Opening Day (non-Australian edition) is a mere week and a half away and all will be right with the world again, except the many questions surrounding the Oakland Athletics pitching staff. Oakland took a huge hit this past week when it was announced that projected opening day starter, Jarrod Parker, will miss the entire 2014 season as he is scheduled for Tommy John surgery for the 2nd time in his young career. Couple that with the fact that Scott Kazmir and A.J. Griffin may both start on the disabled list, and the two time defending American League West champs may be in for a bumpy start to the season. They do have some options available to them based on having a ton of depth in the system.
Oakland let Bartolo Colon walk in free agency over the off season and traded last year’s opening day starter, Brett Anderson to the Colorado Rockies. Anderson was often injured last year and was actually pitching out of the bullpen late in the season when he came back so perhaps Oakland wont miss him as much but Losing Colon is huge and may prove to be a fatal decision. Bartolo has transformed himself into a strike throwing, inning eating machine and complied a 3.9 WAR in 2013 while posting career best in ERA 2.65, and FIP 3.2. Like it or not, Colon was the Oakland Athletics best pitcher the past 2 years and now that the injuries are piling up, missing Colon is a huge loss.
All is not lost however, the Athletics have a plan to fill the voids left from Injuries and that plan includes bumping Jesse Chavez and perhaps Drew Pomeranz into the starting rotation, Average baseball fans should remember Drew Pomeranz from the multiple trades he has been involved in, He was part of the Ubaldo Jimenez deal when the Rockies shipped Ubaldo to Cleveland and he was later flipped from Colorado to Oakland for Brett Anderson. Chavez pitched at the big league level last year and has been traded 5 times in his career. Both will be relied upon heavily in the early parts of the season and perhaps in the long term.
Chavez seemed to find his groove last year in Oakland and has looked pretty sharp so far in spring training. Last year he came up and posted a 3.92 ERA alongside a 3.01 FIP. So far in spring training he has a 1.07 ERA over 15 innings pitched. Jesse will strike out nearly 7.5 batters per 9 innings and averages nearly 94 MPH with his fastball.
Most surrounding the Oakland team feel that Jesse will do fine in the rotation if needed but would like to see him return to the pivotal bullpen role he held last year. I think Chavez projects nicely into the Oakland rotation and will more than hold his own for however long he has to fill that starter role. I think with Chavez, he is a case of a pitcher bouncing around until he finds his niche with a certain organization.
Drew Pomeranz has been a different story so far in his young career. He has never really found enough consistency to have an impact at the big league level. In the 136.2 innings pitched at the big level, Drew has struggled while posting a 5.20 ERA alongside a 4.78 FIP. He does strike out 7.5 batters over 9 innings but his nearly 5 walks per 9 innings is something that has to improve very fast if he plans on having success with the Athletics this year. Drew is not going to blow anybody away with his fastball that averages a shade over 91 MPH however the lefty has struck out 14 hitters in just over nine innings and Oakland will be stretching his next few outings out in anticipation of a emergency move to the rotation.
The Oakland Athletics remind me a lot of the Tampa Bay Rays, They can pull and plug pitching that has failed elsewhere into their system and make it work. It is no secret that pitching is what has carried the Athletics the past two years en route to the American League West crown in back to back years but this year their pitching will be tested and tested early. I think it is one of the most intriguing story lines going into this year? Oakland is forced to have Sonny Gray be their opening day starter, which in my opinion is not a bad thing. Chavez and Pomeranz will have to fill the voids left by AJ Griffin and Scott Kazmir until they come back from injuries, but if the past had been any indication , Oakland will be just fine.
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