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Former All-Star player and Pawtucket Red Sox hitting coach Chili Davis has been hired by the Oakland Athletics to serve as their hitting coach for next season

The Jamaican-born outfield and designated hitter worked last season as the Red Sox AAA hitting coach. On Saturday, Oakland announced that Davis had been hired to do the same for the Red Sox major league, west coast rival.

The 51-year-old switch hitter had a 19 year career in the major leagues, playing for the San Francisco Giants (1981-1987), California Angels (1988-1990 and 1993-1996), Minnesota Twins (1991-1992), Kansas City Royals (1997) and New York Yankees (1998-1999).

The new job will reunite Davis with former San Francisco Giants teammate Bob Melvin, who was recently hired to permanently manage the Athletics. Melvin was hired as the team’s interim manager in June.

Davis, a three-time All-Star, had a career batting average of .274, hit 350 home runs and batted in 1,372 runs.

Davis discussed his hitting technique in an article published on the Pawtucket Red Sox web site. In the article, Davis spoke about what it takes to be a great hitter.

“It’s about being a competitor in each at-bat,” Davis said. “You’re forcing pitchers to work — being offensive. Trying to get your philosophies across to players is to understand the players and their comfort zone and to try to work from there with them. There’s no one way to go about it with so many guys, and I think the biggest thing I learned in the last two years when you’re dealing with professional hitters, that one of the most important things is for them to see that you really care and you’re consistent with the things that you say to them, that you are really paying attention.”

The same article written by MLB.com reporter Jane Lee states that Davis will replace Gerald Perry, “whose contract was not renewed, and joins bench coach Chip Hale, pitching coach Curt Young, first-base coach Tye Waller, third-base coach Mike Gallego and bullpen coach Rick Rodriguez.”

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The Oakland Athletics have offered arbitration
to free agent outfielders Josh Willingham and David DeJesus.

Both players have until December 7 to accept or decline the offer. Should they
decline the offer and sign with another team, Oakland would receive
compensation in the 2012 draft.

Willingham set new career-highs with 29 home runs and 98 RBI in 136 games last
year for the A’s, his first with the club. The RBI were the most by an
Athletic since Frank Thomas had 114 in 2006.

He is a .262 career hitter with 132 home runs and 434 RBI in 799 games over
eight seasons with Florida (2004-08), Washington (2009-10) and Oakland (2011).

DeJesus hit .240 with 10 home runs and 46 RBI in 131 games with the A’s last
year. The 31-year-old left-handed hitter was acquired from Kansas City for Vin
Mazzaro and Justin Marks on November 10, 2010.

In 1,007 career games over nine seasons with Kansas City (2003-10) and Oakland
(2011), DeJesus has hit .284 with 71 home runs and 436 RBI.

©2011 Sports Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Not much else going on in the MLB planet today.

It doesn’t get much more official than this. The Oakland A’s have posted the following on the team website:

OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland Athletics announced today the team has signed Curt Young to a one-year contract to return as pitching coach. Young, regarded as one of the top pitching coaches in Major League Baseball, had left the A’s after 23 years in the organization to join the Boston Red Sox this past season.

The team also announced it has removed the “interim” title from Mike Henriques and named him strength and conditioning coach for the 2012 season.

Originally selected by the A’s in the fourth round of the 1981 draft, Young pitched 10 seasons with team. After four years as a minor league coach in the organization, Young was named the A’s pitching coach prior to the 2004 season. During his tenure as coach from 2004-2010, Oakland pitchers posted an American League-best 4.03 ERA and held opponents to an AL-low .257 average while allowing the fewest home runs (1,062) in the league. His 2010 staff led the American League with a 3.56 ERA and 17 shutouts, while A’s starters registered a Major League-best 3.47 ERA, the lowest such mark in the AL since the 1990 Red Sox (3.32). This past season, Boston pitchers ranked third in the American League in strikeouts (1,213) and opponent batting average (.247) and tied for fourth in shutouts (13).

During Young’s tenure as Oakland pitching coach, seven A’s pitchers-Mark Mulder (2004), Tim Hudson (2004), Justin Duchscherer (2005, 2008), Barry Zito (2006), Dan Haren (2007), Andrew Bailey (2009) and Trevor Cahill (2010)-have been selected to the American League All-Star team, with Mulder and Haren earning starts in the Midsummer Classic. Closers Huston Street (2005) and Bailey (2009) also earned AL Rookie of the Year honors.

Young compiled a 69-53 record and 4.31 ERA in 251 games, 162 starts, during an 11-year Major League pitching career that included stints with Oakland (1983-91, 1993), Kansas City (1992) and the New York Yankees (1992). The left-hander went 13-9 with a 3.45 ERA in 1986 and led the team in victories, earning him an Opening Day start in 1987. He matched his career best in wins in 1987, posting a 13-7 record and 4.08 ERA in a career-high 31 starts. Young was also a member of the A’s starting rotation when they won three consecutive American League pennants from 1988-90. He tossed two one-hitters during his career: Oct. 5, 1986 against Kansas City and June 9, 1987 vs. Chicago.

Henriques, originally hired as the A’s minor league strength and conditioning coordinator in November of 2010, was named Oakland’s interim strength and conditioning coach May 3 when Bob Alejo accepted an assistant athletic director position at North Carolina State. He previously spent five seasons in the San Diego Padres’ minor league system (2006-10), including two years as their assistant coordinator. The Central Connecticut State graduate also served four off-seasons with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers as assistant strength and conditioning coach from 2007-10, as well as a summer internship at Arizona State in 2005.

Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.

By Matthew Hays

– Staff Writer

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Sep 27, 2011 – On Tuesday afternoon the Kansas City Royals announced they had acquired 24-year old pitcher Ethan Hollingsworth in a trade with the Oakland Athletics for disgruntled first basemen Kila Ka`aihue. For Ka`aihue he receives a fresh start, while the Royals receive a back end of the rotation guy who will likely provide minor league depth, with the potential to join the major league bullpen at some point.

For Hollingsworth this marks his third organization in the past year as he previously had been traded last winter from the Colorado Rockies to Oakland for Clayton Mortensen.

Hollingsworth features five pitches on the mound, a sinker, four-seam fastball, and slider. He also throws a curve and changeup. His speeds vary from the high 80′s to low 90′s. Back in March he was ranked the 36th best prospect in the A’s system according to Scout.com.

Originally a fourth-round selection of the Rockies in 2008, Hollingsworth is a 6’2″ 200 lb right-hander who pitched predominately with AA Midland in the Texas League (same league as Northwest Arkansas), but did appear in two games at the end of the year with the AAA Sacramento River Cats. Over his four years in the minors, Hollingsworth is 31-29 with a 4.21 ERA in nearly 500 innings pitched. He strikes out nearly a batter an inning, while producing 3.67 strikeouts for every one batter he walks.

He pitched in one start against the Naturals this season, going 5.1 innings and allowed seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits. He also pitched out of the bullpen against Omaha in the playoffs on September 14th, allowing two runs on three hits in 2.1 innings pitched.

While the chances that the trade amounts to much is likely slim, Ka`iahue clearly didn’t fit into the future of the Royals with Eric Hosmer at first base. The Royals were able to acquire an arm that is younger than the player they gave up, as Ka`aihue is 27.

Read More: Kila Ka`aihue (1B – KAN), Clayton Mortensen (P – COL), Eric Hosmer (1B – KAN), Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals, Colorado Rockies

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There is the quick update of the day.

Not much else going on in the MLB planet today.

Published: Sept. 7, 2011 at 6:54 PM

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There is the quick update of the day.

Guillermo Moscoso #52 of the Oakland Athletics reacts after giving up his first hit of the game in the eighth inning against the Kansas City Royals at O.co Coliseum (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Not much else going on in the MLB planet today.

By Grant Brisbee

– Editor

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Sep 7, 2011 – Oakland Athletics pitcher Guillermo Moscoso has a no-hitter through seven innings against the Kansas City Royals. The A’s right-hander is making his 18th career start, and entered Wednesday’s game with a 3.63 ERA despite below-average strikeout, walk, and groundball rates. The Royals probably don’t care so much about that right now.

Moscoso retired the first seventeen batters he faced in the game, extending a streak that stretched back to his last game. Before allowing a two-out walk in the sixth inning to Alcides Escobar, Moscoso had retired 30 consecutive batters, which is an Oakland franchise record. Considering the pitching talent that has gone through the A’s organization, that’s especially impressive.

So far in the game, Moscoso has struck out three batters, and induced three ground balls and 12 fly balls. That’s not usually how to go about chasing a no-hitter … unless you’re pitching in Oakland with Coco Crisp patrolling center field, apparently. Moscoso is at 89 pitches through seven frames, and his season high for pitches is 110.

Unfortunately for A’s fans who want to watch Moscoso chase the no-hitter, the game is not being broadcast on local TV.

Read More: Kansas City Royals

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(Sports Network) – Gio Gonzalez shoots for his fourth straight win this
evening when the Oakland Athletics continue a three-game series against the
Kansas City Royals at the Coliseum.

Gonzalez was magnificent in beating the Cleveland Indians on Thursday, as he
scattered four hits over seven scoreless innings to improve to 12-11, while
lowering his earned run average to 3.21.

He also walked four and struck out seven in the triumph and is averaging 8.95
strikeouts-per-nine innings. If he maintains that pace through his final
starts, he would break the Athletics franchise record, held by Todd
Stottlemyre at 8.80 strikeouts per nine innings.

Gonzalez has faced the Royals six times and is 3-2 with a 5.74 ERA.

Kansas City, meanwhile, will hand the ball to a young lefty of its own in
Danny Duffy, who is 3-8 with a 5.73 ERA. Duffy is winless in his last six
starts (0-4) and received a no-decision his last time out on Thursday in
Detroit, as he allowed five runs and six hits in five innings.

Duffy beat the A’s earlier in the year, holding them to a pair of runs in six
innings.

Kansas City used a five-run ninth inning to best Oakland, 11-6, in Monday’s
opener. Billy Butler went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs, while Eric Hosmer
contributed three hits and two RBI with two runs scored for the Royals, who
won for the third time in five outings.

“Since this unit’s been intact it’s been good,” Butler said of Kansas City’s
offense. “We’re all feeding off each other and driving balls, putting up
runs.”

Greg Holland (4-1) worked a scoreless eighth for the win. Felipe Paulino
started, but was pulled after 4 1/3 innings after allowing four hits and six
runs with four walks.

Scott Sizemore clubbed a three-run homer for the Athletics, who saw their
four-game win streak halted.

Andrew Bailey (0-4) recorded just one out in the ninth and was charged with
the loss, allowing three runs on three hits. Rich Harden yielded four runs on
eight hits but fanned 10 over his five-inning performance.

Oakland is 4-3 versus the Royals this season.

The Sports Network

There is the quick update of the day.