What a crazy offseason? What became apparent after yesterday is that aside from Billy Beane stock piling young arms, also does the same for outfield options. With 8 outfielders on the roster (9 if you count Brandon Allen), what combination of this will be the most effective for the A's?
Here are the OF on the roster as of today:
- Yoennis Cespedes
- Collin Cowgill
- Josh Reddick
- Jonny Gomes
- Coco Crisp
- Jermaine Mitchell
- Michael Taylor
- Seth Smith
A quick look at this shows that 3 different combo of these OF lineups yield between 5-6 WAR. To reference the Willingham/Sweeney/DeJesus 2011 OF, that trio combined for 6.9 WAR. It appears that the CAIRO projections for everyone but Crisp and Cespedes are around 1 WAR for a full 650 PA. What this tells me is that these parts are super interchangeable. The hope is that either the platoon of Gomes/Smith is a success, or Josh Reddick will play beyond his projections.
Some extra links about Cespedes today:
A's Roster in 2014 (Hardball Talk)
Oakland A's Crowded Outfield Problem (Baseball Nation)
Check out more infographics at FUNGraphs or follow me @cobradave
