Scouting the A's Rotation

Since 2005, Billy Beane, and his Oakland Athletics have been auctioning off their best pitchers each season. They’ve attempted to stay young, competitive, and fiscally responsible while playing in the monstrosity that is The Coliseum.

So, with the new season, and the Athletics’ starting rotation a bigger question mark than ever, I figured I’d take a look and see what they’re working with now. I’ll start with their two highest rated prospects, both of which were drafted out of high school, Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson.

Trevor Cahill, 21, has already been compared with Brandon Webb. Cahill deals the same type of plus sinker that Webb does, an upper-80s 2-seamer that can produce tons of groundball outs. Trevor also uses a 90 mph 4-seamer that he tries to spot early in counts to get ahead. After the fastballs, which he’ll throw the majority of the time, Trevor deals a very soft changeup and two different breaking balls. His slider gets some sweeping action, while the curve looks like a plus pitch, getting good drop at just a few mph slower than the slider.

Unfortunately, Cahill has struggled mightily with his command at the big league level, issuing 15 walks in 20 innings so far. The A’s like to use the excuse that his stuff moves so much, he’s prone to bouts of wildness. However, all this crazy movement hasn’t produced many missed bats, as he’s notched only 7 strikeouts.

Trevor’s knuckle-curve, described as an “out-pitch” by A’s director of player personnel Billy Owens, has been non-existent. I’ve see him use the pitch only a handful of times, and Cahill didn’t throw one breaking ball in his last outing on 4/24.

If Cahill can improve his command and mix his pitches better, he can reach the level expected of him.

Cahill *sinker(84-89), 4-seamer(89-92), changeup(75-78), slider(82-84), curve(77-80)*

Brett Anderson, like Cahill, has made the jump from AA to the majors in 2009. He has shown good command at all levels of the minor leagues and continues to throw strikes in the Bigs.

Anderson uses a good fastball and has the confidence to command it on the inner half of the plate. He’ll then attack hitters with a sharp slurve that he can back-ankle RHs with, or sweep away from LHs. His changeup is fairly standard, but is thrown with the same plus control. Anderson mixes in a slow 12-6 curveball as his fourth pitch, usually in the first pitch of an at-bat.

Because Anderson’s stuff is not dominating he’s been banged around a bit in the major leagues, allowing 4 homeruns in 18.1 innings, while only striking out 9. Anderson seems to know what he’s doing on the mound, which will give him a good chance of succeeding. However, any loss of velocity would spell his doom.

Anderson *fastball(87-93), slider(79-85), changeup(79-84), curve(73-77)*

Of the remaining three starters, only lefthander Josh Outman has impressed me. He throws hard, dealing a fastball in the low-mid 90s. The fastball is fairly straight, but it sets up his sharp slider well. He has shown me a big hook that gets decent 11-5 movement, and a straight changeup. His minor league walk totals are fairly high, which won’t allow him to pitch deep into ballgames, but Outman might be able to make a successful move to the bullpen, where he could be a weapon.

Outman *fastball(90-96), slider(81-84), changeup(81-84), curve(75-77)*

My #4 and #5 in the rotation, Dana Eveland and Dallas Braden, are similar pitchers. They’re both left-handed, they both throw in the mid-upper 80s, they both were drafted out of college, and they both have strange first names that start with ‘D’.

I guess the similarities end there though, since Eveland relies heavily on a good slider to get outs, while Braden relies on his soft changeup.

Eveland *fastball(87-90), slider(80-84), changeup(82-84), curve(75-78)*

Braden *fastball(85-91), changeup(71-76), slider(76-83), curve(73-74)*

Unless one or two of these guys steps up bigger than I expect, this rotation isn’t going to be posting very many innings. This will put the A’s bullpen under a ton of stress, making it difficult to compete for the division.

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