By Morris Phillips

Curt Young, as rooted within the A’s organization as anyone outside Billy Beane, and as low-key as any human anywhere, seemed curious just like the any of the fans attending the team’s annual Fanfest on Sunday. In particular, non-roster invitee Pat Venditte, currently the only professional pitcher adept at pitching with either hand, held Young’s attention.

“Does he play catch with himself?” Young wondered.

When asked if the minor league pitcher would need twice the normal bullpen work, Young seemed genuinely vexed. After a pause and some thinking, Young answered, yes, knowing that Venditte, at least initially would provide a bit of a challenge for a coach long set in his methods.

During a Q&A session held inside Oracle Arena with the rain and the revamping going on inside the stadium, a young fan asked how do ballplayers get their nicknames. New bullpen coach Scott “Emo” Emerson thought instead of answering the kid’s question the time was right to gift newly acquired pitcher R.J. Alvarez his nickname.

“Shaggy,” Emerson declared, looking at the speechless Alvarez, the latest in a long line of lovable athletes with uncontrollably long hair.

And so it went for most of the afternoon, a meet and greet—heavier on the meet—that seemed to satisfy the most anxious fan attempting to figure out what type of team the 2015 A’s will be. Here’s what we know:

Beane orchestrated nine off-season trades the GM says were prompted by the team’s poor performance in last season’s second half that showed the team had gone as far as it could go as constructed in his estimation. The A’s said goodbye to Jon Lester, John Jaso, Brandon Moss, Josh Donaldson, Jason Hammel (just to name a few) and picked up 27 players—many not major-league ready—most notably Ben Zobrist from Tampa Bay, Tyler Clippard from Washington and signed Royals DH Billy Butler to a three-year free agent deal.

Among the lesser names the A’s acquired, Marcus Semien from the White Sox shows the most immediate promise as the team’s successor to the departed Jed Lowrie.

The A’s still have Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick, Ryan Cook, Stephen Vogt (just to name a few) and All-Star Sean Doolittle, but the bearded closer won’t be ready for the opening of the season. If things are to just keep humming along then Vogt could be plenty busy. The A’s are all in on the veteran after dealing Jaso and Derek Norris.

Young says that pitchers A.J. Griffin and Jarrod Parker will not pitch in any spring training games, given that both are still recovering from arm injuries that shelved them for all of 2014. Instead, the pair will do all their spring work on the side with the hope that both will be up to speed and back on the roster by early June.

In their place, Scott Kazmir and Sonny Gray will anchor the A’s rotation with Jesse Chavez, Drew Pomeranz, Kendall Graveman, Jesse Hahn and Chris Bassitt expected to compete for the other three available spots.

Through it all, the expectations are the same. Young said as much when revealing his spring training regimen.

“We have a team that we think is going to win, and that is what we are going to expect from our guys,” he said.

“Everybody is overlooking us again with what the Angels and Mariners have done. But we got some great pieces in return for what we lost,” Reddick said.