CEDAR RAPIDS — Yes, Ryan Sweeney has seen “Moneyball.”

He and his Oakland Athletics teammates attended the premiere for the ballyhooed baseball movie about their general manager, Billy Beane, in late September in Oakland, Calif. Sweeney and his wife, Natasha, got to meet Brad Pitt and get some photos taken.

“Only talked to him for about five minutes,” said Sweeney, 26. “We went to an after party with everyone, and he had a bunch of (security) guys surrounding him. It was like ‘OK, don’t bother this guy.’”

Sad to say, but getting to hobnob with some of Hollywood’s elite may have been the highlight of Sweeney’s summer. The outfielder and Cedar Rapids resident batted .265 with a home run and 25 RBIs in 108 games, with a career-low 264 at-bats.

The A’s acquired veteran outfielders Josh Willingham and David DeJesus last off-season, who cut into Sweeney’s playing time significantly. He was part-time for the first time, and that was tough for him to adjust to.

“A disappointing season for me,” he said.

Sweeney said it was difficult for him to get into a groove offensively because of his sporadic playing time. He hadn’t experienced that in pro ball and doesn’t really want to again, saying his goal is to be Oakland’s starting center fielder next season.

Willingham, DeJesus and fellow outfielders Coco Crisp and Hideki Matsui are free agents, and it’s unclear if the Athletics are interested in all or any. Sweeney made $1.4 million this season, his first as a salary arbitration eligible player.

According to an estimate by the Oakland Tribune, he is looking at about a $1.6 million salary next season. Oakland has until Dec. 13 to tender him a contract or he will become a free agent.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Either way, it’s not like I’m in a bad situation. I’m not worried about it at all. I’m only 26 years old. I still feel like I haven’t touched on what I can do as a player.”

Other than a late-season problem with a quadriceps, Sweeney said he made it through the season unscathed from an injury standpoint.

The bottom line is he’s happy to be near his family and on the golf course regularly. And he’s ecstatic the 2011 season is in the rearview mirror.

“A weird season for me. Such a mentally frustrating season,” Sweeney said. “I told everybody that I’m just coming home, and I’m not watching baseball, I’m not talking about baseball for a month.”

Read More: Ryan Sweeney (RF – OAK), Guillermo Moscoso (P – OAK), Hideki Matsui (DH – OAK), Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics send out Guillermo Moscoso to face Zach Britton and the Baltimore Orioles Sunday afternoon at 1:05pm pacific. The A’s will be looking to secure their first series sweep of the season and climb back to the .500 mark for the first time since May 19. The A’s have won four of their last five games and the AL West is bunching up fairly tightly. Oakland remains in last place but is only 1 1/2 games out of first.

The A’s continue their pattern of sitting Hideki Matsui and Ryan Sweeney against left-handed pitchers. I had raised a question about playing Sweeney more often and somebody at Athletics Nation followed up with a similar question. However, as the comments show in the AN FanPost, Sweeney has found the most success against right-handed pitchers. If that’s what it takes to keep Sweeney in the lineup, so be it.

Oakland Athletics
1. Coco Crisp CF
2. Daric Barton 1B
3. Conor Jackson LF
4. Josh Willingham DH
5. Kurt Suzuki C
6. David DeJesus RF
7. Mark Ellis 2B
8. Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
9. Cliff Pennington SS

Read More: Tim Lincecum (P – SFG), Conor Jackson (LF – OAK), Ryan Sweeney (RF – OAK), Landon Powell (C – OAK), Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics offense faces one of their toughest challenges of the season on Saturday as they battle San Francisco Giants Tim Lincecum. Although Lincecum has a record of 3-4, he is pitching much better than any win/loss record would show. The A’s best chance to get him out of the game and get into the Giants bullpen is to run up the pitch count. The Rockies defeated him that way as they had him out of the game in the middle of the sixth inning. Lincecum had thrown 22 innings without giving up a run before the Rockies worked him into a jam.

The A’s have made a couple of adjustments in their lineup for Saturday’s contest. They’ve replaced Dave DeJesus and Josh Willingham in the lineup with Ryan Sweeney and Conor Jackson. Additionally, Landon Powell will start in place of Kurt Suzuki. Sweeney and Jackson have been two of the A’s better hitters this season, although both have struggled at times to get consistent playing time. In 31 games, Jackson has a line of .270/.353/.371. In 29 games, Sweeney has a line of .317/.414/.400. While those lines aren’t spectacular, they represent a sizable improvement over what the A’s normal lineup has done to date.

Oakland Athletics
1. Coco Crisp CF
2. Daric Barton 1B
3. Ryan Sweeney RF
4. Conor Jackson LF
5. Mark Ellis 2B
6. Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
7. Landon Powell C
8. Cliff Pennington SS
9. Brett Anderson P

Read More: Colby Lewis (P – TEX), David DeJesus (RF – OAK), Josh Willingham (LF – OAK), Hideki Matsui (DH – OAK), Ryan Sweeney (RF – OAK), Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics face the Texas Rangers Tuesday night in Arlington looking to improve to a season-high three games over .500. The A’s improved to a season-high two games over .500 Monday night as they defeated the Rangers 7-2, powered by Josh Willingham’s five RBIs.

The A’s will get Hideki Matsui back into the lineup after he sat out a pair of games against left-handed pitchers. He will DH tonight and hit in the fifth spot. Coco Crisp gets the night off as the A’s will start Ryan Sweeney in center. Sweeney gets a boost into the third spot in the batting order, while David DeJesus will hit leadoff. In limited play Sweeney has been on fire, hitting .350 on the season and .615 over his last week’s worth of at bats.

Brett Anderson will make the start for the A’s, squaring off with Colby Lewis. The two faced off on April 30 in Oakland with Lewis prevailing as Anderson suffered his worst outing of the year. Anderson gave up seven earned runs over five innings as the A’s lost 11-2. Lewis gave up just two runs over eight innings in the best performance of what has been an up and down season.

Oakland Athletics
1. David DeJesus RF
2. Daric Barton 1B
3. Ryan Sweeney CF
4. Josh Willingham LF
5. Hideki Matsui DH
6. Kurt Suzuki C
7. Mark Ellis 2B
8. Andy LaRoche 3B
9. Cliff Pennington SS

Texas Rangers
1. Julio Borbon CF
2. Elvis Andrus SS
3. Ian Kinsler 2B
4. Michael Young DH
5. Mitch Moreland 1B
6. Adrian Beltre 3B
7. David Murphy LF
8. Mike Napoli C
9. Craig Gentry RF

PHOENIX

Ryan Sweeney has his knees back. Now it’s time to see about his job.

The Oakland Athletics’ regular right fielder and arguably their best pure hitter much of the past three years – at least when healthy – Sweeney’s status as an everyday player is suddenly in limbo in the A’s fortified outfield.

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But he’s not worried about that just yet. On Wednesday, Sweeney simply will be elated to play in his first live baseball game since last July 11, when he went on the disabled list and subsequently had season-ending surgery on his right knee to correct long-standing issues with patella tendinitis.

Sweeney, 26, has had chronic tendinitis issues in both knees, but after having surgery performed by renowned Colorado orthopedist Dr. J. Richard Steadman on July 30, he believes his problems may be over. He rehabbed his left knee while undergoing therapy for his surgically repaired right, and said he is feeling no pain in either knee for the first time in two years.

“They both feel great, and hopefully it’s past me now and I don’t have to worry about it anymore,” Sweeney said. “I can just go out there and play. I’m hoping that’ll make me a better player, too.”

Sweeney has been a consistently productive hitter – albeit one lacking power – ever since he came to the A’s along with pitcher Gio Gonzalez in the January 2008 Nick Swisher trade with the Chicago White Sox. He has a .291 average in 331 games with Oakland, including .301 in 906 at-bats against right-handed pitching.

He was hitting .294 last season, much of it while in consistent pain, when he came to a mutual decision with the club that it would be in his best interests to have the surgery so he could begin the 2011 season healthy. He doesn’t regret the timing, even though it left the club in a lurch in right field.

“As far as running and cutting and stopping, it hurt more when I ran,” he said. “But I think it affected me more when I was hitting because I was thinking about it and I wasn’t thinking about what I was supposed to be doing. It was like, ‘Oh God, am I going to hit one in the gap and have to run?’

“I was playing pretty good and dealing with it, but it was one of those things the doctor said it was going to keep lingering on,” Sweeney continued. “It just needed to be done because I didn’t want to miss 4-5 months of (this) year.”

Sweeney was cleared to started hitting in December and came to Arizona on Jan. 28 to get a head start on his running and conditioning programs. That phase of his rehab completed, now it’s a matter of therapeutic maintenance and good luck.

Will healthy knees impact his power numbers? Sweeney, a left-handed hitter, said the pain in his right knee often limited his swing on the front side. As a result, he hit just one home run in 82 games. He hit six in 2009.

“Maybe now I’ll pick certain counts where I might let it go a little bit and try to drive the ball a little bit more,” he said. “But I’m not going to try to change the kind of player I am.”

Even though Sweeney pronounced himself 100 percent, manager Bob Geren said the A’s will be exceedingly careful even now that he’s ready to play. The outfielder will begin with a one-day-on/two-day-off playing schedule and progress from there, even if it means he might not be ready for opening day.

“I want to see how he responds from being on his feet in the outfield and on the bases,” Geren said. “If it comes down to the end of spring training and he needs more at-bats, we could ramp up his at-bats in some minor league games.”

But even when he’s ready to play every day, will he? With the additions of David DeJesus and Josh Willingham, Sweeney’s not an automatic anymore. His versatility will help – Geren projects he’ll be playing all three outfield spots over the course of the season – but it remains to be seen how it will all unfold.

“As far as guys rotating and who’s going to play against what, the season will kind of dictate that,” Sweeney said. “Hopefully, everybody just gets as many at-bats as possible and it works out.”

- Story by Carl Steward, The Oakland Tribune

Read More: Ryan Sweeney (RF – OAK), Landon Powell (C – OAK), Josh Donaldson (C – OAK), Oakland Athletics

Susan Slusser checked in from the Oakland Athletics first day of 2011 spring training yesterday with a variety of tweets regarding player health. According to Slusser, Ryan Sweeney is 100% after patella surgery and Landon Powell has reportedly dropped 15 pounds as he’ll battle with Josh Donaldson for backup playing time behind Kurt Suzki. The A’s offseason acquisitions of David DeJesus and Josh Willingham will leave Sweeney battling for time as a utility outfielder. Of course, given the injury issues the A’s have faced in recent years, one would imagine many of the backups will see plenty of playing time in 2011.

Cliff Pennington is arguably the most significant injury issue at this point, and he should be ready by the second week of games. Apparently he’s hitting from the left side, but not from the right side. Andrew Bailey has also dropped upwards of 15 pounds as he is preparing to rebound from September elbow surgery.

As spring training is kicking off, Athletics Nation put together a look at some of the A’s various under-the-radar stories kicking around in Phoenix. Among other things, AN takes a look Andy LaRoche’s talent, Bobby Cramer’s changeup, and some of the less discussed bullpen stories. Today, they have an open thread discussing the injury issues mentioned above.