1998 Oakland Athletics season

The Oakland Athletics' 1998 season saw the A's finish with a record of 74 wins and 88 losses. The campaign was the first of the Billy Beane era. While the Athletics finished a distant fourth in the American League West, they improved upon the prior year's dismal output of 65–97.

1998 Oakland Athletics
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionWest
BallparkNetwork Associates Coliseum
CityOakland, California
Record74–88 (.457)
Divisional place4th
OwnersStephen Schott
Ken Hofmann
General managersBilly Beane
ManagersArt Howe
TelevisionKRON-TV
Fox Sports Bay Area
(Ray Fosse, Greg Papa, Ken Wilson)
RadioKNEW
(Bill King, Ken Korach, Ray Fosse)
← 1997 Seasons 1999 →

The strong play of Jason Giambi, Matt Stairs and Kenny Rogers highlighted an otherwise forgettable campaign. Rogers' performance was particularly impressive; in arguably the finest season of his career, he won 16 games and posted a 3.17 earned run average (both were the best full-season marks by an Athletics starter since 1992). Additionally, the 1998 season marked Rickey Henderson's fourth (and final) stint with the Athletics. Henderson, at the age of 39, stole a total 66 bases; this total lead the league in that category. Lastly, rookie Ben Grieve collected a Rookie of the Year (ROY) award for his solid debut season. The award was the Athletics' first since Walt Weiss received one in 1988.

The Athletics posted a winning record in 1999. The organization, under Beane, would not post another losing season until 2007.

Offseason

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Regular season

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Opening Day starters

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Season standings

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AL West
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Texas Rangers 88 74 .543 48‍–‍33 40‍–‍41
Anaheim Angels 85 77 .525 3 42‍–‍39 43‍–‍38
Seattle Mariners 76 85 .472 11½ 42‍–‍39 34‍–‍46
Oakland Athletics 74 88 .457 14 39‍–‍42 35‍–‍46

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC MIN NYY OAK SEA TB TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim 5–6 6–5 5–6 4–7 8–3 6–5 6–5 6–5 5–7 9–3 6–5 5–7 4–7 10–6
Baltimore 6–5 6–6 2–9 5–6 10–1 5–6 7–3 3–9 8–3 6–5 5–7 6–5 5–7 5–11
Boston 5–6 6–6 5–6 8–3 5–5 8–3 5–6 5–7 9–2 7–4 9–3 6–5 5–7 9–7
Chicago 6–5 9–2 6–5 6–6 6–6 8–4 6–6 4–7 4–7 4–7 5–6 5–6 4–6–1 7–9
Cleveland 7–4 6–5 3–8 6–6 9–3 8–4 6–6 4–7 3–8 9–2 7–3 4–7 7–4 10–6
Detroit 3–8 1–10 5–5 6–6 3–9 6–6 8–4 3–8 7–4 3–8 5–6 3–8 5–6 7–9
Kansas City 5–6 6–5 3–8 4–8 4–8 6–6 7–5 0–10 7–4 4–6 8–3 3–8 6–5 9–7
Minnesota 5–6 3–7 6–5 6–6 6–6 4–8 5–7 4–7 4–7 2–9 7–4 7–4 4–7 7–9
New York 5–6 9–3 7–5 7–4 7–4 8–3 10–0 7–4 8–3 8–3 11–1 8–3 6–6 13–3
Oakland 7–5 3–8 2–9 7–4 8–3 4–7 4–7 7–4 3–8 5–7 5–6 6–6 5–6 8–8
Seattle 3–9 5–6 4–7 7–4 2–9 8–3 6–4 9–2 3–8 7–5 6–5 5–7 4–7 7–9
Tampa Bay 5–6 7–5 3–9 6–5 3–7 6–5 3–8 4–7 1–11 6–5 5–6 4–7 5–7 5–11
Texas 7–5 5–6 5–6 6–5 7–4 8–3 8–3 4–7 3–8 6–6 7–5 7–4 7–4 8–8
Toronto 7–4 7–5 7–5 6–4–1 4–7 6–5 5–6 7–4 6–6 6–5 7–4 7–5 4–7 9–7


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1998 Oakland Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average; Slg. = Slugging average; SB = Stolen bases

Pos Player G AB R H HR RBI Avg. Slg. SB
C A. J. Hinch 120 337 34 78 9 35 .231 .341 3
1B Jason Giambi 153 562 92 166 27 110 .295 .489 2
2B Scott Spiezio 114 406 54 105 9 50 .259 .377 1
3B Mike Blowers 129 409 56 97 11 71 .237 .386 1
SS Miguel Tejada 105 365 53 85 11 45 .233 .384 5
LF Rickey Henderson 152 542 101 128 14 57 .236 .347 66
CF Ryan Christenson 117 370 56 95 5 50 .257 .368 5
RF Ben Grieve 155 583 94 168 18 89 .288 .458 2
DH Matt Stairs 149 523 88 154 26 106 .294 .511 8

[18]

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Rafael Bournigal 85 209 47 .225 1 19
Mike Macfarlane 78 207 52 .251 7 34
Bip Roberts 61 182 51 .280 1 15
Jason McDonald 70 175 44 .251 1 16
Kevin Mitchell 51 127 29 .228 2 21
Kurt Abbott 35 123 33 .268 2 9
Dave Magadan 35 109 35 .321 1 13
Ed Sprague Jr. 27 87 13 .149 3 7
Jack Voigt 57 72 10 .139 1 10
Eric Chavez 16 45 14 .311 0 6
Mike Neill 6 15 4 .267 0 0
Mark Bellhorn 11 12 1 .083 0 1
Brian Lesher 7 7 1 .143 0 1
Jorge Velandia 8 4 1 .250 0 0
Izzy Molina 6 2 1 .500 0 0
Shane Mack 3 2 0 .000 0 0
Jason Wood 3 1 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Kenny Rogers 34 238.2 16 8 3.17 138
Tom Candiotti 33 201.0 11 16 4.84 98
Jimmy Haynes 33 194.1 11 9 5.09 134
Mike Oquist 31 175.0 7 11 6.22 112
Blake Stein 24 117.1 5 9 6.37 89
Gil Heredia 8 42.2 3 3 2.74 27
Ariel Prieto 2 8.1 0 1 11.88 8

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Jay Witasick 7 27.0 1 3 6.33 29
Dave Telgheder 8 20.0 0 1 3.60 5

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Billy Taylor 70 4 9 33 3.58 58
Buddy Groom 75 3 1 0 4.24 36
T.J. Mathews 66 7 4 1 4.58 53
Mike Mohler 57 3 3 0 5.16 42
Mike Fetters 48 1 6 5 3.99 34
Tim Worrell 25 0 1 0 4.00 33
Aaron Small 24 1 1 0 7.25 19
Mark Holzemer 13 1 0 0 5.59 3
Jim Doughtery 9 0 2 0 8.25 3
Steve Connelly 3 0 0 0 1.93 1

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AAA Edmonton Trappers Pacific Coast League Mike Quade
AA Huntsville Stars Southern League Jeffrey Leonard
A Modesto A's California League Juan Navarrette
A Visalia Oaks California League Tony DeFrancesco
A-Short Season Southern Oregon Timberjacks Northwest League Greg Sparks
Rookie AZL Athletics Arizona League John Kuehl

References

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  1. ^ Dane Johnson at Baseball-Reference
  2. ^ Scott Brosius at Baseball-Reference
  3. ^ Tony Batista at Baseball-Reference
  4. ^ Jorge Velandia at Baseball-Reference
  5. ^ Damon Berryhill at Baseball-Reference
  6. ^ Mark Acre at Baseball-Reference
  7. ^ a b Jack Voigt at Baseball-Reference
  8. ^ Mike Blowers at Baseball-Reference
  9. ^ Izzy Molina at Baseball-Reference
  10. ^ Ricky Henderson at Baseball-Reference
  11. ^ a b Kevin Mitchell at Baseball-Reference
  12. ^ Ernie Young at Baseball-Reference
  13. ^ Doug Bochtler at Baseball-Reference
  14. ^ "1998 Oakland Athletics Roster by Baseball Almanac".
  15. ^ Mark Mulder at Baseball-Reference
  16. ^ Eric Byrnes at Baseball-Reference
  17. ^ Aaron Small at Baseball-Reference
  18. ^ "1998 Seattle Mariners Statistics".