A's Farm

A’s Farm’s 2021 Top 10 Prospects List

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor March 7, 2021 Now that spring training has gotten underway, it’s time to present A’s Farm’s 2021 Top 10 Prospects List. After a lost season for most minor leaguers in 2020, there’s not a whole lot of new information to be able to evaluate…

A’s 2021 Minor League Staff Includes Some Familiar Names

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor December 15, 2020 The A’s announced their 2021 minor league coaching staff on Tuesday, and some familiar names to A’s fans were included in the mix. Former A’s Rookie of the Year shortstop Bobby Crosby will manage Double-A Midland, while former A’s third…

A’s Pick Up 4 Players In Rule-5 Draft

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor December 10, 2020 A great many things were quite different in the baseball world this season. But some things have remained the same – like baseball’s Rule-5 draft. The annual process took place on Thursday, and the A’s picked up a pair of…

A’s Announce New Affiliate Lineup

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor December 9, 2020 Major League Baseball unveiled a large portion of its minor league reorganization plan on Wednesday. And as part of that restructuring, the A’s extended invitations to four minor league teams to serve as their affiliates. The teams are the…

Down On The Farm With A’s Special Assistant Grady Fuson

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor October 30, 2020 After originally joining the A’s organization as an area scout under the Billy Martin regime back in 1982, Grady Fuson rose through the ranks and eventually ended up serving as the A’s scouting director from 1995 until 2001. It proved to be a very…

Instructional League Roster: A’s Top Prospects Back In Action In Arizona

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor October 16, 2020 After a lost minor league season, many of the A’s top prospects are currently participating in the A’s fall instructional league camp at the team’s minor league complex in Mesa, Arizona. Some of the prospects at the camp also participated…

A’s Triple-A Manager Fran Riordan Talks Top Prospects

By Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor September 20, 2020 After spending 14 seasons managing in the independent leagues, Fran Riordan joined the A’s organization in 2015 when he was brought on board to skipper Beloit, the A’s affiliate in the Class-A Midwest League. After two seasons with the Snappers,…

Talking Top Pitching Prospects With A’s Triple-A Pitching Coach Rick Rodriguez

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor September 1, 2020 Rick Rodriguez has served as the pitching coach for the A’s Triple-A affiliates in Sacramento, Nashville and Las Vegas, where he’s had a hand in developing a number of the A’s most talented pitchers over the past many years. The…

A’s Farm Director Ed Sprague Offers The Inside Scoop On A’s Top Prospects

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor August 27, 2020 In his first year as the A’s director of player development, Ed Sprague certainly didn’t expect to be spending the summer in San Jose. But with the minor league season cancelled this year, that’s exactly where the northern California native…

Baseball America’s Updated Prospect Rankings: Who’s Up? Who’s Down?

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor August 12, 2020 Just as MLB Pipeline recently updated its prospect rankings, Baseball America recently published its own up-to-date midseason prospect rankings. Not only did Baseball America’s prospect hounds recalibrate their top 100 prospects in all of baseball and their top 30 prospects…

MLB Pipeline’s Updated Prospect Rankings: Who’s Up? Who’s Down?

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor August 11, 2020 MLB Pipeline recently updated its prospect rankings from last spring, with some promising young A’s players moving up the charts and others sliding down. MLB.com’s top prospect hounds, Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Mike Rosenbaum, recalibrated their top 100 prospects…

A’s Announce 60-Man Player Pool For 2020

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor June 28, 2020 (updated July 1, 2020) The A’s announced their 60-man player pool for the 2020 season on Sunday. 42 players will report to the A’s July training camp at the Oakland Coliseum on July 2 with the first workout scheduled for…

Scouting Director Eric Kubota Offers The Inside Scoop On A’s 2020 Draft Picks

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor June 17, 2020 The man responsible for overseeing the A’s efforts in the amateur draft is scouting director Eric Kubota. Kubota started out his career in the baseball world by interning for the A’s in the mid-‘80s, and he eventually served as the assistant…

Scouts Weigh In On A’s 2020 Draft Picks

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor June 15, 2020 Since last week’s amateur draft was limited to just five rounds this year – down dramatically from the usual 40 – we decided to do a deep dive on the five prospects drafted by the A’s this year. So, we…

Getting to Know the A’s 2020 Draft Picks

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor June 11, 2020 With this year’s amateur draft limited to just five rounds, teams were able to complete their draft selections in just two days instead of three this year. And with the second day of the draft wrapping up on Thursday night,…

A’s Make Local High School Catcher Tyler Soderstrom Their Top Draft Pick

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor June 10, 2020 On Wednesday, the A’s took Turlock High School catcher Tyler Soderstrom with their first pick in 2020’s amateur draft. The team held the 26th pick in the first round and was somewhat surprised to find the local backstop still available…

A’s Owner John Fisher Reverses Decision To Stop Paying Minor Leaguers

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor June 5, 2020 After announcing last week that the A’s organization would stop paying its minor league players their $400 weekly stipend, team owner John Fisher reversed course on Friday and announced in an interview with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle…

A’s Scouting & Player Development Furloughs: What Does It Mean For The Future?

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor Lost in yesterday’s news about the A’s ending payments to their minor league players this season was the fact that the A’s have also decided to furlough the majority of their scouts and player development staff. The organization is furloughing almost all of…

A’s To Stop Paying Minor Leaguers: Players React

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor After word broke early on Tuesday that the A’s would be furloughing much of their baseball operations staff, including most of their player-development employees and pro and amateur scouts, news came later in the day that the organization would also stop paying its…

Could the 2020 Minor League Season Be Cancelled?

by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor After Tuesday’s report by Bob Nightengale in USA Today that MLB officials are now feeling optimistic about the prospect of beginning the season before the end of June in major league stadiums, another report surfaced on Wednesday with a far less rosy outlook…

Friday, June 5th: Joey Meneses Leads Las Vegas to Walk-Off Win in Extras

Thursday, June 4th: Zane Taylor K’s 9 in Lansing Victory

A’s Farm Podcast Talks Pitching Prospects with Minor League Pitching Coordinator Barry Enright

Tuesday, June 2nd: Jamie Arnold Pitches Hounds to Victory while Sprague-Lott’s 2 HRs Help Ports Prevail

Thursday, May 28th: Corey Avant Impresses in Midland Win while Tommy White Leads Vegas to Victory