Dan Straily entered the 2013 season as the sixth-best starting pitcher in the Oakland A's organization, so he was first in line to be called up to the show when Brett Anderson went down with an injury. Straily has not been able to keep a hold on that job though and he has been sent down to Triple-A Sacramento after lasting less than five innings in his last two starts. On the season, Straily has a 5.00 ERA and his 53 strikeouts rank second among American League rookies.There will now be a lot of speculation as to what Bob Melvin and ...
With the Raider Nation, the Oakland Raiders easily have one of the most passionate and dedicated fanbases in the world of sports. Like any group of fans, Raiders fans have many things they have become known for, including much more than their game-day attire. If you consider yourself a die-hard Oakland Raiders fan, you just may find yourself saying these five things quite often.Begin Slideshow
It's likely that at the beginning of the 2013 season, no one would have assumed that starting pitchers Bartolo Colon of the Oakland Athletics and Hisashi Iwakuma of the Seattle Mariners would be anchoring their pitching staffs.Colon pitched brilliantly last season—posting a 10-9 record and 3.43 ERA—before being slapped with a 50-game ban for violating MLB's joint drug program.Iwakuma was injured at the beginning of last season and worked out of the bullpen before joining the starting rotation, ending his first year in the league with a respectable 9-5 record and 3.16 ERA in 30 appearances, 16 of them starts.Yet ...
Though four of their bigger stars are off to disappointing first halves this season, the Oakland Athletics are playing good baseball. Once these guys rebound, though, we'll see the difference between good and great.After nearly three months of baseball, the Athletics are 43-32.Along the way, there have been plenty of surprises. Josh Donaldson has thrown his name in the hat as an All-Star candidate. Coco Crisp is unleashing unexpected power from the leadoff position. Bartolo Colon is defying the laws of aging.Unfortunately, not all surprises are good ones.There's no other way to say it: Jarrod Parker started terribly. Yoenis Cespedes ...
If there's any fanbase in the NFL that is immediately recognizable with by its attire, it's the Black Hole.But what identifies Raiders fans beyond the spikes, face paint and costumes?The easy answer is passion, but any fanbase would claim to be passionate—so what differentiates the Black Hole from everyone else?Well have no fear, because we've identified five ways for you to know whether you're a true Oakland Raiders fan.Begin Slideshow
You may think it's too early to check out potential Oakland Athletics free-agent signees for the 2014 season, but that means you haven't seen how extensive the list of players who could possibly be gone is.Even considering that many of the A's whose contracts end before next year were in a similar situation last season—since they inked only one-year deals—it's a scary group to consider for Oakland fans.Jed Lowrie, Brandon Moss, Josh Donaldson, Derek Norris, Josh Reddick, John Jaso, Scott Sizemore, Nate Freiman.And that's just the position players.There's also Grant Balfour, Bartolo Colon, Tommy Milone, A.J. Griffin, Jarrod Parker, Ryan ...
Through 73 games, there has been much more positive than negative to write about in regards to the Oakland A's. Currently, the club sits at 43-30, good for first in the American League West, three games ahead of the Texas Rangers. While the second-best record in the AL is very much a positive accomplishment, there have been some causes for concern. The A's have been a whole that has been greater than the sum of all their parts currently available. The story of the first half of the 2013 season has been about surprise production from players such as Josh Donaldson, Bartolo ...
The Oakland Raiders are one of the most storied franchises in the history of the NFL. However, over the last decade they've become the least talented team in the league.Evan Silva, the senior NFL editor for Rotoworld, had this to say about the 2013 Raiders:That's quite a statement from one of the most respected football minds in the media. Today, we'll take an in-depth look into what happened with Oakland for it to become the least talented team in the NFL. A Loss in the Super BowlLet's rewind to the 2002 season. The Raiders finished the year 11-5, good enough for the ...
The Oakland Raiders are a team that has finally begun the long road back to relevancy within the NFL landscape. Recent years have not been too kind to the franchise, but the end of the 2012 season showed glimmers of what the future may bring.So how exactly do the Raiders ensure that all the current signs of hope and optimism are not quickly washed away like they have been in the past?There is no unilateral blueprint that every team can follow towards success. Each path is unique, and the Raiders need to learn from mistakes they have made in the ...
Both voluntary and mandatory minicamps have now concluded for the Oakland Raiders, and although they present what is probably the slowest news period of the year, there are still some important items to take away from this time. By now, we know which players are playing where and what positional competitions will be the most interesting to watching throughout training camp and the preseason. In this past week’s mandatory camp, thanks in large part to some extra media availability from the coaches, we were able to gather additional information on just how the team is coming together thus far. Most ...