Evan Scribner wins the AL West for the Oakland A's

While some may say credit is due to the Oakland Athletics offense who put up 12 runs on Texas pitching, but i'm going to give it to CCSU alumni and Connecticut native Evan Scribner who took over for AJ Griffin, after he had given up five runs in 2.2 innings, and shut down the best offense in baseball for three innings to earn his second career win. He also struck out Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli and left to a standing ovation after his three innings.
I wrote about Scribner here and in fact this blog sponsors his Baseball refrence page which you can view here. After today the Blue Davil alumni finishes his season with 35.1 innings pitched and a 2.55 ERA and nice bounce back year in Oakland after his last few outings for San Diego tarnished what had been a decent season last year. Check out Evan Scribner's twitter page or Facebook fan group and give him your congratulations.

CCSU loves Evan Scribner

Scribner with the CCSU Blue Devils

Evan Scribner with the Oakland A's

Evan Scribner is a relief pitcher for the Oakland Athletics and more importantly is a Central Connecticut State University Alumni and a Connecticut native. He is the first CCSU alumni to pitch in the majors since Ricky Bottalico ended his career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005. Scribner was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks following his senior season with the Blue Devils in 2007, in which he led them to the College World Series. Scribner made 74 appearances, including 33 starts, during his four-year career with CCSU. He compiled a 23-16 record and collected a Blue Devil-record 14 saves, I know that does not sound like a lot but remember this is college ball they do not play as many games and he switched between the bullpen and rotation a lot. Additionally, Scribner, who is among the all-time wins leaders in school history, recorded 20 complete games, five shutouts and a combined shutout. He totaled 288.0 innings on the mound, striking out 224 while walking just 57 and having a college 3.34 earned run average.

In his senior season in 2007, Scribner went 6-6 with a team-low 2.78 ERA. He made 21 appearances, starting nine games. He had seven complete games and one shutout while also notching seven saves. In 2004, Scribner won Northeast Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player honors for his efforts in helping lead the Blue Devils to a NCAA Tournament appearance as a freshman. He was also a 2006 All-NEC selection. Scribner has only pitched 12 innings so far with the A's but has already worked his way into some high leverage innings.

Scribner made his MLB Debut with the San Diego Padres  in April 2011 but was DFA in the offseason and picked up off waivers by the A's. Scribner achieved his first MLB save this season against his former club the San Diego Padres. Scribner sports a fastball at 90-94 mph, followed by a 12-6 curveball that is known to have a 20 mph difference. He has a changeup but he seldom uses it and is primarily a two pitch pitcher. Scribner has great control as he has a 18/6 Strike out to walk ratio.He is only the third CCSU alum to make it to the major leagues. Ricky Bottalico, and Skip Jutze are the only other two Blue Devils to make it that far.

I hope that Scribner can one day find his way to the Yankees, but until then I wish him the best of luck in Oakland from one CCSU Alumni to another. You can also follow Evan on Twitter @Evanscribner

A's agree to sign Yoenis Cespedes

The Athletics have agreed to terms with Yoenis Cespedes, reports Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter) .She says that it's a four-year deal worth approximately $36MM. This comes as a suprise to everybody as Miami had just shown him around their stadium and were thought to be the only intrested team. Its a bit of an odd move by the A's becuase they already have a set outfield with Josh Reddick, Seth Smith, Jonny Gomes and Coco Crisp, but Cespedes is a big bat and they got him to Oakland becuase they offered him four years instead of the six most teams were. Aparently the A's are not done this offseason and have been linked to Mike Gonzalez, Manny Ramirez and Koji Uerara. The Yankees were never really considering Cespedes and the risk factor on him is very high, but Oakland has struggled to atract free agent bats and this is a non traditional move. I really did not expect this as I thought that Cespedes to Miami was a sure thing. The offseason has definately been dominated by the #Mysteryteam but this is likely the last big move by any team this offseason.

Best Moves for the AL West!

Well I'm gonna start a series of posts about what the teams of each division need to do this off season and I will start with the AL west and conclude with the AL East.
Texas Rangers
The Rangers hadn't even won a home playoff game before last year and now they have won two pennants. The Rangers biggest need is their rotation, 1st base and center field and they have internal options for center and the rotation, they want to have Feliz and Ogando in the rotation next year if Wilson signs elsewhere. The only real need at first is that none of their 1st base options are positive defenders and that hurt them in the world series. It may also be time that they trade Michael Young because at this point he is undervalued as a DH, he can still play 3rd and 2nd but he's not a first baseman and they may be able to get more value out of him than they were able to get from the Rockies last year. I don't know how they feel about Leonys Martins development, but it would be ambitious to hand him the center field duties on opening day. They could also be players for someone like Carlos Pena or Coco Crisp but I don't see them making a lot of moves this off season.
Los Angeles Angels
The best move for the Angels would probably be for them to have not have done all of the dumb moves they have done in the last two years especially the Vernon Wells for Napoli trade which could possibly be one of the worst trades in my lifetime. They have Mike Trout coming up and nowhere for him to play and now they have to figure out where Trumbo and Morales will play next season. The worst part is that they probably would have won the Division last year if they had signed Beltre. the Angels 1-3 rotation is better than anybody else in the AL and they could sign Reyes or Ramirez and if they do I think they would be the favorites to win the Division.
Seattle Mariners
The Mariners have a ton of pitching and a lot of prospects and the biggest move they really need to make is to try and get rid of Chone Figgins. Past that their best move would be to find somebody to to play left field and they could pursue any number of unranked free agents to do so. They could go for a platoon LF spot and sign someone like Laynce Nix and have him split playing time with Casper Wells and that's probably the best thing for the Mariners. Next year will probably be a rebuilding year for the Mariners and really they would need Ichiro to bounce back if they want to contend at all. The Mariners do have deep pockets and could be contenders again in the near future.
Oakland A's
There are a number of things that the A's could do to get better but in the end they will not make any moves until their stadium situation is sorted out. A good move along that line could be to try and trade one of their starters to a team loaded with position player prospects like the Royals. They dump Brian Fuentes as well, its not that he's bad its just that they don't need him. They could also try for a reclamation project like Grady Sizemore.

I will have the NL West up soon