Oakland...

[dc.]

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11361102

 

Wait... so, when your offense is running on timely hitting only... and you trade away one of your premium power hitters... you mean to tell me you might suffer on offense a bit???

 

They are 7-8 since trading for Lester. Walks on offense are down to 4th worst in baseball. Slugging is down to 5th worst.

 

I feel like some of us talked about this, no?

[thundercleetz]

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11361102

 

Wait... so, when your offense is running on timely hitting only... and you trade away one of your premium power hitters... you mean to tell me you might suffer on offense a bit???

 

They are 7-8 since trading for Lester. Walks on offense are down to 4th worst in baseball. Slugging is down to 5th worst.

 

I feel like some of us talked about this, no?

 

I'll give you props for now. I will say the O's are getting hot at the right time and the AL is shaping up to be very winnable for us.

[thundercleetz]

I'm bumping this, you were right DC. A's have tanked since the deadline.

[dc.]

They were actually even worse since the trade than I realized. I think 12-18. Ouch. And shut out several times too.

[thundercleetz]

They were actually even worse since the trade than I realized. I think 12-18. Ouch. And shut out several times too.

Five back of the Angels, at one point they had a sizable lead on the division. Beane has to be frustrated right now.

[dc.]

I just don't get it with Beane, though... all those years of Moneyball and to my eye he totally abandoned it this year (or, at the trade deadline at least). Cespedes wasn't exactly a Moneyball kind of player - but the metrics on Hammel and Samardzija also had to tell you they couldn't sustain the team. And the metrics also had to tell you that the A's bats were not as strong as they looked.

 

I was just reading Grantland's Power Rankings (they still have the O's at #4 behind the Angels, Nats and A's, by the way). But the O's were the feature team this week in the top bracket and the writer, as is usual, spent the entire time talking about how lucky the Orioles pitchers are relative to their skill. They are oddly good when men are on base, for example. (Though, not an astounding recording-setting or league best with men on, as with our one-run games feat a few years ago). Anyway, the entire thing was about how the team was lucky and playing outside of its reality and norms... In many ways I am fine with that, especially because I don't entirely disagree with it. You look at our rotation and it's hard to believe we have a 9 game division lead.

 

But I haven't seen similar articles on most of the other division leaders. That's what bothers me. Where's the article on the A's bats playing so far over their heads? No, there was none. Midyear we got articles on how they were simply the most dominant team in baseball, no questions asked. No one bothered to point out the dramatic difference between Avg and OBP most of their players were putting up... the astounding difference between Avg and Avg wRISP. No one wanted to look at the splits on guys like Josh Donaldson who has 100% mirrored last year - monster first half that falls apart in late May.

 

Anyway.. it sounds silly but the thing I trust most in this O's team is their ability to rise to the occasion. We may not have the perfect skill set of any team out there - far from it, really. But when their blood gets pumping and they get into it, they respond. My hope/gut feeling is that we don't see too many dead bat nights in the playoffs because our guys will be too pumped ... (though, hardly mattered in 2012)

[thundercleetz]

A's saw their fate last night with this one game playoff preview:

 

http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/gamecast?gameId=340903111&version=mobile

 

[Felix] Hernandez improved to 19-7 against Oakland, including 4-0 in five starts this season. He said he's just happy to finally be pitching in a playoff race.