Loaded With Young Talent, A’s Look to Take a Step Up

Having gone to the Oakland A’s only last July in a trade with the Angels, Randy Velarde isn’t exactly a team historian.

He is a veteran of 11 American League seasons, however, and has a feel for what the A’s went through before posting their first winning record since 1992 last year.

“If you polled the players in those springs, I’m sure they would have said that finishing anywhere above last place would make it a successful season,” he said.

“Now the bar has been raised. Now the mind-set is that it will be a disappointing year if we don’t win the division.”

The A’s are the American League’s team of the future, and maybe that future is now.

Heck, they almost saw the future last year when General Manager Billy Beane aggressively supplemented the league’s best young talent with some key additions at the July trade deadline and the A’s went 44-31 in the second half, chased a wild-card berth into late September and finished at 87-75, a 13-game improvement over 1998.

“Last year was a steppingstone,” veteran outfielder Matt Stairs said. “We’re confident now we can play with anybody. We’re just not going to be intimidated.”

This is a team that has reclaimed some of the muscle and swagger of Bash Brothers Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire.

Jason Giambi, John Jaha and Stairs all hit 30 or more homers and drove in 100 or more runs last year when the A’s produced a rare blend of power and patience while finishing second in the majors in home runs and first in walks.

They also have a burgeoning farm system--the A’s were baseball’s organization of the year in 1998 and ‘99--and a group of young players, among them first baseman Giambi, shortstop Miguel Tejeda, third baseman Eric Chavez, left fielder Ben Grieve, center fielder Ryan Christenson and pitcher Tim Hudson, who have already had an impact and figure to keep improving.

“As well as we played last year, we’re still a work in progress,” Beane said. “I think we have great things to look forward to. Last year was just a snapshot.”

Last season was accomplished with a $23-million payroll as the A’s--and the Cincinnati Reds in the National League--showed what can happen with good management in a small market. Beane brought in veterans Tony Phillips, Tim Raines and Jaha to temper his young team with experience at the start of the 1999 season, then dealt for Velarde and Omar Olivares in the July trade with the Angels and Kevin Appier in another with the Kansas City Royals.

The payroll will jump to $33 million this year because Beane was determined to “preserve what we created.” He picked up Appier’s option, re-signed free agents Velarde, Olivares and Jaha, and signed former Angel reliever Mike Magnante.

“I didn’t want to sign back just to sign back,” second baseman Velarde said. “But once I saw them re-sign Jaha and Omar, I knew they were serious about taking the next step.”

Oakland fans were slow to respond last year. The A’s drew only 1.4 million and there is lingering concern about the market’s viability. Baseball rejected the club’s sale to an Oakland group last summer, ostensibly because of concern over the market’s long-term survival, but also because the bargain price of $120 million did little to enhance the value of other franchises.

“We definitely have to operate as a business, but there is a misconception about the owners’ commitment,” Beane said. “The organization is as stable as any in baseball, and the club is not for sale.”

Owners Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann have recognized the young team’s potential and given their 37-year-old general manager the resources when needed.

The A’s will start the new season as a co-favorite in the West with the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. In a division dogfight, the Angels appear to be the only real dog.

That’s not to say the A’s are without questions.

They will need repeat seasons from the tender Appier and previously inconsistent Olivares, to cite two of the biggest.

And they will need Jason Isringhausen, who was also acquired on the night of the trade deadline and whose physical problems kept interfering with his touted potential as a New York Met, to prove his eight saves in eight chances as the A’s new closer were no fluke.

“We ended the season with a short and simple wish list,” said Giambi, a clubhouse leader at 29. “It was, ‘Give us the same ballclub back and let us play a full year with it.’ Now we have that opportunity and believe we know what to do with it.”

WISH LIST II

Although subsequent speculation regarding the trade of Angel center fielder Jim Edmonds has centered on the Mariners and New York Yankees, the A’s were probably the closest to acquiring Edmonds during December negotiations that collapsed when Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman insisted on at least three of the A’s top prospects.

Beane won’t talk about Edmonds because of tampering restrictions, but sources familiar with his thinking say that despite solid springs by center fielders Christenson and Terrence Long, he still would like to land the enigmatic Edmonds and believes the free-spirited chemistry of the A’s clubhouse would work wonders for him.

“We rag on everybody, from the general manager down,” Giambi said. “I think there are times that even [Manager] Art Howe is afraid to leave his office to see what’s going on in the clubhouse.”

The likelihood of an A’s deal for Edmonds, however, is not strong. Oakland has put outfield prospect Mario Encarnacion, a Stoneman favorite, in the untouchable category and probably would limit an offer for Edmonds to Ron Mahay, a candidate for the fifth spot in their rotation, and Jesus Colome, a flame-thrower who has not pitched above Class A.

WHO’S ON FIRST?

Research by several statistical services has failed to turn up another perfect game in the spring, as six Boston Red Sox pitchers performed against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. Almost as rare was Thursday’s three-way trade involving three first basemen: Texas acquired David Segui from Toronto and sent Lee Stevens to the Montreal Expos, which in turn sent Brad Fullmer to Toronto.

A breakdown:

* The Rangers, having already lost a ton of offense in the departures of Juan Gonzalez, Todd Zeile and Tom Goodwin, believe the switch-hitting Segui will supply more contact in the No. 5 spot in the batting order than the strikeout-prone Stevens. That’s a priority, because two young players, Ruben Mateo and Gabe Kapler, are apt to strike out 100 times each.

Segui will serve primarily as the designated hitter, providing first-base insurance if Rafael Palmeiro’s knees act up. The Rangers received $825,000 from Toronto to make up the difference between Segui’s $4.3-million salary and Stevens’ $3.5 million.

* The Blue Jays, committed to Carlos Delgado at first base and looking to free up money in pursuit of late spring pitching help, saw Segui as expendable. Fullmer, a defensive liability, gives them a classic designated hitter. Said Manager Jim Fregosi: “He’s a young guy who was probably meant to be an American League player.”

Even considering the $825,000 they are sending Texas, the Blue Jays save about $3 million in the deal, which, as General Manager Gord Ash said, “allows us to be a participant rather than a spectator” in the hunt for pitching.

* The Expos get lineup protection for Vladimir Guerrero, and Stevens is a better all-around player than Fullmer, who admitted, “My bat is my meal ticket.”

The Expos are adding more than $3 million in the deal, another indication that new owner Jeffrey Loria, a renowned art dealer, will try to see if baseball can survive in Montreal with a more expensive canvas.

ON SECOND THOUGHT

Toronto pitcher David Wells initially reacted to the team’s off-season moves--highlighted by the Raul Mondesi-for-Shawn Green trade with the Dodgers and the loss of pitcher Pat Hentgen--by saying they were pure dumb, that the Blue Jays would have to pray for a miracle and that Mondesi was “nothing special.”

Now?

“I said a lot of critical things, but, now that I’ve looked at these guys, I think we’re pretty good,” Wells said in Florida last week.