Oakland Athletics Thread: Where We Want Pie (2-2)

[MightyMouse07]

I look for the A's to do like they seem to always do. Play bad until end of MAy then catch fire and go to the playoffs or challenge for a playoff spot.

I like that Piazza has been doing well during this spring and hope it continues into the regular season.

I also think we should start Barton at first this year to see what we got in him.

Any thoughts?
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R.I.P. Nikolas and Brian you will truly be missed.

“Anytime I step out there I give everything I got, on every single play.” - Ray Lewis

[MightyMouse07]

No A's fans again this year? Lame.
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R.I.P. Nikolas and Brian you will truly be missed.

“Anytime I step out there I give everything I got, on every single play.” - Ray Lewis

[SanFran49ers]

Im a Giants fan first, but I like the A's. Im not one of those guys who absolutely hates the cross town rivals so I will post in here from time to time.

Im really excited about Harden. I think this is the year he finishes the season with 30 starts and 200 K's (I said the same thing last year ). Im really pulling for him to do well because I think he can be a legitimate Cy Young candidate.

As for Barton starting at first, Im not sure hes quite ready. I would rather see him start the year in Sacramento and come up when/if Johnson struggles. I think Johnson needs at least a few weeks to redeem himself from last year. If he cant, I think Barton needs to come up. Barton has a nice future ahead of him, he reminds me a lot of Lyle Overbay.

A lot of people are predicting a down year for the A's this year after losing Zito and what not, but I actually think they could be better. They played all of last without Harden and if hes healthy, hes better than Zito. Plus Haren and Blanton and a hopefully healthy Loaiza forms a solid rotiation. Piazza and Stewart were nice additions and should have an impact and the improvement of Swisher in the middle of the lineup is critical. Should be a fun year!

[MightyMouse07]

Well I'm glad just to have someone else on here be able to talk about the A's its been a lonely few years.

Windsor will be our 5th starter this year. It seems like Kennedy wasn't able to take rela control and grab a spot in the starting rotation like many thought.

I think the most important thing with this team is keeping our best players healthy. Like Crosby and Harden. If those two can stay healthy our team always seems to play better especially on offense, with Crosby.
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R.I.P. Nikolas and Brian you will truly be missed.

“Anytime I step out there I give everything I got, on every single play.” - Ray Lewis

[SanFran49ers]

I like Windsor. I think hes the best option for the 5th starter spot. Kennedy is better out of the pen in my opinion.

Crosby's health is imperative this year. If he cant get it together and show some signs of the player he was when he was a rookie, I think its time for the A's to look elsewhere for a shortstop of the future.

[MightyMouse07]

[BaltimoreTerp]

I'm an Orioles fan at heart, but I'd say Oakland is my '2nd team.'

I really hope this is finally the year Harden explodes. I've been waiting for it for a couple of years now. I had him pinned as my Cy Young this time last year. With Zito gone, he's going to need to have a big year for the A's to have a shot at the division. Loiaza is going to be key too, he's going to need to pitch like he did in the 2nd half of the year last year. Blanton and Harden could be a heck of a 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation.

Obviously Mike Piazza needs to play as well as he has this spring. He needs to be Oakland's Frank Thomas this year. If he's not, Oakland simply won't score runs. They've got a lot of solid bats, but no big run-producer.

As for Tejada, I completely agree that the A's were stupid to let him go, though I'm an Orioles fan, so I don't mind that much. I don't understand why the A's said that Tejada was out of their price range, but then turn around 3 months after Tejada signs with the Orioles and sign Eric Chavez to a deal worth only $1 million less per year [6 years, $66 million for Chavez, 6 year, $72 million for Miggy]. I love Chavez, but you'll be hard pressed to find a baseball fan that would rather have Chavez than Tejada.
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"The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”

[RAIDER523]

Well I used to be an A's fan during the late eighties when the had that great run but after the world series got cancelled from the players strike it just really turned me off until 98' when Mcgwire had his home run year. In fact when I was really young my dad would get really good seats from his work behind home plate during the early seventies but I didn't really realize what I was watching I just thought the A's won the world series every year back then was normal .Anyways I would like to get more up to date with the team this year so I'll pop in from time to time. Really excited about the new stadium plans I can't think of a more deserving sport franchise that deserves a new ballpark than the A's.Especially after it got ruined with Mt. Davis ugh .
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[MightyMouse07]

Well we got our first win tonight as Harden looks great again with 7 Ks and O ER in 7 innings tonight. Terrific stuff from him.

Buck is playing for us and has not really been able to hit the ball too well but he has gotten on base with some walks.

The usual suspects have seemed to carry us offensively so far: Ellis, Crosby, Bradley, and Swisher.
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R.I.P. Nikolas and Brian you will truly be missed.

“Anytime I step out there I give everything I got, on every single play.” - Ray Lewis

[MightyMouse07]

Welcome Mike Piazza to the team. Man hopefully he can keep this up for us and be our big Hurt for this year.
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R.I.P. Nikolas and Brian you will truly be missed.

“Anytime I step out there I give everything I got, on every single play.” - Ray Lewis

[The-Beast]

[MightyMouse07]

[as11osu]

Poor soon to be Fremont A's....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTvSUCCqPo&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprofile%2Emyspace%2Ecom%2Findex%2Ecfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser%2Eviewprofile%26friendid%3D146917987%26MyToken%3Da595c0e8%2Df506%2D4f9a%2Dbde
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[MightyMouse07]

The Oakland A's thread is back baby.

And just like I said last year I want Barton. He should finally be starting but he has already got hurt. It hasn't been said how serious.
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R.I.P. Nikolas and Brian you will truly be missed.

“Anytime I step out there I give everything I got, on every single play.” - Ray Lewis

[SanFran49ers]