How quickly the tides turn. Back on April 17th, the Oakland Athletics were sitting pretty atop the American League West, sporting a gaudy 12-4 record. The Texas Rangers, meanwhile, were plugging along at a formidable clip themselves, winning nine of their first 14 games.The early part of the 2013 campaign had the makings of another nose-to-nose seasonal battle between two ballclubs that clawed one another to the bone last season in an epic division title showdown. One month later, however, the Rangers are continuing to flex their mighty muscles, undaunted by Oakland’s hot start. And the Athletics are the ones ...
After 41 games, the Oakland Athletics are succeeding in three areas of the game, but they're also in danger of failing in three other facets. Above-average hitting and below-average pitching meet in the middle, and you know what they produce? A 20-21 record. That's exactly what the A's have one-quarter of the way through the 2013 season. Perfection is difficult, so no one is expecting all A's (no pun intended) for the coaching staff, bench, defense, bullpen, rotation and offense. Still, if Oakland hopes to finish at the top of the AL West class, it'll need to hit it hard ...
After their first 40 games, the Oakland A's are 20-20 in the 2013 season.Remember 2012? The A's started 20-20 as well. In 2006, The A's—led by Frank Thomas—rode a five-game winning streak to get to 21-19 after 40 games. Historically, the A's have tended to be a slow-starting team. Under manager Bob Geren, the club never started better than 23-17 through 40 games (2008) and started as slowly as 15-25 (2009) while opening 20-20 three times. Go back to the Moneyball era when the A's opened 21-19 (2000), 18-22 (2001) and 19-21 (2002) after 40 games. Oakland went on to win 91, 102, and ...
Since the team moved from Kansas City to Oakland 45 years ago, the A's have largely been a team built on great pitching. Whether it was Charley Finley's Mustache Gang, the 1981 "Billyball" club, the Walter Haas owned/Tony LaRussa run team from 1988 to 1992 or Billy Beane's Moneyball teams, Oakland has always won with great pitching.As such, there have been great pitching performances—some in the regular season, others in the playoffs or even the World Series. Finding the 10 best is a matter of circumstance and history. It is also highly subjective. Having followed this franchise since 1985, I ...
What an incredibly difficult stretch the Oakland Athletics find themselves in. After taking two of three in a hard-fought road series with the New York Yankees, the A’s hobbled their way to Cleveland to face an equally feisty Indians squad.The bad news is the Athletics got swept out of town in four games. The worse news: They left more physically damaged than psychologically—which is saying something considering the "Railinggate" blown home run call during Wednesday’s loss. To be sure, Oakland is not immune to injury. The A’s are used to players getting hurt and the team is equipped to have ...
Consult your crystal ball, the local psychic or a Ouija board and they'll all tell you the same—the Oakland Athletics are headed for their second consecutive postseason. How can you not see the signs? They're aplenty. From the playoff format to the schedule, the talent to a little bit of luck, the A's should have no problem making playoffs. They did it last season. Oakland earned the AL West title, taking all 162 games to do so. One month in, they've started 2013 off much better than last year. Only one sign is missing: evidence of a slow down. Let's ...
The Oakland Athletics finished off their three-game set with the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday with a 5-4 defeat that came down to the wire...again.It was a typical combative and competitive series between these intrastate rivals, highlighted by Monday night/Tuesday morning’s epic 19-inning marathon. As always, everything you have come to expect from these two teams did happen. There was excitement, fun, drama, suspense and overall admirable battling on both sides. The type of all-around play that has made this rivalry one of the best in all of baseball. Despite all the familiarities between these two ball clubs, there were ...
After one month of baseball, some lower-rated Oakland Athletics prospects are making baseball look ridiculously easy while one of the top three guys might wish to remove April from his memory. The A's have several—a dozen, maybe more—quality prospects in their farm league right now. Scour the internet and you'll get a few different top 10 lists. For this list, I did the work for you and accumulated the most consistent list of names. Considered is the list by Mike Rosenbaum, MLB prospects lead writer for Bleacher Report. Jason Parks' (Baseball Prospectus) and Jim Shonerd's (Baseball America) lists were also ...
Nineteen innings? No problem. The A's erased two deficits, including their second straight five-run hole, and Brandon Moss' two-run blast in the bottom of the 19th gave them a 10-8 victory. The home run, which likely was seen by less than a few hundred loyal fans who stuck out the six-hour, 32-minute marathon, gave the win to Jerry Blevins, Oakland's eighth pitcher of the game. The game lasted so long that it's easy to forget that Oakland trailed 7-2 in the eighth before scoring four runs to make it a one-run contest. Then in the ninth, a walk to Coco Crisp—who moved ...
After a blistering 12-4 start, the A's have since gone 2-8 pending Monday's series opener against the Los Angeles Angels to settle at a 14-12 record. While that's still a game better than they were in 2012, the A's have to be a bit disconcerted at their level of play in the last two weeks.While injuries have had something to do that that, notably to Yoenis Cespedes, that has not been the biggest problem. Quite simply, some players have not delivered. And going forward, there are three in particular who must make adjustments in order to help contribute to the ...