| | By David Schoenfield
ESPN.com
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Decade in review
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10-year record:
773-781 .497 (16th overall)
Total payroll:
$291.3 million (19th overall)
Division titles
2 (1990, 1992)
.500 or better seasons
Four
Best season: 1990
The A's rolled to a 103-59 record, best in baseball. Rickey Henderson won the MVP award, Bob Welch won 27 games, Dennis Eckersley had 48 saves and a 0.61 ERA. But the season ended in a bitter four-game defeat to the Reds in the World Series.
Worst season: 1993
After going 96-66 in 1992, the aging Oakland dynasty fell apart in 1993 as the club dropped from first place to last place and lost 94 games.
Best trade
The A's have no trades for the decade that stand out. If Jason Isringhausen develops into a closer, picking him up for an aging Billy Taylor may prove to be a good move.
Worst trade
On the other hand, the A's picked up no value for the likes of Walt Weiss, Harold Baines and Todd Stottlemyre. But the worst was the Mark McGwire deal. He was set to be a free agent after the 1997 season, so the A's sent him to the Cardinals for Ps T.J. Mathews, Blake Stein and Eric Ludwick. Only Mathews remains with the club.
Best player
McGwire suffered through some bad years and some injury problems, so the nod goes to Eckersley. Eck won the AL MVP and Cy Young Award in 1992, but 1990 may have been the most dominating year of any relief pitcher in history.
Worst player
In 1990, Todd Van Poppel was considered the best prospect in the nation. The Braves had the top pick, but Van Poppel wanted
a big signing bonus, so Atlanta selected Chipper Jones instead. Good decision. The A's took Van Poppel with the 14th pick. In his career, he's gone 22-37 with a 6.24 ERA.
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1999 in review
Record:
87-75, 10th overall
Payroll:
$25.2 million, 24th overall
Runs scored:
893, 4th in AL
Runs allowed:
846, 6th in AL
What went right
Despite one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, Oakland won 87 games and remained in the wild-card race until the final week. Rookie pitcher Tim Hudson showed flashes of brilliance. Jason Giambi developed into one of the AL's elite hitters. Shortstop Miguel Tejada displayed power and potential.
What went wrong
Jimmy Haynes once again failed to deliver the goods. Eric Chavez, the consensus preseason pick for best AL rookie, didn't produce as expected. Ben Grieve didn't build off his Rookie of the Year campaign.
In retrospect, the critical decisions were:
1. Signing John Jaha. The Brewers finally gave up on him after a string of injuries, but the A's got a bargain deal as Jaha drove in 111 runs.
2. Putting Gil Heredia in the rotation. Heredia has often pitched well, but never received much of a chance because his fastball isn't fast. He went 13-8.
3. Trading for Kevin Appier. Appier didn't pitch particularly well in Oakland, but the A's picked up his option for 2000, a good sign for their playoff hopes.
Looking ahead to 2000
Three key questions
1. Is Tim Hudson for real?
2. Can Jason Isringhausen handle the closer role? If not, who closes?
3. Will John Jaha stay healthy?
Can expect to play better
Eric Chavez finished at .247 with 13 home runs in 115 games. However, he was only 21 years old and hit .275 with decent power after the All-Star break. His future remains extremely bright.
Can expect to play worse
Randy Velarde is a career .277 hitter but hit .317 last season with 200 hits. Those figures will be difficult to repeat.
Projected lineup
CF Rich Becker/Ryan Christenson
2B Randy Velarde
1B Jason Giambi
DH John Jaha
RF Matt Stairs
LF Ben Grieve
SS Miguel Tejada
3B Eric Chavez
C Ramon Hernandez/A.J. Hinch
Rotation/closer
Kevin Appier
Tim Hudson
Gil Heredia
Omar Olivares
Ron Maay/Mark Mulder/Barry Zito
Jason Isringhausen
A closer look
A main reason for Oakland's surprising success in 1999 was a terrific
record at home. The Athletics went 52-29 at home, the best record in the
American League. Only the Braves had a better home mark in the National
League.
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Man on the spot
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| Ben Grieve. Will he turn into a star? Not if he hits .156 versus left-handers again. |
However, Oakland was just 35-46 on the road, a difference of 17 games. Only
two other teams had a home-road split of at least 10 games last season: the
Padres were plus-18 and the Giants were plus-12.
How rare is such a difference? And does it mean anything? We checked all the
teams since 1995 who won at least 10 more games at home than on the road.
There were 28 in those five seasons, including the three from 1999. There
were more good teams than bad on the list: 17 of the 28 had winning records. However, only 10 of the previous 25 teams improved their overall
win-loss record the next season.
So, such a big spread is cause for concern. The Rockies are a good example
of this. In 1995, the Rockies were plus-11 at home and won the NL wild card. The
following year they were plus-27, but their overall winning percentage
decreased. Eventually, the Rockies lost their home-field advantage and
became a sub-.500 franchise because they failed to accurately evaluate the
advantage certain players received from Coors Field.
The Cubs are another team that has enjoyed success at home. In 1996, they
were plus-10 at Wrigley in the win column. In 1997, they were plus-16, but their overall record declined
by eight games. In 1998, they were plus-12 and increased 22 games in the
standings. However, that proved to be an illusion, as the Cubs regressed 23
games in 1999.
The point is, good teams win consistently at home and on the road. If the
A's are to take another step forward in 2000, they will have likely have to eliminate their large home/road split.
What created Oakland's home-field advantage? Mostly, the swing came with
the pitching. The Athletics scored 461 runs at home, third in the AL, while
scoring 432 runs on the road, fifth in the league. However, while the
pitchers fared admirably at home with 395 runs allowed (third), the staff
allowed 451 runs on the road (12th).
So, who gets the "blame"? Kenny Rogers was a main culprit, as he never lost
a start at home during his two seasons in Oakland. Jimmy Haynes was bad at
home (5-5, 5.92) and awful on the road (2-7, 6.78). Relievers T.J. Mathews,
Doug Jones and Tim Worrell also pitched much better at home.
In this regard, it's good news for Oakland. Rogers is gone and Haynes
unlikely to get 24 starts again. With relief pitchers, no one should read
much into one-year splits due to the limited sample size.
More importantly, Tim Hudson and Gil Heredia posted similar numbers at home
and on the road. Hudson had a 3.29 ERA at home, 3.18 on the road. Heredia
was 4.61 at home, 4.94 on the road (most pitchers fare slightly better at
home). With the addition of Kevin Appier for a full season, the A's should
have their best rotation since the Dave Stewart-Bob Welch years.
Combine that with an offense that is young enough to get even better and the
A's should once again be in the playoff chase.
David Schoenfield is the baseball editor at ESPN.com.
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