Oakland’s Young Guns
By Blake VandeBunte • May 15th, 2009 • Category: 2009 Season, Oakland AthleticsThe Oakland A’s are young. Many teams each year are defined as “young” but the Athletics pitching rotation is beyond comparison. The constantly budget-strapped A’s had a young rotation 10 years ago when they featured the likes of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito. Those guys were all younger than 25. It’s back to the drawing board for Billy Beane and the A’s in 2009 and they are going young.
Here’s Oakland’s current pitching rotation (the guys facing the Tigers are in bold).
- Brett Anderson 21
- Dallas Braden 25
- Trevor Cahill 21
- Josh Outman 24
- Sean Gallagher 23
As you might expect, things have been a bit rough so far in 2009. Braden has been a bright spot with his 2.79 ERA but most of the other fellas have had their struggles.
Anderson will start tonight against Edwin Jackson. He’s 0-3 this season with an ERA of 5.79. He strikes out only one batter every two innings and opponents are hitting nearly .300 against him. The lefties last start was against the Angels and he lasted 4.2 innings, giving up 9 hits and 5 earned runs. Also, the Tigers tend to beat up on left-handed pitching.
Going on Saturday will be Braden. Braden is the most experienced of the bunch and is considered the staff ace, at least for now. He is also left-handed and in each of his last two starts he’s given up three runs over six innings. Braden has been up and down between the A’s and the minors since 2007 and has made four starts against the Tigers. He has a 1-1 record against Detroit but his ERA is 8.68. Magglio Ordonez has taken him deep twice in only seven at bats while Placido Polanco is hitting .455 off of him.
Finally on Sunday we’ll see 21-year-old Trevor Cahill. Cahill is right-handed and is one of Oakland’s top prospects. He’s 2-2 with a 3.69 ERA this season. While those numbers look nice enough, his other stats say dark times could be ahead if he doesn’t get some stuff figured out. He boasts a WHIP of 1.51 and has walked more men that he has struck out. So, in a not so nice way, he’s getting lucky.
The Athletics have always been one of my favorite teams and I hope they get their season turned around…starting on Monday.
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Anderson might start tonight. It’s kinda confusing. Last I heard, it was Anderson Friday, Braden Saturday, a slight reshuffle I believe. But everywhere I look this afternoon, it says Jackson vs. Braden. I don’t know what to believe. I guess we’ll see who warms up before the game!
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