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
