Our future

by batterbatter on Jan 26, 2009 1:27 PM PST Comment 32 comments

It seems that the future of this team seems to hinge on the future success of the trio of Cahill, Anderson, and Mazzaro. Perhaps, Gio Gonzalez can also be thrown in there. Since I live in NY, I can't help but compare our trio to the Yankees' trio of Ian Kennedy, Philip Hughes, and Joba, At this time last year, everyone was raving about the Yankees' trio of young guns and we now know how that turns out; only Joba shows promise of being a very good starter. To be fair, Hughes and Kennedy are still young but the pundits are no longer raving about their capabilities. The Yanks have so little confidence in Hughes and Kennedy that they spend a billion dollars on CC and Burnett.

This year, so far, no one even thinks our trio is as good as the Yanks' trio of yesteryear. The Yanks' trio put up much better minor league numbers than ours, and yet 2 of them seemingly flamed out. Seeing how common it is for most minor leaguers to flame out in the majors, should we hold high hopes for Cahill, Anderson, and Mazzaro/Gonzalez? Perhaps it will be considered successful if only one of them pan out? Anderson, perhaps?

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yankees prospects always get overhyped.

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on Jan 26, 2009 1:54 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

+1,000

Scout.com has Jesus Montero ranked 5th. Fifth! That’s better than Snider, Rasmus, Maybin, LaPorta, Porcello… I mean, seriously? Austin Jackson is also ranked 15th. What the hell?

by NateHST on Jan 26, 2009 11:11 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Scout is a great site but that top 25 is terrible.

However they do a good job of doing each teams top 30.

"With 16-year-old Dominican righty Michel Inoa in tow, Gio Gonzalez improving at Triple-A and lefty Brett Anderson carving up Double-Abatters along with Simmons and Trevor Cahill, Oakland’s pitching depthis officially the envy of baseball." - BaseballAmerica.com

by Syphon on Jan 27, 2009 12:32 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Thats definitly true

they get so much attention from the New York media that it might incorrectly annalize their talent

by LFbleachers on Jan 27, 2009 6:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

hughes and kennedy are by no means done

the yankees spending money on cc and burnett had nothing to do with hughes and kennedy. they spent the money because they have the means to.

"True fact: In a global thermonuclear war, the only human who would survive would be David Eckstein" -PT

by travdog6 on Jan 26, 2009 2:04 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Hughs is still legit

and fairly decent already. Kennedy, on the otherhand, has a bit more of a ways to go before I think i’ll say he’s good. Of course, they are both still young.

"I'm on hold for now"- Bobby Crosby

by DyeLongJustice on Jan 26, 2009 2:16 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Pettitte

those guys just moved one rung lower today, as the yankees resigned pettitte

by RayJEdd on Jan 26, 2009 2:37 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I the fact that........

They are drawing comparisons to a former trio the A’s had not to long ago.

by auldone on Jan 26, 2009 3:33 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

You what the fact?

I’m thinking “find encouraging, yet inevitable, slightly tired, and lacking originality on the part of the comparer”.

Many years from now, when his name's recalled
Everyone will say, "He should have passed the ball"
-- Al Stewart, "Football Hero"

by PaulThomas on Jan 26, 2009 5:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I don't think understand what he's getting at Paul

He the’s the fact, alright?

RagingHarden: Yeah if you get 20 starts out of me I'll be shocked. Like, I'll wreck my drawers.

by walk off bunt on Jan 26, 2009 7:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I wish that was on purpose.

RagingHarden: Yeah if you get 20 starts out of me I'll be shocked. Like, I'll wreck my drawers.

by walk off bunt on Jan 26, 2009 7:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I the we you him it

A B -3X = Swedish girls like chocolate @('.')@

by monkeyball on Jan 26, 2009 7:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

But him the we you it might?

RagingHarden: Yeah if you get 20 starts out of me I'll be shocked. Like, I'll wreck my drawers.

by walk off bunt on Jan 26, 2009 7:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Only if but could have "them" by mistake

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Jan 26, 2009 7:57 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The point of this post was that Pitching Prospects have a high rate of failure, right?

But if you’ve been following the AN Prospect List, you’d see one thing that favors the A’s heavily; The A’s have a LOT of good pitching prospects.

We have blue chip prospects; Cahill, Anderson and Inoa
A load of 4 Star guys; Gonzalez, Mazzaro, Gallagher (if he was still eligible), Simmons, Hernandez
Guys who could/will be average MLB Starters; Braden, Outman
And guys who could be 4 or 5 star guys if/when given a full year of Starts; Hunter, Ross, Leon, De Los Santos

And some other wild cards.

So I don’t worry about our pitching in the future.

The only thing I worry about as far as pitching goes is the present; the opening day rotation.

Dogfood Gangstas
Canned or Dry,
We Neva Die.

by Zonis on Jan 26, 2009 6:24 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

But ... that means ... the more pitching prospects we have ... THE MORE WILL FAIL!!!

A B -3X = Swedish girls like chocolate @('.')@

by monkeyball on Jan 26, 2009 6:35 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

well the answer is obvious

we should give up

"True fact: In a global thermonuclear war, the only human who would survive would be David Eckstein" -PT

by travdog6 on Jan 26, 2009 7:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Reminds me of a commercial I just saw

Where the guy is talking about alcohol and drug addiction and then says “Wish you could end it all?” and I immediately thought he was about to talk about suicide only to see him go on to plug his book on how to kick the habit(s). Poor script writing if you ask me.

"Their batters are patient to the point that it's annoying." -Ryan Franklin

by Helloooo 1st on Jan 26, 2009 8:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

salb918 is the one narrating that ad,

and it reads, “Wish you could end it tall?”

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Jan 26, 2009 8:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yes

but more than that. The probability that all of our big 3 pitchers will become dominant pitchers are not great. Chances are only 1 out of the 3 will be successful; my pick is on Anderson. I’m not sure how much more sucking the A’s can endure as their fanbase dwindle to almost nothing that at some point, it wouldn’t make any different where our team plays. We do need to explore trades and FA to acquire quality pitchers rather than wait and pray that out big 3 will pan out.

by batterbatter on Jan 26, 2009 11:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

That's a bit pessimistic

Do you have any specific reason to think that Cahill and Mazzaro will fail? I think if you look at the history of the A’s under Beane I bet he has a better than 33% success rate in developing top pitching prospects from AA to the majors. Having success at AA by no means guarantees success but I think your underestimating the success rate.

Now all three may not become Aces, but I think only 1 successful pitcher out of that group is a pretty unlikely outcome unless you have some doubts about these guys that you would like to share.

by DiegoAsFan on Jan 26, 2009 11:15 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'd say the odds are that one will be very good, one will be OK, and one will be injured

Many years from now, when his name's recalled
Everyone will say, "He should have passed the ball"
-- Al Stewart, "Football Hero"

by PaulThomas on Jan 27, 2009 12:49 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Keep in mind that two of the pitchers are pretty close to the majors already.

Also, the A’s have been bad for 2 years. They were in the ALCS in 2006. It hasn’t exactly been a long history of failure.

by thejd44 on Jan 27, 2009 10:08 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

We've got a pretty good stash of prospects

I expect more than one of them to have a successful career. Injury is always a concern with young pitching prospects but it would take a serious bit of bad luck for all but one of our top pitching prospects to completely bust.

by DiegoAsFan on Jan 26, 2009 6:50 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Sounds like a job for...

Superlarrydavis!!!!

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Jan 26, 2009 6:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The part of our future I worry about is the Infield

We have some depth in the low minors (Christian, Coleman and Weeks), but very little in the high minors. Best we have in the high minors is Carter and Cardenas, who will be at AA next year. But Cardenas probably will not stick at SS and move to 2B or 3B, and Carter will probably not stick at 3B and move to 1B or DH.

Dogfood Gangstas
Canned or Dry,
We Neva Die.

by Zonis on Jan 27, 2009 2:08 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

The part of our future I worry about..

is losing this groups versions of Hudson/Mulder/Zito/Tejada/Giambi. If we produce talent on this level again we have to keep a few of them. Im sick of people asking me what my favorite team is and saying Oakland. Then them saying, wow that sucks Beane trades all your good players. Annoys me to no end.

by Syphon on Jan 27, 2009 2:17 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

When I'm in charge of the world and enact the law that says it's legal to punch stupid people in the throat

This will no longer be a problem for you.

by thejd44 on Jan 27, 2009 10:09 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Haha nice.

Yeah I tell them they just dont get it. But all my baseball friends are adamant that the A’s will never win a WS with Beane as GM since he “trades” everyone and the A’s are cheap.

by Syphon on Jan 27, 2009 10:12 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs