Despite having Major League Baseball's best record at 51-30, the Oakland A's only have one player who is currently in line for a 2014 All-Star Game starting nod.
The simple fact that Josh Donaldson is the lone projected All-Star starter on the roster is the perfect embodiment of the baseball culture that Billy Beane has sought to instill in Oakland: Team first, individual accomplishment second, and most importantly, get on base.
But at the same time, a .630 winning percentage and a plus-135 run differential through the first 81 games of the season do not just happen because a group of players ...
Bud Selig has finally said something about the Oakland Athletics' drawn-out quest for a new stadium.
In a statement released by the MLB Public Relations account on Twitter, the commissioner dubbed the new 10-year lease at the O.co Coliseum between the club and the Coliseum Joint Powers Authority as a “first step towards keeping Major League Baseball in Oakland.”
Selig also threw his support behind Athletics minority owner Lew Wolff, who has repeatedly stated that he prefers the team's current site to others within the city limits.
“I continue to believe that the Athletics need a new facility and am fully supportive of the club's view that ...
Three months into the 2014 season, it's time once again to check in on the top 10 Oakland A's prospects.
As a refresher, here's how each player looked after one week. The format will stay the same here. I've provided their prior stock watch (up, down or even) and this week's. I've looked at both the last 10 games as well as the season as a whole to see how they're doing overall and how they have been doing lately.
There are a few things you might notice.
For one, the top 10 prospects are all here this time. In the last edition, ...
So close. So exciting. Even in defeat, the Oakland A’s know how to entertain their fans. And more importantly, they know how to keep their opponents from feeling comfortable and confident.
Though Oakland lost 7-6 on Sunday in 10 innings against the Boston Red Sox, the A’s managed to win three of four in the series.
And it was nearly a sweep, as Oakland clawed back from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game in the ninth, only to lose in the top of the 10th when Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz smacked a tie-breaking solo shot off A’s reliever Fernando ...
The Oakland Athletics are sitting pretty with a six-game lead over the Los Angeles Angels for first place in the American League West. At 47-28, they've been baseball's most consistently dominant team and are showing no signs of slowing down.
However, while a six-game lead is nothing to sneeze at, it's far from comfy at this stage of the season. Oakland is notorious for not having the deep pockets to go after hefty contracts at the trade deadline, but it should still look to make an acquisition or two to put itself over the top as the best team in the ...
“The pleasure of rooting for Goliath is that you can expect to win. The pleasure of rooting for David is that, while you don’t know what to expect, you stand at least a chance of being inspired.” — Michael Lewis, Moneyball
It's been 11 years since the publication of Michael Lewis' Moneyball, and three years since the release of the movie starring Brad Pitt.
That means everyone—fans, the media, rival GMs—knows the story, inside and out, of how the Oakland Athletics and their general manager, Billy Beane, became one of the great small-market Cinderella stories in all of sports. How David built his ...
When Major League Baseball teams discuss trades, money is almost always a point of contention because most clubs operate under a set budget.
When the Milwaukee Brewers dealt left-handed pitcher Brad Mills to Oakland, it seemed harmless enough. The A's needed a starting pitcher after Drew Pomeranz was placed on the disabled list after punching a chair, per Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com; Mills has some MLB experience and comes cheaply.
Very cheaply, it turns out.
According to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal, the deal between Milwaukee and Oakland will cost the A's a whole dollar:
To put that sum into perspective, it would cost you ...
Generally speaking, the Oakland A's are a very good baseball team—one of the best teams in baseball during the 2014 regular season. But if they want to legitimately compete for a World Series title, there are a few things they must shore up.
Don't mistake that statement as doubt.
We're more than one-third of the way through the season already, and the A's have the best record in the American League. Statistically, they're top-five in categories such as starting ERA, runs scored, home runs and RBI, to name a few.
However, just look at the fact that the Colorado Rockies are also in ...
It’s always quite an intense battle between these two California foes. The Bay Area’s Oakland Athletics taking on SoCal’s Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim in a matchup between the American League West’s top two teams; and the series was every bit as competitive as expected between these intrastate adversaries.
Though the 2014 campaign is just approaching mid-June, there was a September-like atmosphere at Angel Stadium the past few days. The Athletics entered Monday’s opener leading the West, with a 4.5-game lead over the second-place Angels. The Angels, who want to legitimately contend for a division title this year, needed to improve their ...
Forget Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. There's a new pair of Bash Brothers in Oakland these days. Some 25 years after those two sluggers teamed up to torture pitchers and garnered all sorts of attention for doing so, the 2014 Athletics feature their own version of a damage-doing duo.
While McGwire and Canseco were household names back in the late 1980s and early 1990s for their homer-hitting exploits in the Bay Area, it's safe to say that Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss are anything but.
For being arguably the two best players on the top team in the American League, Donaldson and Moss don't get ...