Kuzul

The A’s have won the bidding for Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma.  As yet unsubstantiated reports indicate the A’s offered roughly $17 million for his services to the Rakuten Golden Eagles, Iwakuma’s old team.

I became aware of Hisashi Iwakuma back between the 2004 and 2005 seasons.  In 2004, at age 23, he had gone a spectacular 15-2 for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, one of the Pacific League’s perennial also-rans.

It was the second year in a row he had won 15 games, which is a lot given NPB’s shorter seasons, and his great 2004 season positioned him as one of the top young pitchers in Japan’s NPB.

That offseason, there was a great deal of conflict in Japanese baseball.  The second division teams were tired of losing money, and the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix Blue Wave, another Pacific League also-ran, decided to merge to become the Orix Buffaloes.

NPB threatened to contract 11 teams, and the Japanese players union finally struck for the first time in its history to prevent the loss of what would have been 8.3 percent of their jobs.  A deal was eventually worked out to create a new expansion team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, to keep the Pacific League at six teams.

Here’s where Iwakuma came in.  He was the best player on either the 2004 Buffaloes or Blue Wave, and the new Orix Buffaloes fully intended for him to be their ace in 2005.  Iwakuma had other ideas.

Iwakuma didn’t want to play for the merged team, held out for more money and eventually forced Buffaloes management to let him play for the expansion Golden Eagles.  What impressed me about Iwakuma is that there are not a lot of ace pitchers in their prime who would rather play for what everyone knew was going to be a brutally bad expansion team, instead of sticking with a team that would have the best players from two major league squads.

It was apparently at least in part a matter of principal for Iwakuma (I don’t know if the Golden Eagles ended up paying him more than the Buffaloes were offering—they might have).  I had a feeling then and there Iwakuma, as a player willing to make waves in a culture where that is not highly appreciated, would pitch in MLB one day if his arm held out.

In fact, Iwakuma had his struggles.  In 2005, he went 9-15 with a 4.99 ERA.  However, the Golden Eagles were even worse, finishing their inaugural season a dreadful 38-97 with a team ERA of 5.67.

I suspect Iwakuma was pressing in 2005, trying to do to much and be too perfect for an awful team.  However, a big part of pitching is defense by the other eight players on the field, and the 2005 Golden Eagles were as bad at all aspects of the game as their season record indicates.

He also had a sore arm.  His shoulder was bothering him in 2005, and he had significant arm problems in 2006 and 2007, pitching in only 22 games and 128.2 innings the two seasons combined.

Iwakuma came back with a vengeance in 2008.  He went an astounding 21-4 on a Golden Eagles team which finished the season 65-76.  He did it by setting personal bests of a 1.87 ERA, 201.2 innings pitched and 159 strike outs against only 36 walks.

Iwakuma wasn’t as good in either 2009 or 2010, although he did post fine ERAs of 3.25 and 2.82 and had double-digit win totals both seasons.

I really don’t know how well Iwakuma will make the transition to MLB.  On the plus side, he’s only 30 in 2011 and he obviously knows how to pitch.  On the down side, he’s a small right-hander (he’s listed as only 170 lbs.) who has thrown a lot of innings in Japan and has had arm problems in the past (shoulder and elbow).

One thing that concerns me also is that Iwakuma wasn’t a strikeout pitcher in Japan, never recording more than 159 in a season.  One wonders how he will fare against MLB’s better hitters if he doesn’t miss a lot of bats.

On the other hand, Iwakuma has exceptional control (well better than three Ks per walk in Japan), and he doesn’t give up a lot of gopher balls.  Those are skills that will serve him well pitching his home games at the Oakland Coliseum where both home runs and base hits are hard to come by.

He’ll likely need good defense behind him to be successful because major league hitters can be expected to put the ball in play against him.

All in all, I like the risk the A’s are taking in going after Iwakuma.  While I am generally not one to give a lot of weight to intangibles, Iwakuma is a pitcher who has shown a consistent ability to win even on bad teams.

Of course, there are no guarantees, and the failure of Kei Igawa to establish himself as a major league pitcher means that not every pitcher who has had success in Japan is going to be able to make the transition to the American game.

Looking at Igawa’s stats in Japan and the U.S., one thing stands out to me.  He gave up a lot of home runs even in Japan, and the gopher ball has really dogged him in the U.S.  That shouldn’t be a problem for Iwakuma.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Oakland Athletics have started preparing for the 2011 season, as per usual with GM Billy Beane.

Third baseman Eric Chavez, who has been riddled with injuries over the last three years, has finally been released. He looks to start fresh with another team, but realizes he is a 12-year veteran.

Susan Slusser, writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, published this telling quote from Chavez:

“If things had been different, I would have wanted to stay in Oakland my whole career,” the six-time Gold Glove third baseman said. “I’ve had therapy, I’ve had treatment, I’ve had surgeries. The only thing left is to change scenery. … To go back to Oakland, even with the direction they’re going, I’m not even sure there would be a spot open.”

Ellis added that Oakland will miss him.

As Oakland prepares for another season, players and staff alike are thrilled about the second-place finish in the AL west. Closer Andrew Bailey has been rehabbing an injured shoulder that he suffered in September and looks to resume his closer role once play resumes.

Additionally, Rickey Henderson has decided to work with young outfielder Chris Carter on his defensive play. I think Rickey should also leak a few secrets about base-running. He’s only the all-time leader in stolen bases and runs scored. No biggie.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The San Francisco Giants have just completed an improbable run to the playoffs which ended in a World Series victory.

The question sure to follow is who will be the Giants of 2011 and the answer is simple—it will be the Oakland Athletics.

The Giants made their run to the World Series on the strength of their pitching staff. Don’t look now, but the Athletics pitching staff is younger than the Giants’ and may be even better than theirs next season.

The Athletics pitching staff goes five men deep, and each one is capable of throwing a shutout, or in the case of Dallas Braden, a perfect game.

The rotation starts with their ace Trevor Cahill, who had a breakout season. He won 18 games while only losing eight games on a mediocre team. Many have questioned if Cahill is a one-year wonder because he relies on a hard sinker, but he is here to stay.

Cahill reminds me of a certain sinker-baller who has had a nice long career. Who is this mystery pitcher?

None other then Derek Lowe. He has made a career of firing his sinker into the strike zone in the upper 80s and low 90s. However, Lowe only possesses a slider to keep hitters off balance, while Cahill has an assortment of plus breaking pitches at his disposal whenever he needs them. 

Next in line is the pitcher who sparked a controversy and T-shirts made in his honor with the quote, “Get off my mound.”

Yes, it is Dallas Braden. By no means is Braden an elite pitcher. He is your average middle-of-the-rotation guy, but those types of pitchers are extremely valuable.

Braden does not throw overly hard and seems to throw more breaking pitchers than fastballs to compensate for his lack of velocity. Now this also reminds me of another pitcher, but who could it be?

I know, it is Jamie Moyer, who has carved out a major league career that has taken him to the age of 47. Braden has Moyer’s capability. He may never be an elite pitcher, but he can sure keep up the 3.50 ERA he compiled this season for years to come, making him an above-average pitcher in my book. 

The Athletics also possess a young lefty with one of the best breaking balls in the bigs. His name is Gio Gonzalez. It is hard to understand how Gonzalez has been traded numerous times already in his young career, but with a curve ball as good as his, he is on the verge of stardom. 

This past season, Gonzalez won 15 games while pitching a 3.23 ERA. He went over the 200-inning mark, which is the sign of a workhorse, and also compiled 171 strikeouts. His high strikeout numbers were no doubt caused by his sneaky fast delivery where the ball just pops up on the hitters.

Brett Anderson is another lefty member of the Athletics rotation. He has dealt with injuries the past few years, but possessing a mid-90s heater from the left side is never a bad thing. Anderson has the ability to be a premier strikeout pitcher in the bigs for years to come. Pitching to a 2.80 ERA isn’t too shabby either.

Last, but not least is a guy I believe has the ability to be the ace of the rotation in a few short years. He has some filthy movement on his fastball to go along with the velocity in which it travels to the plate. Vin Mazzaro is definitely an ace in the making. 

Mazzaro struggled this season, but his shutout against the Yankees proved to me that he is capable of performing on the big stage. The man has the same kind of movement which allowed another pitcher to compile a 20-strikeout gem this season.

Brandon Morrow was switched from the bullpen to the rotation on numerous occasions and once he reached the Jays, his career took off. 

Mazzaro could experience the same situation as early as next year. With these five talented pitchers on their staff, it should surprise no one if they dethrone the Rangers and take the American League West with ease.

Who knows, maybe they can follow in the Giants’ footsteps and prove the old adage true—you can never have enough pitching.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

On Wednesday, the San Francisco Giants will be taking the field against the Texas Rangers in the 106th edition of baseball’s World Series. The players will be trotting out to their respective positions, digging into the batter’s box and toeing the pitcher’s mound with only one thing on their minds: winning.

Yet 33 years ago, the starting center-fielder for the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers had a lot on his mind. Granted, it was Game 1 of the 1977 World Series. He was technically still a rookie, and was being touted as the Dodgers’ version of Willie Mays.

He was facing one of the most experienced World Series pitchers of all time in Don Gullet, and he was playing his first game ever in historic Yankee Stadium. 

Oh, and he was gay. 

Glenn Burke, still accepted around sports as the first and only player in the big four sports (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA) to come out to his teammates while he was still playing, was in the majors for only four years before his lifestyle seemingly drove him out of the game. Three decades after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, Glenn Burke attempted to break the gay barrier, but sadly their paths were not parallel.

Burke, an Oakland native and Berkeley High two-sport star, was one of the best Bay Area athletes to come out of high school in the 1970s. Remember, this is a region and decade that also produced Rickey Henderson and Claudell Washington, who have played a combined 42 Major League seasons to Burke’s four. And according to them, Burke was still the best talent out of all three.

Burke may have had the talent and the star power personality to match, but when he began to reveal glimpses of his sexuality to his teammates and management, it started him down a slippery slope that was simply to steep to climb back up.

Out. The Glenn Burke Story is an exclusive Comcast SportsNet documentary that chronicles his descent from the World Series to being traded to the Athletics to a voluntary retirement and down into the abyss of drug abuse, homelessness, and AIDS that eventually took his life, and shows how much his story affected many people who have until now been silent. 

Featuring interviews with Dodger teammates Dusty Baker, Davey Lopes and Rick Monday, among others, as well as A’s teammates Claudell Washington, Mike Norris, and Shooty Babitt, Out gets into the nitty-gritty of Burke’s athletic and post-athletic career.

According to almost everyone interviewed, Burke was run out of baseball because he was gay. The Dodgers apparently offered to pay for his wedding and honeymoon if he got married, and when he refused, he was promptly traded to the Athletics. The situation was no better there with manager Billy Martin, and Burke took a leave of absence from the team to clear his head. 

When he decided to come back, it was starkly clear to him that, while he still loved baseball and obviously had the physical tools to play the game, there was no place for a gay man in professional baseball. Burke then took the celebrity that he did have and played it up, spending a majority of his time in San Francisco’s famed Castro District.

Yet his fame ran out, and his party lifestyle turned into one of drug abuse. The tragedy was compounded when Burke contracted AIDS in 1994. But in the last years of his life, the same game of baseball that abandoned him came back to support him in his greatest time of need. 

Out. is being premiered for a public screening at the Castro Theater on Wednesday, November 10, and will be replayed exclusively on Comcast SportsNet on Tuesday, November 16. Tickets for the screening are $5, with all proceeds benefitting Marty’s Place, which once provided a homeless Burke with shelter and care as he coped with the effects of AIDS/HIV. 

For more information, and for ticket sales, please visit Comcast SportsNet’s exclusive information page.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Trevor Cahill enjoyed a breakout season in 2010, his second full season in the Major Leagues.  At the surface the numbers are certainly impressive, but there certainly are reasons to be concerned.

Before we get to the reservations, let’s take a look at his statistics:

18 Wins
196.2 Innings
2.97 ERA
1.11 WHIP
118 Strikeouts (5.4 K/9)
63 Walks (2.9 BB/9)
.238 BABIP

The BABIP sticks out like a sore thumb.  In fact, it was the luckiest number in the Major Leagues in 2010, as he was one of just two pitchers to post a mark below .250 (Bronson Arroyo was the other at .246).

The number certainly was advantageous, considering his inability to strike batters out.  He did show significantly more upside in the minor leagues, with a career K/9 of 9.9 over 247.1 innings.  Of course, he also spent just 45.2 of those innings above Single-A, so it’s tough to get a great read on him there.

Prior to the 2009 season Baseball America ranked him as the A’s second best prospect saying the following:

“Cahill works off an 88-92 mph two-seam fastball with outstanding heavy sink and running life, enabling him to rack up both grounders and swinging strikes. He also can touch 94 mph with his four-seamer. He backs up his fastballs with a nasty 79-81 mph knuckle-curve, a swing-and-miss pitch with hard downward movement.

“He also has another tough breaking ball in a low-80s slider with cutter-like action at times. He’s a good athlete with a simple, compact delivery and good balance over the rubber.”

The groundballs were certainly there, at a 56.0 percent clip in 2010.  That is an incredibly impressive mark, putting him fifth in the league.  That certainly will allow him to pitch to a lower BABIP, as does the ballpark he plays in.  Look at his split:

Home: 11 W, 2.18 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 64 K, .241 BABIP over 103.1 innings
Road: 7 W, 3.87 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 54 K, .235 BABIP over 93.1 innings

OK, so he was lucky everywhere.  To put it in better perspective, since 2003 there has been only one other pitcher who qualified for the ERA title who has posted a BABIP below .240 (the Padres’ Chris Young posted a .237 mark in 2006).  There’s no way he maintains it.

His groundball rate helps, making it more likely to post a strong mark.  However, a regression there (and it is an almost certainty to happen) is going to mean a regression across the board, unless he can significantly improve his strikeout rate.

He’s shown the potential there, so there’s hope, and at 22-years old (he’ll turn 23 before the start of the 2011 season), there is reason to believe that he can take another step forward.  You have to think a pitcher who averages 90.4 mph on his fastball can strikeout more then five batters per nine innings.

Still, he’s not going to suddenly become a strikeout an inning guy.  So, even with his elite control, his WHIP is going to take a hit.  Maybe not a huge one, bit he’s not likely to be around 1.10 once again.  In turn, his ERA is going to rise as well.

The truth of the matter is, he should’ve been closer to 4.00 then below 3.00 in 2010, but luck played a tremendous impact in is numbers.  I’m not going to say that he should be avoided, because with his groundball rate and control, there is the potential to be a great low-end option.

The perfect comparable I can have for him is Chien-Ming Wang in 2007.  Just look at the numbers:

3.70 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 4.70 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 58.4% groundball rate, .293 BABIP

Cahill will likely out produce the strikeout mark, but not necessarily by much.  The rest of the numbers look about spot on, so that’s exactly how I would value him heading into 2011.

He’s got a ton of potential, thanks to his strikeout upside, but until we see it he’s really nothing more then a late round option, just like Wang always was.

What are your thoughts on Cahill?  Am I being overly skeptical of him?  Do you think he will be a fantasy ace in 2011?

Make sure to check out our 2011 projections:

Freese, David
Morrow, Brandon

THIS ARTICLE IS ALSO FEATURED ON WWW.ROTOPROFESSOR.COM

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Expectations can be tricky things.

Often times, teams with high expectations fail to measure up, while squads without expectations do better than anticipated.  For the 2010 Athletics, the latter is true.

Without any considerable power threat on the roster (Jack Cust started the season at Triple-A), it was hard to imagine the non-explosive A’s coming close to .500 record.  With two games the left, Oakland is two wins away from finishing 81-81.  

No matter what happens the next two nights in Seattle, the Athletics’ brass must be pleased with the way the summer played out.

Oakland scored the fourth-fewest runs in the American League, was second-worst in total bases, and hit the second-fewest home runs.  

But the team was able to hover around the .500 mark for most of the season because of its pitching staff.  As one of the youngest staffs in all of baseball, the A’s have the lowest team ERA in the AL (3.57).  They did it largely without two of their top starters heading into the season, Ben Sheets and Justin Duchscherer.

No one had questioned whether or not the team had built a foundation for a strong staff, but not many outside the organization believed its young arms would be this good this quickly.

Trevor Cahill pitched his way into the role of the team’s ace with his outstanding season in 2010.  The sinkerballer showed flashes during last year’s rookie campaign but was unable to consistently locate his pitches.  In 2009 Cahill gave up 27 home runs while compiling a 4.63 ERA. 

This season the 22-year-old right-hander only let 19 balls leave the yard, strung together a 2.97 ERA, and won 18 games. 

Brett Anderson managed only 18 starts, but still pitched well and lowered his 2010 ERA (2.91) by more than a run from his 2009 mark (4.06).  When healthy, he could have the best stuff of any left-handed starter in baseball.  But he’ll have to prove that he can stay healthy over the course of an entire season. 

Like Cahill, Anderson is 22 years old.

The advantage the starting staff is the different look each pitcher provides.  Cahill can dominate with his sinker, Anderson’s a true power arm with four plus pitches, Gio Gonzalez was praised by Torri Hunter as having the best left-handed curve in baseball, and Dallas Braden’s bulldog mentality allows him to be successful with less than dominating stuff.

Those four starters are good enough to win a pennant if healthy.  If Vin Mazzaro can make the jump next season like his counterparts did in 2010, the A’s should have far and away the best pitching staff in baseball.

Owner Lew Wolff and GM Billy Beane have both pledged to make the offense better in 2011.  Whether it comes from inside the organization, through free-agency or trades, the team could very well find itself back as a contender for an AL West crown this time next year.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Oakland Athletics have a history of talented and interesting players.

The club was born in Philadelphia in 1901, left for Kansas City in 1955, and finally settled in Oakland in 1968. They are the proud owners of nine world series titles, trailing only the Saint Louis Cardinals (10) and the New York Yankees (27).

37 Athletics are enshrined in the baseball hall of fame and there are certainly more to come.

My criteria for this list includes: statistics, defense, aura, and longevity with the team.

There’s no scientific formula here, but be assured, I conducted thorough research.

I’ll only take into account players statistics when they were on the A’s, dismissing contributions they made with other teams. The numbers listed will reflect this.

I will also include non-players (managers, announcers, etc.) that had a significant impact on the organization.

Without further ado, here are the Top 25 Oakland Athletics.

Begin Slideshow

Oakland, CA simply cannot support the Oakland Athletics. Moved to Oakland from Kansas City for the 1968 season after the completion of the then state-of-the-art Coliseum in Oakland, the team has enjoyed profound success in the “other” city by the Bay – capturing 4 World Series Championships and 7 AL Pennants since 1968. Their time in the Oakland sun, however is fading fast. Here are the reasons why relocation is the only answer to the A’s small-market dilemma and potential (and theoretical) new homes for the vagabond A’s.

Begin Slideshow

Words that you never want to hear if you are a pitcher: “We are going to send you to Alabama to see Dr. James Andrews.”

Those are the words that Oakland A’s pitcher Andrew Bailey heard this morning. The odds have already been set to 3-1 that we will next see Bailey in August of 2011.

The A’s did the smart thing this morning and shut down Bailey for the final two weeks of the season because of elbow soreness.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Bailey believes this is just a case of tennis elbow. If that is the case, I would be shocked.

Due to various injuries and despite having a lower ERA this year than he did last (1.47 to 1.84), all of his peripherals were down from his Rookie of the Year season. His K/9 dropped from 9.8 to 7.7, and his ground-ball percentage dropped from 42 percent to 39 percent.

I think the drop in peripherals has more to do with his rib cage injury and his tennis elbow that he has been dealing with all year. We’ll see how his visit with Dr. James Andrews turns out.

If Bailey beats the odds and finds out there is nothing wrong with him, then I expect him to be once again one of the better closers in baseball in 2011.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

For a young pitcher starting out in the Major Leagues, success can come and it go as quickly as it came. A perfect example of this is the case of Vin Mazzaro, who from June eight to July 18 saw tremendous success and looked like a mainstay in the rotation for the A’s. 

During that period of time Mazzaro went 4-2 with 31 strikeouts to 16 walks, had an ERA of 2.82, and held batters to a .235 average. The one knock on Mazzaro during this time was that he did have the tendency to hang his slider and when that happened it was hit a long way. 

Yet, as quickly as that success came it vanished and he’s now found himself back at Triple A Sacramento trying to fix what went wrong. In his last eight starts which he had six decisions in those starts, Mazzaro has gone 0-6 with a 5.60 ERA, has struck out 29 while walking 20, and batters are hitting .284 against him. 

The icing on the cake though was the last two starts for Mazzaro one against the New York Yankees and the other against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. In those starts he went a total of eight innings, giving up 13 hits, 14 runs, 12 earned, walked six, struck out three, gave up five home runs, and had an ERA of 13.50.

Fircoal Urban wrote an article on the subject of Mazzaro‘s demotion in the article it self Urban expresses dismay that Mazzaro was sent down and in his mind it was a total surprise to see Mazzaro sent down. He states in the final paragraph of his article “The only reason I can think that this move was done was for Mazzaro to try to aid their AAA team with the day off, but it’s still confusing.”

Let’s start off with the first quote about Mazzaro aiding Sacramento. Yes, that is one part of the equation that Mazzaro builds his confidence backup and also helps Sacramento during their playoffs. Also, what Urban is referring to is that the A’s have an off-day on Thursday, so a fifth starter is not needed until sometime next week. 

That means that the A’s have to make a decision on who to start. He gives his case why Boof Bonser shouldn’t get the start by saying “Boof Bonser looks like the only option in the majors and his 5.17 ERA in zero starts doesn’t really excite me (Though it has been very solid since coming to Oakland).”

If Bonser is the option to take over as the fifth starter then fine, since coming to Oakland in his relief appearances which have been as a long reliever Bonser has compiled an ERA of 3.29. What was even more impressive though is after Mazzaro‘s horrendous outing against the Yankees, Bonser came in and pitched 4.1 innings striking out five walking one and giving up two hits. 

With Bonser he could definitely be looked at to make the start the next time the A’s need a fifth starter.

Other candidates are down in Sacramento include Mazzaro being brought back up, Clayton Mortenson who’s 13-6 with a 4.25 ERA with 112 strikeouts to 53 walks and he has made one start for the A’s this year going six innings, giving up four runs, three earned, six hits, two walks, struck out seven, and got a no decision. Tyson Ross could get the call up as he has gone back to where he should have been as a starter. 

The thing is that Mazzaro is just 23, but next season, he will have to earn a starting spot in the rotation. Starting pitching is one of the A’s strengths and in next years rotation, it will be the top three right now of Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, and Dallas Braden. 

As for the other two spots those will be up for grabs. One of those though will more than likely go to a free agent pitcher with experience and even if the A’s don’t go after a veteran starting pitcher to be the fourth starter. 

Mazzaro will have to beat out Mortenson, Ross, Bonser (could make a run for a starting spot has experience as a starter), and Josh Outman are all going to be after the fourth and fifth spot in the rotation. 

If a veteran pitcher is signed as a free agent that means four pitchers going after one spot.

The A’s are in a great position to be in with the starting pitching, but with Mazzaro being send down it was never about two bad starts. He had been struggling for awhile and with the disastrous outings against the Yankees and Angels it was just a matter of time before Mazzaro was sent down to Sacramento. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com