a shot in the American League West, but going forward, the offense will need to step up and support a pitching staff that leads the AL in ERA (3.09).

Entering the Texas series, Oakland’s bats are hitting a combined .236/.302/.341 with a total of 46 home runs. The A’s have not gotten much production out of any one player on offense, and it seems like everyone not named Jemile Weeks is struggling offensively.  (more…)