Oakland Athletics

The 2009 Oakland Athletics have created the opportunity to compete in the American League West, especially with the veteran hitters brought in during the offseason. These players are going to determine how the A's season will be.

Last season, the main problem for the A's was their offense. Part of the reason was injuries to key players like Ryan Sweeney, Eric Chavez, and Mark Ellis.

With those injuries it forced in players that were not necessarily ready to be in the major leagues players like Eric Patterson, Cliff Pennington, Wes Bankston, and Brooks Conrad.

Five under-the-radar teams/performers that should enjoy breakout levels of success in ’09.

The Oakland A's, with some new faces, most likely will tie with the upstart Rangers for second in the American League West division. Oakland brought back Jason Giambi, and traded young center fielder Carlos Gonzalez to Colorado for the powerful Matt Holliday.

Their pitching staff will need to come through behind Justin Duchscherer and Dana Eveland. The bullpen will have Joey Devine and Brad Ziegler in the late innings.

Keep and Eye on: Gio Gonzalez, sp

Austin Knowlin leads the dozen returning Columbia receivers (CREDIT: Columbia Athletics)

Time to go West, my friends. I don’t think we are going to find the best baseball out here this year. Lately, for some reason, the East Coast is dominating things in sports. In the NCAA’s, it was something like two or three teams from out west were one of the top four seeds, 16 overall. The only recent World Series winners from out west were the Angels and Diamondbacks, the latter's championship dating back to their Randy Johnson/Curt Schilling years.

I don’t see the trend changing this year.

As a fan of FOX's smash hit, House, M.D., I'm used to seeing the medical maverick, Dr. Gregory House, played by Hugh Laurie, solve seemingly unsolvable medical mysteries. Well, I've got a new medical case for you, Dr. House—the Oakland Athletics.