With the trade deadline just over two weeks away, it may be easy to assume that the A’s will now stay quiet following the Jeff Samardzija trade and not make any more splashy moves. The team is already saturated with talent and without their two top prospects, Addison Russell and Billy McKinney, as trade bait.
But here is a scary thought if you are the rest of Major League Baseball: Not only did the A’s land two of the most coveted free-agent pitchers and become immediate World Series favorites, but now with a surplus of young, talented arms, they are primed ...
Not that the Oakland Athletics needed more good vibes in 2014, ending the first half with the best record in Major League Baseball and acquiring Jeff Samardzija before the All-Star break, but Yoenis Cespedes' performance in the Home Run Derby signals another dynamic shift in their season.
The A's slugger started off slow during Monday's event, with just three homers in the first round.
He then got stronger as the night went on by hitting 16 homers over the next two rounds before clubbing nine in the final round to beat Todd Frazier, who could muster just one in the finals.
Cespedes also ...
Four days ago, the Oakland A’s threw all their chips into a 2014 World Series title run when they acquired Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel from the Chicago Cubs. The A’s paid a hefty price to reel in two of the most prized free-agent arms. Shortstop Addison Russell—the A’s top prospect and the No. 12 overall prospect in the MLB—and outfielder Billy McKinney—the A’s No. 2 prospect—were sent to the Cubs farm system, which is now overflowing with talent.
In the wake of this latest move by the A’s, it seems a bit anticlimactic to utter the word “future” when talking ...
With 62 RBI heading into Monday's game against the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics first baseman Brandon Moss has his team's highest RBI total before the All-Star break since 2000, per the A's' official Twitter account.
Oddly enough, the A's had three players top 62 RBI before the break in 2000, with Jason Giambi (78 RBI) leading the way, followed by Ben Grieve (65) and Miguel Tejada (63).
Though the A's have had plenty of team success since 2000, they've largely relied on pitching, defense and a balanced lineup.
Giambi famously left Oakland to sign with the New York Yankees after the 2001 ...
The Oakland A’s made fireworks with a blockbuster trade to land both Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel on the Fourth of July, according to ESPN insider Keith Law, giving up Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, Dan Straily and a player to be named later.
With it, they made one thing abundantly clear to the rest of baseball: The A’s are going for it all right now, and they are your 2014 World Series favorites.
This team already had MLB’s best record (53-33) and the American League’s best rotation before acquiring a dominant duo from the north side of Chicago. Oakland now has nothing short of an embarrassment ...
It's a common thought: "The Oakland A's are a second-half team." But is the notion baseless, one simply created by fans, or are the A's truly better in the final 81 games? And if so, can they do it again this year and dominate down the stretch?
All indications—for both questions, historically and present day—point to yes.
First, let's look at the theory of being a second-half team. The idea didn't just arrive out of left field. But it very well could be that the A's had two or three runs in the final months of baseball, and now fans see the team ...
When the Oakland A's signed Scott Kazmir to a two-year, $22 million deal this offseason, they didn't know what they were getting.
They hoped they were getting the guy who had a quiet bounce-back season with the Cleveland Indians in 2013, after injuries and mechanical issues forced him out of the big leagues. A decent middle-of-the-rotation arm.
So much for that. Halfway through the 2014 campaign, Kazmir looks like the guy who led the American League in strikeouts, who pitched in two All-Star Games and a World Series as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays, who was once among the most dominant ...
Updates from Wednesday, July 2
Yoenis Cespedes has returned to the Oakland Athletics' lineup, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Original Text:
The Oakland Athletics own the best record in baseball but are currently fighting through injuries to critical players, most notably outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.
The 2013 Home Run Derby champion left Monday's game against Detroit with a left hamstring injury. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle posted a picture of Oakland's lineup prior to Tuesday's game at Comerica Park, which didn't include Cespedes.
Despite Cespedes' absence on Tuesday, there's the potential that he can avoid a stint on the disabled list. ...
When you've got (arguably) the best team in baseball, the best manager in baseball and the best general manager in baseball, the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline would seem to be a rather irrelevant date on the calendar.
But if there's one thing that we've learned about the Oakland A's under the stewardship of GM Billy Beane, it's that the team rarely passes up an opportunity to improve, regardless of its place in the standings.
Yet it can be difficult to keep track of all the rumors surrounding the team, especially if you're hanging out at O.co Coliseum, where dodging puddles of ...
His season statistics are awesome. A 9-3 record, a 2.66 earned run average, a 1.01 WHIP and 84 strikeouts against just 21 walks in 98.0 innings pitched. Yes, Oakland Athletics lefty Scott Kazmir is off to an incredible first half of the season, ranking among the top five in several major pitching categories. The veteran starter has been all that Oakland could ask for and more, turning into the bona fide ace of the staff just one-and-a-half seasons from being out of MLB for an entire year.
Based on season stats, Kazmir is turning into an automatic starter for fantasy baseball ...