Last Season...

Last season was sort of a surprise for most baseball fans, the experts had the Oakland Athletics winning no more than 77 games according to sites like RotoChamp.com. I will even admit that when i predicted that they would win 90+ games and be a Wild Card team on the podcast, i didn't think i was as close as i was to being correct. The Athletics finished the season with 97 wins and with a +139 run differential, the resurgence their pitching staff was a huge part of that. Additions like Edwin Jackson (6-3, 3.33 ERA) and Sean Manaea (12-9, 3.59 ERA) led the starting pitching to be amongst the major leagues best. The team as a whole ranked 6th in ERA (3.81) out of 15 AL teams and ranked in the Top 10 in Saves (44) , they fell just out of the Top 10 at #11 with total strikeouts (1237 K’s) (ESPN.com). The bats were a big help to the cause as well with the Athletics hitting .252 as a team which would be good enough for 6th in the AL, they also were 2nd in the AL in total HR’s with 227. The combination of guys like Marcus Semien (.255, 15HR’s 70RBI’s) and Kris Davis (.247, 48HR’s 123RBI’s) that stabilized the Athletics line-up and led them to be top 10 in the AL in almost every category (Stolen Bases and Doubles). This led to the Athletics finishing the season in 2nd place in the AL West and the 2nd spot in the Wild Card Game against the Yankees. Although they didn't win the game (they lost 7-2) , they showed that they were a good team that was young at its core (Semien, Chapman, Pinder, Piscotty and Olson) which are all under the age of 30. This should make the A’s contenders for the AL West crown year in and year out moving forward (baseball-reference.com).

Proposed Howard Terminal Station (2020), OaklandAthletics.com

This Season...

This season is a whole different story, this year the Athletics are sneaking up on nobody. It reminds me of the 2012 season after the Athletics had surprised everyone and caught the Rangers on the last day to win the division and make the playoffs. This year everyone knows just how good the Athletics can be, but alas the experts are still not giving them love even if players are (Athletics are projected to win 83 games this year by RotoChamp.com) seeing it. This team believes that they are good enough to win the division title or at least make the wild card again. The front office really didn't do much this offseason as far as bringing in big names. They spent the bulk of the offseason re-signing their own players from last year's team players like RP Mike Feirs and RP Ryan Dull are two players that were huge for the bullpen along with CL Jokim Soria the team brought back most of the key contributors to last years team (ESPN.com)

The team also managed to bring in talents like IF Jurickson Profar and OF Robbie Grossman to help bring some extra hitters to the young group of talented hitters that they already have. If you are the Athletics you just want to fine tune the engine not work a complete overhaul. That they did adding some depth to the outfield and the infield that Athletics left a lot to be desired in the starting pitching dept. They only really big pick up for the team was SP Marco Estrada former Toronto Blue Jays star picture. This season so far has shown that the Athletics have a lot of talented pitchers on their staff most of which came from their own minor league system. Montas, Brooks and Anderson have all been in the A’s system for awhile (even though Anderson did a stint with several major league clubs from 2014-2017), and are now the anchors of a staff expected to at least replicate last years numbers. They have the pitching staff and they have the bats led by Kris Davis and they already had the manager in Bob Melvin, this can lead to good things for the Athletics. I personally have them winning 90+ games again this season and competing for a Wild Card game that they could win this year. All i know is with the Howard Terminal Park (Oakland Ballpark) on the horizon if the A’s continue the way they are playing they may end up opening that park with a shiny new World Series Championship Trophy in its opening season!!!

References

Oakland Ballpark. (2019, March 01). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Ballpark

2019 Oakland Athletics Statistics. (2019, April 01). Retrieved from https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/2019.shtml

Oakland Athletics Baseball - Athletics News, Scores, Stats, Rumors & More. (2019, April 01). Retrieved from http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/_/name/oak

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Double K's Take - Oakland Athletics in 2019

Last Season...

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