The Athletics Franchise Deep Six

Of the Original 16 franchises, we've finally come to the last one, the Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics! Let's take a look at this much-traveled franchise, whose history is a hodgepodge of dynasties and fire sales.

	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF
1st	Lefty Grove	Mickey Cochrane	Jimmie Foxx	Eddie Collins	Home Run Baker	Bert Campaneris	Rickey Henderson	Dwayne Murphy	Reggie Jackson
2nd	Rube Waddell	Terry Steinbach	Mark McGwire	Max Bishop	Sal Bando	Eddie Joost	Al Simmons	Dave Henderson	Jose Canseco
3rd	Eddie Plank	Frankie Hayes	Jason Giambi	Mark Ellis	Eric Chavez	Jack Barry	Bob Johnson	Amos Strunk	Socks Seybold
4th	Tim Hudson	Wally Schang	Harry Davis	Danny Murphy	Carney Lansford	Miguel Tejada	Joe Rudi	Bill North	Josh Reddick
5th	Eddie Rommel	Kurt Suzuki	Stuffy McInnis	Dick Green	Josh Donaldson	Mike Bordick	Topsy Hartsel	Coco Crisp	Wally Moses
6th	Chief Bender	Ossee Schrecongost	Ferris Fain	Nap Lajoie	Lave Cross	Walt Weiss	Tillie Walker	Rick Monday	Mike Davis

That's one great 1st Team. All but two are Hall of Famers. The 2nd Team, though, feels like a huge dropoff. Waddell and Simmons are all-timers, and Bando and McGwire are both borderliners, but the rest? Fine players, not immortals.

The position that really surprised me this time was third base. The A's have more depth there than I would've expected. With the season Josh Donaldson is currently having, he might've stood to rank even higher if he hadn't been traded.

I was frustrated trying to pick guys for the lower teams at several of these positions. There was just too much mediocrity. For a franchise that's won nine World Series, they sure aren't that deep. The great Athletic teams tended to burn brightly and be snuffed out quickly.

I plan to continue this series with the expansion franchises, but since they don't have as much history, I won't be doing a Deep Six. For the 1961-77 franchises I'll be doing a Deep Four, and for the 1993-98 franchises I'll be doing a Deep Three. We'll see those after this season is over.