Last season the Oakland Athletics had four players entitled to the Air Jordan 13 Doernbecher batting title and 7 players take more than 400 plate appearances for that team. With Coco Crisp out for 6-8 weeks for elbow surgery, none of these seven players is going to be with the As once the season starts. The As hectic winter, such as the additions of Ben Zobrist, Billy Butler, Brett Lawrie, and Ike Davis, clouded somewhat just how far backward they continued the win curve. As Jeff Sullivan wrote in December, The As Are simply Doing What they Do, but all of the moves they provided po se s the As taking a potentially significant drop from last season when they were the fourth-highest scoring team in the league. With Reddick out for that first couple of games and Crisp now out for an extended period, giving more plate appearances to Billy Burns and Eric Sogardfurther weakens an offense that was already due for a step back. WithJosh Reddickand Coco Crisp out to start the season, not one from the top nine in plate appearances for that As last season will begin the season with Oakland.. Of these top nine, six provided very good production having a wOBA above .330 and Reddick may be the only returnee included in this. Within the FanGraphs Depth Charts projections, 93 Mlb players have a wOBA projection above .330, but only Ben Zobrist plays for the As. Imports Billy Butler, Ike Davis, and Brett Lawrie ought to provide excellent offense along with a hopefully full season of Josh Reddick will help, but the offense could take a big step back this year. The As were probably due for a slight correction regardle s of who they brought back his or her .312 wOBA was 13th and their 101 wRC+ was ninth in MLB. The projections show Oakland at 659 runs scored this season, below 729 in 2014. Losing nearly half a run per game will be a big blow to the As, currently projected to Air Jordan 5"Metallic Silver" position just 12th out of 15 American League teams in scoring. Using the Fangraphs Depth Charts for playing time, the ZiPS projections for that nine highest players when it comes to plate appearances with a minumum of one catcher is below, listed from highest offensive projection to lowest before Crisps injury. ZiPSAVGOBPSLGBen Zobrist.264.350.415Billy Butler.272.340.403Ike Davis.219.322.396Josh Reddick.245.308.433Brett Lawrie.254.314.395Coco Crisp.253.326.391Marcus Semien.237.317.389Stephen Vogt.251.298.390Sam Fuld.232.307.327AVG.247.320.393Ordered in that manner makes the offense look pretty good, especially when compared to last seasons .245/.321/.382 line, but that line includes no weaker bench plate appearances and this past year the As were second within the AL with a 117 wRC+ with men on base and also runner-up with runners in scoring position having a 112 wRC+. Taking Crisp away from the lineup further weakens they. The As could give Billy Burns the majority of the plate appearances within the outfield, but he is projected for a meager .234/.308/.286 line linked with a large amount of stolen bases. Oakland could let Eric Sogard start against right-handed pitchers and move Zobrist towards the outfield, where he will be regardle s to start the growing season with Reddick out. The As might be able to improve their hitting line just a little through appropriate platooning, but without the best of luck they'd last season with runners on base and also the good players they release, runs scored could go down considerably. The As are one of six teams with 12 players projected to finish with more than 250 plate appearances, the highest in MLB. Of these six teams, the As would be the just one having a 13th player getting over 200 plate appearances. Oakland figures to start plate appearances to maximise platoon splits whenever po sible. Ben Zobrist is aswitch hitter, and Billy Butler and Brett Lawrie are right-handers who figure to experience virtually every day. Marcus Semien figures to get the most of the plate Air Jordan 7 GS"Fuchsia Glow" appearances at shortstop, however the team has four regular left-handed starters in Ike Davis, Josh Reddick, Stephen Vogt and Sam Fuld. The four players figure to get rid of plate appearances to Craig Gentry, Mark Canha, and Stephen Vogt. Left-hander Eric Sogardcould see more playing time with Crisp out, while Billy Burns is really a switch hitter, but is not a good acce sory for the lineup from either side. Dan Szymborski recently provided platoon split projections therefore we can see how much of an impact platooning can have in Oakland. This is actually the projected lineup (not in projected batting order) against right-handers, nearly like the one listed above except Sogard is now set for Crisp and also the statistics below are the splits against righties. ZiPSAVG v RHOBP v RHSLG v RHBen Zobrist.259.347.414Billy Butler.268.331.393Ike Davis.225.332.414Josh Reddick.248.313.440Brett Lawrie.252.312.389Eric Sogard.245.307.321Marcus Semien.234.309.375Stephen Vogt.253.301.391Sam Fuld.236.314.330AVG.247.318.385The results have a hit without Crisp in the lineup, who was projected to be above league average in 2015. Against left-handers, Oakland is likely Air Jordan 6"Slam Dunk" to have a different tact. All fiveleft-handed starters are projected to po se s sub-.300 OBPs against lefties. Unfortunately for Oakland, they only appear to have three viable hitters in the future from the bench and take their spots. That leaves Josh Reddick within the lineup of all days, though away from the start of the season, and he is projected for any .177 ISO against lefties so he is able to still perform some damage. Billy Burns will probably receive more playing time too, although Sogard could be a full-time starter at second. Neither player helps the offense. Here is a potential lineup against left-handers using their splits against lefties. ZiPSAVG v LHOBP v LHSLG v LHBen Zobrist.273.356.415Billy Butler.283.360.428Mark Canha.241.319.366Josh Reddick.238.296.415Brett Lawrie.257.318.407Billy Burns.232.310.280Marcus Semien.241.328.409Josh Phegley.233.275.369Craig Gentry.259.333.336AVG.251.322.381Gentry constitutes a big difference over Fuld, but he does not deserve the full-time job with just a .250/.312/.300 projected line against right-handers. Phegley does not offer much while at bat, while Canha is decent although not an upgrade over Davis against righties. Along with Gentry, the majority of the rise against left-handers is a result of the everyday right-handed starters gaining the platoon advantage, but slugging moves down with Burns within the lineup. Comparing the everyday lineup without platoon splits to the two with platoon splits helpOakland a little bit, but don't bridge the space entirely. LineupBAOBPSLGw/ Crisp.247.320.393v RH w/o Crisp.247.318.385V LH w/o Crisp.251.322.381Platooning cannot make up for the lo s of Crisp without good players to connect the lineup.Finding platoon players is really a useful strategy for Oakland as players like Fuld and Gentry, Davis and Canha, and Vogt and Phegley are cheaper to obtain in salary as well as in trade without the full-time label. Unfortunately for Oakland, those combinations don't yield much in the game. The As ought to be fine in the catcher position and Fuld and Gentry will be pa sable in center field, however the As will be receiving substandard production from first base and Jordan Spizike"Wolf Grey" either left field or second base, wherever Zobrist is not playing. Since moving Yoenis Cespedes last season, the As have also parted ways with Josh Donaldson, Brandon Mo s, Derek Norris, Jed Lowrie, and John Jaso. Ben Zobrist could make up for a lot of the lost production. Brett Lawrie can help too with Ike Davis, Billy Butler, and Marcus Semien all potentially useful players, but the production from this past year was going to be tough to match prior to the lack of Crisp. Evena return to form from Billy Butler along with a breakout from Brett Lawrie might not make up for the mi sing players andthe high production with runners on from last season. The Oakland offense was likely to regre s regardle s of who had been cut back, however the Crisp injury further weakens a lineup already expected to score le s than they did in 2014. They've found surprising causes of offense in the past years. Billy Burns could single and steal his way to a really surprising year or Eric Sogard could improve from a dreadful 2014, but as they enter 2015, they end up behind the Mariners and Angels in the AL West.