Beane’s new crop: Young pitchers brighten A’s future

21-year old Brett Anderson is just one of many young, talented pitchers the Oakland Athletics possess. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

The Oakland Athletics current General Manager, the genius Billy Beane, was the team’s advanced scout from 1990-1993, then assumed the position of Assistant General Manager as of 1994. Under the tutelage of Sandy Alderson, with whom he shared the GM’s duties, Beane learned his philosophy–draft well and rely on undervalued players–and adopted it as his own once Alderson retired in 1998.

He was behind the drafting of righthander Tim Hudson in 1997, and wasted no time in his first year at the helm stocking the minor league system with more prime pitching talent, drafting lefthanded pitcher Mark Mulder out of Michigan State with the second overall selection. His pick was a wise one; starting his minor league career in Triple-A, Mulder became the Athletics top prospect and second-ranked in all of baseball and was in the majors to start the 2000 season.

On June 7th, 1999, the day before Tim Hudson struck out eleven San Diego Padres in his five inning debut, and while Mulder was in the midst of his fast track to the major leagues, Beane selected lefthander Barry Zito with the ninth overall pick. Zito, a UC-Santa Barbara product nearly beat him to the majors despite being drafted a year after Mulder, and like Mulder, as well as Hudson before him, he flourished immediately. So, watching his team from his suite, Beane saw his three-draftees, three immediate aces, take the mound every fifth day.

The year 2000 was a magical one. Hudson, after winning 11 games in his rookie season for an 85-win team, paired up with Mulder to form an incredible one-two punch atop the rotation: Hudson won 20 games, to just 6 losses, allowing only 169 hits in 202 innings, and Mulder won 21 games, to 8 losses, while pitching 229 innings. Zito came along midseason and made fourteen starts, winning seven thanks to his awesome repertoire headlined by an electric fastball and a devastating curveball with break never before seen. All in all, Hudson, Mulder, and Zito combined for 48 of the team’s 91 wins.

Hudson pitched four more years with the team, and averaged fifteen wins per season over that span, and managed a stellar 3.32 ERA during his six year tenure in Oakland.

Zito built upon his impressive rookie season, winning 17 games in 2001, then an unbelievable 23 the following year. In each of his final four seasons with the Athletics, he pitched over 200 innings, and, though his losses mounted, won 11 or more games.

Mulder followed up his 21-win season with 19 in 2001, then won 15 and 17 games, respectively in 2003 and 2004. Just like that, entering the 2005 season, Zito was the only one left.

Hudson, who moved on to the Atlanta Braves, hasn’t missed a beat since his departure from Oakland. Mulder left for the St. Louis Cardinals, and, after a 16-win first season, fell off the map. He suffered a variety of arm injuries, and has yet to become a glimmer of his former self; he won six games in 2006 and hasn’t recorded a victory since; the Cardinals released him last October, and he’s still on the free-agent market. Zito signed a seven-year deal worth $126 million with the San Francisco Giants, which has turned out to be a nightmare for the organization; after 13 losses in 2007 and 17 in 2008, he was labeled a bust; the Giants have tried to trade the 31-year old, but no one, rightfully so, wants to take on his contract.

Beane, with his money-poor A’s unable to retain their aces, began to rebuild. In 2004, with Hudson and Mulder in the final year of their contracts, he looked for pitchers to replace them. He found one, Dallas Braden, a left-hander chosen in the ninth round. Braden moved around frequently in the depths of Oakland’s farm system, making four different stops in Single-A. He was going nowhere fast, and wasn’t impressing anyone. Then, he caught his break, starting the 2007 season in Double-A. He made only two starts, pitching well in both before a quick promotion, to the brink of the major leagues. In Triple-A, he started eleven times, compiled a 2-3 record, a 2.95 ERA, and had two complete games and a shutout. This earned him a trip to the big club. It was a disappointing one.

Thrown into the rotation out of the gate, Braden was abysmal, winning once while losing eight to earn a demotion back down. Then, he bounced back, winning five times with the A’s during the last half of 2008. Now comfortable, he has transformed into their ace: he’s won seven games this season and has lost eight, but the loss total is solely because of poor run support, considering he has a 3.45 ERA. He’s 25 years old, and yet to reach his peak.

In 2005, Beane drafted Brett Anderson, then nineteen, and watched him grow. Anderson, a year removed from high-school, strutted his stuff, dominating two levels of Single-A, then Double-A. He made only six starts in Double-A. Beane, the ownership, and his scouts, had seen enough. Anderson didn’t need to take his game to Triple-A. He was ready for the majors.

In 2006, Beane drafted another extremely young pitcher with tremendous upside, Trevor Cahill, an eighteen-year old. Despite his youth, Cahill dominated from the start. With Kane County, their Single-A affiliate, he won 11 games and had a 2.73 ERA. He continued to post sub-3.00 ERA’s, doing so in his final two stops before making the jump from Double-A to the major leagues. He made his debut at 21 years of age, pitching five nerve-wracking innings against the Anaheim Angels in Oakland’s second game of the season. Since, he has made 18 starts, pitching poorly in only four; In thirteen of the fourteen other outings, he’s allowed three runs or less; in four, he’s allowed one run. Yet, despite his consistencies, he has only five wins to his name.

That’s because the offense is horrid. Matt Holiday, a one-year rental after Beane traded three players for him this past offseason, has played well of late, but overall has failed to live up to expectations. Jason Giambi, the once prolific slugger is out of gas at 38-years of age. Orlando Cabrera, like Holiday and Giambi, is in his first season with the team, and like Giambi, his performance is slipping. Nomar Garciaparra, trying to ressurect a once promising, now injury-riddled career, is also in his first season in Oakland, and like others, is only a shadow of his former self.

Still, the pitchers pitch, take the measly run support, and gain experience. Usually, even if teams are rebuilding, they will have a veteran anchoring the pitching staff, to tutor the young ones. This is not the case with Beane, who been anything but normal at the helm. His five-man rotation is made up of five men under 25 years of age; Josh Outman is 21 and has 4 wins and a 3.48 ERA, while Vin Mazzaro, rounding out the rotation, is 22 with unflattering statistics, but those which the A’s can build upon.

With a pitching foundation other teams would die for, Oakland has a bright future. So, even if the offense is only slightly improved (surely Beane can find some young offense to compliment his young pitchers, and I think he will), there is no stopping the Athletics from boasting more 20-game winners, and not only form a Big Three, like Hudson, Mulder, and Zito once were, but a Big Four or Five.