2003 Oakland Athletics season

The Oakland Athletics' 2003 season ended with the A's finishing first in the American League West with a record of 96 wins and 66 losses.

2003 Oakland Athletics
American League West Champions
League	American League
Division	West
Ballpark	Network Associates Coliseum
City	Oakland, California
Record	96–66 (.593)
Divisional place	1st
Owners	Stephen Schott & Kenneth Hofmann
General managers	Billy Beane
Managers	Ken Macha
Television	KICU-TV FSN Bay Area (Ray Fosse, Greg Papa)
Radio	KFRC (Bill King, Ken Korach, Ray Fosse)
← 2002 Seasons 2004 →

Offseason

• December 15, 2002: Felipe López was traded as part of a 4-team trade by the Toronto Blue Jays to the Cincinnati Reds. The Oakland Athletics sent a player to be named later to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Arizona Diamondbacks sent Erubiel Durazo to the Oakland Athletics. The Cincinnati Reds sent Elmer Dessens and cash to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Oakland Athletics sent Jason Arnold (minors) (December 16, 2002) to the Toronto Blue Jays to complete the trade.^[1]
• December 16, 2002: Neal Cotts was sent by the Oakland Athletics to the Chicago White Sox to complete an earlier deal made on December 3, 2002. The Oakland Athletics sent players to be named later and Billy Koch to the Chicago White Sox for Keith Foulke, Mark L. Johnson, Joe Valentine, and cash. The Oakland Athletics sent Neal Cotts (December 16, 2002) and Daylon Holt (minors) (December 16, 2002) to the Chicago White Sox to complete the trade.^[2]
• January 27, 2003: John-Ford Griffin was traded by the Oakland Athletics to the Toronto Blue Jays for a player to be named later. The Toronto Blue Jays sent Jason Perry (minors) (June 23, 2003) to the Oakland Athletics to complete the trade.^[3]

Regular season

Season standings

• v
• t
• e

AL West

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Oakland Athletics	96	66	.593	—	57‍–‍24	39‍–‍42
Seattle Mariners	93	69	.574	3	50‍–‍31	43‍–‍38
Anaheim Angels	77	85	.475	19	45‍–‍37	32‍–‍48
Texas Rangers	71	91	.438	25	43‍–‍38	28‍–‍53

Record vs. opponents

2003 American League record v t e Sources:
Team	ANA	BAL	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	KC	MIN	NYY	OAK	SEA	TB	TEX	TOR	NL
Anaheim	—	1–8	3–6	3–4	6–3	6–1	6–3	5–4	3–6	8–12	8–11	6–3	9–10	2–7	11–7
Baltimore	8–1	—	9–10	2–4	3–3	3–3	3–4	3–4	6–13–1	2–7	4–5	8–11	7–2	8–11	5–13
Boston	6–3	10–9	—	5–4	4–2	8–1	5–1	2–4	9–10	3–4	5–2	12–7	5–4	10–9	11–7
Chicago	4–3	4–2	4–5	—	11–8	11–8	11–8	9–10	4–2	4–5	2–7	3–3	3–4	6–3	10–8
Cleveland	3–6	3–3	2–4	8–11	—	12–7	6–13	9–10	2–5	3–6	3–6	5–2	4–5	2–4	6–12
Detroit	1–6	3–3	1–8	8–11	7–12	—	5–14	4–15	1–5	3–6	1–8	2–4	1–6	2–7	4–14
Kansas City	3–6	4–3	1–5	8–11	13–6	14–5	—	11–8	2–4	2–7	4–5	4–3	7–2	1–5	9–9
Minnesota	4–5	4–3	4–2	10–9	10–9	15–4	8–11	—	0–7	8–1	3–6	6–0	5–4	3–3	10–8
New York	6–3	13–6–1	10–9	2–4	5–2	5–1	4–2	7–0	—	3–6	5–4	14–5	4–5	10–9	13–5
Oakland	12–8	7–2	4–3	5–4	6–3	6–3	7–2	1–8	6–3	—	7–12	6–3	15–4	5–2	9–9
Seattle	11–8	5–4	2–5	7–2	6–3	8–1	5–4	6–3	4–5	12–7	—	4–5	10–10	3–4	10–8
Tampa Bay	3–6	11–8	7–12	3–3	2–5	4–2	3–4	0–6	5–14	3–6	5–4	—	3–6	11–8	3–15
Texas	10–9	2–7	4–5	4–3	5–4	6–1	2–7	4–5	5–4	4–15	10–10	6–3	—	5–4	4–14
Toronto	7–2	11–8	9–10	3–6	4–2	7–2	5–1	3–3	9–10	2–5	4–3	8–11	4–5	—	10–8

Transactions

• June 3, 2003: J.R. Towles was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 23rd round of the 2003 amateur draft, but did not sign.^[4]
• July 30, 2003: Aaron Harang was traded by the Oakland Athletics with Jeff Bruksch (minors) and Joe Valentine to the Cincinnati Reds for Jose Guillen.^[5]

Roster

2003 Oakland Athletics
Roster
Pitchers 57 Micah Bowie 53 Chad Bradford 58 Justin Duchscherer 33 Jeremy Fikac 29 Keith Foulke 54 John Halama 56 Aaron Harang 16,40 Rich Harden 32 Chad Harville 15 Tim Hudson 31 Ted Lilly 45 Jim Mecir 20 Mark Mulder 49 Mike Neu 73 Ricardo Rincón 37 Steve Sparks 51 Mike Wood 75 Barry Zito		Catchers 55 Ramón Hernández  7 Mark Johnson 17 Adam Melhuse Infielders  3 Eric Chavez 8,7 Bobby Crosby 44 Erubiel Durazo 14 Mark Ellis 50 Esteban Germán 10 Scott Hatteberg 18 Graham Koonce 11 Frank Menechino  4 Miguel Tejada		Outfielders 22 Eric Byrnes 24 Jermaine Dye 21 Mike Edwards  5 Ron Gant 23 Jason Grabowski  6 José Guillén 12 Terrence Long  8 David McCarty 13 Billy McMillon  8 Adam Piatt  2 Chris Singleton		Manager 39 Ken Macha Coaches 41 Thad Bosley (hitting) 35 Brad Fischer (first base) 47 Terry Francona (bench) 52 Bob Geren (bullpen) 46 Rick Peterson (pitching) 38 Ron Washington (third base)

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Players	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Ramón Hernández	140	483	132	.273	21	78
1B	Scott Hatteberg	147	541	137	.253	12	61
2B	Mark Ellis	154	553	137	.248	9	52
SS	Miguel Tejada	162	636	177	.278	27	106
3B	Eric Chavez	154	588	166	.282	29	101
LF	Terrence Long	140	486	119	.245	14	61
CF	Chris Singleton	120	306	75	.245	1	36
RF	Jermaine Dye	65	221	38	.172	4	20
DH	Erubiel Durazo	154	537	139	.259	21	77

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Eric Byrnes	121	414	109	.263	12	51
José Guillén	45	170	45	.265	8	23
Billy McMillon	66	153	41	.268	6	26
Adam Piatt	47	100	24	.240	4	15
Frank Menechino	43	83	16	.193	2	9
Adam Melhuse	40	77	23	.299	5	14
Ron Gant	17	41	6	.146	1	4
Mark Johnson	13	27	3	.111	0	3
Dave McCarty	8	26	7	.269	0	2
Bobby Crosby	11	12	0	.000	0	0
Jason Grabowski	8	8	0	.000	0	0
Graham Koonce	6	8	1	.125	0	0
Mike Edwards	4	4	1	.250	0	0
Esteban Germán	5	4	1	.250	0	1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Tim Hudson	34	240.0	16	7	2.70	162
Barry Zito	35	231.2	14	12	3.30	146
Mark Mulder	26	186.2	15	9	3.13	128
Ted Lilly	32	178.1	12	10	4.34	147
Rich Harden	15	74.2	5	4	4.46	67

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
John Halama	35	108.2	3	5	4.22	51
Aaron Harang	7	30.1	1	3	5.34	16
Justin Duchscherer	4	16.1	1	1	3.31	15
Mike Wood	7	13.2	2	1	10.54	15

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Keith Foulke	72	9	1	43	2.08	88
Chad Bradford	72	7	4	2	3.04	62
Ricardo Rincón	64	8	4	0	3.25	40
Jim Mecir	41	2	3	1	5.59	25
Mike Neu	32	0	0	1	3.64	20
Chad Harville	21	1	0	1	5.82	18
Jeremy Fikac	14	0	1	0	4.50	9
Steve Sparks	9	0	0	0	5.71	5
Micah Bowie	6	0	1	0	7.56	4

Postseason

2003 ALDS

Main article: 2003 American League Division Series

Game 1: Oakland 5 – Boston 4.

Game 2: Oakland 5 – Boston 1.

Game 3: Boston 3 – Oakland 1.

Game 4: Boston 5 – Oakland 4.

Game 5: Boston 4 – Oakland 3.

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Sacramento River Cats	Pacific Coast League	Tony DeFrancesco
AA	Midland RockHounds	Texas League	Greg Sparks
A	Modesto A's	California League	Rick Rodriguez
A	Kane County Cougars	Midwest League	Webster Garrison
A-Short Season	Vancouver Canadians	Northwest League	Dennis Rogers
Rookie	AZL Athletics	Arizona League	Ruben Escalera

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Sacramento

References

1. Felipe Lopez Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
2. "Neal Cotts Stats".
3. John-Ford Griffin Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
4. "J.R. Towles Stats".
5. "Aaron Harang Stats".

• 2003 Oakland Athletics team page at Baseball Reference
• 2003 Oakland Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com
• Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-1-932391-17-6.