Season Preview: Oakland Athletics
Projected MLB Rank: 18th — AL Rank: 7th — AL West Rank: 2nd — Record: (79-83)

The A’s improved the worst offense in the American League this offseason by bringing in outfielder Matt Holliday, shortstop Orlando Cabrera, and firstbaseman Jason Giambi. Oakland was last in the AL in runs per game (4.01), batting average (.242), doubles (270), on-base percentage (.318), slugging percentage (.369), and lead the AL in strikeouts (1226).

Here are the career numbers in some of those categories for the guys they brought in:

Matt Holliday
.319 BA — .386 OBP — .552 SLG

Jason Giambi
.286 AVG — .408 OBP — .534 SLG

Orlando Cabrera
.274 AVG — .322 OBP — .399 SLG

There’s no reason to believe the A’s offense will flounder as it did last season with the addition of Holliday, Giambi, and Cabrera. Also this season, Eric Chavez is healthy and should put up nice production numbers. A bright spot in the lineup last season is 24-year-old centerfielder Ryan Sweeney. In 115 games he hit .286 with .350 OBP. At worst, he will share a majority of the time in center.

Leftfielder/DH Jack Cust displayed some good power numbers for Oakland last season belting 33 homeruns and driving in 77 RBIs. He strikes out a lot and doesn’t hit for a high average at all, which seems to be the case with most of the A’s from last season. Averages under .250 last season came from Cust, Mark Ellis, Travis Buck, Bobby Crosby, Daric Barton, and others. I like the addition of Nomar Garciaparra as a righthanded bat off the bench here and Rajai Davis is a good fourth outfielder with lots of speed off the bench as well.

Pitching was a strong suit last year for this club and hopefully that continues this season if the A’s want to contend. Justin Duchscherer established himself as a legitimate top of the rotation pitcher last season with a 2.54 ERA in 22 starts. His season ended when his hip problems came back late in the season, so hopefully those problems stay away this season. Southpaw Dana Eveland is gaining more confidence at the big league level and should have a better season in 2009 at only 25 years old.

Young seems to be the trend in the rotation as the last three projected starters are no older than 25. But if we know anything about the A’s and pitchers, we know that they manufacture anyone into top pitcher. Sean Gallagher, 23, is nasty and may need a little more time to develop into the pitcher that help the A’s contend. Gio Gonzalez, 23, had a rough short stint in 2008 but has been a top pitching prospect for some time spending his minor league career with a few different clubs, his strikeout ability is above average. Look for him to develop. Dallas Braden, 25, needs to have a good start to the season if he wants to keep his spot in the rotation.

The bullpen is one of the best in the big leagues. Brad Ziegler had an unbelievable rookie campaign holding a 1.06 ERA in 59.2 innings. He only allowed seven earned runs all season with 11 saves and 9 holds. Whether it’s Ziegler, or Joey Devine closing out ballgames, the A’s will definately have one of the best set-up/closer combos in the league. Devine, in 42 games last season, had a 0.59 ERA (no I didn’t type that wrong), with over a strikeout per inning. My guess would be that Ziegler grabs this role as the season starts, but look for the A’s to switch it around to find out what works.

If the pitchers and the three offseason acquisitions can avoid injuries, definately look out for this team in the west. For my predictions though, the rotation is too young to put them in the playoffs just yet. Although I wouldn’t be suprised if they came out winning the division in 2009, I’ve learned to never doubt Billy Beane (read Moneyball).