All A's team 1965-2017 pitchers

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In putting together pitching staffs for various teams, the Athletics have one of the strongest staffs I've worked on. Plus there are a lot of cool names and nicknames. Some excellent pitchers didn't make the cut. Blue Moon Odom is an example of this. Blue Moon was a very good pitcher with a really cool nickname. On most teams he would slot as a 3-4 pitcher. Here just gets an honorable mention. Having said that, here we go.

Starting pitcher: Jim “Catfish” Hunter Jim started his career with the A's in 1965 when they were still in Kansas City. He was a cornerstone of those great Athletics teams of the 70's. Catfish spent 10 seasons with the A's and went 163-113 with an ERA of 3.13. His best season with the A's was his last, in 1974. That season Hunter had an AL league leading 25 wins against only 12 losses. His ERA for that season was 2.89. Jim won 21 games in each season from 1971-73. He was also effective in post season play, going 9-6 with an ERA of 3.26. Catfish wasn't a big strikeout guy, getting only 5.6 Ks per 9 innings with the A's, but managed to be an ace regardless.

Starting pitcher: Vida Blue While Blue doesn't have the overall stats of some other A's pitchers, he was probably the most spectacular. Blue had his best season in 1971 when he went 24-8 with an AL leading ERA of 1.82. Included in that was a league leading 8 shutouts. Vida also had two other 20 seasons with the A's. Overall Vida went 124-86 and an ERA of 2.95. Vida didn't have the post season success of Catfish Hunter, going 1-6 with an ERA 4.31. Still, overall, Vida was good enough o get the second slot in the A's rotation.

Starting pitcher: Tim Hudson What this guy did more than anything else with the A's was win. During six seasons with the A's, Hudson went 92-39 with an ERA of 3.30. In his rookie season in 1999, he went 11-2. That set the tone for his years in Oakland. The following season Tim went 20-6. Those 20 wins led the AL. Hudson had an exceptional WAR of 30 during his six season with the A's. He was at least 6 games over .500 in each of his 6 seasons with the A's.

Starting pitcher: Dave Stewart Dave barely edges out Barry Zito for this slot. Both Stewart and Zito spent 8 seasons with the A's and had similar stats. Stewart gets the edge by virtue of stringing together four consecutive 20 win seasons from 1987-1990. He also led the AL in starts for those same seasons. In addition he led the AL in complete games in two of those seasons. Stewart was excellent in post season action with the A's, going 8-3. Dave Stewart, an effective workhorse comes in at the fourth slot.

Starting pitcher: Ken Holtzman Holtzman doesn't have the overall totals of some other A's pitchers, but he was very effective in his four seasons in Oakland. Kenny went 77-55 with an ERA of 2.92. Ken was also excellent in post season play, going 6-4 with an ERA 2.30. He was excellent in the World Series, going 4-1 with an ERA of 2.55. The stylish lefty gets this slot over other notables such as Mark Mulder, Blue Moon Odom and Sonny Gray.

Relief pitcher: Dennis Eckersly Before he came to the A's, Dennis Eckersly was a good starter. After coming over to Oakland, he became a very good closer. Eck saved 320 games in his nine seasons with the A's. He was the league leader in saves two times. I was surprised to see how many saves the Eck blew. Dennis had 56 blown saves during his tenure in Oakland. Not terrible, but I was surprised to see the number was that high.

Relief pitcher: Rollie Fingers As good as Rollie was, his mustache was even better. Rollie saved 136 games in his nine seasons in Oakland. Of course Rollie pitched at a time when saves weren't looked at as they are now and relievers were called upon to pitch more than one inning. Some seasons saw Rollie pitch over 120 innings out of the pen. Rollie had a good WHIP of 1.135 and had generally good peripherals despite not being a big strikeout guy.

Relief pitcher: Huston Street For a guy without overpowering stuff, Huston has put together a really good career. Four years of that career was spent in Oakland. Huston saved 94 saves while with the A's. He also managed to strikeout over 9 hitters per 9 innings. In addition, his W-L record with the A's was 21-12. While that's not a huge stat for a closer, I think he should get bonus points for it.

There's my list. Who's missing? Who shouldn't be there? Let me know.

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