Fanfest for MLB baseball teams is a way for them to give back to the fans and reintroduce the team before heading off to spring training. In the past that has been just what it was for me, a chance to get to meet the players, get a few autographs, and listen to interviews with the players and staff. In the past few years I’ve attended four fanfest gatherings, three Oakland Athletics and one San Francisco Giants. For the most part I went into those events just excited to see the players and get my baseball fix before the season began, but this year at the A’s fanfest I had something more to be excited about as I attended an event called blogfest.
Blogfest is an event within fanfest where bloggers who sign up ahead of time are given a special credential to sit in on what I compare to a small press conference. I didn’t know much about it when I signed up other than what I read about from people I follow on twitter who attended the event last season. So when I got the email that outlined the event I was excited to be a part of this event.
First up was one of the most important minds behind the A’s, no, not Brad Pitt...I mean Billy Beane, but his Assistant General Manager, David Forst. He stepped in with his young son, got him busy with headphones and a tablet, and thanked us all for coming.
He spoke at length about the Minor leagues and his two most recent number one picks in particular. He said that 2012 first round pick Addison Russell will likely start the season out at AA Midland, and that he was very impressed by him in his first full season in the minors. What impressed him the most was his ability to bounce back.
“To see the way he kind of turned his season around, first year full player, 18 year old kid that tells me as much about Addison as a player as much as anything he did.”
He continued his high praise of Russell by comparing what he has done in the minors to six time gold glover Eric Chavez.
“I wasn’t here when Chavvy was in the minor leagues or (Ben) Grieve at the same time, but everyone says we haven’t had a kid put it all together since Eric was there.”
The team will get a long look at Russell in spring training and that one of Manager Bob Melvin’s objectives will be to get him a lot of reps because there is no telling how soon he’s going to be up with the big league club, he said.
He also spoke about most recent first round draft pick Billy McKinney. He didn’t see him Arizona, but saw him in high school. During the draft they didn’t have a strong idea on who to select because they were picking so far back, but when the pick came around they knew they wanted McKinney.
McKinney came out and hit the way they expected expected, but above what you expect for someone of his age, he said. He continued explaining that McKinney told Director of Player Development Keith Lieppman he expects to follow in Russell’s footsteps and start out this season in Stockton. Forst said he likes that he has those expectations, because you don’t want to put those kind of expectations on a young kid like that.
The talk about Russell and McKinney led to the fact that they were both drafted out of high school and that the book/movie Moneyball stated that Beane and his staff were reluctant to draft kids out of high school.
“Well we didn’t like taking kids out of high school when the information was so limited. Things have evolved over the last ten years. These kids play in so many showcases they play against the best competition in the country. We know so much more performance wise about a high school kid than we did even five years ago, particularly when the book was written.”
Things are still more risky with high school players, he said. There is an extra three years of personal development between college and high school. Any kid, whether they are playing baseball or not, develops a lot between ages 18 and 21. If Russell was only playing kids in a fifty mile radius of his hometown they wouldn’t have felt as comfortable, but he played in California, Texas, and Miami, he said. Billy McKinney played in the same showcases.
He explained that the ability to see the statistics playing against teams out of their area has changed the way they evaluate talent. These statistics have changed the way they look at players so much that they could have changed how they drafted in the past.
“When we didn’t take Mike Trout it was because we thought this is a cold weather kid from the north east, we’re not sure how he stacks up against the rest of the country. If we had stepped back to see that Mike did the same things, and played those circuits, and performed really well, we might have lined up our board differently.”
While some teams see missing out on drafting Trout as a lack of scouting in the North East, the A’s have focused more on keeping an eye on athletes playing on the showcase circuit.
McKinney wasn’t the only highly ranked prospect that the team picked up in the most recent MLB draft, though. With the 131 and 161 pick in the 2013 draft the A’s landed Dylan Covey, a former first round pick out of high school, and Bobby Whal who had a first round grade before injuries.
He said they both fell to a spot where they felt good picking them because they had some marks against them that hurt their draft status. Covey never performed the way scouts expected out of high school, but the stuff was there, and there was an upward trend in college. Wahl they knew had an injury history, but if he was healthy he was a first round talent. If they live up to their full potential both of those guys could be quick movers through the minors because of their college experience he said.
He was then asked about the trades of former first round picks and how he explained that the goal of a first round pick is to get them to the big league club. They never draft someone to create an asset to move.
“It’s a lot more rewarding when Sonny pitches here or ultimately when Addison does get here. That’s what you want out of your first round pick.”
They don’t look for a particular position in the first round, just the best player available. There has been a lot made of the team moving Grant Green and Michael Choice, but they’ve moved a lot of prospects in recent years and these two just happened to be former first rounders. This team makes a lot of moves, and there is always casualities that you do not expect. This offseason former "untouchable" Jemile Weeks was sent packing in a flurry of moves, and Forst touched on those, how they'll help, and all of the moves around the division.
It’s going to be tough, he said, because the money thrown around in this division. The Rangers have been so close for two years and they don’t appear to be willing to make that mistake again, and they went and got two of the best hitters available, in Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo to try and make sure they don’t, he explained.
“We still feel like the makeup of the complete 25 man roster gives us a chance to repeat,” he said. “We feel like from 1-25 we’re just as strong as we were, if not stronger, in the last two years.”
The bullpen is going to be a strength with the additions of Jim Johnson, Luke Gregerson and a full season of Dan Otero, and they have to be something they lean on a lot.
The ultimate goal, though, is to go further in the playoffs, and each of the guys they picked up improves the position from last year. It’s hard to say how they will help in the postseason, he said, but pitching depth always helps, and Nick Punto has been there and knows the guys around the league, so his experience is going to help the team down the stretch, he said. The biggest issue is if they mesh with the team like the team has in the past two years.
With all of these signings and trades the payroll is going to increase and he also touched on that.
“There is no doubt that our payroll is going to be higher this year, probably than ever, certainly in the time I’ve been here,” he said.
He added that this how they were able to go trade for Johnson, knowing there will be a $10 million price tag attached, and sign Scott Kazmir, and even Eric O'Flaherty. Whether it is the TV money of the success of the team, he said, ownership has been very open to increasing payroll, but has this led to questions about the lack of long term contracts and if it was a strategy or just happenstance.
A little of both, he said. “We’ve benefitted a lot from the flexibility over the last few years.” Until the extension of Coco Crisp’s contract, the team didn’t have anyone signed for the 2015 season other than Kazmir and Yoenis Cespedes. They don’t necessarily want to recreate the team every year, because the fans like the players and they like the certainty of the guys they know, but that they’ve given themselves the opportunity to do that has been a huge factor in the team's recent success. They will reward players who they feel help the team, and a key to the team meshing is clubhouse leader Crisp, and because of what he has meant to the team on and off of the field he was recently given an extension.
“To commit to a guy like Coco, obviously we know the guy, we know the player, he’s so important to what we do and it was just an opportunity where we felt like this was the right dollar amount to commit to him beyond the next couple of years.”
With all the contracts handed out this offseason the front office feels like they filled all of the holes they had on the team. They’re never 100% satisfied but they checked off everything they had on the checklist at the end of October, Craig Gentry in particular.
“Gentry was a guy we had our eye on for a long time. He fits in so well with what we’ve done over the last two years here. His ability to play all outfield spots, his running hitting from the right side, so we checked that one off.”
Other than adding Gentry because of how they felt about him there wasn’t anything on offense where they felt they needed to go out and spend money to upgrade, so they added depth in the bullpen and rotation. These were all things they hoped to do in October.
With all of the new arrivals, there were still some questions about players returning to the team in 2014, like if this would be a make or break year for 2012 Gold Glove winner Josh Reddick after a tough 2013 campaign.
“I’m not sure you ever put all of your eggs in one basket in that way,” he said.
The team expects him to bounce back. No one but Reddick will ever know how much his wrist affected him last season and Forst doubts he will ever tell anyone. The fact is he had that injury and his numbers are completely different from ‘12 to ‘13, a player with his talent there must be something else going on, he said. He adds so much with his defense that it is hard to calculate his value to this team.
Reddick isn’t the only question mark, the health of John Jaso is something the team needs to figure out in spring training. Jaso is absolutely in the mix as catcher, he said, but it all depends on how he reacts once he is in spring and working full time. The team may end up carrying three catchers either way, and it makes great options for Manager Bob Melvin to use them at the Catcher and DH. That includes last year’s breakout player Stephen Vogt.
They’re very comfortable with him behind the plate. He proved in the second half and postseason what he can do. He threw the ball as well as anyone in the league, he said. When they got him the knock was he wasn’t really a catcher, but he worked hard in AAA to prove he belonged behind the plate. The team knew it was going to be a project, but he made it work.
As things wrapped up he covered the front office and how they continue to innovate after being together for so long. It’s a challenge that they face with Billy being here as long as he has, he’s been here 15 years, and Farhan Zaidi is going on his 9th year, he said. Because they’ve worked with each other so long they have a challenge of finding new ideas. They have evolved, though, since the moneyball days and the book was written because the ideas got out there and are used around the league. They’ve moved into new things especially new technology that helps evaluate player’s defense better.
When the session ended Forst thanked all of the bloggers for attending and made it a point to let us know that the staff read everything that was out there. They like hearing from us because they feel we are the most passionate about the team.