Fans who watch and listen to Bay Area pro baseball know by heart the phrase that precedes pitching changes on just about every local broadcast.
Next week, it might be time for Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane to follow the sponsor”s advice and “think SpeeDee Oil Change and Tune-Up.”
More than likely though, Beane”s car won”t be in need of maintenance after the current 10-game road trip (marred by a season-worst losing streak), but his team surely could be.
The A”s, who spent most of the first two months hovering around .500 and within sight of the American League West leader, struggled at the end of May and beginning of June and now find their accrued division deficit nearing double digits.
While a large division lead in June isn”t always safe, a growing deficit can be almost impossible to overcome, especially for teams with little recent success.
Oakland could soon find itself in such a predicament after the current road trip.
Though a four-game set against the inconsistent Chicago White Sox still remains, there”s a chance the A”s could trail the Texas Rangers by 10 or more games come Monday. If that is the case, Beane really needs to look at shaking up the team.
And rather than changing the team”s parts, Beane should switch drivers.
(Think of Beane as the son who controls the car, and for all intents and purposes “owns” the car, though its true owners are his parents: the ownership group headed by Lew Wolff. In this scenario, manager Bob Geren is the driver.)
Geren, a longtime friend of Beane”s, was a journeyman catcher, a five-year pro with a career batting average of .233 (fittingly close to the A”s 2011 team average).
Oakland turned to Geren in 2007 even though he had little big league coaching experience — a few years as bullpen coach and bench coach with no time as a manager in the majors.
The A”s were consistent underachievers in Geren”s four full seasons (307-340 overall), finishing as good as .500 just once.
The team, with its ever-changing on-the-field parts, made some strides during that time, jumping from 11th in team earned run average in 2009 to third last season. Unfortunately, the improvements have all but slowed this season.
The A”s are currently fourth in the majors in team ERA, which would be great if they hadn”t dropped to 27th in runs scored this year compared to 23rd last season.
During the past decade, Oakland has usually had better pitching than hitting, but the gap between the two has grown larger than ever under Geren”s watch (despite trying out three hitting coaches during his time).
The numbers are astoundingly bad this season. Of the A”s nine everyday hitters, eight are batting below their career average so far in 2011 — shortstop Cliff Pennington is the only improver.
Inexplicably, the team also sits in the bottom five in total errors despite having the 11th best total last season.
Simply put, the A”s continue to have great pitching but are wasting it with deficient batting and suddenly destructive fielding. Both negative trends point to players” lack of confidence and belief, which a manager would normally be charged with correcting.
Considering the fielders” poor play on both sides of the ball and the pitchers” recent inability to capture wins, it”s time to look at Geren as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
Even if the A”s lose all four games in Chicago, there would still be time to close the division gap. It will be only mid-June after all. But there”s nothing in Geren”s managing history to lead knowledgeable fans to believe he could guide a miraculous midseason recovery.
The important issue would no doubt be finding the right replacement. Teams like to stick close to home when naming a short-term substitute, but only bench coach Joel Skinner has any big-league managing experience and would seem to be the staff”s lone candidate.
Having a coaching staff with little managing potential is something new during Beane”s tenure.
Several recent A”s coaches have been hired to manage other teams, with some struggling (Don Wakamatsu”s difficult run in Seattle and Mike Quade”s troubles with the Chicago Cubs) and others excelling greatly (Ron Washington with the Rangers and Terry Francona winning two World Series titles with Boston).
Nevertheless, Skinner would appear to be the best option unless the A”s were to get lucky playing the depleted free agent coaching market.
It”s unclear whether Beane would make the move necessary to jumpstart the A”s season; he”s been quick to sever ties with successful managers he didn”t like (Art Howe and Ken Macha), but Geren”s his buddy.
With a change, the A”s would have time to recover — think of the 2009 Colorado Rockies, who dumped manager Clint Hurdle in favor of bench coach Jim Tracy in late May and climbed from the bottom of the division to earn a wild-card playoff berth.
If the A”s can”t salvage the road trip this weekend and cut into the Rangers” lead, their postseason potential seems unlikely. So if Beane at all believes the A”s can win the race to the 2011 playoffs, it could soon be time for him to think managerial change.
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. He can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 37 or jwalsh@record-bee.com.
