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It was pretty well known around here last season that I was not a fan of A's righthander Trevor Cahill. That wasn't so much because I didn't think the former top prospect had great potential. It was more due to the fact that Cahill wasn't performing well and had completely ditched his best pitch, a big curveball. Cahill throws five pitches: a four-seamer in the low-90's, a two-seamer around 90 with unbelievable ...

Good Choice, A's. Haha, yeah, pun intended... I'm certainly not the first to use wordplay after the Oakland Athletics' selection of UT-Arlington outfielder Michael Choice with the tenth pick of the first round of the 2010 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Just 20 years old, the college star will, if signed, bring one of the most potent college bats around to the A's system. A true slugger with arguably the best power in the entire ...

One of my pet peeves with baseball analysis is when commentators discuss a team that just missed the playoffs and attribute their missing out on losing games in September. Games count just as much now as they do in September, though. Win more now, and you can afford to lose more down the stretch. The A's face a three-game set with a tough Tampa Bay team before going on the road for ...

With Opening Day now behind us, rosters for the season are now set. The A's finalized their 25-man roster two days ago. I didn't agree with everything they did, but overall, they did a strong job of picking the best players. What follows are five reactions I had to specific moves. Happy baseball season! Let's enjoy the game!Begin Slideshow

I'm concluding my look at the four AL West bullpens with Texas. Inside are analyses of 13 relievers (there's a lot of competition for relief slots): Frank Francisco Neftali Feliz Darren O'Day Darren Oliver C.J. Wilson Chris Ray Ben Snyder Dustin Nippert Brandon McCarthy Geoff Geary Warner Madrigal Willie Eyre Clay RapadaBegin Slideshow

I've already taken a look at the strong bullpens of Seattle and Oakland. The Angels' bullpen is less set than either the Mariners' or the Athletics', however. Candidates I'll be analyzing include: Brian Fuentes Fernando Rodney Scot Shields Kevin Jepsen Jason Bulger Brian Stokes Matt Palmer Rafael Rodriguez Fernando Rodriguez Francisco Rodriguez Rich ThompsonBegin Slideshow

I've already analyzed each AL West team's rotation. Now it's time to move on to bullpens. First up is the Seattle Mariners. Rather than mess with who is actually going to make the team, I'll just look at everyone who has a legitimate chance: six righties and four lefties. In general, the back of the bullpen, and all six righties, is very solid. The lefties in the bullpen are far more questionable.Begin Slideshow

If you missed my individual team rotation breakdowns, go ahead and check out the Rangers , Angels , A's , and Mariners reports. I'm going to keep my summary here pretty brief, but here's a few comments/things I have noticed. The A's have the most balanced rotation in the division. While I identified major issues in Texas (Colby Lewis) and Seattle (Ian Snell) and a minor problem in LA (Joe Saunders), ...

My last article looked at the Oakland Athletics' rotation. I gave their group a B+overall. Finally, the last team in my tour of the AL West rotations is the Seattle Mariners. At the end of this article, I'll compare the Mariners to the A's, Angels, and Rangers, and see who has the best rotation. I'll be posting a wrap-up article to this series hopefully later today, analyzing strengths and weaknesses of each rotation ...

Anytime the Oakland A's deficiencies are brought up, the first thing that tends to come up is "They need a shortstop." Why? Cliff Pennington hit .279/.342/.418 last year. Shortstops as a whole hit .271/.328/.393. He ranked 12th among shortstops in OBP and OPS. That places him in average to above-average starter territory, and Pennington is only 25. His UZR last season wasn't incredible (-7.3 UZR/150), but that knocks him only from a bit above ...