The all-time leader in games played for the Athletics franchise is Bert Campaneris, with 1,795. Rickey Henderson is second. Sal Bando is fourth.
Eric Chavez ranks 13th in franchise history with 1,320 games played*. The six year, $66-million contract extension he signed in 2004 ranks first in team history. It is the lowest amount of any MLB team's most lucrative contracts by far; only one other team has yet to award a $100+ million deal. It is also the oldest of any MLB team's most lucrative contracts; every other franchise-topping amount has been signed since 2012.
*the only other top-30 player to suit up for the A's in
the 21st century is second baseman Mark Ellis, whose 1,056 games with
the club ranks him 30th in team annals.
At the conclusion of that contract, Chavez did what Nick Swisher and Jason Giambi and Scott Brosius and Ruben Sierra and Rickey Henderson and Reggie Jackson and Ken Holtzman and Catfish Hunter and Roger Maris and Hector Lopez and Bud Daley and Ralph Terry and Bobby Shantz and Harry Byrd and Joe Dugan and Bob Shawkey and Herb Pennock and Frank "Home Run" Baker did before him.
After reaching their first ALCS in 14 years, the A's missed the playoffs and failed to finish above .500 in each of the next five seasons from 2007 to 2011. The other 29 teams had caught on to Billy Beane's use of sabermetrics and market inefficiencies - and applied them to their rosters, using far bigger budgets than Beane had at his disposal under owner John Fisher.
By this time Oakland had already begun a pattern of rebuilding with young, controllable prospects, then trading those players as they approached free agency for more young, cheap talent. However, the front office still took big swings when the opportunity arose. In an effort to improve on back-to-back 86-loss seasons, the A's traded closer Huston Street** and a rookie outfielder in exchange for a veteran All-Star:
Matt Holliday had trouble adjusting to the lower altitude and more equitable dimensions of Oakland's Coliseum, hitting just seven balls out of his new home park in 2009. The pending free agent was flipped to the Cardinals at the trade deadline and immediately rediscovered his power stroke.
**Street was the A.L. Rookie of the Year in 2005, but Billy Beane saw no reason to pay closers top dollar as they were largely interchangeable. He was right; Street's successor Andrew Bailey won the 2009 A.L. ROY for Oakland with an even better season than Street.
None of the three prospects Oakland acquired for Holliday panned out. What's worse, the rookie outfielder they shipped to the Rockies for half a season of Holliday... finished third in NL MVP voting and won a batting title two years later.
"CarGo" would take over for Todd Helton as the Rockies' top slugger in the 2010s. Matt Holiday would help the Cardinals win two National League pennants and the 2011 World Series.
Oakland needed to find a slugger of their own to rejuvenate the franchise. In the 2010 draft, the A's selected a 6' 7" outfielder from California in the 31st round.
"The thought creeps into your mind any time you get drafted," he said. "That's your dream, to play professional baseball. When you get the opportunity like that, getting drafted -- especially by Oakland, a California team, pretty close to home -- it was tempting. At the time, I just didn't think I was ready or mature enough mentally or physically to start pro ball."
Yep, Aaron Judge skipped the formality of actually playing for the A's before ending up in pinstripes.
⚾
Attendance at the 45 year-old Coliseum was at or near the bottom of the American League, dropping below 20,000 per game for the fourth consecutive season in 2011. The team had attempted to find a new home in the Oakland area on and off for a decade; nothing concrete had developed.
The A's couldn't keep their own stars and couldn't outbid other teams for top tier talent. But Billy Beane had one more market inefficiency maneuver up his sleeve.
“There’s at least half a billion dollars of baseball players in Cuba right now and probably a lot more,” says Joe Kehoskie, an agent who has represented a number of Cuban big-league players.
His immediate impact helped Oakland win the West with a 94-68 record in 2012. The A's faced the Tigers in the ALDS, where the defending AL MVP Justin Verlander would win games one and five, allowing just one run over 16 innings including a complete game shutout in the deciding Game 5. The only Athletic to even reach scoring positing in that game was Cespedes, who finished runner up in Rookie of the Year voting to ... some guy from Jersey.
Oakland won the AL West again in 2013, improving to 96-66 and returning to the ALDS for a rematch with the Tigers. The A's once again boasted young, talented pitchers on pre-arbitration contracts: A.J. Griffin, Sonny Gray, Jarrod Parker, Tom Milone, and Dan Straily all made less than $500,000 in 2013. The ace of the staff was earning all of $3 million, made the All-Star team, and finished sixth in Cy Young voting after an 18-6 season in which he walked just 29 batters over 190+ innings, led the majors in shutouts, and finished second in the AL with a 2.65 ERA - at age 40.
We love Big Sexy, don't we folks? Just forget about that 50-game PED suspension he served the year before.
Oakland's lineup was more potent with "La Potencia" receiving support from Brandon Moss (career high 30 HR), Coco Crisp (career high 22 HR), and Josh Donaldson - a catcher-turned- third baseman who broke out with a 7.2-WAR season and 4th place MVP finish in his first full season as a starter.
Unfortunately for Oakland, the Tigers had also improved - adding Torii Hunter to a lineup that already boasted Prince Fielder, Victor Martinez, and AL MVP Miguel Cabrera. Detroit's death star rotation included past, present, and future Cy Young winners Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Rick Porcello - plus AL ERA leader Anibal Sanchez. The A's again pushed the LDS to the full five games, where Verlander once again ended their season.
The 2014 A's allowed fewer runs than any Oakland squad since 1990; their 3.22 team ERA was second in the AL. Offensively, the team regressed somewhat: Donaldson's on-base % dropped nearly 50 points and Cespedes finished eighth among Athletics with a .301 OBP.
On deadline day, Cespedes was traded to the Red Sox for reserve outfielder Jonny Gomes and starting pitcher Jon Lester. The three-time All-Star and free agent-to-be was in the midst of his best season in which he would post a 2.48 ERA (good for a 158 ERA+), 220 whiffs, and a 1.102 WHIP. Oakland finished second in the AL West with an 88-74 record and traveled to Kansas City for the Wild Card game.
Bob Melvin gave his rent-an-ace the ball and the A's offense gave Lester seven runs of support, but the bullpen couldn't hold a four-run eighth-inning lead. Oakland lost 9-8 in 12 innings.
Jon Lester signed a free-agent contract with the Cubs in the off-season, a couple weeks after Beane traded Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays for four young/cheap players including pitcher Kendall Graveman and swing-at-everything infielder Brett Lawrie. On-base percentage was no longer a priority.
Oakland's contending window was closed again. Another year, another crop of prospects who might be half as good as the veterans they're replacing.
However this would be a much shorter rebuild, at least compared to prior efforts. Billy Beane was promoted to Vice President at the end of the 2015 season. Assistant GM David Forst took over in November; his first free agent signing was veteran lefty Rich Hill.
Oakland finished last in their division three consecutive seasons from 2015-17, but in that time the A's were developing a treasure trove of talented position players:
Infielder Marcus Semien arrived via trade in the 2014-15 off-season and led the 2016 A's in WAR.
Infielder/outfielder Mark Canha debuted in 2015, along with another versatile utility man, Max Muncy. (Muncy would be released after the 2017 season. Whoops.)
Matt Olson got a cup of coffee at first base in 2016, then finished fourth in AL ROY voting a season later after smashing an absurd 24 home runs (and just 2 doubles!) in 59 games. 2017 was also third baseman Matt Chapman's rookie season; he hit a more reasonable - but still impressive - 14 homers and 23 doubles in 84 games.
Anchoring this young lineup was the most consistent slugger of the 2010s: outfielder/DH Khris Davis.
"Khrush" was the first A's slugger to lead the major leagues in long balls since Mark McGwire in 1996. He finished eighth in AL MVP voting after leading Oakland back to the postseason.
The 2018 A's had a loaded lineup, a lights-out closer, and a suspect starting rotation. 97 wins wasn't enough to win the AL West that year, nor was it enough to host the Wild Card game. Oakland would have to travel cross-country to...
Bob Melvin deployed reliever Liam Hendriks as an "opener"; he allowed a two-run homer to that Judge guy in the first inning and took the loss.
Hendriks was Oakland's closer in 2019, when the A's once again finished second to the Astros in the AL West with a 97-65 record and matched up against an AL East team in the Wild card game.
But this time they were the home team -- and their opponent was the equally thrifty Tampa Bay Rays. No problem, right?
No.
Problem.
Oakland lost the Wild Card game for the second year in a row and the third time in six years.
Aside from #2 starter Brett Anderson, there were no significant departures for the A's after 2019. 22 year-old lefty Jesus Luzardo was ready to compete for Anderson's spot in the rotation. Rookie catcher Sean Murphy emerged as a potential starter in Spring Training.
And then Covid halted daily life as we knew it.
The 2020 baseball season was condensed into a 60-game sprint. Postseason play was expanded - eight teams in each league made the dance. Oakland won the AL West and earned the #2 seed in the playoffs. To cut down on travel, every game in the Wild Card series was played at the higher seed's home park.
Chicago won the opener, but Oakland defeated the White Sox in Games 2 and 3, earning an ALDS date with the most hated team in baseball.
No, not these jerks. (NY lost to Tampa in the Division Series)
These jerks. The defending World Series champion Astros traveled to California for the ALDS. Though the Athletics were ostensibly the "home" team, every game was played at Dodger Stadium in front of cardboard cutouts representing would-be fans.
Houston won the series 3 games to 1. It would be the final postseason series in Oakland Athletics history.
Lost revenue from the 2020 season and dire economic conditions under TFG were the latest excuses for A's owner John Fisher to slash payroll. The franchise had made varying degrees of effort to build a new stadium for nearly two decades. Nothing had come to fruition, and the Coliseum was quickly decaying into an unplayable wildlife habitat while sitting vacant.
The A's desperately needed a new home. When pre-Covid normalcy gradually returned in 2021, Oakland finished dead last in attendance. The American economy recovered by 2022, and MLB attendance across the board resembled 2019 levels -- except in Oakland.
%20Baseball%20Almanac.png)
After an 86-76 finish in '21, manager Bob Melvin left Oakland to manage the San Diego Padres. Billy Beane and David Forst were forced to slash payroll once again, dealing Matts Olson and Chapman - as well as pitchers Sean Manaea and Chris Bassitt - in separate trades during 2022 Spring Training.
Under new manager (and former A's outfielder) Mark Kotsay, the team finished last in the AL West with a 60-102 record in '22, 46 games back of the World Champion Astros. It got worse in 2023:
Their current winning percentage is .227, which would equate to a 38-124 record over a 162-game season. That would be the worst in the 162-game era (since 1961), a couple of games worse than the 1962 Mets, who are often held up as the gold standard of bad teams over the last 60 or so years.
Somehow the A's pulled it together and "only" lost 112 games in a season played entirely under the dark cloud of relocation.
The 2023 squad was notable for a few things: the breakout success of Brent Rooker, throwing free agent pitcher Shintaro Fujinami to the wolves, and the debuts of yet more intriguing young prospects: first baseman Tyler Soderstrom, outfielder Lawrence Butler, and closer Mason Miller - who got the last out of the last game at the Coliseum a couple weeks ago.
[for more on the end of the A's in Oakland please visit The Chronicles of Fuji]
⚾
For over 120 years, in three different cities, one constant has remained through the history of the Athletics franchise: notoriously cheap ownership. The great professor Connie Mack, the maverick firebrand Charlie O. Finley, and the most hated man in baseball today John Fisher.
In 2025, the A's will begin a temporary residence in a minor league park in Sacramento. Personally, I'm not sure why this couldn't have been explored as a permanent home for the team. California's capital is already home to a major pro sports franchise -- and I would assume Oakland fans would be far less bitter about a move less than 90 minutes away as opposed to where they plan to play starting in 2028.
%20%E2%80%94%20Scaled%20(83_).png){kind=tracking}
And what will change? Will Fisher suddenly spend enough money to build a competitive club? Will he decide to sell the team only when the A's are established in Vegas?
What's the long-term outlook for a team that could be the fourth-most popular franchise in their city if the NBA expands to Sin City as planned?
San Diego had a similar standoff with a similarly slimy billionaire,
refusing to fund a new football stadium with taxpayer dollars. The
Chargers franchise has struggled to build a fan base in a crowded Los Angeles
market.
Like most baseball fans, I'm saddened by the latest pro sports franchise relocation. It's always tough to watch a fan base lose its team, especially a franchise with so much tradition and history like this one. It isn't always the economics of the area,
or the lack of fan support (or corporate sponsorship) that forces a
move. Sometimes the owner is just an unrepentant asshole hell-bent on destroying his reputation for the potential to make slightly more money.
The fans suffer. The community loses a part of its identity. The cycle repeats.
~
No comments:
Post a Comment