While I have devoted a great deal of time to chronicling the Baltimore Orioles efforts, futile as they might be, to avoid a 10th straight losing season, I have largely neglected a team that is not much better this year, and seems to be approaching a dubious mark themselves, the Oakland Athletics. This team has not had a losing season since 1998, but is now just 30 losses away from finishing below .500 (and possibly last in the AL West).This year, the A's have Dan Haren, and that's about it. Rich Harden is hurt (again). Eric Chavez and Bobby Crosby have struggled mightily (again). Their bullpen (Huston Street and Justin Duchscherer specifically) has been an injured mess. Nick Swisher, who had such a promising 2006, has regressed big time. And Mike Piazza is not this year's Frank Thomas.
As has become a seemingly annual tradition, they've still enjoyed several "out of nowhere" performances from guys like Alan Embree (10 saves), Jack Cust (17 homeruns), Chad Gaudin (8 wins, 3.35 ERA), and Santiago Casilla (0.70 ERA in 20 appearances). But even with those contributions, this team is not close to being competitive, even though this is usually the time of year when the A's get healthy and get hot. Last night, they were shutout for the 5th time this season, they're fresh off a 9-game-losing streak that spanned parts of both halves, and they're 5-13 in the month of July.
What's ironic is that their trademark pitching and defense has been just as good as it was a year ago, when they won 93 games and the division. Their .985 fielding percentage is 11th best in baseball (it was .986 last year, good for 3rd overall), and their staff ERA (3.73) is best in the league and second best in baseball (it was 4.21 in 2006).
The problem this year is that the offense is a little worse and the bullpen is much worse. After blowing just 20 saves all of last year, they've blown 15 already in '07 (only three teams have blown more) and they're tied with (ironically) the Orioles for the 5th worst save conversion percentage at 58%. As far as the hitters are concerned, no American League team has scored fewer runs (they were 16th last year), their .249 team average is 5th worst in baseball (it was .260 in '06) and they're still doing nothing to manufacture runs. They're 26th in stolen bases (23rd a year ago), dead last in sacrifice bunts (27th last year) and have hit into 98 double plays, worst in baseball for the second straight year.
Add that up, and it explains why they're 11.5 out in the West and 12 back of the Wild Card. It turns out the difference between going 93-69 versus 76-86 isn't very big. It's just that all the games the A's won 4-3 last year, they're losing 3-2 this year.
1 comment:
Don't forget about Esteban Loaiza, he should have been big for them this year. His injury set them back substantially. Letting him move on to the Dodgers last week seems to have been the A's quasi waving of the white flag.
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