Fremont Bound

It wasn’t the best month for the A’s.  Early on they were playing .500 ball and were at least close to first.  Now they’re in last place and they’re four losses back of even reaching the Mariners who sit in third. Even worse, they dropped two of three to a pretty mediocre Marlins team.

Scoring runs has been a problem and their four runs in the loss yesterday was actually one of their better games recently.  This one was 5-0 and the A’s made a comeback but fell short.  Trevor Cahill had a rough start and he gave up five runs in 4 2/3 innings.  Trystan Magnunson pitched 3 1/3 shutout innings of relief to help the A’s get back into it but even that wasn’t enough.

David DeJesus went two for three with a pair of runs.  Kurt Suzuki went two for four with a home run and two RBIs.

Next up are the Diamondbacks.  Rich Harden makes his redebut with the A’s tonight.

The Athletics still sit in last place.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is the A’s are just 2 1/2 games back of the first place Rangers, who only have a 29-26 record.  Two months into the season and nobody has stepped out in front so this could be an interesting season in the AL West.

The Athletics lost their second straight game against the Yankees.  Brett Anderson was shelled for ten runs in 5 1/3 innings and while the pen game them 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief, that wasn’t nearly enough. 

David DeJesus was the A’s offense in this one.  He went two for three with a home run and he drove in all three Athletics’ runs.  Mark Ellis also had a nice game with a double and a single in four at bats.

Gio Gonzalez gets the start tonight and A.J. Burnett goes for the Yankees.  Hopefully the A’s can right the ship here.

The A’s avoided a sweep Wednesday by besting the Angels 2-1 but even that snapped a week of days where the A’s lost five out of seven.  Still, despite sitting at 12-13, they A’s are just three games back of the first place Rangers, who they happen to play this weekend.  Two of three would be nice so hopefully the A’s find it in themselves to get it done now.

It’s hard to say who’s been the hitting star on this team.  Josh Willingham leads in home runs (3) and RBIs (13) but he’s hitting just .234.  Coco Crisp is batting .286 with 16 runs but even his .733 OPS isn’t much to write home about.  Of course the offense overall has been lukewarm.  Only the Twins (77) have fewer runs then the Athletics (85).  And the same goes for home runs because the A’s have just eleven.

Fortunately the pitching has been good.  Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez have been about as consistent of a front three as you can ask.  Of course this is the big reason why the A’s have the best ERA in baseball (2.66).  No other team is within 25 points of them.

Of course it’s all for naught if the team doesn’t start winning.  And there’s no time like the present with the current first place team coming into town.

The Athletics took care of the Giants 6-4 and Brandon McCarthy had another nice start.  He gave up two runs on five hits with five strikeouts in seven innings.  Trystan Magnuson threw a shutout ninth and he picked up the win.

Matt Carson went two for four in the win.  Chris Carter tripled, drew a walk, drove in two runs and scored.  David DeJesus went one for three with a run and a walk.

Brett Anderson gets the start today against the Dodgers.  Game time is 1:05 local time.

Youth can be a vital component to giving a team an upstart and propelling them to new height during a tough   162 game schedule. Also as young players gain valuable experience and improvement along with competition bring the competitive nature out of other players. Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez are expected to have big roles and provide consistent pitching for the Oakland A’s in its pursuit to capture a playoff birth. The 24 year old Gonzalez who led the team in innings  and a 3.23 ERA had a impressive win record with 15 as did Cahill who had a team leading 18 wins and earned an All Star birth. Both are young and have worked hard this off season to improve mechanics and the mental aspect of the game that can consume a couple of 20 year olds. Hopefully for the Bay Area team they can come back better than ever and led the team back into contention.

The recent singing of David Dejesus has fans in the Bay area excited for the upcoming 2011 baseball season in which the team finished exactly at the 500. mark. The ball club hopes that the outfielder career 290. batting average will spark the offense. Also Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui and Josh Willingham and pitching help in the form of Rich Harden the A’s look to make a run for the division crown. The bullpen also looks to be an strong point for along with solid small ball play that the team has been known for in the past decade. Looks to be an exciting season in the Bay for 2011.

The A’s further strengthed their bullpen by signing left hander Brian Fuentes to a two year deal. Last week is was Grant Balfour and this week it’s former closer Fuentes.  Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed and he gives the A’s some nice insurance after Andrew Bailey went under the knife to have his elbow repaired. If Bailey isn’t 100%, Fuentes could easily slip into the closer role and if Bailey is good to go, he’ll be a very good setup man.

Fuentes is death to left handers, who hit only .211 over his career.  I like this deal a lot because the two year term makes it low risk and it’ll really help shorten up those games for the starters.

The Athletics shored up their bullpen by signing a guy with a most un-pitching like name out there.  Grant Balfour will be in the mix for two years and the Athletics will have him for $8.1 million.  Balfour was one of the many guys who had a nice season out the pen for the Rays last year and he’s yet another guy who’s not going back to that division winning team.

The past three seasons, Balfour has had two good ones and one not so good.  2009 was mediocre (4.81 ERA) but 2008 was awesome and 2010 nearly as good.  Balfour is a good platoon guy and right handers hit just .174 against him in 2010. Over his career, Balfour has just a .219 batting average against right handed hitters.

Balfour joins a solid A’s bullpen.  Andrew Bailey will close and Joey Devine will work as the setup man but expect Balfour to get his share of innings.

Rich Harden made his name in the A’s system and now he’s back after a number of injury plagued seasons.  Harden signed a one year deal with the team for $1.5 million plus some incentives as he returned home.  For now, Harden will be one of a few guys fighting for a spot on the A’s rotation.  I’m really hoping for one of those comeback player of the year stories where Harden reverts back to form but I guess we’ll see.  Another top prospect, Brandon McCarthy, will also be competing for a spot in the rotation.

Harden has still struck out on average a batter an inning so we’ll see what he can get back to.  He’s 29 now and hopefully much wiser so hopefully he’ll make the most of this chance.

We got the news from Coco Crisp himself that the Athletics picked up his 2011 option on the outfielder.  Crisp stole 32 bases and put up some solid numbers in about a half season.  The A’s should get their money’s worth on this one if Crisp can stay healthy.  If he’s only playing for half a season, then $5.75 million might be a bit much for a reserve player.  Hopefully he can get it together.

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