Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Oakland A's | Profile & Projection | 603

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

Our listeners ranked the Oakland Athletics the American League's worst team, despite several veteran additions. Can they surprise people in the AL WestUse code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Oh, thanks for stopping by. Hey, and welcome to talking baseball players are going to get talked about that are all on the team because it's a team profile and projection for the Oakland Ace. And this Oakland Ace TPP is brought to you by Seat Geek, Code Talking $20 off your first order. And we recorded this before Irvin got traded. So anything we say about him, Eliminated. Go A's.

Literally right before he got traded. Jake, these guys actually added way more than you would think they added this offseason. Can you update the people at home? If you are an A's fan, you know more about your team than we do. Maybe even if you're just an A.L. West fan, you may be more tapped in than us, us and our damn East Coast buys. But Jake, what did they do? I think I've got a little surprise this episode because Treve loved his

Nats. I'm kind of digging these A's. They brought in Jace Peterson, who was just racking up war for the brew crew the past couple seasons. Aled Ms. Diaz may be getting some run. Our guy, Trevor May heading out to Oakland, locking it down in the pen trying to get traded. Shintari Fujianami. Trev's got the whole scouting report on him as he comes over from overseas with Drew Rochinski, who should be in the rotation. Our guy, Hazu Sagular, always having fun. sometimes hitting baseballs. Mani Pena. Kyle Mueller, they had the big trade.

Sean Murphy, Asturi Ruiz. He'll be playing in Tyler Wade looking hot, ha, ha, ha. For those A's, like I mentioned, Sean Murphy is out. You know, the top five MLB catcher. He's going over to Atlanta. That'll be a change. That'll be a nice booty on him. That'll be a big loss for them.

Joel Pyeamps was in that trade. Stephen Vote, retired. We hate that. Pinder and Jed Lowry? What? Losing all their hot boys. I guess that's why they brought in Tyler Wade. Trev, can you tell me what's going on

with this Oakland A's lineup? I'm trying to get down with you, Jake. I'm trying to get down with you and be positive here. And some of these guys I do like. We'll start off with the top. Tony Camp. We love him. He'll be a second base. Ramone Luriano. He'll be roaming the outfield.

Seth Brown, he's been hitting some bombs over the last couple years. They bring in Hageus Aguilar, Jace Peterson, like you And then what I read was a poor man's JT Rio Muto. And I think that's a big compliment. Shee Land Jaliers will be behind the plate. Aled Ms. Diaz. Nick Allen is slotted in at the shortstop position.

And then like you mentioned, Estuary Ruiz will be in the outfield as well. The bench, Ryan Noda, he's a left-handed hitter, first baseman outfield. Christian Pache, they got him from the Braves as well, former big prospect with them, see if he can kind of figure some things out. Mani Pena came over from the Braves as well, I believe, or is that the Brewers? I don't know. He came over in a trade. He'll be a backup catcher.

Then Kevin Smith, another utility dude in that lineup. James, how's that rotation looking? Well, there's some names. You got swerve and Irvin. You got Paul Blackburn. You got James Cappellian, who's had some good stints. They got Shintaro Fujinami, who Jake said in the rotation, which is a really puzzling move. I just read about him and Drew Raczynski.

But they got Waldichuk, Sears, a whole slew of Yankees prospects that have been traded their way with Waldichuk Sears and Cap. So hopefully those guys are fun. And Trevor Mays in the bullpen, AJ Puck, Adam Aller, that's a good game. Domingo Acevedo, if you're looking to break your wrist,

Kirby Sneed, gross name. Sounds like a sneeze. Yeah, that's that. Jake, you like them or you just like them more than the Nats? Here's why I like them. And Jim, you mentioned it, and I think it's where I can bring you in a little bit. They have some pitching depth. Like Cole Irvin, Paul Blackburn, and James Caprilli,

and are guys who have made MLB starts are going to give you an effort. And then, like you said, well, Fujianami, again, we're waiting for Trezful scouting report. And Chinsky, I just have no idea what you're going to get there. but J.P. Sears pitched a little bit last year in the MLB level, and I don't know what he is. But they also got Kyle Mueller in that Braves trade. Waldichuk is a top, he's now a top 100 prospect. He's going to pitch this year.

He was a fast climber in the minors. Like they have guys, they have young guys. They're obviously not all going to click. But pitching-wise, I think they're going to be able to give guys opportunity in a couple are. Like I think the Oakland A's are sneaky going to be able to pitch a little bit. And we see this even from bad Oakland A's teams between the foul territory and what they can tap into. I also like some of the defense. So I think these Oakland A's, I think they're going to have a couple weeks where the pitching and defense overcomes what is a bad offense.

And you're right, I'll give you the scouting port on Fuji right now. At one point in Japan, he was like a Udarvish, like a Shohay. like he was dominating like that. He's had a few injuries and he's kind of later in the career. He was actually posted. But what's interesting is it's only a one year deal. Yeah.

And he's been in a post and come over. He's been sent down to the minors all of the last four seasons in the middle of like he's been up bouncing up and down. I'd love to see what he can do over here. See if he's going to bring that splitter over here. You know, it's, you kind of never know what what you're going to get

when guys come over. from different leagues. And I'm excited to see him. I think, yeah, if you're sliding this guy in, he's not going to throw 200 innings for you. That's just not the kind of pitcher he is. You know, you're looking to, you know, put him in the back of the rotation.

You know, I don't know if he's going to be a five-and-dive type guy. We're going to see. But I think that he has some swing and miss stuff. And when you have a splitter like that, you just don't see that too often in the big league. So that could be a good weapon for him over here. I do like splitters. His control is a bit not there.

Yes. Yes. I mean, I know we're doing baseball team. stuff, but the big storyline here is the team, not the, not the game, but the team and the city. Manfred has come out and said this is a crucial year for the future of baseball in Oakland. He wants them to go to Las Vegas. There's a decision to be made next January if they're going to stay or go. Oakland got a federal grant of like 200-something million. They could have put towards the stadium and they chose not to.

Fisher said he would build a stadium himself. and the city is not like making it easy. Vegas is saying we are in, we were just waiting on Oakland to come. And last year they were the only team with less than, average less than 10,000 fans per game. Because Oakland has kind of stopped really trying to get fans there and promoting and pushing it because of that.

And they're literally a team that's playing, fans were showing up in spite of the ownership. It's like Major League. Their goal is to prove, no one's coming to games and baseball in Oakland's dead and we need to be in Vegas. And that's why they are just fielding the cheapest team possible, albeit smartly. Like they have some good players. They've made some moves where you're like, damn, I wish some other teams pick these guys up that are like trying to actually like really, really compete.

They could be like the Guardians where they win and and ruffle some feathers. But the big real storyline is this could be the last year of the Oakland A's. a once very, very proud franchise with a lot of nice banners. So this is essentially the script to Major League. That's what we're going through in 2023 with the Oaklandais. Yeah. Except they're not signing prisoners and, you know,

Jake Taylor from the Mexican League. But they just picked up a Japanese guy who was in the minors in Japan last year. $40 million payroll. That's $100 million less than the league average. Obviously, our boy, Steve, is getting that average up and Sider down in San Diego. But yeah, look, Jake, you got to explain to us why you're so high on this team. I guess you said the pitching and they can toss it a little bit.

I don't know where the offense is going to go. Last year, we had them down at the bottoms, an average, worst team in the big leagues. On base percentage, OPS, worst team in the big leagues. Runs, though, runs 29th in the big leagues. Let's go. Yeah, I guess here's my thing. they're going to be able to pitch enough certain days. I don't know who it is, but they have, like I said, a couple of MLB guys that have now done

it for a couple years. If any of them can take a baby step up, that'd be nice. There's a ton of young guys that they're going to get opportunities. And like you mentioned, with Fuji, our guy, you know, he doesn't seem like an every fifth day guy. A lot of the guys when they come from oversee aren't, which just played into my theory that, you know, especially the Oakland A's ride in the bus and sending guys down. you might see like a almost a rolling six man or something like that.

And again, I think they're going to be able to tap into something there. I don't know who or what yet, but I think they will. And then I guess the other thing that's fun for me is... Wait, this is really like the indie, they got the guy from the KBO too. Yeah. They're just like getting guys from random places. Oh, yeah. I mean, Asturi Ruiz, go check out that guy's minor league stats.

He's an electric factory. And that's the other thing that I guess is typically. me over on this is that at catcher shortstop and center field a little up the middle hey how are you they got the kids they got lane joliers nick allen me and nick allen we wouldn't be able to get into a nightclub we both look 17 estuary ruiz he's projected for 34 swipes this year like at the fun positions for me they've got some kids out there they're going to be able to pitch and i think i think that pitching in defense with a couple of the vets up top I think they're going to run into like a couple winning weeks that you're like,

all right, the A's are pests again. And that's, and, you know, if this is the script for Major League, you bring in one or two other guys and they're probably competing for the West. We just need to send them a cardboard cutout of the owner.

In the movie. In the movie, they're competing for the West. Okay. Did you say, because it was your fun fact last year, weren't there more cats in attendance than humans? At times, yeah.

Yeah. Certain games. You can't blame. That's not a joke. There was a game. Fans for this at all. No, I'm not. I love Oakland A's fans.

They're the ones that are really diehard fans that throughout. I don't like Oakland fans that defend the Coliseum because they're just crazy. It's an awful place. But it's a good environment. It's pretty bad. No, it's a, I mean, it'd be like you just never been to another stadium. That's what I always ask us to have you been to another one.

Yeah. But the fans that show up are dieharts. Draft Kings hasn't 60 and a half. I'm over under. On three, you ready? I don't know if I'm ready, Trev. Yeah, I don't know. Let me look at the prospects a little bit.

Jim's Louise Medina might get a look this year. What does that put him at? 101 and a half losses? Everyone plays everyone this year, huh? Everyone plays everyone down. Because usually we like to go see, like, oh, who are they playing from the National League? what teams do they get? Oh, they get the East.

That's tough. But now everyone plays everyone. That's cool. And who's getting traded from them this year? It'll be Trevor May at the deadline. Yeah, that's always a good thing we have to look at with them. I mean, Jace Peterson can be moved. Irvin, Caprillion, Blackburn, one of them, maybe.

Name all of them. Fujimmy. Everyone. That's what the open is have done. They have no, there's only two. There's only two players with guaranteed money. Luriano maybe this year. camp like that has to be the least right they have two players guaranteed contracts for 2024

Diaz and peterson two did we mention that billy bean is finally out of there and he's doing soccer now you're big on that I am big on that it's very interesting to me like transitioning I guess he was very passionate about soccer and uh decided to leave I mean other people caught on on base percentage so he was had to yeah Find something new. And yeah, in a final touch of irony, they were last and on-base percentage last year, and the projected on-base percentages this year

do not look pretty in Oakland. Was Moneyball successful on three? One, two, three. No. Oh, yeah. Me neither. Although, you know, he signed me, so what's up? Pitching is successful.

Good pitching in MVP short style. That's true. They've somehow left that out of the movie. to how do they come to how do they fall 60 wins or 60 and a half 60 and a half so they got to get 61 I mean I think I'd take they won 60 they won 60 last year the rangers should be better the angels are the angels Houston is Houston and Seattle Seattle

that's true Jake what you just said Seattle is Seattle thank you yeah Stephen Vaux is a coach with Mariners that's a huge loss yeah yeah He knows all the secrets, too, the Coliseum. Is one. That's going to be a major loss if they lose the team, and then vote, too. Scott, he's gone. I think I'm taking the over, just because that's so low.

I'll go under. I think, yeah. How many 50 team wins do we have last year? Just won, right? There can't be two teams that don't break 60. I think there could be. This division. And I was over on the nationals, too.

National is the only team last year to not break. They didn't get to 60 and they were 5 under. There's only one team that didn't break 60 last year. Nationals. That's real low. Because you don't, this is one of the teams like intentionally like tanking, tanking. Yeah.

God. I'm going over. 61 wins. Rev? And Oakland was taking last year. They were punishing the lottery. Dropped four spots. Billy Bean's gone.

Everyone knows he was the reason for their success, so he's out. I'm kidding, people. I'm kidding. Don't clip that. Joking about that. You know what? I'll go over. I think, God, that division got even better.

Less games against them. Nice spin, Jim. Over 62 wins. In 2021, two teams had under 60 wins. So, all right. There you go. That's the A's. Tell us what we missed.

Kyle Mueller, you upset. We didn't talk about him. He mentioned it a little bit. He'll get a chance. He's top prospects in that trade. He'll get a chance. Pache was bad last year. Come back.

They kind of gave up on them. Mystery. Yeah. The defensive outfield. A sturdy Paschay and Ramon. Thank you.