Oakland may have surprised a few people last season by being more competitive than was expected, but they should not sneak up on anyone this year. Is the young pitching shaping up into a potential competitive window again? That’s where most of the focus is drawn to, but the rest of Oakland’s roster could wear teams down in unexpected ways. The lineup has pop, the gloves can catch and the bullpen has been bolstered. In short, Oakland lost little talent this winter and padded their depth in needed areas. Will it be enough?

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For those of you in the Phoenix area this weekend, I wanted to remind you about the event we’re holding on Saturday evening. It will take place beginning at 6:30 pm with a Q&A with Rick Hahn (Chicago White Sox Assistant GM), Tony Blengino (Seattle Mariners Assistant GM), and Joe Bohringer (Arizona Diamondbacks Professional Scout). A large quantity of writers from FanGraphs, RotoGraphs, and NotGraphs will all be around as well, and we’ll be hanging out for several hours talking baseball and whatever it is that Carson thinks Joe West will be doing next. Jonah Keri will also have copies of his book on hand and will be shamelessly shilling for it all night long. It’s going to be a fun time.

This event is free to attend, though the room is limited space wise, and we suggest you arrive a bit early to make sure you get a seat. It will be held at the Hotel Highland At Biltmore in north Phoenix. We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday night.

News out of the Red Sox camp (h/t Neyer) is that the Red Sox might finally part ways with Tim Wakefield. The season is still is ways off, so there is time for injuries to come up and Wakefield find a way into the rotation. But if this is the end of the line for Wakefield with the Red Sox — only seven wins shy of 200 and 13 away from the franchise record — it would be too bad. For one thing, last year was a rare one when two knuckleballers got a substantial number of innings: Wakefield and R.A. Dickey.

Looking at the two pitchers’ numbers I was struck by their very different ground-ball rates, 55% for Dickey versus just 37% for Wakefield. My main frame of reference for a knuckleballer has been Tim Wakefield, so l always assumed that there was something about the knuckleball which led to lots of fly balls. But with Dickey’s high ground-ball rate maybe it is just Wakefield’s knuckleball.
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Tracy Ringolsby had covered many teams since entering the game in 1976. He most recently covered the Colorado Rockies for the Rocky Mountain News, but when it was shut down just before the 2009 season, Ringolsby kicked into overdrive. He helped co-found a Rockies website, picked up a TV gig with FSN Rocky Mountain, and wrote anywhere they would print him. A J.G. Taylor Spink Award recipient, Ringolsby also had a hand in the founding of Baseball America, and has been outspoken in the past regarding the movement towards statistical analysis at the expense of scouting, particularly around the book Moneyball. Ringolsby, who says he scored in the 99th percentile in math in high school and that he does understand stats, also understands the vitriol of the statistical community towards him. When we finished up, he asked for a heads-up when this would go to print so he could “prepare for the hate mail.” Many portions of the text were edited for brevity.
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“Brendan Donnelly is hanging up his goggles,” to borrow Tim Dierkes’ memorable phrase. The old man of Anaheim had an amazing career, pitching 10 seasons in the minors before ever getting a shot at the majors, debuting on the World Champion 2002 Angels, and pitching a total of nine seasons in The Show, including an All-Star appearance in 2003.

We don’t talk a lot about pitcher wins here, but his record is remarkable: in his career as a reliever, he went 32-10, and his .762 winning percentage is second of all time among pitchers with at least 40 decisions. He’s the eighth-winningest pitcher ever born in Washington, DC, and he’s one of only seven All-Star pitchers ever to debut after turning 30 in the minor leagues.*
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The Twins currently have a problem that every team envies: they have more starters than rotation spots. This type of thing usually takes care of itself. Sometimes one of those guys gets hurt. Other times someone performs well below expectations. But however it shakes out, every team in the league would love to have the problem of six starters for five spots. The Twins have that now, and they have Kyle Gibson knocking on the door. They might deal with this via trade. We’ve heard the Francisco Liriano rumors, but those have quieted. Lately we’ve been hearing more about Kevin Slowey.

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Every year, it seems like the Tigers are too old and need to rebuild. Yet every year, they refuse to do so. Why should they? Why not go for it in a weak division when they still have the horses to do so in credible fashion? While the piper will eventually have to be paid for some of the less-than-optimal contracts signed during this past off-season, for now, the Tigers are certainly in the hunt for the 2011 American League Central.

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The acquisitions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez highlighted an offseason that has most pundits now calling the Boston Red Sox the best team in baseball. But are we being too optimistic about a team that was projected by many experts to win the AL East last year, only to finish third and out of the playoffs? Let’s take a look.

Projected Starting Lineup
1 CF Jacoby Ellsbury*
2 2B Dustin Pedroia
3 LF Carl Crawford*
4 1B Adrian Gonzalez*
5 3B Kevin Youkilis
6 DH David Ortiz*
7 RF J.D. Drew*
8 C Jarrod Saltalamacchia**
9 SS Marco Scutaro

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With some nice pieces in place for the future, the Indians enter the season with the league’s youngest 40-man roster. Even though someone predicted that the Indians would win the AL Central last year, they didn’t come close to that benchmark and just missed the AL Central cellar. Going into 2011, they will need to improve both their hitting (75 runs scored below the league average) and pitching (36 runs allowed above the league average) without many additions to the team

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After a coming in 6 games out of first place last year, the White Sox decided that they needed to add some power to their lineup and signed Adam Dunn to a 4 year, $56 million contract. Besides bringing in Dunn and a few changes in the bullpen, the 2010 and 2011 White Sox won’t be that much different in their personnel.

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