Bay Area Baseball Report 2006
Another season has arrived for Bay Area baseball fans. As usual, it promises to be full of excitement, controversy, and drama. Both the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants figure to be in contention for the World Series this fall.
The two Northern California franchises have vastly different images, however. While the A's feature a young, talented squad, the Giants are a veteran, aging squad that needs to stay healthy to win.
Oakland, which survived a lousy start and narrowly missed out on winning the American League West division, will feature rock solid pitching. Barry Zito, Rich Harden, Danny Haren, Joe Blanton and newcomer Esteban Loaiza figure to be in the starting rotation. Huston Street is already a top closer.
The A's everyday lineup will feature Dodger castoff center fielder Milton Bradley, 3B Eric Chavez, and SS Bobby Crosby.
General manager Billy Beane once again will showcase his "Moneyball" brand of baseball, which emphasizes a statistical approach to the game rather than the traditional scouting methods. Consequently, the A's notably lack fleetness of foot on the bases and on defense, but typically show patience at the plate and good on-base percentages.
Since the A's lack the financial capital to land superstar "five-tool" players, this approach has helped them stay competitive for the past several seasons while developing an array of youthful talent.
San Francisco, meanwhile, while having enjoyed relative success the past several seasons, is still looking for that elusive World Series title by the Bay. The Giants will be led by Barry Bonds, who is on pace to become the all time homerun king with 48 more dingers. Going into the '06 season, he has 708 round-trippers.
Bonds has been busy this spring ducking the fallout from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) scandal on the grounds that his personal trainer supplied him anabolic steroids as well as to a number of players in Major League Baseball. Bonds has repeatedly denied using steroids.
Recently, Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, has been published amid much fanfare. It alleges extensive use of performance-enhancing drugs by Bonds. He sued the authors, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, over use of grand jury documents and attempted to block the authors and publisher from profiting from the documents. A judge, however, denied his request, citing free-speech protections and that the lawsuit is unlikely to win in court.
As far as the on the field action goes, the Giants appear to be headed about as far as Bonds' aging body will carry them. Their 12-games-under-.500 finish is seen by most as an aberration because Bonds missed most of the year due to knee surgery.
Still, the Giants bullpen is downright suspect, the bench is virtually nonexistent, and the team seems held together by duct tape, which might make for a long, gloomy summer in The City. Here are the ages for the majority of the San Francisco lineup: Randy Winn (CF) 31, Omar Vizquel (SS) 38,Pedro Feliz (3B) 30, Bonds (LF) 41, Moises Alou (RF) 39, Ray Durham (2B) 34, Mike Matheny (C) 35. This does not include Steve Finley, 41 and Jose Vizcaino, 38, who both figure to see ample time coming off the bench.
PREDICTIONS
AL West
Oakland
Los Angeles
Texas
Seattle
NL West
San Diego
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Arizona
Colorado
Oakland Athletics
Established 1968*
World Series Winners: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1989
American League Champions: 1988, 1990
San Francisco Giants
Established 1958**
National League Champions: 1962, 1989, 2002
*Philadelphia (1901-54); Kansas City (1955-67)
**New York (1883-57)
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