Last season I waxed poetic about my affinity for the 2012 version of the Oakland Athletics. It was partly due to them coming out of nowhere to win the A.L. West on the final day of the season in dramatic fashion. It was mainly due to the collection of players and the fun that they had on and off the field that won me over. You had the walk-offs with the pies, the 'Bernie lean' dance and Balfour rage. Off the field on the Twitter-verse it was the world of the McCarthy's, Brandon and Amanda, who kept fans in stitches with their witty repartee.
But that was last season. Gone were the McCarthy's. Gone was the element of surprise. After winning 94 games, nobody (including me) expected the 2013 Athletics to do it again. The Rangers appeared to take a step back as they lost slugger Josh Hamilton to the Angels. Everybody had Los Angeles running away with the division in pre-season projections (yes, including me). Of course I wanted Oakland to win, but I'm a realist. I thought they played out of their minds last season and had everything break right for them.
The young pitching was going to regress. Bartolo Colon was going to be clean of PED's and 40+ years old. The Angels were going to score 900 runs! I predicted the Athletics narrowing out the Rangers for a Wild Card slot and losing that play-in game to the Tampa Bay Rays.
So how would Oakland respond? Would they collapse under the weight of expectations like my local team the Washington Nationals? After a quick 0-2 start, the Athletics went crazy. Nine straight wins scoring 69 runs. I had never seen an Oakland offense get off to a hot start. It had always been a struggle. Maybe they were for real last year and it was going to carry over into 2013.
Then reality set in. Following a loss to Texas, Oakland slumped to 20-22 or 11-20 in just over a month's worth of games. They were seven games out of first place and the offense had disappeared.
Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick and Coco Crisp were all struggling. Chris Young brought in to help the offense was putrid. Opening Day starter, Brett Anderson was (shockingly) injured. Thankfully the Angels had also gotten off to a wretched start. It was the Texas Rangers that appeared to have control of the A.L. West this season after choking it away a few months earlier.
That seven game deficit was the furthest they would be back for the rest of the season.
By the end of May they would be three games back. Bartolo Colon was having his best season since he won the Cy Young in 2005. Josh Donaldson was carrying the offense. Jed Lowrie was a doubles machine. The bullpen was lights out. Behind Sean Doolittle, Ryan Cook and Grant Balfour all leads were safe. Balfour would go on to break the Athletics team record of consecutive saves set by Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley. Some things were working.
The month of June saw Oakland win 16 games for the third straight month. At 13 games over .500 they stood just 0.5 out of first place. By the end of July, they would be alone in first by four games. It had been a full six games on the 29th of July, but by August 10th, just 11 days later, the Athletics were in second place once again, a game behind the Texas Rangers. For the second consecutive season the A.L. West would come down to those two teams.
On August 13th, it was a moment off the baseball field that would turn the season around. Coco Crisp received a cortisone shot on his ailing left wrist.
From that moment on Coco Crisp could do no wrong. He has hit 11 home runs since he returned on August 17th. The Athletics followed suit. At last count the Athletics had homered 68 times in their last 43 games (starting August 6th). The next highest amount in MLB is 50 with the resurgent Nationals here in D.C..
From the one game deficit back on August 10th, the A's would fall as much as 3.5 games behind Texas on August 23rd. September has belonged to the green and gold.
This month Yoenis Cespedes had his own cortisone shot and from the looks of it everyone should have one. He has been producing at an MVP level this month hitting .361 with 6 HR's and 19 RBI's. His previous high for a month had been .237 in July.
Up and down the lineup everyone is hitting. Outside of Coco and Yoenis, Lowrie and Donaldson are still doing their thing. Brandon Moss has been terrific. Josh Reddick has been better. Aleberto Callaspo was brought in from the Angels and has been hitting better than expected. The platoon team (which needs a nickname) of Eric Sogard, Nate Freiman, Derek Norris, Kurt Suzuki, Stephen Vogt, Daric Barton and yes even Chris Young have chipped in along the way in various ways.
The pitching has been good enough, but their deficiencies have been largely ignored thanks to the offense. The bullpen is shaky at best right now. Ryan Cook looks lost and the once invincible Grant Balfour has shown cracks in his armor. Bartolo Colon has returned from a DL vacation stint as strong as he was to start the season. Jarrod Parker had an 18 game start streak of not losing come to and end recently, but rebounded in his most recent start. A.J. Griffin has been homer prone but seems to be just good enough each start to be successful. Dan Straily quietly has been effective and rookie Sonny Gray has been solid.
Brett Anderson, still stuck on one win this season, is working out of the bullpen as is fellow starter Tommy Milone who had been demoted to AAA earlier in the year.
This month Oakland has gone 16-5 while the Rangers have flat lined at 5-15. This includes Oakland walking into Arlington and sweeping the Rangers on their home field. Fittingly it was a Texas lost that officially clinched the A.L. West for Oakland today even though they took care of business a few hours later with a victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Currently Oakland has the second best record in not only the American League, but in all of baseball. They have proven to be a more complete team this season. I believe they can still play better. Maybe not on the offensive side, but their pitching could easily improve, especially on the back end.
With six games left Oakland should exceed their win total of 94 games from last year, but as always it will be how they do in the playoffs that will be what everyone remembers. Since making the playoffs in 2000 Oakland will now be playing in the postseason for the seventh time in that 14 year period. They have only won one series in those previous six appearances. It has also been nearly 25 years since the franchise has last won a World Series. Could this be the group that gets them back to the mountaintop?
My 25 man playoff roster would look like this:
Pitching:
1. Bartolo Colon
2. Jarrod Parker
3. A.J. Griffin
4. Dan Straily
5. Dan Otero
6. Sean Doolittle
7. Ryan Cook
8. Grant Balfour
9. Brett Anderson
10. Jerry Blevins
11. Jesse Chavez
Hitting:
1. Coco Crisp
2. Jed Lowrie
3. Josh Donaldson
4. Yoenis Cespedes
5. Brandon Moss
6. Josh Reddick
7. Alberto Callaspo
8. Eric Sogard
9. Stephen Vogt
10. Kurt Suzuki
11. Chris Young
12. Seth Smith
13. Daric Barton
14. Derek Norris...yes three catchers.
If you want one more bullpen arm I suppose I'd keep Norris out and put Pat Neshak or Sonny Gray in his place.
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