2014 Oakland Athletics Thread

Norris (rightfully) starting to be brought up in the All-Star conversation: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/votebook-debating-american-league-catchers?ymd=20140512&content_id=75203912&vkey=news_mlb

I think we might be able to say that pitching at O.co is now officially in Johnson's head...on the road he's 2-0, 2.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, .194 BAA. But at home, in one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in baseball? 0-3, 2 Saves, 1 BS, 8.59, 3.14, .444.

Doesn't help him to hear boos when he's brought into the game. It's definitely at least partially psychological right now.

Careless Whisper = genius

The white sox are such garb.

Originally posted by socalfan21:
The white sox are such garb.

They had been playing pretty well...they mash at the plate, but they've got some guys hurt...they don't have real good pitching but they have been without Chris Sale.

I got a kick out of reading some Sox fans' comments, saying Oakland is the most annoying stadium to play in because of the park itself and all the noise the fans make, they wish the Sox TV broadcast wouldn't use a stadium mic. LET'S GO OAKLAND!

Hilarious when fans booed last night when Reddick came up towards end of game and they didn't play his walkup song.

LOL, yeah. Sounded like the booth had started playing the wrong track and then didn't have time to fix it.

This bullpen so far this year is like walking though a mine field.

We really need to shake up the bullpen. This is f**king ridiculous.

Yeah, how ironic that going into the season, with injured/new/unknown starting rotation, the bullpen was looked at as the strength of this team, considered by many to be the best in baseball....and then flash ahead to now, where this pen is a joke and if it's a close game it's 50/50 they'll be able to either hold a lead or keep it close if tied or A's down by 1 or 2 runs. If they didn't suck so bad the A's would easily be about 15 games over right now with a ~10-game lead.

Otero, Doolittle and Abad are the only ones who should still be pitching on the back end.

Holy crap the A's are doing good. Just checked standings for the first time this season.

Someone give me a short summary of why they are winning

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
Holy crap the A's are doing good. Just checked standings for the first time this season.

Someone give me a short summary of why they are winning

- Starting pitching, esp front end (Gray, Kazmir, Chavez)

- Hitting...outside of Norris, no one player really spectacular, but multiple guys solid right now: Moss, Jaso, Cespedes, Donaldson, Gentry...as a team they're decent at hitting for avg, hitting HRs, RISP...but have been very good at the most important stat: scoring runs.

- IN SPITE OF shaky bullpen...look at most stats and the b/p looks good, but dig deeper and see that they only have 7 saves, 8 blown saves, 47% in Save Opportunities...and 9 wins, which is a lot, but not always good since sometimes those wins come because they blew a lead.
Put it this way, as well as you think the A's are doing--which they are--if the b/p hadn't failed so many times they'd have 5-10 more wins. Otero and Abad are the two who have been lights-out pretty much every time out.