By Jonah Drew

Record: 61-101

In a shocking development, I do not expect the Oakland Athletics to be the very worst team in these predictions at least. The Athletics have been the laughing stock of MLB for a long time now and rightfully so. Owner John Fisher is bar none the worst owner in pro sports, let alone MLB. He is not only astronomically cheap, but he is also widely known as a bad guy. In typical John Fisher fashion, he is selfishly abandoning a passionate baseball fan base, moving the team to Las Vegas in the near future. With that out of the way, lets get into this slightly, emphasis on the slightly, bad team. This team won just a measly 50 games last season, finishing as one of the worst teams in the history of the sport. I want to shine a light on the insult to baseball, better known as the 2023 A’s Pitching Staff. Paul Blackburn was actually fine, posting a sub 4 FIP in 103.2 Innings. throw JP Sears in with Blackburn, Sears made all 32 potential starts, tallying 172 Innings with a 4.54 ERA. The next highest ERA+ in this Rotation last year, 76 by way of Ken Waldichuk. No, names like Alex Wood and Ross Stripling are not sexy, in fact they are anything but. However I expect the Athletics to greatly benefit from not having scheduled losses in their rotation, Wood and Stripling are certainly not great, but at least you have a chance to win on the bump. Joe Boyle is so fun, the stuff is absolutely violent but more often than not, he does not have a clue where it is going. This bullpen is going to be bad, no doubt. As bad as I expect it to be, it will be improved because of one man, Mason Miller. Mason Miller is technically still a prospect and despite innings being scarce to say the least, the potential is off the charts. He is being sent to the bullpen in an effort to help him stay healthy, if his already second to none stuff can tick up, all I can say is watch out. The lineup is very similar to the rotation in that it will benefit from simply having some replacement level players rather than auto outs. There is also some young talent to get excited about. Esteury Ruiz is fun, and a lock to steal 50, doing that with an OBP barely above .300 is downright impressive. Brent Rooker came out of the blue to hit 30 Homeruns, and Shea Langeliers has the ability to give you 25+ bombs behind the plate. Both of these players do have fatal flaws but its fun, and thats all you can ask for with a team in a situation like the A’s. Two players that I really love are Zack Gelof and Ryan Noda. There is a chance Zack Gelof is a legit young star, he came up in a horrible situation as a 23 year old and hit 14 HRs in just 300 PAs in the ultimate pitchers park, making for a 137 OPS+. Ryan Noda is what Nolan Schanuel wishes he was, the former Rule 5 pick is extremely patient and will do anything to walk, even if it means striking out well over 30% of the time. I hope and expect Darnell Hernaiz to be the shortstop on thurday, he is a much better hitter than Nick Allen is and provides equal value with the glove. Tyler Soderstrom has kind of struggled in the last calendar year but that dude rakes and I expect him to show it in Oakland this upcoming year. Look, I get it, its hard to spin the Oakland A’s into a positive as they are currently constructed but there are definitely some positives to take away from this roster. I expect this to be one of the more fun 100 loss seasons from any team in recent memory, at least Oakland fans should get to enjoy a watchable product in their dwindling years.

MVP: Zack Gelof

I truly do believe that if Zack Gelof played for the New York Yankees or the Los Angeles Dodgers the hype would be through the roof and the media would have everyone sold on the Zack Gelof train. This is definitely not the case, playing for the Oakland A’s has the casual baseball fan unfamiliar with Zack Gelof’s existence, and that is a shame. Is Gelof a damn near 140 OPS+ bat like he showed in 69 games last year, maybe, but I would lean no. Now is Gelof a 120 OPS+ bat, now that is something I can fully buy. Gelof’s sweet spot rate of 38.6% shows that he knows how to optimize his angles, an absolute necessity if you want to have an ounce of success in Oakland Coliseum. Gelof is far from a bat only guy though, in fact he is actually a comfortably plus defender and runner. Gelof posted a FRV in the 65th percentile and an OAA in the 81st percentile. Gelof can absolutely fly, posting a sprint speed in the 91st percentile as well as 14 stolen bases in under half of a big league season. Putting up 2.6 bWAR in 69 Games as a rookie no less is beyond impressive and there is no reason he can be in 4-5 win range in 2024.

Cy Young: Joe Boyle

How do I put into words how eratic yet how nasty Joe Boyle is. I’ll put it like this, imagine a righty Blake Snell with his strikeout stuff and control issues, then times both of them by 10, and then you would almost have Joe Boyle. Boyle is a 6’7 monster with some absolutely violent stuff. He threw just 16 big league innings in 2023 but was absolutely dominant, going sub 2. Boyle’s fastball might just be an 70+ grade heater, the pitch sits 98 with some ride, the craziest part about the velocity, his extension makes the ball look like it is coming in at a comical speed. He is mainly a Fastball/Slider pitcher with the latter having a .129 xBAA and 33% whiff rate.If I have not made it clear yet, Joe Boyle has the stuff to be a big league ace, no exaggeration. All of this sounds great, and it is but 7.2 BB/9 in the minor leagues makes for some insane boom or bust potential. The range of outcomes for Boyle is as big as anybody but I am buying the immense upside.

Breakout: Shea Langeliers

Langeliers was a comfortably consensus Top 100 prospect among baseball minds but his 2023 season did not go as I am sure he would have hoped. The fact that he was traded for Matt Olson also unnecessarily heightens his expectations, which simply is not fair to Langeliers. Playing the Catcher position means that your first priority is playing quality defense, and I am honestly not quite sure if he did. Lets start with the good, Shea did a great job shutting down the running game, posting a CS above average of 6, good for the 98th percentile helped by an 86th percentile pop time. On the other hand, he was frankly horrible at everything else, defensive wise, including being the worst blocker in baseball and and just an 8th percentile framer. Langeliers also hits the crap out of the ball. This is represented by the fact that his barrel rate(13.3%) is in the 88th percentile and his average exit velocity(90.6) is in the 73rd percentile. I understand there are some clear holes in his game but he is on a short list of catchers that are capable of hitting 25+ bombs in that park.

ROTY: Mason Miller

Mason Miller has one of the wilder baseball plots I have ever heard. His stuff was pretty average at Gardner-Webb University and fast forward to 2024, he has one of the more diabolical arsenals out there. For whatever reason Miller has been incapable of staying on the mound. In 3 minor league seasons, Miller barely threw 30 innings but that was all the A’s needed to see. They called him up to the big club in 2023 and he did not let them down, who could forget the Bryce Miller vs Mason Miller pitching duel, a battle of outlier fastballs. As is a common theme with his career, Miller only threw 33 Innings in 2023 due to a Shoulder injury. The Athletics made the tough decision to send Miller to the bullpen in what I would assume is a closer role. Miller’s fastball already sat 98 when he was forced to go multiple innings as a starter, I do not want to imagine what his stuff will look like in one inning spurts.

Sources:

Athletics Nation

Baseball Reference

Baseball Savant

Fangraphs

MLB film room