Oakland Athletics
Established: 1901
Other Names:
Philadelphia Athletics (1901-1954)
Kansas City Athletics (1955-1967)
2016 results: 69-93,
5th in AL West
2017 Prediction: 5th
World Series Titles: 9
Most Recent: 1989
Last World Series
Appearance: 1990
Last Division Title: 2013
Ballpark: Oakland-Alameda
County Coliseum
Est: 1968
Best Season: 1989
Connie Mack’s Philadelphia
Athletics won 100+ games five times and won five World Series. But the
franchise never saw a team as powerful as the 1988-89-90 edition that bashed
its way to three A.L. Pennants and the World Series Championship in 1989. While
the ’89 team was the only time in those three seasons the team failed to reach
100 wins (99) they performed better in the postseason and blew away their
opposition in both the ALCS (Toronto) and World Series (San Francisco). The
team was led by a starting pitching staff that included Dave Stewart (21 wins),
Mike Moore (19), Storm Davis (19) and Bob Welch (17). They also had closer
Dennis Eckersley (33 saves and a 1.56 ERA). Offensively, the team was led by
The Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, and also included Rickey
Henderson, Dave Parker and Carney Lansford.
Best All-time Player:
Rickey Henderson
The greatest base-stealer of all
time; of that there can be no argument. Henderson tops the all-time thefts list
with 1406 bags swiped, 468 more than Lou Brock who is second on the list.
Rickey played 25 season in the Majors, 14 of them with the Athletics. While
with Oakland, Henderson played in 1704 games, scored 1270 runs, had 1768 hits,
167 home runs, 648 RBIs and 867 of his stolen bases. He set the all-time single
season stolen base record in 1982 when he swiped 130 of them. He was an All-Star
six times while with the A’s, won a Gold Glove in 1981 and was the American
League’s MVP in 1990. In 1989, he helped lead Oakland to the World Series
Championship. In the ALCS against Toronto, he batted .400 with eight stolen
bases in five games, winning the series MVP award. In the World Series against
the Giants, he hit .474 and stole three more bases in the four-game sweep. He
was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.
Best Player on the
Current Roster: Khris Davis
After playing the first three
seasons of his career with Milwaukee, Davis joined the A’s for the 2016 season
and had his breakout season. Although the batting average was rather low
(.247), he swatted 42 home runs and had 102 RBIs. In his four big league
seasons, Davis has already hit 102 home runs and is one of the lone bright
spots for an A’s team that seems to be going nowhere but the basement.
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