A's Ready For a Better 2012

Post date: Jan 5, 2012 5:56:19 PM

Young 2nd baseman Dustin Ackley is one of the A's highly-rated 2012 players

Coming off the worst season in franchise history, a 6-16-0 debacle that saw the club finish in 5th place in the WFBL's Owens/East Division, the A's have few places to go but up. Based on Top 300 fantasy player rankings just released by CBS, that is exactly what the club can look forward to in 2012.

In the rankings compiled by CBS, 10 Athletics players finished within the first 153 places. With 18 teams in the WFBL, the average would be 8.5 players per team. The A's also placed shorstop Ian Desmond at #285 and pitcher Wade Davis at #294 in the rankings.

The A's players rated highly include four pitchers: Cole Hamels (29), Stephen Strasburg (69), Jordan Zimmerman (135), and Neftali Feliz (139); the six position players are Mike Stanton (49), Eric Hosmer (90), Desmond Jennings (101), Matt Wieters (109) and Dustin Ackley (111).

Considering the age of these highly rated players, the A's are showing marked improvement for both the coming 2012 season and for the longterm future. The team underwent a major rebuilding program last season, the main culprit in the poor record.

"These ratings are a bit subjective" said GM Matt Veasey, "but they show one thing - that we're moving in the right direction." Fearing that the club, which won a WFBL championship just 3 years ago, was aging quickly, Veasey made a series of highly controversial trades as the 2011 season opened. After a rough season, brighter days appear on the horizon.

Manager Buck Showalter, who was intimately involved in those 2011 trade discussions, believes things will be better sooner rather than later: "This is a very tough division, and for years we were at or near the top of it. We took a step back, but it was one that we controlled. Now we're going to begin to bring the kind of A's baseball back to our fans that they deserve, and soon."

The 2012 Philadelphia Athletics organization is making no predictions or promises about any particular amount of wins, or about suddenly returning to contending status. "We're going to be better in 2012 than we were in 2011, and we'll continue to get better every year. How quickly we return to contending is up to these young players. But we have no doubt that it will happen, and soon" said Veasey.