If you were one of the lucky ones who went to Oakland A’s Fan Fest you were blessed with the sights of Josh Reddick teaching Chris Young how to Bernie Lean, a lucky fan being able to touch the gorgeous mane of A.J. Griffin, and to vote Sean Doolittle as the funniest member of the A’s bullpen.
If not, you missed out.
The Oakland Athletics brought even more excitement to the already anticipatory 2013 season ahead of them. Now that a few more moves have happened, the season looks great for the men in green and gold.
When the Winter Meetings occurred in early December, the main question on everyone’s mind was who Billy Beane would try to acquire as a new shortstop after Stephen Drew put on a Red Sox uniform. Oakland did have three strong backup types in Adam Rosales, Eric Sogard, and Andy Parrino, however no one to fill the starting role, that was until Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima came into play.
The 30-year-old shortstop had a successful drive in 2012 with the Seibu Lions in Japan where he completed with a line of .311/.382/.451 and 13 homeruns. Nakajima makes a great addition to the already impressive lineup; let’s just hope he can keep his hands off the “extremely sexy and cool” Billy Beane.
In addition to a solid infield, a former teammate under Bob Melvin joined the A’s. Chris Young came onboard and they said goodbye to Cliff Pennington. Young is ridiculous in the outfield. He has averaged 22 home runs per season in his career, and may only have a .239 career average, but does get enough walks to push him OBP over .300. He has extreme value defensively which makes the Oakland A’s outfield five-men deep (Seth Smith, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick and Coco Crisp) which is huge for a fly-ball pitching staff.
Speaking of pitching staff, there is a lot depth this season. Recently Melvin said he didn’t think he has ever had this much quality of depth in the bullpen.
The Oakland bullpen is rolling deeper than an Adele hit single (see how I incorporated baseball and Adele just there?) Pen pals include Sean Doolittle, Ryan Cook, and Grant (Balfour Rage) Balfour, who last year were easy to count on to step on the bump and get the job done. In addition to the trio, the A’s have left-handed pitchers in Jerry Blevins, Jordan Noberto, and the recently added Hideki Okajima.
Jarrod Parker and Tom Milone are a great duo also on the pitching staff. Parker had 181.1 innings pitched last year with 140 strikeouts and a 3.47 ERA. His confidence on the mound shows every time he’s out there. He’s a great leader for this team and will dominate the 2013 season. The newly engaged (in a very romantic proposal I might add) Milone was just as impressive last year with 190 innings pitched and 137 strikeouts. With those two starters on the team, it’s not crazy to say the Oakland Athletics should have a repeat of next year, and hopefully progress further.
Opening Day is scheduled for April 1 against the Seattle Mariners. If the energy and noise is anywhere near the last home game, you should probably bring earplugs. Just make sure you stay for the pie.