Early Grades for the Oakland Athletics' Offseason Acquisitions
The Oakland A's brought in 11 new notable faces with the hope that they could continue the playoff streak. Some have contributed successfully, others have already been sent down.
The lineup has several new bats. Almost half of the rotation is new. The bullpen features a few newbies as well. It's a new-look team, but is it still a successful team?
Overall, the 8-12 record as of Monday says no.
Over the past few days, specifically the series against the Houston Astros, the team has not looked good at all.
But individually, at least for the first month, a few guys have looked like incredible pickups—Billy Beane specials.
So while there are certainly some failing grades, and the team is below .500, a few players have made the dean's list, or in this case, I suppose, the manager's list.
All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
R.J. Alvarez
1 of 11
A potential closer in the future, R.J. Alvarez came over in the Derek Norris trade and earned a spot in the bullpen out of spring.
In six games this season, Alvarez has been a bit all over the place.
In each, he's pitched one complete inning. And in all but one of those appearances, he's faced exactly four batters.
Alvarez has had outings where he's struck out three while allowing just one hit. Other times, that one hit has been a home run. Realistically, it's nothing unexpected. But his last outing on April 21, in which he surrendered five hits, three walks and seven runs in a 14-1 drubbing by the Angels, did him in, whether it was his fault or manager Bob Melvin's for leaving him in too long.
Ultimately, Alvarez has been average with one major blunder.
Grade: C-
Billy Butler
2 of 11
After the Kansas City Royals let him walk, Billy Butler arrived in Oakland with a few question marks.
Would his talent continue to decline, or could he rebound? How would he fare in his first stint with a new team in a new division? Can he carry the load for the A's lineup?
Primarily used as a designated hitter, Butler has been a gem so far.
In the young season, Butler has a slash line of .325/.381/.506/.887. That's a small sample to compare to the entire 2014 season, but so far he's up in all four categories. By up, I mean way up.
The A's used many guys at the DH spot last season. But let's use John Jaso in April 2014 (23 games) as a comparison.
Butler has a better slash line across the board. He has 11 more hits, two more home runs, eight more RBI and 10 fewer strikeouts. Not to mention, Butler had a 12-game hit streak and reached base safely in the first 17 games of the season, and 19 of 20 games total.
Grade: A
Mark Canha
3 of 11
Many expected Mark Canha to be a backup player or the less-used half of a platoon in left field. But he took advantage of early opportunities to impress his way into the lineup more frequently.
In his first eight games, Canha hit .324 with three doubles, one home run, seven RBI and one walk to six strikeouts. Since then? He's hit .148 with four walks to 11 strikeouts and nothing else. A recent, bad error also stands out on the defensive side.
To come out as hot as he did and now strike out as much as he has, it just looks like major league pitching has figured him out already.
There's still time to adjust, but Canha seems to have evened out. He gets one tiny brownie point for being an exciting young player who clearly plays with passion.
Grade: C+
.png?w=256)
Tyler Clippard
4 of 11
Tyler Clippard was supposed to take on a Luke Gregerson-like role in the bullpen, but with an injury to Sean Doolittle, Clippard's had to take on a larger burden.
On paper, one save and one blown save in eight games isn't great.
Realistically, his first seven appearances were strong. Clippard has allowed very few hits and only one earned run in that sample. Slightly concerning is the fact that he walked five runners and struck out only four. But for now that doesn't count too badly against him.
His last appearance was the worst.
In a four-out save, he blew it, allowing two earned runs late that sealed a loss. Still, it's the only blemish.
Grade: B+
Ike Davis
5 of 11
I didn't compare R.J. Alvarez or Tyler Clippard to anyone because there are multiple players in a bullpen. I didn't compare Mark Canha to anyone because he's a part-time player and the guy he "replaced" is still on the team (Coco Crisp).
Ike Davis will be graded not only just on how he's fared, but how he stacks up to Brandon Moss, the player he replaced.
Comparing Davis to his 2014 version, it's difficult to compare 19 games to 143. In terms of home runs, RBI and walks, the results are fairly similar. But his .345 batting average and .409 on-base percentage are much higher.
Davis may not have the slugging percentage Moss has. He may not have the home runs (he's hit only one). But he's reaching base safely much more often while striking out less than half as much as Moss.
Say Davis' name to an A's fan and defensive wizardry may come to mind.
The new first baseman has made a number of dazzling plays, enough to already earn some Gold Glove consideration.
Grade: A
Kendall Graveman
6 of 11
What happened to spring training Kendall Graveman?
His first official start with the A's was disappointing. He lasted 3.1 innings, hit two batters, struck out one, walked one, allowed two home runs and eight runs, seven earned.
His next performance was much better.
Graveman went 5.1 innings, giving up no runs on four hits. He did walk four and hit one batter, though.
Three runs in three innings knocked him out of the third game. Six runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings pitched in the fourth appearance ultimately ended this major league stint.
Now he's back in the minors.
Grade: D-
Jesse Hahn
7 of 11
Graveman's counterpart, Jesse Hahn, started out a bit shaky but has only gotten better since.
He went six innings, allowing three runs, in his first start. He also struck out three and walked none. His second start surrendered only one earned run, but four total. In his third start, Hahn allowed no runs and only walked one in 5.1 innings.
Unfortunately, Hahn missed a start last week due to a blister. Hopefully it doesn't mess with the roll he seemed to be on.
Grade: B
Brett Lawrie
8 of 11
The biggest trade of the A's offseason included a swap of Josh Donaldson for Brett Lawrie.
Lawrie brings youth and plenty of energy, but the team lost an All-Star with power in his bat and magic in his glove. Lawrie naturally had huge shoes to fill. The question is, how close can he come to fully replacing Donaldson?
Let's look at the two side by side.
Donaldson has scored three times as much as Lawrie. He also has four home runs and 14 RBI to Lawrie's one home run and seven RBI. Donaldson has walked five times and struck out 15 times. Lawrie has walked just twice and struck out 25 times.
Offensively, it's not close.
Defensively, though, Lawrie holds his own. Donaldson has made two errors to Lawrie's one. But more memorable than errors, Lawrie has flashed the leather several times already and shown off a cannon from across the diamond.
Then there's a certain Kansas City slide, that, depending on whom you ask, counts against him as reckless or counts for him as a high-energy baseball play.
Lastly, he's healthy still, which is always a good thing.
All in all, he earns high grades for defense and low grades for offense, but the offense, specifically the strike outs, is of great concern.
Grade: C-
Cody Ross
9 of 11
The A's took a flyer on Cody Ross to fill in for injuries to Coco Crisp and Josh Reddick.
So far, he's done next to nothing in eight games.
With two hits and three RBI, Ross' on-base percentage is still only .208. Throw in some pretty bad fielding, and the Ross experiment may be over soon.
Grade: F
Marcus Semien
10 of 11
Marcus Semien is in his first full season as a starting shortstop, taking over for Jed Lowrie.
The great news is that without comparing him to Lowrie, Semien is holding his own against major league pitching, which is a fantastic sign for things to come. So far, he's popped three home runs and driven in 12 runs.
Furthermore, he's hit well with runners in scoring position. His one high-leverage situation that seems to be the Achilles' heel is with runners in scoring position and two outs.
He's a B-plus player to this point, so let's compare him to Lowrie.
Semien's .309 on-base percentage is OK, but Lowrie is blowing him away with a .414 OBP. Lowrie is striking out less, but Semien has the better RBI tally. Take away the series against Oakland and Lowrie's numbers likely decrease quite a bit. So it may be closer than it appears.
Things look positive for Semien.
He's hitting well with a new team in a new division in his first year as a starter, and he's comparable to the guy he replaced, with seemingly better defense, too.
Grade: B+
Ben Zobrist
11 of 11
We can do several comparisons to come up with Ben Zobrist's grade. First, we can compare him to his own career line. We can also compare him to Eric Sogard, who took over second base after Zobrist was sidelined with an injury. Said another way, let's see how his replacement is doing.
Lastly, we can compare what Sogard did last year versus Zobrist this year to see if it's an upgrade.
It's early, but so far Zobrist's slash line is below his career slash line in all four areas. So right there, it's a bit concerning (but don't fret yet).
Compared to what Sogard did in the first 14 games of 2014, Zobrist is clearly an upgrade, with a better walk-to-strikeout ratio, higher batting average, higher on-base percentage and more RBI. In fact, looking at Sogard's 2014 stat line versus Zobrist's first 14 games of 2015, Zobrist has one-third of Sogard's RBI total already.
But it is 2015, and we're grading 2015. So how has Zobrist done compared straight up with Sogard this year?
Zobrist: .240 BA, .304 OBP, .400 SLG, .704 OPS, 1 HR, 8 RBI
Sogard: .264 BA, .291 OBP, .340 SLG, .631 OPS, 0 HR, 4 RBI
Sogard wins in batting average, but that's about it.
Elsewhere, Zobrist has more production and value, has walked more and struck out less. As expected, he's the better player this year and is an upgrade over last year. But he's not quite reaching his own potential yet, and now he's injured.
Grade: B
Agree? Disagree? Tell me how you'd grade each player on Twitter (@nick_houser).
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
