I have been a avid Oakland A's fan since 1986. My favorite player all time would be Mark McGwire. I realize he did get involved into the whole steriod thing. But im pretty sure that Jose Canseco was right when he said about 90% of players are juicing. But if you look at McGwire's stats you will see he was pretty awesome still before he taking anything. He hit 49 home runs his rookie year. He was tall and skinny im pretty sure he was not on anything at that point. He also perfomed very well in college.
There was also some other great players that I held in high regard. Nolan Ryan, Dennis Eckersley, Dave Kingman, Dave Parker, Dave Henderson, Ricky Henderson, Cal Ripken, Robin Yount, Gary Carter, and many more. I am not sure of all the players of today it just dont feel the same without some of those classic players.
Maybe some of Oaklands pitchers that they could not afford to keep. Such as Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, and Mark Mulder. There also were other good players that they could not afford Jason Giambi, Matt Damon, Miguel Tejda and many others.