FRONT OFFICE 2008 ATHLETICS REVIEW RECORDS HISTORY OPPONENTS PLAYER DEVELOPMENT MISCELLANEOUS ▲ REVIEW 197 REVIEW 2008 OAKLAND ATHLETICS MEDIA GUIDE 2008 OAKLAND ATHLETICS After beginning the season in Triple-A, After beginning the season in Triple-A, Jack Cust finished the 2007 season as the team leader in home runs (26) and RBI (82). A’s ▲ REVIEW 2007 Season In Review 2007 RECAP: The A’s had their streak of eight consecutive seasons with a winning record come to an end in 2007 as they finished with a 76-86 record…it was the first time Oakland finished with a losing record since going 74-88 in FRONT OFFICE 1998…finished in third place in the American League West, 18 games behind Los Angeles, and were sixth in the AL Wild Card, 18 games behind New York…it marked the first time the A’s finished more than 14 games out of a playoff spot since 1997 when they were 25 games behind Seattle in the West…it was the first time the A’s did not finish first or second in the West since 1998 when they finished fourth…the A’s .469 winning percentage equaled the 11th lowest in the A’s 40 seasons in Oakland…spent most of the season in third place in the West although the A’s spent at least one day in every spot in the standings…had six days in sole possession of first, three days tied for first, 21 days in second, 11 days tied for second, 127 days in third, seven days tied for third and seven days in fourth…the A’s continued their recent trend of slow starts as they were never more than two games over .500 or two games under .500 over the first two months of the season…put together more than two consecutive wins just once over the first 53 games, a four-game 2008 ATHLETICS streak from April 15-20, and had just two losing streaks longer than two games over that stretch, a pair of three-game streaks…went 26-27 over that season opening stretch, which put the A’s in third place in the West, 6½ games behind Los Angeles at the conclusion of play on June 1…then won a season high five consecutive games from June 2 to 6 and went 11-2 over a 13-game span from June 2 to 15…that gave the A’s a 37-29 (.561) record at the conclusion of play on June 15, which was good for second place in the West, four games behind Los Angeles…had the eighth best record in baseball at the time…however, the eight games over .500 would be a season high as the A’s went 39-57 (.406) over the final 96 games…had the second worst record in baseball from June 16 until the end of the season…only Tampa Bay, at 37-60 (.381), had a lower winning percentage…the A’s pitching staff had a 3.13 ERA through games of June 15, which REVIEW was the lowest mark in the AL and second lowest in the Majors…then compiled a 5.10 ERA from June 16 until the end of the season, which was third highest in the AL and sixth highest in the Majors…A’s starting pitchers were 25-17 with a 2.99 ERA and .234 opponents batting average through June 15 and 27-43 with a 5.30 ERA and .297 opponents bat- ting average after that…went 7-21 over a 28-game stretch from June 16 to July 17…capped that with a season high nine-game losing streak from July 6 to 17…the losing streak equaled the fifth longest in Oakland history and it was the A’s longest since July 21-29, 1998 when they also lost nine straight…it equaled the second longest losing streak in the AL in 2007…went 12-12 over the next 24 games through August 12 to put the A’s season record at 56-62…made a push for a .500 record by winning nine of 11 games from August 13 to 23…that moved the A’s one game over .500 at 65-64 on August 23 but that would be their final day over .500…lost the next day to put the season record at exactly RECORDS .500 for the 19th time in 2007…the only season in Oakland history in which the A’s had more days at .500 was in 1968 when they did it 20 times…went 11-22 over the final 33 games beginning on August 24 and lost 10 of the final 12 games…were officially eliminated from the AL West on September 15 and were eliminated from the Wild Card on September 17 in game 152…that was the earliest the A’s have been knocked out of the playoff race since 1998 when they were eliminated in game 151 on September 16. THE DISABLED LIST: The A’s used the disabled list 22 times in 2007, tying the Oakland record set in 1992…A’s players combined to miss an Oakland record 1259 games while on the DL, an average of 57.2 games per DL stint…11 of the 22 DL stints included time on the 60-day DL…the A’s began the season with three players on the DL and did not drop below HISTORY A's Disabled List, 2007 GAMES A’s PLAYER INJURY DATES MISSED RECORD Denorfia Torn ulnar collateral ligament, right elbow March 23-end of season 140 65-75 Kotsay Lower back surgery March 23-May 31 52 26-26 Loaiza Spasms in right trapezius March 25-August 21 127 63-64 Johnson Torn labrum, left hip March 27-April 24 20 11-9 OPPONENTS Harden Strained right shoulder April 16-June 20 58 33-25 Bradley Strained left hamstring April 23-May 10 15 8-7 Kielty Strained left calf April 29-July 7 63 32-31 Piazza Sprained right shoulder May 3-July 19 68 32-36 Snelling Left knee contusion May 11-end of season 129 59-70 Street Irritation, right ulnar nerve May 13-July 22 63 28-35 Duchscherer Strained right hip May 15-end of season 125 57-68 Bradley Strained left hamstring May 15-May 29 14 6-8 Robertson Fractured right thumb May 22-July 15 48 22-26 Bradley Strained right calf June 3-June 19 16 11-5 PLAYER DEVELOPMENT PLAYER Calero Inflammation right shoulder June 19-July 5 16 6-10 Buck Sprained right thumb June 29-July 13 13 4-9 Harden Strained right shoulder July 8-end of season 75 32-43 Crosby Fractured left hand July 25-end of season 62 28-34 Chavez Lower back spasms July 27-end of season 60 27-33 Kotsay Lower back spasms Aug. 15-end of season 42 18-24 Buck Strained left hamstring Aug. 18-end of season 39 16-23 Murphy Strained rib cage muscle Aug. 19-Sept. 2 14 8-6 MISCELLANEOUS 198 2008 OAKLAND ATHLETICS MEDIA GUIDE REVIEW ▲ that number all year…had at least five players on the DL every day beginning on April 27 and had 110 days with at least FRONT OFFICE eight players on the DL…including a season high 11 from May 22-29 and on June 19…four players had multiple stints on the DL including three times by Milton Bradley and two times each by Travis Buck, Rich Harden and Mark Kotsay…Chris Denorfia, who was acquired from Cincinnati on April 27, missed the most games with 140 and Harden (133), Chris Snelling (129), Esteban Loaiza (127) and Justin Duchscherer (125) also missed at least 100 games…the injuries led to roster moves nearly every week of the season…the A’s did not make their first 25-man roster move until April 23 when Bradley and Harden went on the DL and Dallas Braden and Danny Putnam were promoted…that was a streak of 21 days…after that, the A’s did not go more than eight days without a move the rest of the season…from May 11 to July 25, the A’s did not go more than three days without a 40-man roster move. 2008 ATHLETICS PLAYERS USED: The A’s set an Oakland record by using a Major League leading 54 players in 2007…broke the previous mark of 49 set in 1997…it was the second highest total in franchise history to the 56 players used by the Philadelphia A’s in 1915…also set Oakland record records with 12 center fielders and 18 outfielders and tied the mark with 13 left fielders…used 24 different pitchers, which was second most in Oakland history to the record of 26 set in 1997…that includes 20 relievers, which was one short of the record of 21 in 1997…10 different pitchers started a game for the A’s, which was their most since using 12 in 1999…used 30 position players, which was third most in Oakland history and the most since 1978 when they had 31…the record is 32 in 1972…17 of the 54 players (31.5%) were rookies, the A’s most rookies in a season since 1997 when they also had 17…only the Yankees (19) and Colorado (18) used more rookies in 2007…the A’s nine rookie position players combined for 288 games and 891 at bats and the eight rookie pitchers combined for 167 appearances and 237.1 innings pitched…had at least one rookie in the starting lineup in 129 of the REVIEW 162 games, including four on 10 different occasions…nine of the 17 rookies made their Major League debut…only nine of the 25 players on the A’s Opening Day roster were on the A’s active 25-man roster the entire season (Blanton, DiNardo, Ellis, Embree, Gaudin, Haren, Marshall, Scutaro and Stewart)…nine of the 32 players on the A’s active roster at the end of the season were not in the organization on Opening Day.