The Oakland A’s have been very quiet this off-season. The team has shed however a super-majority of its starting pitchers who finished last season, which for a team that is known for its formidable pitching represents a big leap into an unknown future.
Homer Bailey is now a Minnesota Twin, Tanner Roark is a Toronto Blue Jay and Brett Anderson is a Milwaukee Brewer. It looks like we shipped all of our parts north for some reason. Chris Bassett who was always looking like the wheels were going to fly off remains with the big club but moves into the bullpen where we will see him in smaller doses.
New Year’s Day is also a good time to review the new baseball rules for the upcoming season. No more one batter relief (unless they are finishing up the inning) so maybe Bassett’s longer form tight-rope experience will be beneficial,
So the new A’s are going to bust out some newish models for the upcoming year. We are seeing Mike Fiers, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, A.J. Puk and Jesus Luzardo. Of these, only Fiers went wire-to-wire, so anticipate a healthy back up set of starters as a healthy back-up plan.
The best for the A’s never happens in the beginning of the season anyway. It usually takes us until Memorial Day to break out the champagne.