Welcome back, everybody! Today we will be staying in California, before heading north to Toronto. The first team in this double dip of report cards will be the Oakland Athletics. Let's see how the boys from the East Bay fared in 2009, beginning with their record and their team leaders:
Oakland Athletics:
Record: 75-87 (Last place in the AL West, 22 games behind Los Angeles).
Batting Leaders:
Batting Average: Ryan Sweeney (.293)
Home Runs: Jack Cust (25)
RBIs: Kurt Suzuki (88)
On-base Percentage: Jack Cust (.356)
Pitching Leaders:
Wins: Brett Anderson (11)
ERA: Brett Anderson (4.06). Bullpen- Andrew Bailey (1.84).
Strikeouts: Brett Anderson (150)
Innings Pitched: Trevor Cahill (178.2)
WHIP: Andrew Bailey (0.88)
Saves: Andrew Bailey (26)
Highlight of the Season: On July 20, the A's rallied back from a 12-2 deficit to defeat the Minnesota Twins at home, 14-13. It was the team's largest comeback in a game since moving to Oakland in 1968.
Lowlight of the Season: Watching their deal for a new stadium in Fremont, California go ka-put in February, 2009.
The Lowdown:
I dare you to name one regular on the 2009 Oakland A's not named Matt Holliday. I dare you! This team, filled largely with unknowns, pretty much performed to their potential in 2009. General Manager Billy Beane did his usual wheeling and dealing before the season began, acquiring Matt Holliday in a trade with the Rockies in exchange for Huston Street and signing shortstop Orlando Cabrera to a one-year deal, before trading him to Minnesota at the trade deadline. Since Beane does not have a lot of money to work with (this has more to do with a stingy owner, rather than being in a small-market), his creative juices have to be flowing at all times. When he saw that the A's weren't going to be in contention, he made sure that he got some prospects out of his two biggest acquisitions in Holliday and Cabrera. Since I'm learning about this team too, let's look at the team together, beginning with their offense.
Offense:
Oakland's offense was merely average in 2009, as they finished 14th in runs scored (759), 15th in batting average (.262) and 21st in on-base percentage (.328). However, their lineup lacked power considerably, as they finished 27th in MLB with just 135 home runs. Their leader in the power department was Jack Cust, who went deep 25 times this year. He was their only real muscle in the lineup after Holliday left, as only four other people tallied over ten home runs (Kurt Suzuki, Adam Kennedy, Jason Giambi and Mark Ellis).
Despite this, the A's did have some people who hit well average-wise. Center fielder Rajai Davis was the team's only .300 hitter this season, finishing with a .305 average in 125 games. Right fielder Ryan Sweeney and second baseman Adam Kennedy weren't too far behind him, hitting .293 and .289 respectively.
Kurt Suzuki put together a solid season behind the plate, as far as catchers go. He hit 15 home runs and drove in 88, while hitting at a modest .274 clip. Considering how demanding the position of catcher is, these stats are not too bad.
Overall, this lineup was not overwhelmingly great, but they were not that bad, either. To sum it up, they represented mediocrity at its finest.
Final Grade: C
Pitching:
The A's pitching staff of 2009 was highlighted by the Rookie of the Year performance of reliever Andrew Bailey. In 68 appearances, he earned 26 saves in 30 opportunities, to go along with an outstanding 1.84 ERA and 0.88 WHIP. He also struck out a solid 91 batters in 83.1 innings pitched. While playing for an obscure team would likely make him one of baseball's best kept secrets, the writers still took notice of his spectacular year and voted him as the American League Rookie of the Year, and deservedly so.
Outside of Bailey, no one really stood out in the A's pitching staff, regardless of whether or not they were in the bullpen or the starting rotation. Craig Breslow and Michael Wuertz had solid years out of the 'pen, putting together ERAs of 2.60 and 2.63, respectively. Their starters were merely pedestrian, as Dallas Braden ended up being the only one to record an ERA under four. The team ERA was 4.26, good for 11th in the majors. They also gave up 761 runs, which was 14th in MLB. Walks were few and far between with this staff too, recording only 523, the fifth lowest in the majors. Finally, their "batting average against" was only .265, which tied Philadelphia for the 18th in the bigs. This is not a staff that will "wow" you, but they won't exactly do anything to really disappoint you, either. They are a good example of the "whole being greater than the sum of its parts."
Final Grade: C
Wild Card: A's Ownership
I'm going to get on my soapbox here and talk about the A's ownership for a bit. Why do they honestly insist on calling themselves "small market," when you have the Giants right across the bay that are operating in a way that suggests otherwise? It seems to me that they are just being stingy, and nothing else. They're more concerned about the bottom line than they are about putting a competitive team on the field year in, and year out. Then, just to try to make a couple of extra bucks, they "reduce" (i.e cover up thousands of seats with green tarp) the seating capacity in the Coliseum to just over 35,000, to try to artificially increase the demand for tickets. Fat chance. There was little demand for tickets, as the A's finished dead last in MLB in average attendance. They also played to just 39.8 percent capacity.
Here's a suggestion: Why don't you take the tarp off of all of those seats, and offer discounted tickets for those sections? You know you would probably be doing your fans a favor by doing this, especially considering that you're asking them to spend good money just to watch a mediocre and spectacularly boring team. Just sayin'.
Final Grade on the A's Ownership: D
Overall:
Average pitching, average lineup, average team.
Final Grade: C
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From the East Bay, to the shores of Lake Ontario, we have now arrived in Toronto for the issuing of our second report card of the day. Without further adieu, let's get to work!
Toronto Blue Jays:
Record: 75-87 (Fourth place in the AL East, 28 games behind New York).
Batting Leaders:
Batting Average: Adam Lind (.305)
Home Runs: Aaron Hill (36)
RBIs: Adam Lind (114)
On-base Percentage: Marco Scutaro (.379)
Pitching Leaders:
Wins: Roy Halladay (17)
ERA: Roy Halladay (2.79). Bullpen- Jason Frasor (2.50).
Strikeouts: Roy Halladay (208)
Innings Pitched: Roy Halladay (239.0)
WHIP: Roy Halladay (1.13)
Saves: Jason Frasor (11)
Highlight of the Season: Being 3.5 games in first place as late as May 18 with a 27-14 record, which was the best in the American League.
Lowlight of the Season: Going a miserable 48-73 after May 18. Only Baltimore and Kansas City fared worse during that time span. This finish also prompted a near-mutiny in the clubhouse at the end of the season between some players and manager Cito Gaston.
The Lowdown:
The season started out so promising for the Blue Jays. They ended 2008 on a hot streak by nearly making a postseason bid in September, and they picked up right where they left off in early 2009 by storming out to a 27-14 start and spending 44 days in first place. Their hot second-half in '08 coincided with the return of former manager Cito Gaston, who piloted the team to back-to-back World Championships in 1992 and 1993. With their hot start in '09, it seemed as if the old man still had his magic managerial touch, which had many fans in Toronto believing that they could make a run at their first postseason appearance since 1993, and aim for their third World Title in the process.
Everybody's dreams in Toronto came crashing down after May 18, though, as the team went a miserable 48-73 after that day. Coinciding with this was the loss of major players Scott Rolen and Alex Rios to the Reds and White Sox, respectively. Also, as mentioned in the "lowlight" part of this post, the Jays were apparently fed up with the overall negativity and lack of communication from Gaston, roundly criticising him at the end of the season. This led to some players threatening to ask team president Paul Beeston to not bring Gaston back for 2010. The season concluded with the firing of General Manager J.P. Riccardi, and with a level of disappointment not seen by Jays fans since 1995. Despite all of this, there were some very bright standouts on the Jays, and two of the biggest ones were on their offense.
Offense:
The Jays' offense in 2009 was buoyed by the spectacular performances of second baseman Aaron Hill and DH Adam Lind. Hill led all major league second basemen in home runs (36) and RBIs (108), to go along with a .286 batting average and a slugging percentage of .499. His season was good enough to earn himself a Silver Slugger award, as well as AL Comeback Player of the Year. Not bad for a guy who battled back from a major concussion last year!
The other big bat in this lineup was DH Adam Lind. He put up numbers that were very similar to Hill, hitting 35 homers while driving in 114, to go along with a .370 on-base percentage. Cito Gaston, a former hitting coach with the Jays long before he became a manager with them, had to be very proud of the performances these two put together this season.
All in all, this was a very hard hitting lineup in 2009, as they featured nine people who reached double figures in home runs. The team finished eighth in MLB in runs scored (798), fifth in home runs with a whopping 209, and ninth in batting average, hitting at a clip of .266. If you are looking for a reason as to why the '09 Jays stumbled after May, the lineup is not the place to look.
Final Grade: A-
Pitching:
The rotation was once again, dominated by staff ace Roy Halladay. All throughout the season, he pitched remarkably, even during rampant speculation that he would be traded. His 17 wins tied for fifth in the major leagues, and his 2.79 ERA was good enough to finish in the top ten in MLB as well. Plus, as always, he finished near the top in MLB in innings, as he threw 239 of them, second only to Detroit's Justin Verlander in that category.
The other standout in the starting rotation was rookie Ricky Romero. His campaign was nearly good enough for him to earn Rookie of the Year honors, as he went 13-9, with a 4.30 ERA to go along with a solid WHIP of 1.52. He and Halladay would form a fairly potent 1-2 combo at the top of the rotation, and Jays fans have to be excited at the prospects of Romero becoming a top of the line starter in the coming years.
In the bullpen, Jason Frasor and Scott Downs were the two real standouts out of a largely unimpressive bunch in 2009. Frasor appeared in 61 games and was very reliable, putting together a 7-3 record to go along with a 2.50 ERA. He also split time in the closer's role with Scott Downs, who also put together a decent season, finishing with an ERA of 3.09. While Downs did have his adventures closing out games sometimes (blowing four games this season), he helped provide some stability to a 'pen that was in sore need of it.
As a whole, the pitching staff in Toronto finished with numbers that were by and large, unimpressive. The 771 runs they surrendered was the seventh most in the majors, and opponents hit off of them to a tune of .270, which was the seventh worst in the majors. Their team ERA of 4.47 was also unimpressive, as they finished 22nd in that category. Outside of the three aforementioned players, this was a below average pitching staff, one that will sorely miss the production of Halladay once he is finally traded.
Final Grade: C-
Wild Card: Complete Games
Thanks to that beast known as Roy Halladay, Toronto tied for second in MLB in complete games with 10. Halladay made up a whopping nine of them. If that isn't proof of how important he is to this rotation, I don't know what is.
Final Grade: A
Overall:
Their hot start at the beginning of the year proved to be nothing more than a fluke. However, once Halladay leaves, there will be a definite void in the team's morale, one that hasn't been seen since the departure of Carlos Delgado after the 2003 season. They will definitely need to have some of their players step up next year (*cough* Vernon Wells *cough*), or else 2010 could end up being significantly worse than 2009.
Final Grade: C
Check back tomorrow for the report card on the Cincinnati Reds!
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