There's a Gray horse in the 2014 American League Cy Young race. Either that, or the dark horse in the race is Sonny.
Whatever. You get it. Puns for young Oakland A's right-hander Sonny Gray, who is very much in the AL Cy Young discussion with a 5-1 record and a 2.10 ERA through his first nine starts.
That ERA ranks second in the AL behind reigning winner Max Scherzer, which is a good look. Also a good look is how Gray is surrounded on that leaderboard by heavyweights like Mark Buehrle, Masahiro Tanaka and Yu Darvish. Gray looks slightly out of ...
The Oakland A's are off to such a fine start in this 2014 season that it seems all but clear that they should be buyers at the trade deadline. Of course they don't have to, but you can guarantee other contenders will be. If Billy Beane wants to advance to the World Series, he'll have to pull off moves to keep pace.
It's hard to find a solid position that makes sense outside of the fifth spot in the starting rotation.
Catcher is out. Derek Norris and John Jaso are both hitting well, and Stephen Vogt lies in wait in case one ...
The Oakland A’s deserve some much-needed home cooking, particularly after the grueling recent three-game series against the Boston Red Sox. All three games were intense, as the A’s were strongly tested by the World Series champions.
Oakland escaped with a 10-inning victory on Sunday to take the last game in the series, avoiding a sweep by doing so. Each contest was a struggle for the Athletics. In fact, in all three facets of the game—pitching, hitting, fielding—the A’s were generally outplayed. On the edge of being swept out of Boston, on the heels of an inspiring three-game sweep of their own ...
It's been an interesting first month of baseball for the Oakland Athletics. Fans and beat writers have learned about the state of pitching, the seriousness of the offense and more in that span.
And if April is any indication, not making the playoffs would be a bizarre occurrence.
Certain individual pitchers are thriving, while others aren't getting it done. One unit as a whole isn't clicking just yet. Starters may need to sit, and platoon guys may warrant more time. But so far, the A's have thrived on their way to the second-best record in the American League.
Here's a look at what ...
The Oakland A’s deserve some much-needed home cooking, particularly after the grueling three-game series against the Boston Red Sox over the weekend. All three games were intense, as the A’s were strongly tested by the World Series champions.
Oakland escaped with a 10-inning victory on Sunday to take the last game in the series, avoiding a sweep by doing so. Each contest was a struggle for the Athletics. In fact, in all three facets of the game—pitching, hitting and fielding—the A’s were generally outplayed. On the cusp of being swept out of Boston on the heels of an inspiring three-game sweep of ...
The Oakland Athletics are off to a hot start after one month of baseball. So, too, are some of their minor league prospects. But it might not be the guys you'd immediately expect to see.
MLB.com keeps an updated list of the top-100 prospects in the game, sortable by team. The "rank" you'll see on the following slides comes from their list. Hence why you may be surprised to see that of the eight guys on this list, only four are listed in MLB's top 20 for Oakland.
Another surprise? No one from the Sacramento River Cats (Triple-A) made the list.
Here's how ...
Following a very busy offseason in which a lot of big-name bats joined the AL West, the possibility existed that the Oakland Athletics might struggle to keep up with the sticks after their biggest offensive acquisitions were a pair of veteran defensive specialists who have combined for 21 home runs in 20 big league seasons.
Turns out, the A's already had all the offense they needed, and they've been proving as much as the season embarks upon its second month.
On the final day of April, Oakland beat up on the division-rival Texas Rangers, finishing off a three-game sweep with a 12-1 ...
The road to the AL West title goes through the two-time defending champion Oakland A’s.
And so far in 2014, they don’t look particularly willing to step aside. The A’s 15-10 record through 25 games ties them atop the AL West with the Texas Rangers, and the A’s also find themselves in the top five in MLB in both runs scored and ERA.
This is not to say the A’s don’t have imperfections, though. They do, and they’re likely going to need to take care of some of them if they want to finish their season as strong as they’ve started it.
MLB ...
Updates from Tuesday, April 29
CBS Sports' Jon Heyman provides some bad news for A.J. Griffin's elbow:
Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle reports on when the surgery will take place:
Original Text
Oakland Athletics starting pitcher A.J. Griffin is reportedly likely to undergo Tommy John surgery next week to alleviate the discomfort in his injured right throwing elbow.
A source informed Joe Stiglich of Comcast SportsNet California, and he passed along the news of the ominous development for the A's on Friday:
However, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Susan Slusser has different information:
Griffin was shut down during spring training for three weeks because of his ailing ...
Josh Donaldson's rise to stardom has been one of the quickest, and maybe unlikeliest, in recent memory.
After a 3-for-4 night on Thursday, which included two homers and four RBI, his Oakland A's enjoyed a 10-1 rout of the Houston Astros.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle shared this nugget from Donaldson that he had hoped to hit three home runs:
Donaldson said he told reliever Ryan Cook that he would hit three homers on Thursday. 'I fell a little short,' he said. 'That was just kind of in fun, but it was nice (to) have a good day especially after the last three ...