The Oakland Athletics are in the postseason. That sentence looks strange.The Oakland Athletics have a legitimate and not outlandish chance to have home field advantage throughout the American League playoffs.That sentence looks insane.But it is true. If the Yankees split their next two games and the A's win their last two games, then the Oakland Athletics would be the American League West Champion.Couple that with winning the season series against the Yankees and they would have the home field for a fifth and deciding Division Series game and the seventh game of the ALCS.A two-game scenario like that is by ...
After dealing away young ace pitchers Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill and closer Andrew Bailey this winter, the Oakland Athletics appeared to be in full rebuilding mode heading into this season.Most projection systems had the A's finishing with a losing record and no better than third place in the AL West.Yet after their Oct. 1 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers, the A's have clinched a playoff spot. If they close out the regular season with two more wins over the Rangers, they'll win the American League West. At worst, they'll finish with 92 wins and play in the American League wild-card playoff ...
Turn up the Kool & the Gang and break out your best Bernie! The plucky Oakland A's are in the 2012 MLB postseason.While manager Bob Melvin will tell anyone who listens that this is not the end of the line for his team, it is definitely time for the rest of us to stop and smell the roses. This team has defied expectation, logic and the rest of the American League to get to this point.The formula to win its 92nd game was pretty familiar: A quality start, just enough hitting and a rock solid bullpen brought the A's a 4-3 ...
The first quarter of the 2012 season has been completed, and the Oakland Raiders have not gotten off to the start that many in Raider Nation had hoped for. This is a team that is relying on its youth to build talent and momentum under the new Raiders coaching regime. As the Raiders ready themselves with a week off and a renewed determination to rebound before the end of the first half of the season, let's take a look at the progress of the Silver and Black's 2012 rookie class. (Grades will consist of Oakland Raiders rookies that have played ...
When Mark Davis hired Reggie McKenzie to run the football operations it started a new era of football for the Oakland Raiders. McKenzie would fire Hue Jackson and completely revamp the football operations from the coaching staff to the computer equipment. With Oakland’s offense sputtering and the Raider Nation jumping ship like they were aboard the Titanic, it’s only natural to wonder how the Raiders would be better or worse off with Jackson as the head coach. What if Jackson were still calling the plays and getting weekly pedicures in Oakland? Had Jackson made the playoffs, McKenzie might have given ...
Adding to a truly historic season, the Oakland A's are poised to make history by trotting out an all-rookie starting rotation this postseason. Travis Blackley, A.J. Griffin, Tom Milone, Jarrod Parker and Dan Straily have continued to provide enough to push the A's to the finish line and reach their first trip to October since 2006.But the strain of the last kick to the finish has impacted their rotation. Preferably, the A's would probably like to start Jarrod Parker in their first game (wild card or divisional series), but with the A's lacking the luxury of setting the rotation, that ...
The A’s all-or-none offense has had few consistent hitters throughout the season, but one bat Manager of the Year candidate Bob Melvin has been able to stencil in the lineup daily with confidence has been the shivering lumber of rookie outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. And in playoffs, where the stakes are the highest and the pressure is the greatest, Cespedes is definitely a guy you don’t mind having up at the plate during a climatic moment. The Cuban defector has been on a power surge through the month of September, ripping seven home runs and helping lead the A’s into ...
The Oakland Raiders are a team in transition, but despite the roster turnover, there was an expectation that the team would still have a respectable record. After four games, it’s clear the Raiders are a team that will be lucky to manage a handful of wins. The Raiders were walloped by the Denver Broncos 37-6 and didn’t manage an offensive touchdown or force a single punt on defense. It was a team loss, and that’s not a good thing. The offense, defense and special teams all played poorly. The closest you can come to a positive was a couple solid ...