Things could be better for the Oakland A’s. Regardless of heir record or their stats they have already fired their manager and that is usually indication that things are not headed in the right direction. The A’s are 39-53 and sit in last place in the American League West. They went just 8-10 in interleague play, and are 13-16 against their three divisional opponents. All in all not to bad as they are 5-4 against the Los Angeles Angels. The problem here is the A’s are simply not dominating anyone, as most of their records against their opponents hovers around .500.

The A’s offense has scored just 315 runs, and that is the second lowest run total of the 14 American League teams. They have accumulated 716 hits, and the team batting average is .233. Those totals are also second worst in their league. A’s hitters have struck out 581 times, and drawn 273 free passes. Their best hitter, of their regular nine starters, is CF Coco Crisp and he is hitting just .267. That is a problem and this team needs to find some offense.

The pitching staff has given up 339 runs, and the staff ERA is 3.14. That is the best staff ERA in the AL. Two of their starting five have eight wins each, and A’s pitchers have struck out 629 hitters, and issued 296 walks. Brett Anderson, with a 4.00 ERA, is the highest ERA in the starting rotation. However, closer Brian Fuentes has struggled. His ERA is 4.82, and he has converted just 12 saves. Andrew Bailey has eight saves and an ERA of just 2.40.

Sine Bob Melvin was brought on this team has gone 12-17, so the indication is they are still headed in the wrong direction. For me it is a clear indictment on how this roster was constructed and the manger may have been the fall guy. Of course, Bob Geren was a bad communicator, and that is no way to run a baseball team.

Related Links:

• Oakland A’s news and notes
• Joshua Lobdell.com

2011 Oakland A’s mid season review is a post from: The Inquisitr

Things have gone horribly wrong for the Oakland A’s. Heading into today they have lost nine straight, and their plan of waiting for the offensive to improve (which has yet to happen) may have been ill advised. With all of that going on General Manger Billy Beane decided it was time to fire Manger Bob Geren. Mid season firings rarely worked and I am even less impressed with the decision to bring in Bob Melvin who himself was fired from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Melvin could not get the job done there and while he will only be in Oakland through the balance of this season I don’t see how bringing in an outsider is the answer.

This is not entirely Geren’s fault, but many players have complained about his lack of communication skills, but Beane was not only waiting on the offense to get better he was depending on the pitching staff to carry them like last year. This team has suffered some key injuries, like most teams do, to help carry the load. That simply has not happened and Geren is the fall guy for al of this.

Beane was in a tough position here, not only is he largely responsible for the make up of this roster, Geren was also his close personal friend. Geren was even his best man, so the decision to fire him had to be a tough one. The one big plus in all of this is Melvin has excellent people skills and will be well liked by his players and the media.

Winning with this team was a struggle for Geren, he also worked hard to gain the respect of his players and those of us media types and that never really game. Houston Street, Brian Fuentes, and Rob Bowen have all recently gone public with their dislike of this man. In the end he failed to get his players to buy into his message and one cannot manage anything like that.

Oakland A’s fire Bob Geren is a post from: The Inquisitr

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig refuses for some reason to address this issue directly. In traveling around the sports blogosphere today I came across a number of interesting stories about the Oakland A’s and their quest to get a new stadium built. The team had wanted to move from Oakland to the San Jose area but the San Francisco Giants effectively blocked that move, and now the A’s future seems to be hanging in limbo. Neither Oakland nor San Jose wants to spend million to move ahead with new stadium plans before MLB itself commits itself to the Oakland area.

The problem with that is Oakland may no longer be the ideal market for the Athletics. In 2010 they were were next to last in attendance as they went 81-81 and  finished second in the American League West. Of course just across the bay the San Francisco Giants were on their way towards a World Title. The Giants ended up 9th in attendance, and drew almost 20k more fans per home game than the A’s.

So the two key factors in sports attendance are winning, and customers within a 30 minute drive of the home stadium. The Giants and the A’s are effectively splitting a 4.2 million person populace and who would you rather see? A team on its way to a World Title who happen to play in one of the finest modern facilities in the sport, or the A’s who play in a very old multi use stadium.

The news gets way worse for the A’s. In 2009 the TV ratings were off by over 53%. This seems to suggest to me that the Northern California baseball fans have tuned this team out. That is very bad when the team needs a new baseball stadium built to compete with its cross town rival. It would also suggest that maybe Oakland is not the best market for the A’s to be in. Let us not forget that this is a team that has moved twice before.

Related Links:

• Oakland A’s news and notes
• The Business of Major League Baseball
• Joshua Lobdell.com

Should the Oakland A’s relocate? is a post from: The Inquisitr

With a record of 81-81 the Oakland A’s finished 2nd in the American League West. It is easy to see how they did so with a 30-25 record against their divisional opponents, some strong starting pitching, and a 16-12 record in May. Those are pretty good numbers for a team that may be on the rise. However they were not good enough to catch the Texas Rangers, and were pretty disappointing in interleague play with just an 8-10 record. However they played strong the second half of the season and we may see that roll into 2011.

The problems with the A’s seem to lay with the offense. They scored just 663 runs, which was only the 11th highest total of the 14 AL clubs. Their team batting average was just .256, and none of their regular nine starters hit .300 for the year. They racked up 1,396 hits, but only 513 of them were extra base hits and they only had 109 home runs. That was the second lowest HR total in the AL.

Pitching on this team is not the problem as they had the best AL staff ERA at 3.58. They also surrendered the least amount of hits in the AL with just 1315. They struck out 1,070 batters, and issued 512 walks. That seems to indicate that had this team scored a few more runs they would have had a far better record. Three of their starting five pitchers had double digit victories, and their closer converted 25 saves. This could indicate an issue in their bull pen.

Again this is a team that proves it is how one spends their money, not how much of it they spend. Think about it like this, they spent 70 million dollars less than the Detroit Tigers, and ended up with the same 81-81 record.

Related Links:

• Oakland A’s news and notes
• The Business of Major League Baseball
• Joshua Lobdell.com

2010 Oakland A’s season in review is a post from: The Inquisitr

If it were not for a disastrous June where the Oakland A’s went 10-17, we might be talking about the A’s in a divisional race, and we could avoid the annual sell of this team shots for every July. At 48-47 this A’s team is doing pretty good, but they are in a division with the Rangers and Angels, and they find themselves seven full games out of the lead in the American League West. This team feels like one that is missing that little something to put them over the top, but General Manager Billy Bean is sure to be a seller at the trade deadline and the work on this team will start all over again.

They could possibly use some more offense as they have scored 401 runs, and as a team they are hitting .262. That number is 7th among the 14 American League clubs. They have collected 848 hits which can be broken down like this; 166 doubles, 22 triples (tops among the Al teams), and 63 home runs. That number is 12th in the AL and speaks to a lack of power on this club, and due to the stadium in which they play.

It seems to me that the A’s pitching staff is a little better than they get credit for. They have given up 387 runs and the staff ERA is 3.78. That is the second best staff ERA in the AL. Four of the six pitchers who have started games for this team have winning records, and that does not include Ben Sheets who is 4-9 with a 4.53 ERA. Their closer, Andrew Bailey, has converted 20 saves and has an overall record of 1-3 with a 1.56 ERA.

One of the big questions about t his team heading into 2010 was where would they find enough offense. It seems that they are still looking to answer that question as none of their regular nine starters is hitting better than .300.

Related Links:

•Oakland A’s news and notes
•The Business of Major League Baseball
•MTR Baseball.com

Oakland A’s mid season review is a post from: The Inquisitr

New year same old story for the Oakland A’s and their fans. Once again they will have the smallest payroll among the 0 teams in Major League Baseball. Once again they will have some of the best young arms in the game, once again they have added a veteran player the figures to be gone by the trading deadline, and once again the A’s are just meandering though another MLB season.

One has to wonder where the offense on this team will come from. Certainly it will not be via the home run, this is a team built fro small ball. They had some success playing small ball in the second half of 2009, and that trend will continue. The A’s will rely on their speed Rajai Davis will be running from the first pitch of 2010 to the last, but they added Coco Crisp, for his power,  but it now looks like he will start the season on the DL.

We may also ask if there is enough depth in the starting rotation. Ben Sheets comes in to be the ace, but is coming off surgery that kept him inactive in 2009. The A’s staff is young, and if Justin Duchscherer is healthy they would have enough starters to field two four man rotations. However every member of this staff has some form of question mark about them.

The last big question is what can oft injured Eric Chavez contribute? 20 home runs and 400 at bats would be nice, but after yet another season of rehab one has to wonder if that is realistic. They plan to use him as a utility player, and hope that is reduced role will allow him to stay healthy.

Related Links:

• Oakland A’s News and Notes
• The Business of Major League Baseball
• MTR baseball.com

2010 MLB preview: Oakland A’s is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is a very complicated deal, but it looks like Roy Halladay will head to the Philadelphia Phillies, Cliff Lee will head to Seattle to be their ace, and a bunch of prospects will trade in Oakland, California sunshine for the CN Tower of Toronto, Canada. Right now it is hard to say who the clear winners and losers in this deal are, but tit looks like the Seattle Mariners got the best end of the deal currently, and that the Phillies were able to land a dominant pitcher, and restock their prospect talent pool. Not a bad day at work at all,  so in a flurry of deal here is what each team gets:

Phillies- Get Halladay, six million bucks, RHP Phillipe Aumont, OF Tyson Gillies, and RHP Juan Ramirez

Toronto Blue Jays- Get C Travis d’Arnaud, RHP Kyle Drabeck, and 3B Brett Wallace

Oakland A’s- Get OF Michael Taylor

Seattle Mariners- Get LHP Cliff Lee

While we can call the Phillies acquisition of Halladay a upgrade, that moves seems a lot better with Lee still in the rotation. It seems that the Phillies felt compelled to restock their minor league system, while keeping their payroll in line. While Lee did very well in Philly, since being traded there last summer, he wanted a bigger deal than the reported three year 60 million extension Halladay has  signed with them.

The Mariners are clearly ahead here, they get a legit ace in Lee, and they also signed 3B Chone Figgins and look to be much improved heading into 2010. That is saying a lot considering they finished 85-77 in 2009. As for the A’s and the Blue Jays, well if some of these prospects work out and contribute than they are ahead of the game. If not at least the Jays finally got the Halladay deal completed.

Phillies land Halladay, trade Lee is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seemed that the 2009 season was going to be a season of rebirth for the Oakland A’s. Their money ball wizard General Manager, Billy Beane, spent the off season as one of the most aggressive clubs in the Major Leagues. They added Jason Giambi, Matt Holiday, and Orlando Cabrera, but as the season headed south all those acquisitions were traded away at the trading deadline. While this has been the M.O. of the A’s in recent years, it really seemed that this team had turned a corner. In the end they were the small market team looking to be big market player, of course that didn’t work out so well for them.

Their final record was 75-87. At their lowest point, they were 17 games under .500 and ended up 12 games under .500. All those off season acquisitions never got this team into first place, and after they were traded away the season really tanked for this club. In the last month of the season they fell 22 games behind in the American League West, and that is where the finished, in last place.

This was, supposed to be good and they did complete two seven game winning streaks, but after dealing away their talent they also suffered, a 7 game losing streak. As a team they hit just .264, with 135 home runs, and drove in 723 runs. Their Pitching staff featured two pitchers with double digit victories and two more with nine wins each. Their team ERA was 4.23 and they ranked sixth in the American League with 1,124 strike outs. However they also ranked fourth in the AL issuing 523 walks.

The A’s ranked last in MLB attendance with just 1,408,783 fans making the trip to McAffe Coliseum to see them play. For their 81 home games they averaged just 17,392 fans and were only able to sell 39.8% of their 2009 ticket inventory.

2009 MLB season in review: Oakland A’s is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Oakland A’s have released Jason Giambi and his career in baseball is likely over. Jason was once one of the most celebrated hitters of his generation, and was even able to overcome his involvement in the steroids era to come back and win the fans back over. He did this is the toughest media market on the planet, New York City, and it looked like he was all set to cap of his career in Oakland where it started. It now seems that this stint in Oakland will further damage his overall legacy.

Giambi was the MVP in 2000 for the A’s ad will finish up his career as a five time all star, 407 home runs, 1,864 hits, a career batting average of .282, all of which are not high enough to insure selection into the baseball Hall of Fame. Even if he had not been snared into the steroids scandal Giambi just wasn’t impressive enough to warrant election.

Some may think that is a harsh thing to say, after getting caught up in the steroids mess, Giambi came clean apologies to his team and his fans and a year later was named come back player of the year. However he will forever be linked with the steroids era .

This season Giambi has lost something has he was hitting just .193 with 11 home runs. It does not seem likely that he will get another chance at the Major League level.

A’s cut Giambi after placing him on the DL is a post from: The Inquisitr

The St. Louis Cardinals got some protection for Super Star Albert Pujols by trading for Of Matt Holliday. This was a vital pice for the Cards as they are locked in a divisional  race with both the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros. Currently The Cardinals lead these two teams by 1.5 games in the National League Central division.

Now let us take a look at the details of this trade:

The Cardinals get Matt Holliday and 1.5 million dollars towards the six million is is owed over the balance of the 2009 season.

The Oakland A’s get third base prospect Brett Wallace, considered to be among the best infield prospects in baseball. Wallace is a pure hitter who can bat for power and for average. Really he is the perfect guy for A’s GM Billy Beane’s “Money Ball” approach to building a team.

The A’s also picked up Minor League pitching prospect Clayton Mortensen, and minor league OF Shane Peterson. While this move may look like a salary dump by Oakland, it really is a move to add a nice piece for the future. While they A’s were busy in the offseason signing guys like Holliday for 13.5 million dollars, players like Wallace more fit in with the culture of that club.

Since Oakland is a “Small Market” team looking to get a new stadium built one would think they would want to keep a few name players to help draw fans, but that is just not how Beane views the game of baseball. He wants guys who hit for average and have a high on base percentage, Wallace is both of those things.

For the Cardinals they get a batter who can hit behind Pujols and hopefully et him a few more quality pitches in each trip to the plate. While this is a good move fro them, it may not be the move the turns them into 2009 divisional Champions, of course that remains to be seen.

The St. Louis Cardinals trade for Holliday is a post from: The Inquisitr