It's Opening Day!

Since we welcomed you to Papago Park in February, Steve Schott sold the team to Wolff, who made A's fans happy by extending Beane's and Rich Harden's contracts. Then, he did not move the team to San Jose. SFist likes Lewis Wolff so far, and we set our clocks ahead ready to talk about baseball. Get excited, already.

It's silly to compare this year's starting rotation to last year's, but we like what we see. Zito is Zito. The A's are lucky to have him. He'll pitch 200 innings and his curve will fool AL hitters. Badly. Also, he'll say something goofy about Zen or surfing to a bunch of sportswriters, who will write about how he's, like, Californian and, y'know, not your typical ballplayer. Harden throws really, really, hard. Danny Haren looked good all spring and struck out six Giants in six innings on Saturday at the Coliseum, and Joe Blanton is the Next Big Thing. Kirk Saarloos, Dan Meyer and Seth Etherton, all waiting in Sacramento, should provide a good competition for the fifth starter's spot between now and September. Believers in the wisdom and leadership of grizzled veterans who ìknow how to winî will point out that Zito is only 26 and he's the team's oldest starter; of course, Zito is only 26 and he has a Cy Young Award.

The bullpen, of course, is drastically improved from 2004. Octavio Dotel and Huston Street should dominate the late innings. Street, in fact, looked so good in spring training that there's already been talk of trading Dotel so the rookie can close games. Between Kiko Calero, Juan Cruz, Keichi Yabu, Justin Duchscherer, a reduced role for Ricardo Rincon and the absence of Jim Mecir, middle relief looks solid for the first time in a while.

For all that confidence about the pitching staff, Tim Hudson is a Brave, Mark Mulder is a Cardinal, and the A's will probably need more offense than they've had in a while. Most of their 2004 lineup returns, and the significant changes seem like upgrades:

Behind the plate, Jason Kendall looks good. Way better than Damian Miller. We didn't know how good Kendall was until last week, when Sports Illustrated said he has Hall of Fame stats, then picked the A's to finish third in the AL West anyway.

Designated hitter Erubiel Durazo is a really good hitter, and he walks a lot, and that's pretty much his only job. At first base, Scott Hatteberg had a career year in 2004, and 2005 is the last year of his contract. Plus, look what he told the Chronicle a couple weeks ago:

I get ribbed about being the old guy . . . Here, if you drink wine and read a book, you're the old fart.

We old farts at SFist lower our novels and raise our glasses to 35 year old Scott Hatteberg.

After missing the entire 2004 season, Mark Ellis is back at second base, a defensive whiz and an upgrade at the plate over Marco Scutaro and Mark McLemore. Bobby Crosby, who knocked Ellis out for the 2004 season, returns to play shortstop. Rookie of the Year or not, Crosby had a lousy second half in 2004, and wound up hitting .239. He spent the spring trying to shorten his swing and keep his hands back, which sounds about right. He should get better.

In rightfield, Nick Swisher is the presumptive favorite to inherit Crosby's award. Mark Kotsay is an excellent defensive centerfielder and leadoff hitter, so it's good that the A's are playing him in centerfield and batting him leadoff. And against all expectations, Eric Byrnes is still on the team, playing leftfield and, from what we could tell Thursday night, doing yoga on the outfield grass between at-bats. Byrnesie plays baseball like he's on fire and having fun; we're glad he wasn't traded for prospects. Reserve outfielders Charles Thomas and Bobby Kielty are solid major leaguers and, along with Scutaro and Keith Ginter, make up a talented and versatile bench.

Oh, one more guy: perennial Gold Glove third baseman and badass lefthanded bat Eric Chavez, who gets better every year and was pretty damn good in 2004. Chavvy, who usually doesn't start hitting until mid-May, had a monster Cactus League season, which doesn't mean much but still. He's the best player on the team, he's really cool, and if the A's contend for the division titleówhich it says here they willóhe contends for the MVP.

Get excited. It's Opening Day.

Photo is the Oakland Coliseum Stadium, before some football team built a bunch of seats that block the view.