Happy Fourth of July Athletics Nation! Let freedom ring!
We got an excellent chance at seeing what rookie righty Joey Estes has to offer when he dominated the Angels last night during his “Maddux” like performance. Finishing off a complete game under 100 pitches is fairly rare in today’s game, and even rarer for a rookie. Manager Mark Kotsay has come under a lot of fire this year for the way he manages the bullpen but he deserves credit for allowing Estes the chance to finish this one out. Granted, if the score was close we could reasonably have expected Mason Miller to take over for at least the ninth inning save opportunity. The score wasn’t all that close though and that allowed the squad to let it ride with their prized rookie. He rewarded them with that complete game, all nine frames.
As many of us may remember, Estes was apart of the infamous Matt Olson trade that has become one of the bigger misses in Athletics history. The main return player in that transaction, center fielder Cristian Pache, lasted all of one year with the organization before the club cut bait. As much of a monster in center field as he was, he just wasn’t keeping up with the bat in any sense. Swing and a miss.
The second player in the trade, though, became starting catcher Shea Langeliers. The righty slugger is slowly becoming one of the better hitting catchers in the league in just his second season and is already drawing trade attention. Langeliers is still the definitive starter behind the plate but he still has someone breathing down his neck.
And that’s not top prospect Tyler Soderstrom. While he was drafted as a catcher that just isn’t going to be his role as a major league player based on his early returns so far. Soderstrom is feeling more and more likely to be destined as a first base/DH player at this point, which severely cuts into his value as a prospect. No wonder the Athletics’ farm system is ranked so lowly. Is a platoon first baseman the best the farm has to offer right now?
Instead it’s looking like former 1st-rounder Daniel Susac could be the guy behind the plate for the next Athletics playoff team based on how things are going. It’ll all depend on how he grows but at the rate he’s on his way to taking over as the Athletics starting catcher in just a couple years, right when Langeliers starts getting expensive.
All is not lost though! Stud shortstop prospect Jacob Wilson is rising the ranks at an exceptional speed and could follow the path of Zack Gelof and get a post-All Star Break promotion to the big league roster. He’s already shown he can handle the upper tier of pitching to a degree. The org may want to see more of that in the coming days and weeks but at the rate Wilson has been going he may beat Darrel Hernaiz back to the big league team. A legitimate shortstop competition between two you know ng unknowns. Not the most surprising thing if you’ve been following this team since spring training, but maybe the most important battle since spring training.
Graveman’s CG was an 8 inning loss.. The Last Rookie with a CG win was Tommy Milone in 2012 at Dodgers. Last Rookie Shutout: Brett Anderson at Fenway in 2009. (Anderson was throwing 100MPH that night)
CORRECTION: Joey Estes tossed 92 pitches tonight, which were the fewest by an A's pitcher in a nine-inning complete game since Rich Harden had 80 on July 14, 2005. The previous note with Gaudin was eight innings.
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