With the Trade Deadline looming and a lot of talk about roster construction, I though it’d be interesting to take a look at the rosters of the top two teams in baseball – the Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Using info obtained from baseballreference.com I looked at the current 25-man rosters of each team and put the numbers – in a variety of categories – side by side.

Category	A’s	Angels
Average Age	28.96	28.88
Players 30+	9	11
Players Acquired Via…
Trade	12	9
Free Agency	6	6
Draft	2	10
Waivers	3	0
Purchased	1 (Jesse Chavez)	0
Conditional Deal	1 (Stephen Vogt)	0
Making $3 million +	7	10
Highest Paid	Yoenis Cespedes ($10 Million)	Albert Pujols ($23 Million)
Average Experience	5.96	6.48
Average Attendance	24626	38121

What do all these numbers mean? I guess we will find out at the end of the season when one team has won the American League West and the other is likely playing in a Wild Card game.

While this data may not necessarily mean all that much I thought it was interesting to look at and a few things jumped out at me:

• I was not surprised that the Angels had more players over 30 than the A’s, but I was surprised to find the Angels average age slightly below Oakland’s.
• It was also surprising to see how much of the A’s roster is the result of trades. Of course a lot of these trades take place in the lower levels when Billy Beane is wheeling and dealing prospects, but nearly half the roster has been acquired via trade which I found interesting.
• Everyone knows the A’s don’t have a big payroll and the Angels certainly haven’t been shy about throwing money around to coveted free agents. Albert Pujols is the Angels highest paid player, but CJ Wilson ($16 million), Jered Weaver ($16 million) and Josh Hamilton ($17 million) are all making more than the A’s highest paid player – Yoenis Cespedes.