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2007 Oakland A's Picks & Predictions

May 22, 2008


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The A’s are just one year removed from an AL West title, but we can expect them to struggle. In 2006, the A’s were a very profitable team earning backers more mula than any other AL team with the exception the Minnesota Twins. Don’t count on the same success in 2007. I strongly discourage playing the A’s on a day-to-day basis in 2007 as it won’t take you long to find out that they won’t be near the money maker they were last season.

The losses of Barry Zito and Frank Thomas will be big reasons why we can’t count on the A’s this season. In Zito, the A’s lose their franchise pitcher, a former Cy Young Award winner who was coming off a solid 16-win season. Losing Zito will hurt this team in the short term, but in the long term the A’s made a good move. Zito was just 39-36 before last year’s breakout season

Just one year removed from an AL West title, we can expect the Oakland A’s to struggle. In 2006, the A’s were a very profitable team earning backers more mula than any other AL team with the exception the Minnesota Twins. Don’t count on the same success in 2007. I strongly discourage playing the A’s on a day-to-day basis in 2007 as it won’t take you long to find out that they won’t be nearly as profitable.

The losses of Barry Zito and Frank Thomas will be big reasons why we can’t count on the A’s this season. In Zito, the A’s lose their franchise pitcher, a former Cy Young Award winner who was coming off a solid 16-win season. Losing Zito will hurt this team in the short term, but in the long term the A’s made a good move. Zito was just 39-36 over the three previous years before last year’s break through season. It looks like the A’s got the best years out of him and that his sweeping slow-curve isn’t nearly as effective as it once was. Zito’s tough years were not all his fault as Oakland has not been the best run support team. Frank Thomas’ surprise 39 homerun season was just what the doctor ordered in 2006 and a huge reason why the A’s won the West. With Big Frank gone, run production should once again take a huge hit. I can’t fault the A’s here as they got a great season out of Thomas and that is likely all he had left. If you are an A’s fan, don’t be too discouraged because your team’s management is thinking intelligently about the future.

With Rich Harden, Estaban Loaiza, Danny Haren, and Joe Blanton the A’s have a solid nucleus of starters which should be good enough to secure the number two spot out west. And I can’t forget about Huston Street who really came on as a nice closer last season. These are the guys that the A’s need to keep. If Oakland can bring in some big sticks to help out Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez, look out!

The A’s tried to land another bat, but they ended up with Mike Piazza in the offseason. Hopefully he can pick up some of the slack the A’s lost in Thomas’ 39 bombs, but I can tell you right now that if Piazza can hit 25 round trippers that the A’s will have got more than their money’s worth. We’ll see an inevitable offensive drop off in 2007, but hopefully the pitching will be able to pick up the rest of the slack.

The A’s will benefit from playing in the smallest and weakest division in baseball in 2007 as they attempt to reload and reclaim their first place spot without Zito and Thomas. The A’s just aren’t going to be able to get it done this year. They won’t be bad, but they won’t be good either.

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