# 1958 Kansas City Athletics season

The 1958 Kansas City Athletics season was the team's fourth in Kansas City and the 58th in the American League. The season involved the A's finishing seventh in the American League with a record of 73 wins and 81 losses, 19 games behind the World Champion New York Yankees.

## Offseason

* November 20, 1957: Billy Martin, Mickey McDermott, Tom Morgan, Lou Skizas, Tim Thompson, and Gus Zernial were traded by the Athletics to the Detroit Tigers for Bill Tuttle, Jim Small, Duke Maas, John Tsitouris, Frank House, and Kent Hadley, and a player to be named later. The Tigers completed the deal by sending Jim McManus to the Athletics on April 3, 1958.
* December 2, 1957: Harry Chiti was drafted by the Athletics from the New York Yankees in the 1957 rule 5 draft.
* December 2, 1957: Ramón Conde was drafted by the Athletics from the San Francisco Giants in the 1957 minor league draft.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 92 | 62 | .597 | — | 44‍–‍33 | 48‍–‍29 |
| Chicago White Sox | 82 | 72 | .532 | 10 | 47‍–‍30 | 35‍–‍42 |
| Boston Red Sox | 79 | 75 | .513 | 13 | 49‍–‍28 | 30‍–‍47 |
| Cleveland Indians | 77 | 76 | .503 | 14½ | 42‍–‍34 | 35‍–‍42 |
| Detroit Tigers | 77 | 77 | .500 | 15 | 43‍–‍34 | 34‍–‍43 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 74 | 79 | .484 | 17½ | 46‍–‍31 | 28‍–‍48 |
| Kansas City Athletics | 73 | 81 | .474 | 19 | 43‍–‍34 | 30‍–‍47 |
| Washington Senators | 61 | 93 | .396 | 31 | 33‍–‍44 | 28‍–‍49 |

### Record vs. opponents

1958 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BAL | BOS | CHW | CLE | DET | KCA | NYY | WSH |
| Baltimore | — | 10–12 | 9–13–1 | 10–11 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 8–14 | 15–7 |
| Boston | 12–10 | — | 10–12 | 12–10 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 9–13–1 | 14–8 |
| Chicago | 13–9–1 | 12–10 | — | 12–10 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 7–15 | 16–6 |
| Cleveland | 11–10 | 10–12 | 10–12 | — | 14–8 | 10–12 | 7–15 | 15–7 |
| Detroit | 12–10 | 12–10 | 12–10 | 8–14 | — | 12–10 | 12–10 | 9–13 |
| Kansas City | 10–12 | 10–12 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 10–12 | — | 9–13 | 12–10–2 |
| New York | 14–8 | 13–9–1 | 15–7 | 15–7 | 10–12 | 13–9 | — | 12–10 |
| Washington | 7–15 | 8–14 | 6–16 | 7–15 | 13–9 | 10–12–2 | 10–12 | — |

### Notable transactions

* April 15, 1958: Ramón Conde was acquired from the Athletics by the Philadelphia Phillies.
* May 14, 1958: Whitey Herzog was purchased by the Athletics from the Washington Senators.
* June 12, 1958: Billy Hunter was traded by the Athletics to the Cleveland Indians for Chico Carrasquel.
* June 15, 1958: Woodie Held and Vic Power were traded by the Athletics to the Cleveland Indians for Roger Maris, Dick Tomanek and Preston Ward.

### Roster
## Player stats

* = Indicates team leader

### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Harry Chiti | 103 | 295 | 79 | .268 | 9 | 44 |
| 1B | Vic Power | 52 | 205 | 62 | .302 | 4 | 27 |
| 2B | Héctor López | 151 | 564 | 147 | .261 | 17 | 73 |
| SS | Joe DeMaestri | 139 | 442 | 97 | .219 | 6 | 38 |
| 3B | Hal W. Smith | 99 | 315 | 86 | .273 | 5 | 46 |
| LF | Bob Cerv | 141 | 515 | 157 | .305 | 38 | 104 |
| CF | Bill Tuttle | 148 | 511 | 118 | .231 | 11 | 51 |
| RF | Roger Maris | 99 | 401 | 99 | .247 | 19 | 53 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Preston Ward | 81 | 268 | 68 | .254 | 6 | 24 |
| Mike Baxes | 73 | 231 | 49 | .212 | 0 | 8 |
| Bob Martyn | 95 | 226 | 59 | .261 | 2 | 23 |
| Harry Simpson | 78 | 212 | 56 | .264 | 7 | 27 |
| Frank House | 76 | 202 | 51 | .252 | 4 | 24 |
| Chico Carrasquel | 59 | 160 | 34 | .213 | 2 | 13 |
| Woodie Held | 47 | 131 | 28 | .214 | 4 | 16 |
| Whitey Herzog | 88 | 96 | 23 | .240 | 0 | 9 |
| Billy Hunter | 22 | 58 | 9 | .155 | 2 | 11 |
| Kent Hadley | 3 | 11 | 2 | .182 | 0 | 0 |
| Lou Klimchock | 2 | 10 | 2 | .200 | 1 | 1 |
| Dave Melton | 9 | 6 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
| Jim Small | 2 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
| Milt Graff | 5 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |

### Pitching
#### Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Ralph Terry | 40 | 216.2 | 11 | 13 | 4.24 | 134 |
| Ned Garver | 31 | 201.0 | 12 | 11 | 4.03 | 72 |
| Jack Urban | 30 | 132.0 | 8 | 11 | 5.93 | 54 |
| Alex Kellner | 7 | 33.2 | 0 | 2 | 5.88 | 22 |
| John Tsitouris | 1 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 | 1 |

#### Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Ray Herbert | 42 | 175.0 | 8 | 8 | 3.50 | 108 |
| Bob Grim | 26 | 113.2 | 7 | 6 | 3.56 | 54 |
| Murry Dickson | 27 | 99.0 | 9 | 5 | 3.27 | 46 |
| Bud Daley | 26 | 70.2 | 3 | 2 | 3.31 | 39 |
| Duke Maas | 10 | 55.1 | 4 | 5 | 3.90 | 19 |
| Bob Davis | 8 | 31.0 | 0 | 4 | 7.84 | 22 |
| Wally Burnette | 12 | 28.1 | 1 | 1 | 3.49 | 11 |
| Howie Reed | 3 | 10.1 | 1 | 0 | 0.87 | 5 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Tom Gorman | 50 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 3.51 | 44 |
| Dick Tomanek | 36 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3.61 | 50 |
| Walt Craddock | 23 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5.89 | 22 |
| Virgil Trucks | 16 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2.05 | 15 |
| Glenn Cox | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.82 | 1 |
| Ken Johnson | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27.00 | 1 |
| Carl Duser | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.50 | 0 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Buffalo Bisons | International League | Phil Cavarretta |
| AA | Little Rock Travelers | Southern Association | Les Peden |
| A | Albany Senators | Eastern League | Al Evans |
| B | Rochester/Winona A's | Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League | Burl Storie and Lew Krausse, Sr. |
| C | Pocatello Athletics | Pioneer League | Billy Capps |
| D | Selma Cloverleafs | Alabama–Florida League | Tommy Giordano |
| D | Grand Island Athletics | Nebraska State League | Art Mazmanian |
| D | Plainview Athletics | Sophomore League | Vince Plumbo |
Rochester franchise moved to Winona, June 29, 1958