2003 SEASON PREVIEW

The 2002 Oakland Athletics season ended in disappointment. The A's were beaten by the Boston Red Sox 4-2 in the ALCS. In the series the Red Sox exposed two weaknesses in the Athletics. The first weakness was a lack of a second reliable right handed starter behind Tim Hudson. Jeff Andrews was too old and Justin Miller was too young. The second was the lack of a consistent right handed hitter. Miguel Tejada and Brook Fordyce each add power, but both are only .250 or so hitters.

With that in mind the A's made a huge offseason trade. Oakland acquired Jermaine Dye and Jeff Suppan from the Royals for Corey Lidle, Jose Ortiz, Jeremy Giambi, Luis Visciano, and two other high level minor leaguers. With the move Eric Byrnes and Adam Piatt figure to be more prominent in the 2003 line up. Justin Miller will take over the 4th spot in the rotation vacated by Lidle. Jeff Andrews will return to take the 5th spot. Andrews, who will turn 40 this season, needs just 7 wins to hit the 300 mark for his career.

The driving force behind the Athletics will once again be pitching. Barry Zito and Mark Mulder both developed into frontline starters last season. When the two of them thrown in with Tim Hudson, the cornerstone of the staff, the A's may have the best 1-2-3 starting combo in baseball. Miller and Andrews should be fine in the 4 and 5 spots respectively. The bullpen should be solid again. Jim Mecir is one of the top closers in the game. Tom Gordon and Mark Guthrie should be effective setup men. Jeff Suppan will take the long relief role.

The addition of Jermaine Dye should make the A's offense much more dynamic. The extra right hand power should help protect Jason Giambi more. Giambi, who is coming off a down 2002 campaign, should see more quality pitches to hit. Eric Byrnes will get every opportunity to prove he can play everyday. He will add some much needed speed to the offensive attack. The A's are hoping this is the year Adam Piatt displays the power and consistency that made him a triple crown hitter in the minors. Miguel Tejada was resigned in the offseason and should add 20-30 home runs.

2003 SEASON REPORT-1ST HALF

As the 2003 season got underway there was a lot of attention paid to the Oakland Athletics' bats. The A's made some big offseason changes to their lineup and team officials were hoping it they would pay immediate dividends. However, this would not come to pass as there were many broken pieces in the A's attack. There was a gaping hole in the number 2 spot in the lineup. Oakland tried several players in the spot such as Mark Ellis, Eric Byrnes, and Terrance Long, but none filled the spot with any continuous success. Jason Giambi continued to be missing his MVP level bat despite the protection of newcomer Jermaine Dye. Dye was solid, but hardly the quick fix the A's had hoped for. Third base became a platoon of Eric Chavez and Adam Piatt as both players struggled to keep their averages above .200. At least Chavez was adding some occasional power. As a result, the A's would struggle to gain any consistency early on. After a 2-6 start, Oakland wound start pull themselves back to .500 early, but found themselves 3 games off the pace of the Angels and Mariners at the end of April with a 13-12 record.

Luckily for the A's, the teams pitching was right where it was supposed to be for the most part. Barry Zito and Mark Mulder were practically unhittable, though surprisingly Tim Hudson was rather inconsistent as his ERA was well above 4. Justin Miller showed why the A's were so high on him and Jeff Andrews remained consistent even this late in his career. Jason Isringhausen struggled, but the rest of the bullpen was solid. The pitching staff would be the strength behind a seven game winning streak in the beginning of May. The streak would put Oakland right back in the mix for the AL West. But when the streak ended, so did the Athletic's consistency and they slipped back into a .500 pace for the next month.

Early in the summer things started really coming together for the Athletics. It started out with Jason Giambi finally finding the groove that made him an MVP candidate two seasons ago. Adam Piatt, Eric Chavez, and Brook Fordyce also began to find their swing. Oakland's pitching and revitalized offense would gel just in time for a mid to late june stretch of 18 games against divisional opponents. Oakland would win sets against Seattle, Texas, and Anaheim, taking 14 of the 18 games including a three game sweep of the Angels. This success catapolted the A's into first place for the first time of the season. Barry Zito would continue the A's hot streak by pitching a No-hitter against Boston on July 2. The Athletics would take a 4 game lead into the All Star break.

2003 SEASON REPORT-2ND HALF

Things continued to go well for the A's after the break. Oakland would go on a 14-4 run heading into the trade deadline. This stretch of games would include two great pitching performances. On July 18, Mark Mulder would take a No-hitter into the 8th inning against Colorado. Todd Walker would break it up, but Mulder would finish with a 1-hit shut out. On July 21 Jeff Andrews would give up just 1 run over 8 innings as Oakland beat the Tigers 13-1. The win would give Andrews 300 for his career. 

With the team looking like a true contender, GM Billy Beane would pull off a trade to help strengthen the team for the stretch run and into the playoffs. The Pittsburgh Pirates earlier had acquired Jacque Jones from the Twins. With that, the Pirates had a glut of outfielders and were looking for pitching. The Athletics would trade Jeff Suppan, who was having a solid season with a 3.23 ERA, along with a top tier minor league prospect and a player to be named for centerfielder Adrian Brown. The switch hitting Brown was enjoying a solid season, hitting .290 with 5 homers at the time of the trade. With Brown inserted into the middle of the lineup the A's offense took off. Adam Piatt was freed up from outfield and DH duties. This allowed the A's to experiment with putting Eric Chavez at second base. Though Chavez struggled at times in the field, he had more range than Mark Ellis and a much bigger bat. Piatt took over at third base full time. Eric Byrnes also found his stride when he was able to platoon with Terrance Long in the 2 hole. The A's took control of the division and expanded their lead to 14 games by September.

With the division under control, the A's made four call-ups from the minors when the rosters expanded; Second baseman Ricky Bell, relief pitcher Chad Harville, starting pitcher Chad Bradford, and Third baseman Josh Hochgesang. Harville had bounced between AAA and the majors for the past two seasons, but the Jeff Suppan trade cleared a permanent space for him. Harville has a blazing fastball and solid slider, but is still harnessing his control. Bradford made 3 appearances, including a start in the final game of the season. Hochgesang got into seven games, only hitting .221 but with 2 homeruns. Bell played 16 games at the major league level, hitting .268 with 2 homeruns, 7 rbis, and 6 runs scored. Bells solid play could not have come at a better time for the A's, because with three weeks left in the season Eric Chavez severly sprained his ankle and would not be able to return until at least the American League championship.

Oakland would wrap up the season with a 101-61 record to win the AL West again. Mark Mulder led the pitching staff, going 19-3 with a 2.87 era. Barry Zito finished with a 2.93 era, but only an 11-11 record. Closer Jim Mecir would save 40 out of 45 chances. Offensively Jermaine Dye was everything Oakland had hoped for when they traded for him. Dye hit .283 with 25 homeruns and 94 rbis. Jason Giambi had a great second half of the season, raising his season totals to .278, 22 homers and 72 rbis. Probably more impressive was his 121 walks and 93 runs scored. Adam Piatt also had a strong second half, hitting .272, 17 homers and 69 rbis for the season.

Oakland would play the New York Yankees in round one of the playoffs. The Angels would squeeze into the wildcard slot and play the Twins. In the National League, the Mets would win the East and take on the wildcard St Louis Cardinals. The West champion Colorado Rockies would face the Reds, who won the Central.



AL MVP-Alex Rodriquez, Texas Rangers (.324, 47 HR, 128 RBI)
AL Cy Young-Pedro Martinez, Boston Red Sox (20-6, 2.03 ERA)
AL Rookie of the Year-Joe Borchard, Chicago White Sox (.303, 27 HR, 100 RBI)
AL Rolaid Relief Pitcher-Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees (3-2, 47 S, 2.16 ERA)

NL MVP-Ken Griffey Jr, Cincinatti Reds (.295, 47 HR, 117 RBI)
NL Cy Young-Jon Rauch, Pittsburgh Pirates (18-9, 2.25 ERA)
NL Rookie of the Year-Ken Simon, Arizona Diamondbacks (.286, 42 HR, 92 RBI)
NL Rolaid Relief Pitcher-Danny Graves, Cincinatti Reds (3-3, 51 S, 1.90 ERA)

FINAL SEASON STANDINGS

FINAL SEASON STATISTICS

FINAL SEASON SCORES