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)

The Boston Athletics: Part Two

By Jacob Kelly

“The Greatest of All Time”… and Some Other Guys (‘80s-‘90s)

Tonight we take a look at three of the guys that helped define the second era of great baseball in Oakland, particularly the three back to back pennant winning years of '88 to '90 (although one of yesterday's guys, Carney Lansford, can just as easily slip in with this group as well).  In my mind this is the "Rickey" era for the A's, but there are some great pieces of Red Sox history here too, particularly when it comes to that other Henderson guy that played for both teams and his postseason heroics.  The fact that two of the players below made the Hall of Fame makes this a short but sweet list.  Let's get started.

Outfield: Rickey Henderson

He’s the greatest of all time!  Well… except when he was in a Red Sox uniform, which was really a blip on the radar of his massive career, but one that makes him eligible for this team.  Rickey played 72 games in Boston in 2002, his second to last season in the big leagues, hitting just .223/.369/.352.  That Henderson managed an OPS over .700 in his age 43 season is nothing short of impressive, despite the numbers not being up to the high standards he set earlier in his career.  He also hit a career milestone in stolen bases that year, swiping his 1,400^th bag of his career.  But it’s his credentials from his time in Oakland, the team he made his Major League debut with, that make him the best outfielder on this team.  Rickey spent parts of 14 seasons with the Athletics (he was thrice involved in trades with Oakland; twice away from them and once to them), winning the MVP award with them in 1989, three straight pennants (’88-’90), setting the single season stolen base record in ’82 (130 SB), and 867 career stolen bases there.  Despite being known primarily for his speed, he even slugged 297 homers.  Yeah, you could say he could play some baseball.

Outfield: Dave Henderson

“I hang out when the clock’s ticking out,” Henderson was once quoted as saying by the Boston Globe, in reference to his absolutely torrid play in postseason games.  While he was a very solid regular season contributor early in his career with Seattle, “Hendu” became known for his hot October bat after being acquired by Boston in the Summer of ’86.  In the World Series now more famous for the “Buckner Play” than anything else, Henderson raked, hitting .400/.448/.760 across 29 PA.  But before The Series, he had a big impact on the preceding ALCS; with Boston down to their last strike and facing elimination down 3-1 in the series, Henderson knocked a game tying solo shot to send it into extras.  His postseason heroics would continue in his time with the Athletics after signing with them through free agency in ‘87, and by the end of his career he’d hit .298/.376/.570 with 7 HRs and 20 RBI in October.  He’d play for 3 straight AL Champion Athletics’ squads from ’88-’90, helping them to win it all in the Bay Series in ’89.  In a strange twist, Hendu barely missed out on playing in 5 straight postseasons when he reported a day late to the Giants after being traded away by Boston in 1987.  He was ineligible for the postseason roster, as the deal wasn’t completed before the August 31^st trade waiver deadline.  Aside from his postseason heroics, Henderson managed a respectable .258/.320/.436 line with 197 long balls and some very strong center field defense (a 3.4 career dWAR, per baseball-reference).

Starting Pitcher/ Closer: Dennis Eckersley

Such suave.  So wow.

So I’m stretching the rules a bit here, but they’re my own rules… so whatever.  Eckersley really had two careers, one of which was very solid and what most guys would dream of having, and the other was simply dominant.  The first half of Eckersley’s MLB journey started with his debut in 1975 with Cleveland as a starting pitcher, and he came over to Boston in ’78 where he would spend 6 and a half seasons (and later close out his career there in ’98 as a part of their bullpen).  He’d make one All-Star appearance with the Red Sox in ’82, and finish 4^th and 7^th in the Cy Young voting in ’78 and ’79, respectively.  He totaled 2,496IP as a starter, notching 1,627 strikeouts, throwing 20 shutouts and posting an ERA of 3.67 in his time with the Indians, Red Sox, and Cubs.  But in the offseason of ’86-’87, when “Eck” was traded to Oakland, his career would take a different course. 

At first things were the same, briefly.  He started his first two games of the season for the A’s, but wasn’t very effective.  Then the Athletics’ closer, Jay Howell, hit the DL, and Hall of Fame Manager Tony La Russa moved Eckersley to the ‘pen where he would become a 9^th inning specialist.  Prior to La Russa’s years managing in Oakland, the “closer”, “fireman”, or general saves guy would pitch two and sometimes three innings to finish out a game, but he had a new strategy that would catch on like wildfire around the MLB.  It allowed Eckersley to stay fresh from appearance to appearance, and as La Russa put it: “we had a real good club, so we knew that we'd be ahead a large number of games every week, trying to hold leads and getting the win to the clubhouse. That's a lot of work for somebody throwing more than one inning.” Eck ended up with 390 career saves (good for 6^th all time), 320 of which came in his nine full seasons with the A’s.  He became and still is one of three relief pitchers to ever win both an MVP and a Cy Young award in the same year (’92), won a World Series (’89) and made 4 All-Star appearances in his time in the East Bay.  Eckersley made sure that he’d be remembered for more than his giving up a dramatic walk off homerun to Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series.  

Check back tomorrow night when we move into the New Millennium (does anyone say that anymore?).

Photo Credits: BaseballBacks (Rickey Henderson jersey) and  Rubenstein (Dennis Eckersley)