My money's on Hudson. He's the one who has Leo Mazzone as a pitching coach.

I think this forum needs an entire discussion section devoted to baseball. I'm not a huge fan myself, but the real fans here would probably benefit from it.

i have night terrors about barry zito's curveball.
AH! COBRAS!

Mulder will have the most wins. His team will give him the most run support.

definitely zito. out of all the pitches these guys throw combined, zito's curveball is the very definition of the adjective "SICK."

as in,

did you see zito's curball? IT'S SICK, BRAW!

If Hudson can somehow avoid the oblique strain he gets every year (his pitching motion creates a great deal of torque that his spindly body can't handle), I think he will have the best year. He'll most likely have the best ERA, but will miss several starts.

Mulder may well win the most games. But Mulder is a pitcher in decline, and he is a significant injury risk as well.

There are two largely overlooked reasons why the Athletics kept Zito over Hudson and Mulder:

-Of the 3, Zito is the only pitcher whose K rate went up in 2004.
-Zito has had a perfect track record of health for his entire career. He has never even sniffed the trainer's office.

Hitters still cannot hit Zito's curve. They can, however, lay off it when he can't throw it for strikes. 2002 was really the last year that Zito had great command of his curve and changeup.

I think that the A's, apart from failing to pry Marcus Giles from Atlanta, did a fantastic job with the Hudson/Mulder trades. I'm really anxious to see how this young rotation (Zito, Harden, Haren, Blanton and Meyer) performs over the next few years.

zito. as mentioned, doesn't get hurt, and i think he can improve, given what he uses to get by.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:I think that the A's, apart from failing to pry Marcus Giles from Atlanta, did a fantastic job with the Hudson/Mulder trades.

I am a little bit WTF? about the Atlanta trade (Charles Thomas? WTF?).

But I think the St. Louis trade was a fantastic coup for Billy Beane. I feel strongly that we have seen the best of Mark Mulder. And the A's got a stud in Haren, a stud in Kiko Calero, and a future superstar in Daric Barton.
Fantastic trade.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:I'm really anxious to see how this young rotation (Zito, Harden, Haren, Blanton and Meyer) performs over the next few years.

So fun! They will fail! They will do things that will make you to say, wtf?! They will succeed! So fun!

Angus Jung wrote:I am a little bit WTF? about the Atlanta trade (Charles Thomas? WTF?).

Marcus Giles at 2B would have been the better player to receive from Atlanta.

But look at Thomas' 2004 OPS (particularly in comparison to Bobby Kielty). Thomas is a very nice player.

Plus, Oakland picked up Keith Ginter at 2B, a player I really liked in Milwaukee. Not a bad Plan B after failing to get Giles -- and it seems to have pushed Mark Ellis. Ginter also provides a 3B option in case, God forbid, Eric Chavez goes down.

So sad, but see you in Sacamento, Scutaro.