The Boston Athletics: Part Four

I See What You’re Doing Over There… and I Like It (’05- Present)

The length of this post is due to the fact that A's GM Billy Beane has enjoyed a great deal of success by putting together a roster of Theo Epstein's "leftovers" and "unwanted parts" from his tenure as Boston's GM.  A quick look at Beane's everyday roster reveals that 25% of his guys either came up through Boston's organization (Moss, Reddick, Lowrie, Lester) or spent a good chunk of time there while younger (Crisp).  This selection of players is really what fueled the idea for this series in the first place.  So let's get down to some long winded player histories.

1^st Base: Brandon Moss

Brandon Moss, 2012

Moss never got much of a chance with Boston, amassing just 115 Pas over two seasons, while mostly playing both corner outfield spots.  His overall offensive production was solid, however, posting an OPS just north of .800, but was mainly blocked from regular playing time by Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew in left and right, respectively.  Moss would spend time with Pittsburgh (’08-’10) and Philadelphia (’11) before finally finding an everyday, productive role with Oakland in 2012.  Maybe it was all the familiar faces from 2008 that made Moss feel at home, as he joined fellow Red Sox teammates Coco Crisp and Bartolo Colón on the surging A’s roster.  Even Jed Lowrie and Jon Lester got in on the ’08 reunion after coming over in ’13 and ’14, respectively.  It’s easy to say that Oakland’s core is the beneficiary of unwanted or unneeded parts by Boston’s front office at this point, with Moss being the big power bat of the bunch.  His line of .257/.340/.508 has been a big reason why the A’s have had so much success going on 3 seasons now, although there is cause for concern.  Since the All Star Break, Moss’s bat has completely vanished.  While some will be quick to point out that the loss of Cespedes to Boston (more on that beast in a bit) and the lack of lineup protection may be the cause, Fangraphs Chris Mitchell actually presents some data to the contrary: Moss is still seeing pitches in the same areas, but he’s swinging at 6% less of pitches in the zone and 6% less of pitches outside the zone.  Maybe he’s too busy wistfully remembering the days of watching Cespedes from the on deck circle?  Bottom line: Moss can’t afford to slump offensively, as his defense grades out pretty poorly; despite excellent offensive contributions, he’s only averaging 2.3 WAR a season overall (per Baseball-Reference).  Still, he’s the best 1^st basemen on this mutant baby squad of A’s and Sox.

Middle Infield: Jed Lowrie

Hungry Jed Lowrie, 2011

Although he has predominately spent most of his time at Short since making his major league debut, Lowrie has played a fair amount of 2^nd base as well.  While not being particularly amazing at either on defense, he’s not so bad that he’ll kill you every night; over his career he sports a 0.2 UZR/150 at SS and 1.6 UZR/150 at 2^nd (per fangraphs).  His bat is where he gives teams value playing from the 6 spot on the diamond, as he’s hit .260/.329/.412 over the course of his career.  After spending 188 games with Boston over the span of three seasons and being blocked by OUTSTANDING HITTER and scumbag Julio Lugo and later MarcoScutaro, Lowrie was shipped to Houston along with Kyle Weiland for relief pitcher and current Pirates closer Mark Melancon.  He then came to the A’s in a deal with the Astros revolving around slugging centerpiece Chris Carter the following year.

Starting Pitcher: Jon Lester

Jon Lester, 2008

In one of the more bizarre “win now” moves I’ve seen, the A’s traded for two months of a bona fide ace.  The bizarre part was, they traded their bona fide 4^th hole hitter, who’s under contract for at least one more season, in Yoenis Cespedes (who just barely missed this squad… but give it a couple more years, and he could easily vault past Dave Henderson).  Rather than gawk at what they gave up though, I’m going to go ahead and gawk at what they got: at age 30, Lester is probably one of the top 3 left handed starting pitchers in the game right now (the other two being Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale).  While his career ERA of 3.58 (nearly identical to a career FIP of 3.59), spanning from ’06 to present, is very good, it doesn’t tell the whole story of the pitcher that Lester is.  After struggling a bit with command and homerun tendencies in ’12 and ’13, his career numbers were inflated by a 4.28 ERA over 418.2IP (3.84 FIP).  The amazing part of the A’s and Red Sox swap, though, is that Lester has actually made Oakland better according to WAR (if you’re a slave to such statistics) than they would have been if they had stood pat with Cespedes.  Lester’s WAR since coming over to Oakland is a sparkling 1.9 over just 69.2IP.  Cespedes?  He’s been good too, just not as good, checking in with a 1.4 WAR over his first 44 games with Boston.  While there is much that can be said about comparing an outfielder that plays every day to a pitcher that only gets the ball every fifth, sabermetrics are inclined to siding with Lester over Cespy.

Relief Pitcher: Andrew Bailey

Andrew Bailey, 2013

Originally, I had intended to use Keith Foulke as the third relief pitcher for this squad, but then remembered his ungraceful exit from Boston and decided against him.  I’m not a huge fan of Bailey, either, but he has had a few very dominant seasons with Oakland.  In 2009, his rookie season, Bailey burst onto the scene with the A’s by making an All Star appearance, posting a sub-2.00 ERA, and winning Rookie of the Year.  He also posted a 9.8 K/9 and 0.876 WHIP over his 83.1 innings of work.  His next season started out strong again, making another All Star team and posting a 1.47 ERA, albeit over just 49IP.  This was the first year that injuries started to plague Bailey, as he hit the DL twice; once for an intracostal strain, and then again to have loose bodies removed from his pitching elbow.  In 2011 he put up a decent ERA of 3.24, but spent more time on the DL due to a forearm strain and was limited to 41.2 innings that season.  If you’re starting to notice a trend, it’s because there’s a trend.

Somehow, Billy Beane managed to land outfielder Josh Reddick in a trade that involved Bailey as the centerpiece and A’s 4^th outfielder Ryan Sweeny.  Once Reddick was given the chance to play every day, he took off with it by producing solidly on both sides of the ball (and may have won one of the roster spots on this team, were it not for its already insane outfield depth).  Bailey wasn’t all that impressive in Boston, as he battled more and more different injuries (a thumb that needed to be surgically repaired and shoulder surgery, to name a couple of the main ones).  He only tossed 44 innings in his two years in Beantown, to the tune of a 4.91 ERA, before being non-tendered after the ’13 season.  There’s definitely still time for Bailey to get what was once a promising career back on track (he’s currently under contract with the Yankees through next season), shoulder surgeries are never easy to come back from, and his long list of injuries outside of that are worrisome as well.

Starting Pitcher: Bartolo Colon

Bartolo Colon warming up before a game, 2009

This is the story of a biogenetically enhanced frog-man and his quest to pitch solid baseball for the duration of his existence.

When Colon’s Major League journey began in 1997 with the Cleveland Indians, he was still a tadpole (how are these frog jokes doing?  No?  Okay).  From that year through 2002, his final year in Cleveland, he put up a solid 3.85 ERA (4.02 FIP) over 1146.2 innings.  Considering that it was one of the richest power hitting eras that sport has ever seen (gee, I wonder why…), Colon was a big part of the Indians’ success during the late ‘90s to early ‘00s.  

After signing a four year deal with the Angels before the start of the ’04 season, Colon rewarded his new team with a Cy Young award in ’05.  Injuries hurt him the next two years, however, and it started looking like his career was winding down.  For the two remaining years that Colon had in LA, he posted just 140IP.  

2008 saw him with a limited number of innings yet again, although that year it wasn’t due to injuries; after signing on with Boston in late February on a minor league deal, Colon (after failing to make the team out of spring training) was called up to the big league club in mid-May.  He tossed just 39 innings for the Red Sox, putting up a 3.92 ERA, before abruptly leaving the team for the Dominican Republic to attend to “personal stuff”, as Manager Terry Francona put it to MLB.com.  The departure landed Colon on the restricted list in September, and after the end of postseason play, he filed for free agency.

Colon posted similar numbers the next season with the White Sox as he did with Boston the year before, and in 2010 he didn’t pitch at all.  Due to discomfort in his shoulder and elbow, Colon sought surgery.  Undergoing a procedure that used stem cells to repair the torn and damaged ligaments, the ageless fat one has managed to be productive ever since.  Colon gave back to back solid seasons for Oakland during the ’12 and ’13 seasons (making an All-Star appearance in the latter) a sub 3 ERA, 342.2IP, and a PED suspension.  I didn’t say it was all good for Colon in his time with the A’s…

I think this pick just goes to show what the pitching depth for this team looked like when I went to put together the roster; Colon is a good pitcher, don’t get me wrong.  In fact, for just about any rotation, he is probably still a decent number three, probably number four, even today.  He also loves making hitters produce flies.  Because he’s a frog-man.  FROG-BASEBALL HUMOR!!!

Sunday I'll wrap up the series with this groups Manager, and talk a little bit more about the current trend of many of Beane's Athletics having cut their teeth with the Red Sox.

Photo Credit: Keith Allison (Moss, Lowrie, Lester, Bailey) and MomentCaptured1 (Frog)

The Boston Athletics: Part Three

Moneyballin’ (’01- ’05)
 

Today we take a look at the guys that helped define what I'm referring to as the "Moneyball" era, due either to their direct impact on the phenomenon that Michael Lewis brought attention to, or just their prominence due to dominant play during that time.

Designated Hitter: Johnny Damon

Damon with the Indians, 2012

I cheated.  So what.  It’s not my fault there’s a glut of great outfielders that have passed through both Oakland and Boston and I wanted to squeeze a fifth one onto the roster (unfortunately for Jose Canseco, he cheated too, and not in the classy way like me… I won’t go ratting out my fellow bloggers when they start consuming excessive amounts of caffeine to power through their articles).  I’m going to go ahead and justify this designated hitter role for Damon by citing his poorer defense compared to this team’s other center fielder, Dave Henderson.  

Damon spent just one season in Oakland, 2001, after coming over in a three team deal that also involved Tampa Bay.  Despite setting up Michael Lewis’s Moneyball’s story well of Damon being a high impact player leaving town for big money… He wasn’t that good with the Athletics.  Sure, his defense was solid that year, as he put up a dWAR of 0.8 from a demanding center field position, but his offense wasn’t anything to write home about.  He hit .256/.324/.363, scoring 108 runs thanks in large part to a lineup consisting of Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez, and Miguel Tejada (all of which drove in more than 110 runs that year).  Damon managed a WAR of 2.4, which per Baseball-Reference’s definition grades out to a slightly above average everyday player (his play in the ALDS may have heightened the mystique, however, as he raked over the 5 game series to the tune of .409/.435/.591).  So maybe losing Damon to the Red Sox that offseason wasn’t as doom and gloom as Michael Lewis and now Hollywood have made it out to be.

Damon was a much better player with Kansas City from ’95 to ’00 than he was in Oakland (hitting .292/.351/.438 and compiling 17.3 WAR), and was again much better once he signed with Boston.  Over the life of his 4 year contract, Damon hit .295/.362/.441, scored 461 times, knocked in 299, and stole 98 bags.  He managed 16.4 WAR, averaging over 4 wins a season.  Of course, Damon will be best known for helping to break “the curse” as one of the idiots in 2004.  He was, for the most part, very quiet in the first 6 games of the series against New York, but came up big with the bases loaded in the 2^nd inning of game 7 with a grand slam.  The homerun largely put the game out of reach early, as the Yankees were then facing a 6 to 0 deficit.  

Although Damon hasn’t officially retired, as he told ESPN as recently as May of 2014, his days of playing are most likely over.  If he never plays again, he will retire 231 hits shy of the 3,000 mark, two World Series rings, 408 stolen bases, and a career WAR of 56.0 over 2,490 games.  

Relief Pitcher: Chad Bradford

Bradford with the Orioles, 2007

Bradford was the pitching poster child for Michael Lewis’s book Moneyball; a pitcher perfectly capable of getting outs, but with the weirdest wrist action, submarine style, and low velocity that made him undesirable to other teams.  Oakland picked him up for the ’01 season by trading future ear-biter-offer Miguel Olivo over to the White Sox, and Bradford became a key piece of the bullpen.  His extreme groundball rates (63.7% of balls put in play against him were on the ground from ’02 to ’09) made him post some solid ERAs throughout his career, finishing at a 3.26 mark.  He spent a lone season in Boston, ’05, where he put up a 3.86 ERA over 23.1IP.  Boston actually traded for Bradford despite the fact that he had undergone lower back surgery in the offseason, and did not become available for play until after the All-Star break.  The trade marked the first time Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane ever swapped players with the Red Sox, but as we’ll see tomorrow, it was just the first of many.  Bradford gets an additional nod for his excellent postseason play; over 23.1IP he posted a miniscule ERA of 0.39, which included trips to the ALDS once with the ChiSox, thrice with Oakland, once with Boston, once with the Mets (and an NLCS), and an AL Pennant winning season with Tampa Bay.  For a guy that couldn’t throw “normal”, he sure was effective.

Middle Infield: Nomar Garciapara

Garciapara teaching kids what a baseball is, 2008

Nomar is easily one of the most eccentric and recognizable players from my childhood.  Growing up near Seattle, kids in Little League would do their best impersanations of a Ken Griffey Jr. batting stance, or hope they’d get jersey number 11 or 3 (to think I was one of those kids, and was excited to get A-Rod’s number now… yuck).  But despite the geographical distance from Shelton, WA, and Boston, MA, imitation of Nomar’s odd behaviorism in the batter’s box is one of my clearest memories; kids adjusting their batting gloves incessantly, followed up by a series of toe taps never got old.  It speaks volumes about Nomar that in an era with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez at the height of their powers, the Boston shortstop was able to stand out.

After earning the Red Sox starting shortstop job from John Valentin in late 1996, Nomar established himself as the best shortstop in the game, a reign that lasted over the course of his Boston career.  From ’97 (the year he took home the ROY) until his last full season with Boston, Nomar compiled a triple slash line of .325/.372/.557, belting 270 doubles, 44 triples, and 169 homeruns.  He was worth 41 WAR over that stretch on the back of his offensive numbers, but dWAR was also a big fan of his work, checking in at 9.2 for those years.  To put things in perspective, the “Captain” over in New York put together a line of .319/.393/.467 with 60 less doubles, 10 less triples, and 52 less long balls.  Jeter’s WAR over those 7 years totaled 37.4, with a negative dWAR of -1.9.  Oh and Nomar played in 136 less games due to his ’01 season being almost completely wiped out due to a wrist injury.  Those seven years marked five All-Star Team selections, the aforementioned ROY award, a Silver Slugger, two batting titles, and five top ten finishes in the MVP voting.  

So had it not been for injuries derailing an extremely promising start to his career, Garciapara would probably be in the Hall of Fame.  Of course, there ain’t no room in the Hall for coulda’ beens.

After injury plagued and less than stellar offensive production with the Cubs and Dodgers from ’04 to ’08, Nomar made his Oakland A’s debut at the age of 35 in 2009.  He played in 65 games, mostly as DH and a first basemen, hitting .281/.314/.388 to go along with 3 homers and 16 runs driven in.  At the end of the year he’d sign a one day contract with Boston to retire a Red Sock. 

Over 1,434 games, Nomar hit .313/.361/.521, and a career postseason line of .321/.386/.589.  If rate stats alone could get you into the Hall, he’d have as good a chance as any.

Check back tomorrow for the fourth and final part of this Boston/Oakland dream team roster construction, when we'll take a look at a group of players still going strong.

Photo Credit: Kieth Allison (Damon, Bradford) and Wally Gobetz (Garciaparra)