[thehatfield]

NOTE: The board isn't allowing the name of our new center fielder. His last name sounds exactly like "sheeta."

Spring Training 2021

Spring training came and went in the blink of an eye.

All of our winter dealings and rebuilding seemed to be in vain as the young Athletics posted a disappointing 10-14 record. The ownership group brought me in to tell me that they were worried with the amount of money I had spent on new players and new salaries. I had, somewhat, completely ignored the concept of fiscal responsibility during the off-season and it left us was a projected loss of nearly $14 million for the upcoming season. It was told to me in no uncertain terms that that was unacceptable. If the financial situation didn’t somehow improve and if the team wasn’t looking like challenging for a playoff spot by the end of July I would have to dump salary. I thought that if we were able to get off to a good start and keep it up into the early summer we’d probably be able to recoup much of my poor budgeting in increased ticket and merchandise sales so I wasn’t too worried about this just yet.

But there was plenty to worry about. After seeing the “new A’s” in action the local media basically had joined together as a chorus singing one refrain: we might have the talent to be a good young team but at the same time we were one key injury away from being a very bad young team.

The performance of the “Big 4” during Spring Training hadn’t convinced anyone that our fortunes were about to turn around. Our MVP free agent signing Teodor Revelez may have hit .356 with a .516 OBP in 45 at-bats but he didn’t have a single home run and only knocked in a handful when pitched to in those situations. The 29-year old’s 16 walks led the team but he was brought in for his power and production and opposing teams found it much easier to pitch around Revelez and go after Dome Guevaro instead. 31-year old Dome hit .283 with a .377 OBP and .472 slugging in 53 at-bats behind Revelez in the order, impressing no one with his bat. Third baseman Guevaro, unlike Revelez, did however show that he was probably above the league average in terms of fielding his position as Revelez lost more than a couple of balls down in the left field corner. Just four RBI and one home run wasn’t exactly scaring opposing pitchers and his performance prompted me to ask manager Jeff Hance to think about Guevaro’s position in the batting order for our Spring Training wrap-up meeting.

On the pitching side of the “Big 4,” 25-year old Rowley Dickson went 0-3 with a 6.10 ERA in 20 and two-thirds Spring Training innings. The young man who supposedly has pinpoint control walked 12 in his four starts and, perhaps more alarmingly, opposing batters hit .311 off of him. I spoke with him after his last Spring Training start and he said he was feeling fine and that everything would be there for the start of the regular season. He also said it was just taking him a little longer than usual to get into his regular season form because he had a late start on his off-season workouts. I had to take his word for it and privately I started to wonder about the reliability of Head Scout Gaspar Zelaga’s information. 34-year old fireballing lefty J.D. Knisley went 1-2 in five starts, posting a 3.52 ERA and striking out 19 while walking 10 in 23 innings. Perhaps because of his veteran know-how he had the best spring of the “Big 4” by far but the bats just couldn’t produce enough runs for him during his starts.

During Spring Training I received calls from the Colorado Rockies, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Cincinnati Reds all asking what it would take to capture our 25-year old catching prospect Aaron Rice. Once again I started to question our Head Scout as we hadn’t even extended Rice an invite to Spring Training this year and yet he was highly sought after by clubs in need of a catcher. Of all of the offers, Atlanta’s was the most intriguing. Even though both Bertram Holsinger and Vic Dunn were having fairly solid springs at the time, the Braves offered us 22-year old center fielder Tomiichi “Mumbles” Yama****a for a package of players including Rice, 19-year old pitching prospect Buck Foulke, and another low minor league pitcher. Gaspar Zelaga thinks Foulke and Rice both have long Major League careers ahead of them but at this point who knows what his opinion is really worth. I thought we were giving away a lot for the speedy Yama****a, a Paterson, New Jersey native, but in addition to him being a perfect leadoff hitter he was stellar in the field. This deal would help us compensate for Revelez in left and give us two above average defensive outfielders, right fielder Travis Byers being the other. I asked Atlanta if they’d take Anastasio Aviles along with Foulke and Rice instead of the other prospect and they were still on board.

The arrival of Yama****a meant Vic Dunn would have to go back to AAA Sacramento at the end of the spring. He hit .296 but both he and Holsinger are lefties with about equal defensive skill and Holsinger had the better spring with two homers, 10 RBI and a .300 average.

Elsewhere within the organization 23-year old catcher Thomas Goodloe wasn’t really given the playing time we thought he’d get this spring, losing out on the chance to stay up because Tanyon Meagher proved himself to be more reliable defensively. 24-year old Cornelius McInally hit .313 in 48 at-bats and seemed to do enough to secure the starting catcher’s job going into the regular season.

21-year old first baseman Andres Ceno led the club with 68 Spring Training at-bats but only hit .221 with an on-base percentage of .250, not good enough to stay up with the big club. Jose Arce had a dreadful spring often hitting in the #5 hole for the A’s. His .205 batting average and .273 slugging were far from what we expect to get out of the starting first baseman spot. Arce is an average fielder, he probably won’t make the outstanding play at first but he’ll be pretty sure-handed. The normally outspoken player didn’t have any explanations or excuses for his poor performances, instead deciding to install a “no talk to the media” policy for Spring Training. Privately he was also at a loss; we were going to have to keep an eye on him early in the season to make sure his slumping doesn’t turn into a team-wide distraction. Victor Corliss is outstanding in the field at first and we asked him to stay on to be the defensive replacement and part-time bench player for us.

At second base Ken O’Bryant got off to a slow start and turned it on over the last two weeks of the spring, ending up with a homer and nine RBI and a .358 OBP in 45 at-bats. Prospect Artie Page played himself off of the Athletics by hitting .237 with a .275 OBP in 38 at-bats. We had enough cover to spell O’Bryant with some of the versatile players at the other infield positions and Page maybe just needed some more seasoning with Sacramento before being able to be a reliable Major League contributor.

I already mentioned Guevaro at third but the Page demotion meant that 28-year old Jim MacFall would be staying up with the big club. MacFall hit .293 and posted a .356 on-base percentage and can also play second base.

At short John Tardif was another victim of not enough at-bats and was sent back down to the minors. 28-year old contact hitter Edgard Galdames was surely the starter here all along but we were happy with the strong performances of 30-year old backup Reydel Vazquez.

There was controversy in left field all spring long. With leading wage-earner Teodor Revelez trying to force his way into the hearts and minds of Athletics fans, their 22-year old home-grown hero Pasqual Feliu found himself on a bus back to the minors after a spring in which he hit .305 and slugged .538 in 40 at-bats. The controversy was in that we decided to keep 27-year old Javier Raymundo up with the club despite Raymundo’s .143 batting average and .135 on-base percentage. I’m big enough to admit that this move might be mistake and we’ll be taking a close look at how both Raymundo and Feliu perform over the first month of the season to see if a change will need to be made. Carlyle Chamberlain didn’t get enough at-bats for a quality evaluation and was sent back down to the minors.

I wrote about center field above so right field belonged to former Oriole Travis Byers. Byers hit .260 during the spring and has some pop in his bat; he may well become the #5 hitter during the regular season if we decide to switch the lineup around. 27-year old Ian Talbot only had 10 at-bats so was sent back down for further evaluation. On his way out he stopped me and said at this point in his career he was appreciative just to be given the chance to go through a big league spring training. I told him with his attitude to just keep his head down and work hard and he’d be back up with us in no time.

So, with Spring Training behind us we’d be opening the season with a 3-game series at home against Seattle. Jeff Hance informed the media that J.D. Knisley would be the Opening Day starter. Hance, his Bench Coach, Herb Watson and I all came to a unanimous agreement about the Opening Day lineup:

1. Yama****a CF
2. Galdames SS
3. Byers RF
4. Revelez LF
5. Guevaro 3B
6. O’Bryant 2B
7. Arce 1B
8. Meagher DH
9. McInally C

This is what we were going to start with. I also floated the idea of moving Revelez up to the third spot in the order and bumping Guevaro up to fourth and dropping Byers to fifth. Hance took it under advisement and said we’d give it a try at some point soon. We’d have to try a couple of different lineups to see if we could find a combination that clicked and for now we were going to stick with the same lineup against both lefty and righty starting pitchers to see if we can spot internal strengths and weaknesses.

Before we get to the start of the regular season we’ll have to clue you in to the other teams in the division. We’ll also check in with some of the media and their analysis of the players that made the final cut for 2021.