Double K’s Take: The Oakland Athletics and the 2014 season…

As I sit here and watch the UCLA vs CAL football game I think back over this year and I am immediately drawn to the rise and fall of my team the Oakland Athletics. This year looked to be THE YEAR for the Green and Gold, but when the final out was had the A’s surrendered to a team of destiny in the Kansas City Royals. Im not guaranteeing a series win for the Royals but it does seem to be THEIR YEAR. I look at a season that early on lead a lot of people to know that the Oakland A’s are for real and they were led by a young Sonny Gray and a revived Scott Kazmir. To open the season the Athletics had a deep starting rotation…

A rotation that was filled with names like Griffin and Parker, both pitchers suffered season ending injuries to open the season. That’s when Gray stepped up and Kazmir followed as both had amazing 1^st halves of the season and lead the Athletics to the best record in baseball early. Then came September and that Athletics fell apart. A lot of people want to blame the trade of two time all star and home run champ Yoenis Cespedes. But I say that they lost more I the locker room than at the plate. The Athletics other big bats Moss, Norris and Donaldson all went cold at the same time, there is nothing to say that the same thing wouldn’t have happened even with Cespedes (Who was batting .256 at time of infamous “Lester trade”). Then after that the Athletics starters began to unravel as the likes of Jeff Samardja and Jason Hammel began to struggle and even Grey and Kazmir hard rough 2^nd halves…

Then came the back end of the second half when the Athletics were able barley hold on and make the Wild Card game after leading the west and most of baseball for about ¾ of the year. It was what some would consider a epic collapse, and I would be hard pressed to be able to argue the point against it. From 1^st to the second WC spot in less than two months is a pretty far fall. But I remind you that the Brewers were up there with the Athletics early in the season and fell to completely out of the playoffs. So my point is that it could have been a lot worse for the A’s. Now at the end of the day the Royals used an amazing comeback in the bottom of the 7^th, 8^th and extra innings, against a very good Athletics bullpen and some questionable calls by manager Bob Melvin in the Wild Card game the Athletics sit at home and watch their cross town rivals look to eliminate the same team that eliminated them. For the 2^nd time in 3 years, but as a Athletics fan I know that there is always next year but we will be without Lester and without Hammell and Dunn. We will be returning some great players and have a competitive team but they wont be this team the one that truly lost a magical chance…

Here are some of your regular season leaders for 2014…

Leader in Wins: SP Scott Kazmir (15 wins)