Countdown to Opening Day - 25: Can the A's make the playoffs for the 4th consecutive season?
In this 30-day series, theScore's MLB editors preview the 2015 season with an in-depth look at some of the significant numbers - milestones, jersey numbers and general miscellanea - poised to pop up throughout the campaign.
It has been 25 years since the Oakland Athletics last won the World Series in 1989. Gone are the days of Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Dave Stewart, Rickey Henderson, Bob Welch and Dennis Eckersley. But the Moneyball-inspired A's have qualified for the playoffs 10 times since, including the last four seasons. The only problem is they've advanced past the divisional round only three times since the 1989 championship run.
General manager Billy Beane can't seem to get the team over the hump, despite a number of roster overhauls over the past few seasons. The A's appeared poised for a deep October run last season after Beane moved all his chips in by acquiring left-hander Jon Lester at the trade deadline. The move backfired as the offense sputtered without Yoenis Cespedes, who went the other way to Boston in the deal, in the middle of the order. Oakland lost its grasp on the American League West title, backing into a wild-card showdown with the Kansas City Royals, who overcame a late 7-3 deficit to prevail in 12 innings.
Beane has once again blown the roster up this winter in an attempt to meet payroll, and controversially traded away his team's best two power sources - Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss. Oddsmakers have pegged Oakland's season win total at 81 - exactly .500 - predicting the A's will remain competitive but are unlikely to make the playoffs.
Here's a projection of the A's Opening Day lineup:
| Order | Pos | Player |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CF | Coco Crisp |
| 2 | 2B | Ben Zobrist |
| 3 | RF | Josh Reddick |
| 4 | DH | Billy Butler |
| 5 | 1B | Ike Davis |
| 6 | 3B | Brett Lawrie |
| 7 | CF | Stephen Vogt |
| 8 | SS | Marcus Semien |
| 9 | LF | Sam Fuld |
| Rotation | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sonny Gray |
| 2 | Scott Kazmir |
| 3 | Jesse Hahn |
| 4 | Drew Pomeranz |
| 5 | Kendall Graveman/Jesse Chavez |
| CL | Sean Doolittle/Tyler Clippard |
The A's are hoping to get a boost from the returns of right-handers A.J. Griffin and Jarrod Parker, who are both coming back from Tommy John surgeries and expected to rejoin the rotation in June.
Beane's controversial team-building methods are always under the microscope, but 2015 may be his greatest challenge yet.