Giambi Returns Hope and Excitement To Oakland

In the early part of the decade each new season for A’s was a step of progress, despite seemingly debilitating offseason losses. Jason Giambi, now seven years removed from an Oakland A’s uniform, was the first major piece of an exciting A’s team that continually transformed itself while continuing to make great strides culminating in a run to the ALCS in 2006.

Since then Oakland has slowed, and each successive spring prospects for a playoff run have dwindled. This offseason was a markedly different one, however. Despite all the national media attention on Mark Texiera, the A’s quietly traded for a big time player in OF Matt Holliday, just a year off a season where he led his team to a World Series and earned him serious MVP consideration.

Now Jason Giambi returns after leaving in the prime of his career for the New York Yankees where he was greeted with a shroud of controversy, often devastated by individual and fan disappointment, and eventually relegated to minor role on a team full of stars.

The negativity that followed Giambi out of Oakland provoked by his own words, and the fans’ hard feelings, are all but dead and gone now. Giambi’s return to Oakland will be a triumphant one, not just because of his past heroics as an A, but because, along with Holiday, he will make a huge difference. For a team that last year finished dead last in runs, Giambi infuses 32 HRs and a .500 SP.

Not only can you count on Giambi’s production, which has been fairly steady in his Yankee years, but you shouldn't underestimate the resurgence factor. It’s no secret Oakland has had a knack for reviving declining careers, most recently with future hall-of-famer Frank Thomas; it might even be considered surprising if Giambi’s effectiveness didn’t jump with the A’s.

Lastly Oakland provides a haven for Giambi that he really didn't know in New York. The pressure of the New York media is no longer a burden and he won’t be overshadowed by anyone either, even considering Holliday’s presence.

The A’s, whose surprising first half show the talent of an up and coming team, provide a perfect synthesis of comfort, familiarity and opportunity that Giambi needs to produce to his potential; and similarly Giambi offers Oakland star power and Money Ball-offensive production that is the missing link to generate excitement, attention, and the substantial talent that might equate into a 2009 playoff push.