[NYY #23]

With the Philadelphia Athletics I'll be taking control of my sixth team, but will only be going to my third city, as this is my second stop in Philly, after two in Boston and two in St. Louis.

According to the OSA the Athletics have weaknesses at catcher, center field, the rotation, and bullpen. We also have slight weaknesses at shortstop, left field, and right field.

The Athletics haven't come closer than 16 games out of first place since 1922, and haven't won the AL since 1915, when they made their only playoff appearance and won their only World Series. The Athletics have an all-time winning percentage of .482.

A couple of bad things that I've noticed, my leader in both home runs and RBI, Clarence Kraft, is 38 years old. Joe Coleman, 34, and Jim Gardner, 36, make up half my rotation.

And a couple of good things - C Josh Willingham, LF Kal Daniels, 2B Bernie Allen, and SP Red Lucas all finished the year on the disabled list, but represent significant upgrades.

In the amateur draft we went with the following:

SP - Erik Bedard
3B - Chone Figgins
SS - Milt Bolling
1B - Mike Jacobs
MR - Lance Painter
C - Jack Coveney

The A's have an extra second round pick for failing to sign last year's pick. I really wanted to take Curtis Granderson with the first pick, but it would have been a reach. He slipped to 14th going to the Detroit Tigers, and 9 of the top 10 picks were starting pitchers in this pitching heavy draft. I do feel like we had a good draft though, getting four players who I'm happy with.

James Shields won the AL Pitcher of the Year, going 19-4 with a 2.36 ERA and Tom Seaver won the NL Pitcher of the Year, going 24-12 with a 3.43 ERA.

After my Red Sox experience I don't expect a lot of moves during the offseason, and we'll see how things play out.