Oakland Athletics thread

Originally posted by dmax:

Oakland needs an ACE OR 3..THET NEED BIG DOGS
Great pitching negates great hitting...HEY BILLY BEANE...GET SOME BIG DOGS

That involves spending money lol

Originally posted by dmax:
Oakland needs an ACE OR 3..THET NEED BIG DOGS
Great pitching negates great hitting...HEY BILLY BEANE...GET SOME BIG DOGS

Manaea and Luzardo will be aces moving forward.

Originally posted by socalfan21:
Yeah Melvin is a great regular season manager.... hes just a s**tty post season manager.

This isnt on Melvin. The A's are built to win in the regular season but without a true #1 or #2 starter its almost impossible to win the WS. To me this is all about the A's payroll budget and refusal to spend on big time pitching.

Originally posted by DelCed2486:

Originally posted by zonkers:
I do appreciate that they keep trying new things, but IMO the last two postseasons they gambled too much on big arms and big bats. Maybe next year they can start with a Mr. Average Velocity like Fiers. Get them into a defensive rhythm (their bread and butter) and hope they get comfortable on offense. Bring in the big arms if things escalate.

They'll get to another postseason in near future, most likely a WC game again because that's what they're geared for...Beane & Co. do a good job kicking over rocks and finding some gems, but because they have the self-inflicted BS excuse of "small market", they'll never spend to bring in some bigger names, nor will they spend to retain young talent. So just good enough to make the WC, but not good enough to get any further than ALDS even if they happen to win the WC game, which they're like 0-3 now oh btw.

Oh well, season over, time to trade Chapman and Olson.

I agree. I guess what I meant by gambling was that during the season, they have a good feel for putting the pitchers and hitters in the right situation and it statistically works out. In the postseason, I think they try to micromanage that formula. They try to fit 162 games of stats/matchups into 27 outs. And that seems to leave a thin margin of error. A few mistakes and the expectation to win a matchup rises for every remaining pitch and AB. Not a good scenario to overachieve.

I think Melvin's a great manager, but maybe postseason is where he needs to go more off his gut. Just make the players comfortable and let them play. Don't stress them out with detailed matchup info.

Heading into next year, I expect them to be fine with pitching and defense (especially with Murphy behind the plate). But, they'll probably still be short on prime bats. Maybe a guy like Mateo is toolsy enough to bring some spark. Or maybe they target a buy low deal for La Potencia or something.

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:

Originally posted by dmax:
Oakland needs an ACE OR 3..THET NEED BIG DOGS
Great pitching negates great hitting...HEY BILLY BEANE...GET SOME BIG DOGS

Manaea and Luzardo will be aces moving forward.

TBH I think Fiers has been their best. Not the best stuff, but most steady results.
That said, Manaea, Luzardo, and Puk have ace potential (along with injury concerns).
Manaea needs to build back his velocity and remain sharp.
Luzardo has great stuff, just needs more reps and consistency.
Puk has great stuff, but really needs more polish.

WC single game playoff is absurd in baseball

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
WC single game playoff is absurd in baseball

It's completely fair, either show up or don't and go home.

Originally posted by TheXFactor:

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
WC single game playoff is absurd in baseball

It's completely fair, either show up or don't and go home.

I think its dumb too. Exciting for fans, but dumb. 8 months of a grind for 1 game. Silly.

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:

Originally posted by TheXFactor:

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:

WC single game playoff is absurd in baseball

It's completely fair, either show up or don't and go home.

I think its dumb too. Exciting for fans, but dumb. 8 months of a grind for 1 game. Silly.

Agree as well. Make it a 3 game series at least.

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:

Originally posted by TheXFactor:

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
WC single game playoff is absurd in baseball

It's completely fair, either show up or don't and go home.

I think its dumb too. Exciting for fans, but dumb. 8 months of a grind for 1 game. Silly.

I would cut the regular season back to 154 games like it used to be and then make the Wild Card best of 3. Seems so obvious and logical to me. A 1 game WC is really stupid

Nothing says "Rooted in Oakland" like some Oakland City Council members directing the D.A. to file a lawsuit against the A's on WC game day.

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:

Originally posted by TheXFactor:

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:

WC single game playoff is absurd in baseball

It's completely fair, either show up or don't and go home.

I think its dumb too. Exciting for fans, but dumb. 8 months of a grind for 1 game. Silly.

I would cut the regular season back to 154 games like it used to be and then make the Wild Card best of 3. Seems so obvious and logical to me. A 1 game WC is really stupid

My issue with it is when the 1st WC team wins like 5+ more games than the 2nd WC team. A sudden death tiebreaker shouldn't involve teams who didnt even have similar quality seasons.

Originally posted by zonkers:
Nothing says "Rooted in Oakland" like some Oakland City Council members directing the D.A. to file a lawsuit against the A's on WC game day.

Vegas A's it is . . .
At least it'd be next to their current AAA affiliate.

Originally posted by zonkers:
Nothing says "Rooted in Oakland" like some Oakland City Council members directing the D.A. to file a lawsuit against the A's on WC game day.

yeah..this could end up terrible

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:

I would cut the regular season back to 154 games like it used to be and then make the Wild Card best of 3. Seems so obvious and logical to me. A 1 game WC is really stupid

I agree, I don't like the 1-game WC at all. 154 is the easy fix but owners probably aren't willing to give up that revenue. I kinda like the idea of adding a handful of scheduled doubleheaders like they used to have which could carve out time for best of 3 WC...proposals I've seen say to make them day-night DHs or some type of format where separate ticket needed for each game, thereby addressing revenue concerns. But I know there'd be issues beyond revenue so doubt it would ever be given serious consideration.