With a seven-game stretch against American League West foes last week, the Oakland Athletics had a chance before the All-Star break to prove who they were.
And they did exactly that.
The A”s lost two of three at home to the Seattle Mariners before getting rocked in a four-game sweep in Texas against the AL West-leading Rangers.
Oakland blew a golden opportunity to close the division gap, which has ballooned to 12 games.
Now, sitting at 39-53, Oakland”s season is all but over.
With a .500 record a slim possibility (let alone a playoff berth), fans are left dumbfounded, wondering what happened during the first three-plus months of the 2011 season and imagining what will be in store for the final two-plus months.
The reasons for the early-season disappointment seem fairly easy to trace.
Offensive inadequacy has been a problem for the A”s all season.
The team ranks 28th in Major League Baseball in three important categories (runs scored, batting average and home runs).
Even more disappointing, the key offseason acquisitions (David DeJesus, Hideki Matsui and Josh Willingham) have underperformed, to say the least, and the returning hitters have had mostly down years.
No Athletic is having any sort of a season offensively, considering Coco Crisp has the best batting average on the team with a measly .267, and Willingham leads with merely 11 home runs and 44 runs batted in.
With no team consistency and really no individual talents, the A”s posed no threat to many opponents during the first half of the season.
Still, the offensive struggles could have been foreseen; during the previous four seasons, the A”s were bottom dwellers in team offense categories and many offseason acquisitions for some reason just couldn”t produce while wearing the green and gold.
A problem that came out of nowhere was Oakland”s atrocious defense.
The A”s are third worst in the majors with 71 errors (in 92 games played), which contributed to the team”s MLB-worst 51 unearned runs.
So despite having the best earned run average in the AL, the A”s find themselves well outside the playoff race because the offense can”t produce and the defense can”t convert routine outs.
The ERA mark is particularly remarkable considering the injuries the A”s staff has endured. Three opening-week starters spent time on the disabled list (including Dallas Braden, who is out for the season), and several key relievers also had DL stints.
Injuries forced Oakland to use 10 different starting pitchers and two closers during the first half.
Then again, personnel fluidity developed into a theme for the 2011 A”s.
In addition to the variety of pitchers used, Oakland”s starting lineups changed throughout the first half. In fact, three of the four opening day starting infielders aren”t even with the A”s anymore (Mark Ellis got traded and Daric Barton and Kevin Kouzmanoff are in Triple-A).
And of course, the person filling out the lineup card also changed, with then-manager Bob Geren getting axed in mid-June amid a 10-game losing skid.
Things improved slightly once Bob Melvin took the helm, but now a month into his interim tenure, the A”s are 14 games under .500 and have the fifth-worst record in the majors.
Considering Oakland”s schedule for the rest of July after the All-Star break (which begins Friday at home against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and includes series against the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays), it”s time to stick a fork in the A”s 2011 season.
So A”s fans should expect to hear their team”s name making many headlines as July winds down: let the fire sale begin.
Look for many current A”s to get traded to contending teams while Oakland spends August and September as it has for the past five seasons, vying for respectability while experimenting with any number of minor-league prospects.
At least Oakland sports fans can take solace in the fact it”s sounding more and more like they”ll have Raiders football to look forward to come September.
Here are some of the stats that tell the tale of the A”s disastrous first half:
Oakland infielders combined for 47 errors, pitchers added another 13 and catchers 7.
A”s first basemen hit just .204, catchers .215, right fielders .225 and designated hitters .232.
The A”s went 23-21 at home with a 2.76 ERA, but were 16-32 on the road with a 3.50 ERA.
And they were blinded by the lights, going 22-35 in night games.
All stats according to ESPN.com
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. He can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 37 or jwalsh@record-bee.com.
