Aces Wild

If this is the year that the A's three dominant (and cocky) starters put it all together at the same time, watch out

By Phil Taylor, Sports Illustrated

Issue date: March 31, 2003

Unlike other notable threesomes (Tinker, Evers and Chance; Jordan, Pippen and Rodman; Moe, Larry and Curly, to name a few), there is no order to the trio of Oakland A's aces that slides off the tongue naturally. In fact, when members of the Oakland organization discuss pitchers Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, they seem consciously not to mention them in the same sequence twice. If you hear Zito, Mulder, Hudson first, you are sure to hear Mulder, Hudson, Zito or some other permutation next. "It must be because they're so equal," says third baseman Eric Chavez. "It's like a circle. Anyplace you want to start is just as good as anyplace else."

Round and round the circle goes. Although they are but three of Oakland's five starters, Mulder, Hudson and Zito are in many ways a rotation unto themselves. No matter in what order they appear, they subject hitters to a full range of pitching styles and temperaments. Batters have to step in against the demonstrative Zito, a lefthander working up in the strike zone with his roller coaster of a curveball; the intense Hudson, a righthander whose split-fingered fastball is diving at the dirt; and the unflappable Mulder, a lefty with downward movement on his pitches more similar to Hudson's.

During the three years they have been in Oakland together, Hudson, 27, Mulder, 25, and Zito, 24, have a combined .693 winning percentage (149-66). And over that span there have been only 14 instances in which two of them lost in back-to-back games, and only two occasions when they combined to lose three in a row. Individually, their accomplishments are equally impressive. They've all had a 20-win season. Mulder and Zito won the 2001 and '02 American League Cy Young Awards, respectively. Hudson has the most career wins (64), Mulder has the most lifetime shutouts (five), and Zito has the lowest career ERA (3.04). Hudson (7.03) and Zito (7.80) average more strikeouts per nine innings than Mulder (6.10); however, with the fewest walks per nine innings (2.67), Mulder has exhibited the best control.

Each has been Oakland's best pitcher in one of the last three years. The idea that all of them could have a dominant season in the same year is a most daunting prospect. And it could happen in 2003. If it does, the A's--who have the capable duo of Ted Lilly and John Halama at the back end of their rotation--would be the team to beat in the AL.

"They're not just three Number 1 starters, they're three Cy Young-caliber pitchers," says Anaheim Angels manager Mike Scioscia. "When Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz were at the top of their games for the Atlanta Braves, I think most people believed it would be a long time before we saw three starting pitchers on one team that could match them. Well, here they are."

The Braves' trio thrived on friendly competition, continually trying to outdo one another in every category from highest batting average to lowest golf score, but Oakland's threesome has no such intramural battles. They push each other in another way. "Basically, it's a fear of being the worst," says Zito. "It's not so much that each of us wants to outdo the others. It's more that none of us wants to be the one who stops the momentum that the other two have started. If the other two throw great and you don't, you feel like a donkey."

Yet none of the three is the type to dwell on a bad outing. All of them have a level of self-confidence--"You can call us cocky," says Hudson, "and you wouldn't be the first"--that allows them to treat a loss as some sort of freak occurrence. "I've lost a Game 5 in back-to-back years," says Mulder, referring to defeats in the deciding games of Oakland's Division Series against the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins in 2001 and '02, respectively. "So I've had to get pretty good at getting over things. That's one thing all three of us have in common: We lose a game, we don't sulk; we go back to work."

That cockiness also allows Zito, Mulder and Hudson to exchange a fair amount of smack among themselves without anyone's taking offense. They dig at each other in the way that only good friends can. A favorite target for Hudson and Mulder is Zito's golf game, or lack thereof. "I can't say he's horrible," says Mulder. "Well, yes, I can. He's horrible." In fairness, Mulder does point out that Zito is a novice, having played only a handful of times. One of those occasions was with a group that included Hudson. "We were going to this pretty high-class course," Hudson says. "When I go to pick up Zito, he comes out wearing typical Zito: black pinstripe pants and a powder blue bowling shirt with VINNY over the pocket. If you're going to dress like that, you'd better be able to play, and Zito can't play. But by the 10th hole we had a few toddies in us, so it didn't really matter."

Zito and Hudson can make no such attacks on Mulder's golf game--he's a 3 handicap, the best on the team--or much of anything else about him, for that matter. "He's one of those guys who drives you crazy, because there's nothing he's not good at," Hudson says, smiling. "He's tall, good-looking, a great pitcher, whips everyone on the golf course and has all kinds of women chasing after him. Makes you sick, doesn't it?"

Although the three men have different off-field interests--while Mulder usually heads for a golf course, Zito reaches for his guitar (he has been playing for three years and performs occasionally in Bay Area coffeehouses), and Hudson, the only married one, goes home to be with wife Kim and their one-year-old daughter, Kennedy Rose--they do spend time together away from the ballpark. Hudson and Mulder have been out with Zito enough to know, for instance, that they'd better bring their wallets. "Zito never has money," Mulder says. "If you take a cab with him, be prepared to pay for it. He's not cheap, he just never has any cash."

Zito's peculiarities are well-documented (SI, Jan. 15, 2001), such as bringing his lucky fuscia pillowcase on the road, collecting stuffed animals and burning aromatherapy candles in his hotel room. At the same time he is a model of concentration and preparation when it comes to pitching. "He's different, no doubt about that, but he's also incredibly serious and mature about what he does on the mound," says new A's manager Ken Macha. "That really is the common thread among all three of those guys. Their preparation--studying hitters, watching video, conditioning, taking care of their arms, getting in the proper frame of mind to pitch--all of that is uniformly excellent. They are very different pitchers in terms of what they throw and how they throw it, but their foundation is very much the same."

Hudson and Mulder have picked up on some of Zito's methods of preparation, particularly the mental aspects. Zito believes in "putting out positive energy," as he calls it, and he writes notes to himself to help him maintain that energy. He posts the notes everywhere, from the walls of his apartment to under the bill of his cap. "There was a time when he was having trouble getting lefthanded hitters out, so he wrote a note to himself that said, ALL LEFTIES FEAR ME," says Hudson. "And after a while, they did."

The Oakland aces study one another's pitching performance almost as much as they scrutinize opposing hitters. Every one of their starts is like a tutorial for the other two. "Sometimes it's not anything specific, it's just stuff that rubs off," says Mulder. "You watch Huddy handle a first-and-second, no-out situation. You see the way he steps onto the rubber like he's in complete control. It's nothing that one guy can communicate to another, it's just something that you see and pick up on."

They do not sit down for long discussions on pitching mechanics or philosophy. Their consultations tend to be quicker and considerably hipper. "Last year I struggled against [Angels outfielder] Garret Anderson," says Zito. "Dude was just rakin' me. So I went to Mulder and said, 'How do you go at this guy?' And he told me a few things. I was like, 'Cool, thanks.'"

Hudson is the one most often asked for advice, at least partly because he's the elder statesman who beat Mulder and Zito to the majors by a year. "I was already in Triple A when Huddy came up from Double A in '99," says Mulder. "It seemed like he was there for about a day, and then he was on to the big leagues." Hudson asserts his seniority every now and then. As he walked past Zito, who was talking to a reporter in the clubhouse recently, Hudson said, "You'd better not be giving out any dirt on me, Zito. I got some stuff on you, too." There was a twinkle in his eye but also a touch of seriousness to the warning.

"It's not like one of them is the head of the group, but Huddy sets the tone for Barry and Mark," Chavez says. "He'll always be the one who got here and established himself first, and that counts for a lot."

At 6'1" and 164 pounds Hudson is by far the least physically imposing of the trio (Mulder stands 6'6" and Zito 6'4"), but on the mound he may be the most intimidating. He stares down hitters with a glare that reminds veteran A's observers of former ace Dave Stewart, and giving up a hit doesn't concern him so much as it angers him. "Huddy's like, 'O.K., that guy doubled--he got lucky. Next hitter. Come on, come on, buddy. You and me,'" Zito says. "Mulder and I are never going to have quite that same personality on the mound, but we can borrow a little bit of that approach and fit it into what we do."

There are times when the Three Musketeers atmosphere surrounding the pitchers can make decisions difficult for a manager. At the end of the 2002 regular season Zito was clearly pitching the best of the three (23-5, 2.75 ERA). Even so, manager Art Howe chose to stick with his normal rotation instead of altering it to allow Zito to pitch Game 1. Howe's explanation was that he had equal confidence in all three pitchers. But after Mulder was beaten in Game 5 by the Twins, Howe was heavily criticized. "What people didn't bother finding out," A's general manager Billy Beane said, "was that Barry couldn't start twice. He physically was unable to start with short rest."

Macha, then the A's bench coach, isn't saying what he would have done in Howe's situation, but there were signs last year that Zito may be emerging as first among equals. Then again, given the way the three aces share the wealth, it wouldn't be surprising if Hudson has the best season of them all and takes home the Cy Young Award. That would, after all, complete the circle.

"None of us wants to be the one who stops the momentum that the other two have started," Zito says.

"Huddy sets the tone for Barry and Mark," Chavez says. "He got here first, and that counts for a lot."

Issue date: March 31, 2003