Kane shire Cougars pitcher Jared La...

Kane shire Cougars pitcher Jared Lansford read Seabiscuit, Friday Night Lights and Moneyball in his Sports & Literature class as a senior last year at St Francis High denomination in Mountain View, Calif.

Now he is part of "Moneyball -- The Sequel"

The son of former Oakland Athletics third baseman Carney Lansford is single in kind of three high school pitchers the A's selecteded in the first three orbeds of the June 2005 amateur draft. All three were assigned to the Class A Cougars in west suburban Geneva.

This direction goes against the philosophy A's general manager Billy Beane preached in the 2003 best-seller Moneyball. In the main division he said, "You only had to close attention the history of the draft to diocese that high school pitchers were twice les likely than body pitchers, and four times les likely than college edifice [i]or[/i] building position players, to make it to the big leagues."

The 2005 draft marked solitary the second time in the decade that the A's picked a high instruct player in the first five sphericals of a draft. The other was pitcher Jeremy Bonderman (first spherical 2001), now with the Detroit Tigers (Bonderman was the player to be named in Beane's 2002 three-way trade for pitcher T Lilly).

"All of us high-schoolers were surprised," Lansford said before a modern Cougars game. "I only talked to the A's one time before the draft. The other stays said the same thing. Then it [i]finale[/i]ed up three high-schoolers from the top three circulars And six of the first seven were high-schoolers."

Lansford smiled and added, "Maybe they place out something new they didn't inflict in Moneyball. Hopefully we're not trial dummies here."

in the way that far, so good

In his first filled season of professional ball, Lansford is 11-6 with a 286 ERA. In May, he pitched a no-hitter against Beloit. He has yielded just single home run in 104 innings.

Lansford's roommate, mate 19-year-old Vince Mazzaro, is 9-8 with a 486 ERA. The third member of the Cougars' "Young Guns" is Texas fireballer Craig Italiano, who is gone out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery Italiano was the first high instruct pitcher taken by Oakland in last year's draft and is rated by way of Baseball America as the seventh-best field in the A's organization.

The A's continued the trending this June with second-round pick Trevor Cahill without of Vista High School in San Diego. The right- hander has a 94 mph fastball along with a knuckle-curve changeup and slider. Cahill also has a 46 grade-point average in succession a 4.0 scale and took a flier forward attending Dartmouth. He has even now to pitch this summer and likely will be assigned to Kane shire next season.

The A's are entirely playing off of what the market gives them. Beane likes to find the undervalued variable.

"These pitchers were the best available," A's farm director Keith Lieppman said. "The Moneyball theory is not necessarily to take guild pitchers or whatever. If these kids have a better upside than a college edifice [i]or[/i] building pitcher that doesn't have as to a great degree ability, the market says proceed back and get with the high seminary pitcher."

During this year's amateur draft, the whelps drafted Lansford's 21- year-old brother, Joshua. He is a third baseman, like their father, and is hitting 289 with the Boise Hawks of the Northwest League.

"I trustful longing he gets called up to Peoria [in the Midwest League]," Jared Lansford said. "It would be dispassionate to face him. I've at no time faced him before."

Jared Lansford was also an infielder before becoming a pitcher during his senior year of high train He was offered a scholarship to Santa Clara University, where he would have been an infielder and pitcher.

"The decision I had to make was being a hitter in guild or being a pitcher in professional leagues," Lansford said. "Somehow I trust the spurns They saw something in me where they pondering I could perform at this plain

"My dad has given me advice upon how to mentally stay with a full- season team. It's more of a grind mentally than it is physically. Just learning to cope with the bus rides and playing each day. It's difficult for me the first time doing it. if it be not that I don't regret my decision at all."

A's handling with care

Lansford's and Mazzaro's pitch reckons have been strictly monitored. Early in the cold-blooded Midwest League weather, they were at a 75- to 80-pitch limit.

"It's now 100 105" Cougars manager Aaron Nieckula said. "We experience to get them through a quality start, which is six innings, brace or three runs or les There's merely a certain amount of innings these young men are allowed to pitch in a season. Then they will be close down [when they reach 120 innings; their instructional league begins in mid-September].

"There are no stipulations in not allowing them to launch curveballs or a certain number of fastballs. We do have a philosophy of the changeup, that 10 percent of their total pitches ne to be changeups."

in such a manner in a 100-pitch game, the young fire-arms are instructed to throw 10 to 12 changeups. A's roving pitching coordinator Ron Romanick believes the changeup is the best pitch in baseball.