2014 Oakland Athletics Thread

Originally posted by socalfan21:
Our record is deceiving. We are playing very average baseball and the back end of our rotation sucks. We have a hard time scoring runs and our bullpen is a mess. I hope we can turn it around.

Splitting with the Astros is a failure, especially with another pen implosion on Saturday. How embarrassing they got 2-hit by some scrub who was like a career 0-8, 8+ ERA coming into this season.

Except for maybe one start vs. M's, Gray hasn't been very overly impressive...I know he's got the wins and like a few A's pitchers he has good-looking stats that sorta hide the real story, but so far he hasn't been that truly dominant pitcher. He has got to come up huge tomorrow vs. Darvish. A's just haven't been playing well at all, I feel another sweep by the Rangers coming on.

They are 15-10 without having really put it all together in a series yet where they dominate in all aspects. Such is baseball. This time last year they were 13-12, so it's not exactly the end of the world.

Sonny gray doing work! Baby faced assassin that he is.

Okay, there's the dominant performance I was talking about...A's scored early again but couldn't push across insurance runs later in the game, but with the way Gray was dealing they were lucky to not need those runs.

Once gray gets full command of his fast ball he's gonna be doing that night in night out.

Kazmir not real sharp tonight but still effective, plus he got some nice run support that was aided by some terrible Rangers' defense...Norris hit the ball on the screws first 2 ABs, but both should have been outs except that Martin and Choice both misplayed the ball. Norris did have 6 LOB, but at least he came through with those two 2-out hits early to put the A's out front.

But the bad news, although knew it was coming...Griffin needs TJ surgery. Parker AND Griffin lost for the season...wow.

Huge series win regardless of whatever happens today. We were kind of reeling but it's only two games. We need to get better fielding wise and our bullpen still looks stiff.

As bad as some defensive moments have looked for the A's at times this year, at least it's never looked like the Texas defense tonight. Wow.

Wow, GREAT performance by Chavez, not always easy when your offense gives you so many runs since sometimes pitchers tend to relax and don't have the same focus and intensity as they do in a closer ballgame. And getting sweep is huge...winning 2 of 3 never bad, but once you win the first two, if you drop that third game it's a 2-game swing in the standings...plus nice to return the favor to Texas.

I admit I'm surprised by this sweep, things weren't looking great going into this series. Here's to (hopefully) a red-hot May.

Back end of the rotation having to face the Red Sox at Fenway...Gray on Sunday. A's need the bats to STAY HOT.

The AL West. A bunch of "A$$hats".

Originally posted by DelCed2486:
Back end of the rotation having to face the Red Sox at Fenway...Gray on Sunday. A's need the bats to STAY HOT.

I hope Beane has a trade up his sleeve for a #3/#4 quality starter, because Straily & Milone simply aren't gonna cut it this year, IMO.

Originally posted by Niners99:
The AL West. A bunch of "A$$hats".

LOL!

Also, one way to undermine the A's offense is to get an ump behind the plate with an excessively large strike zone like today. That's a big part of why they've been knocked out of the playoffs the last couple years (Verlandered) since umps on average expand their zone a bit in the post-season. The A's hitters with their patient, "know the strike zone" approach unravels with such an umpire calling the balls and (mostly) strikes.

Surprising and disappointing how bad the A's have been at home...this team has just got to start stringing together hits and scoring in more than just one or two innings per game. The trend continues where they might get a crooked number early in the game, but then it's nothing but 0's for rest of the game. The best batting avg for a non-platoon player is .278 for Lowrie. You can live with that for guys who are producing runs (Donaldson, Cespedes, Moss), but too many guys who ain't doin' jack: Reddick, Punto, Sogard, and as if it's not already a given this guy would be on the "stinking it up" list--BARTON. Crisp and Callaspo also slumping, but think those two will be okay.