The Oakland Athletics remain the worst team talent-wise in the AL West division and one of the weakest in the American League.
Their future will not be tied to Oakland, and they will probably have played in three different cities before the decade is up considering they will be in Sacramento from 2025-27 and plan to move to Las Vegas in 2028.
However, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been entertaining to watch from time to time.
In fact, they have been better than expected.
It surely won’t last too long and don’t expect them to contend, but the A’s have been playing some solid baseball as of late and that also deserves to be mentioned.
Of the Bay Area teams in the league, they have been the best, at least so far.
“Who’d imagine the Oakland A’s would have the best record in the Bay Area right now with a 7-9 record after winning 6 of their last 8 games? Take a bow manager Mark Kotsay, who vowed the team would be much improved this year,” MLB insider Bob Nightengale tweeted.
Who’d imagine the Oakland A’s would have the best record in the Bay Area right now with a 7-9 record after winning 6 of their last 8 games? Take a bow manager Mark Kotsay, who vowed the team would be much improved this year.
Kotsay, the skipper, said the Athletics would be better this year than their poor 2023 version.
So far, he has delivered on his word.
Oakland has taken six of their last eight, including two against the improved Detroit Tigers, two against the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers, and two at home vs. the Washington Nationals.
That’s three straight series wins, for those keeping score at home.
The A’s offense has been subpar with a .613 OPS to this point, but their pitching has been shockingly competitive and has a rock-solid 3.85 ERA.
A 3.85 ERA with that payroll is nothing short of amazing.
Starters such as Paul Blackburn (perfect ERA in 19.1 innings) and Kyle Muller (2.03 ERA in 13.1 frames) have responded well, and reliever Mason Miller has blown 103-mph fastballs right at batters on a consistent basis, earning great results as well.
These A’s might not be contenders, but they sure are fun.