pincus@calma.UUCP (Jon Pincus) (03/13/86)
[this line is not an official at-bat] Since Oakland has been getting a lot of press this winter for the rumored drug connections, and not much else, I just thought I'd point out to the rest of the net that the A's have a shot at the AL West. Oh, sure, they need a few things to go right, but that's what spring training is all about: what'll happen assumin things work out? First of all, Andujar should add stability to the staff -- stability, that is, in terms of having somebody who'll go out and give you a good start (almost) every time out, and account for a lot of innings over the year. The rest of the A's staff is pretty young and/or inexperienced, and maybe this'll take some of the pressure off of them. There are a lot of good possibilities there, though: Chris Codiroli, Tim Birtsas, Jose Rijo as starters (with McCatty making another unsuccessful attempt to come back), Jay Howell and Steve Ontiveros in the bullpen (not the former 3rd baseman Steve Ontiveros). There's also the usual crowd of spring question marks, but these guys have all shown a lot of promise. At the bat, the real questions are whether Jose Canseco is ready yet, how Kingman will do, just how good Mike Davis is (streak hitter, don't you know), and how much playing time Dusty Baker will get. Canseco looked ready last September, and I think he'll be a great player, but it's always hard to say if a guy's still a year away (remember, he started last year in Double-A). Kingman, well, who can say? And I seem to recall Mike Davis leading the league in a few categories for some of last year; ok, he's not that good, but will he come up with a little more consistency? Of course, you could say these things about any team in the league, but I just figured SOMEBODY should say it about the A's . . . Jon Pincus ucbvax!calma!pincus