The Oakland Athletics clinched the AL west title for the second straight year. This is the most interesting and underrated stories in Major League Baseball the last 2 seasons. The team with the 27-Th highest payroll among the 30 teams in the league has finished first in the difficult AL West. This division was supposed to be all about the high-spending Anaheim Angels and Texas Rangers. They had the money and some big name talent and I still remember the A's fans taking about their team with a sense of resignation a couple of years back. And then magic happened last season. When the movie Moneyball came out in late 2011, it looked like a bad time for a Billy Beane biopic. He had not been in the playoffs in 5 years and there was no apparent light at the end of the tunnel or a plan in sight to compete against the new found money in Anaheim and solid talent in Texas. But then he pulled a moneyball-2 in 2012 with nobody looking. The A's clinched the division title in the last series of the year behind a bunch of solid, rookie pitchers and a couple of good hitters.
Coming into this season, the Angels and Rangers added more talent and even the die-hard A's fans were wondering if last year was nothing but a fluke. The hope was that the young pitching was real and when you have pitching, you have a lot going for you. The hitting was always a question mark. And then Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick decided not to show up at the level we expected them to. Given that they were the only pop in the lineup in 2012, this should have been disaster, but Josh Donaldson saved the day for the A's all season. Between him and timely home runs from others, the offense actually improved from 2012. And Reddick and Cespedes have also joined the party late in the season. The pitching was still there and old man Bartolo Colon was a true ace for a majority of the season. He slipped a little and seemed to have found his rhythm again the last couple of weeks, but his season ERA is still a robust 2.64. Both the starting pitchers and the bullpen have gone through ups and downs, but the pitching has been there as a unit all season long.
After a rough August where the schedule was difficult, the A's started rolling again in September. The rangers started slipping around the same time - bad timing for them, and when the A's swept them last week in Texas, this division was over. Now the A's have officially won the division with a week to spare after sweeping the Twins and taking all drama out of this race. This team is on a roll and I can't believe what will happen to this world if they won the World Series. Thats no dream. I think this team has enough weapons to make it happen. I have always maintained that the MLB playoffs are a crap-shoot. A team on a roll with good pitching can make anything happen as the other Bay Area team - the Giants, have shown us 2 out of the last 3 years. It would be awesome to have the national media and the baseball establishment deal with Billy Beane and the A's winning a championship. I like and respect Billy. It's about time he wins the big one. Congrats to him on building a division champion out of the 27-Th ranked payroll. Good luck to him the rest of the way this season and post-season. Go, get em all Billy.
Coming into this season, the Angels and Rangers added more talent and even the die-hard A's fans were wondering if last year was nothing but a fluke. The hope was that the young pitching was real and when you have pitching, you have a lot going for you. The hitting was always a question mark. And then Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick decided not to show up at the level we expected them to. Given that they were the only pop in the lineup in 2012, this should have been disaster, but Josh Donaldson saved the day for the A's all season. Between him and timely home runs from others, the offense actually improved from 2012. And Reddick and Cespedes have also joined the party late in the season. The pitching was still there and old man Bartolo Colon was a true ace for a majority of the season. He slipped a little and seemed to have found his rhythm again the last couple of weeks, but his season ERA is still a robust 2.64. Both the starting pitchers and the bullpen have gone through ups and downs, but the pitching has been there as a unit all season long.
After a rough August where the schedule was difficult, the A's started rolling again in September. The rangers started slipping around the same time - bad timing for them, and when the A's swept them last week in Texas, this division was over. Now the A's have officially won the division with a week to spare after sweeping the Twins and taking all drama out of this race. This team is on a roll and I can't believe what will happen to this world if they won the World Series. Thats no dream. I think this team has enough weapons to make it happen. I have always maintained that the MLB playoffs are a crap-shoot. A team on a roll with good pitching can make anything happen as the other Bay Area team - the Giants, have shown us 2 out of the last 3 years. It would be awesome to have the national media and the baseball establishment deal with Billy Beane and the A's winning a championship. I like and respect Billy. It's about time he wins the big one. Congrats to him on building a division champion out of the 27-Th ranked payroll. Good luck to him the rest of the way this season and post-season. Go, get em all Billy.
2 comments:
The Oakland Athletics are unstoppable! With five games to go (and just one game behind) they might just overtake the Red Sox for best record in baseball!
They have a lot of things going for them. They're young, they're playing loose, they're really maximizing their potential. The Angels and Rangers seem old, slow and burdened by massive expectations that come with such high payrolls. The A's just look like they're having fun out there. And I'm sure it's fun for their fans just to watch them play baseball.
I do, however, worry about their lack of success in the post-season. If their pitchers, especially Colon who I feel deserves serious Cy Young consideration, can carry their performances into the playoffs (when the lights shine brightest and the pressure and expectations are high no matter how low your payroll is) they could have another magical run in them.
As a Tigers fan, I certainly don't want to face them in Round 1 and find out. ;-)
Magesh,
Couldn't agree with you more. Tigers better watch out. I usually try not to be one of those fans that's delusional when it comes to my team's playoff chances. But I feel the A's have a legitimate shot at winning the World Series this year and you enumerated some of the reasons for it. This may be the year they erase their recent playoff failures.
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