In a year where there have been multiple interesting storylines for the A's — the education of Yoenis Cespedes, the emergence of Ryan Cook — the one that makes me scratch my head the most is the rejuvenation of Bartolo Colon.
After regularly posting mid-to-high 4 fWAR seasons in his youth, Father Time started to intervene. In 2005, at the age of 32, he won the Cy Young award with the Anaheim Angels. It was his eighth consecutive season of starting more than 30 games, a milestone he never touched again. Colon suffered a partially torn rotator cuff injury in the playoffs, and was never the same pitcher, constantly battling injuries and ineffectiveness. His fastball velocity went from 93.2 mph in 2002 to 89.1 in 2009. It may not seem like much, but it's a pitch he's thrown 78.7% of his career. So far this season, 86.9% of Colon's pitches have been (two-seam/sinking) fastballs.
He didn't pitch at all in 2010, recovering from injuries suffered in 2009. But he did do something that could (possibly) change the way pitchers recover from injuries. It's just not quite possible in this country.
Colon and the Athletics take on Jeremy Hellickson and the Rays tonight at 4:10 p.m.
The A's, with help from a sleep specialist, have arrived in Japan for exhibition games with the Yomiuri Giants (anyone know the Japanese translation for f--k the Giants?) and Hanshin Tigers, and then their opening series with the Seattle Mariners.
The Chronicle posted a slideshow of the players' arrival that's definitely worth a look-see.
Yoenis Cespedes announced his presence with authority during batting practice at the Tokyo Dome.
The center fielder sent numerous balls sailing deep over the fence during the A's first workout at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday, including two that landed several rows behind the center field wall. His display drew noticeable reaction from the crowd of onlookers.
A's manager Bob Melvin, who was pitching, was asked his impressions of Cespedes.
"(The same thing) I always think when I throw batting practice to him," Melvin said. "I duck behind the screen so I don't get hurt."
The A's face Yomiuri on Sunday (7:06 p.m. in Japan/3:06 a.m. in Oakland) with Tom Milone taking the hill against the Giants. The next day, Oakland faces Hanshin (12:06 p.m. Monday in Japan/8:06 pm Sunday in Oakland). Opening Night is Wednesday against Seattle (7:10 p.m. in Japan/3:10 a.m. in Oakland). These games will not be televised live, but shown on tape delay on MLB Network.* I've heard that Ricky's in San Leandro will carry the games live.
*Am I alone in believing that if that team from San Francisco was playing, Comcast Sports Net or MLB Network would televise all games live?
As the A's started to fill out their roster this offseason with a million outfielders and first base/DH hybrids, Billy Beane felt that third base was aptly filled by Scott Sizemore.
Scott Sizemore's knee felt otherwise.
In a couple weeks, Sizemore will have knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He'll be out for the season.
"First and foremost, for him, I feel awful," Melvin said. "The first day he was here I told him I was thinking 90 RBIs and 85 runs. He said, 'I think you are a little short, Skip. Twenty and 100.' It was one of those years where we felt like we thought it would be a breakout year for him."
"I never had any knee issues, so that makes it that much worse that is was a freak accident," Sizemore said. "If I tried to do the same thing a million times, it would never happen again. For whatever reason it happened and you just have to deal with it."
So where do the A's go from here?
The A's face the Mariners (again) at 12:05 p.m. I'll post a game thread for you in a bit.
A lot has been written about the A's recently, including an interesting piece in USA Today gathering players' thoughts on the constant turnover in Oakland's clubhouse and the stadium situation.
Cahill signed a five-year, $30.5 million extension in April 2011. Eight months later, he was sent to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"Everybody always said, 'You could be gone, you could be traded,' " Cahill says. "And I was like, 'Yeah, I've seen it, but it won't happen to me.' And it did."
Cahill had three years of service time when he was dealt, Gonzalez slightly less than that. A decade ago, the A's let young stars such as Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada play their six years in Oakland and then leave as free agents.
In subsequent years, star pitchers Tim Hudson- one year shy of free agency -Mark Mulder and Dan Haren (each with two years of club control remaining) were dealt for prospects.
But even Haren, traded in December 2007 from Oakland to the Diamondbacks, is stunned at the state of affairs.
"It's amazing that two or three years later after I left, I couldn't name two or three guys that I played with that were still on the team. The turnover is so quick."
I think it's interesting and kind of sad, both from a fan perspective and from that of a free agent or any rising prospect in the A's minor league system. Do you feel that potential free agents are scared away from signing with Oakland (well, for a variety of reasons), but one being that there's really not much job security?
It also has to be a bit unsettling for players such as Michael Choice and Sonny Gray, who might only see a couple of years in an Oakland uniform (unless this stadium decision gets majorly sped up, but who knows?).
What a crazy offseason? What became apparent after yesterday is that aside from Billy Beane stock piling young arms, also does the same for outfield options. With 8 outfielders on the roster (9 if you count Brandon Allen), what combination of this will be the most effective for the A's?
This just looks all kinds of wrong:
From BANG's Joe Stiglich:
If the team does indeed move to San Jose, they will be called the "San Jose A’s," which has been assumed. Wolff pointed out how the franchise has moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland, always keeping the "Athletics" label. There was a stuffed Stomper on hand at Wednesday’s event, with the A’s mascot wearing a "San Jose Athletics" uniform.
I know I've heard it, typed it, thought it... but until I saw the Stomper doll with "San Jose" where "Oakland" should be, it didn't really sink in.
It doesn't look right. Doesn't feel right. Doesn't seem right.
Before the Cahill/Gonzalez/Bailey trades this offseason, we were looking at a middle-of-the-pack farm system. Thanks to the top notch pitching we traded away, Billy Beane restocked the farm, and suddenly moved the slider to win a few years away from now. As you can see, last year's Baseball America #1 prospect Grant Green has been bumped down to the second half of this list due to new arrivals of Jarrod Parker, Brad Peacock and A.J. Cole (also due to Green's shift from SS to OF).
The AN community has voted Jarrod Parker and Michael Choice at #1 and #2 in our Community Prospect list. The consensus list tallies 9 of these top prospect lists and really doesn't show too many surprises. Each prospect was assigned points based off of how they placed (#1: 10 points, #2: 9 points, etc). I've listed all the sources after the jump.
Does this match up to what you expected, or do you think there's some guys that may be more deserving of top 10 spots?
Piggybacking off the success of my post about the 2012 Davenport Projected Standings, here's what RLYW's got in terms of some also ridiculously early standings projections using MARCEL. Rob Neyer's got a write up on it on Baseball Nation, so figured we can take a look at this a little bit.
As crazy as I thought the original Clay Davenport win projections were at 80 wins, they've since been revised with 77 wins, which seems plausible. Here's how both Davenport and MARCEL look in context.
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