Comments on: How do you judge the A’s season to this point?

By: Damon Yeargain

Damon Yeargain — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:43:13 +0000

It was unrealistic to expect the A’s to win it this year. They were too young, with way too many unknowns. A much more realistic goal this year was to hit .500, see where the team stands and make a run in 2011. They are well within reach of those goals. We now know where this team stands. Great young pitching staff. The hitting, especially in terms of power, needs to be improved. With $20 million or so coming off the books, I expect Beane to make some moves to get some bats. Plus, as another person on this list pointed, out they may still develop some bats within the farm system.
I say the season was success. We know where the team stands and with the addition of some bats the team will be poised to make a run next year.

By: Dave Hendu

Dave Hendu — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:12:34 +0000

I have never been so optimistic. The starting staff is unbelievably good. As strong 1 through 5 as any staff in baseball, probably stronger. The hitting sucks but I believe that Billy Beane will go out and get some big bats in the offseason. I would like to see the A’s make a decision on a center fielder, and I would it to be Rajai. But they can’t have corner outfielders hitting 1-3 home runs a year. Either Crisp, Davis or Sweeney should be in center. The other two should be shipped out. I would like to see Taylor and Carter earn their way onto the starting lineup in left and right. This could be good spots to pick up big bats, as could DH. Cust is a bust. 14 home runs through August for a guy who strikes out as much as he does? Please release him. I don’t want to see Pena either. He’s a k-machine as well.

I like the infield a lot. Not much pop on the corners, but that should improve next year. Great gloves, though it may be time to bid adieu to Ellis. We don’t lose much defensively by putting Rosales in there, and he’s a probably an upgrade offensively.

The ‘pen is fairly solid. Losing Bailey hurt the team a lot this year. Having someone who can step in and close games out without shifting the roles around too much will be nice. The return of Devine may bring that guy, should Bailey go down again. The starting staff is awesome and will be even deeper with Outman able to fill in if need be. Mortensen seems ready as well.

With the right bats filling in in right, left and DH, this team could win the division next year.

By: Damon

Damon — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:27:47 +0000

The season is about what I expected it to be – a qualified success. I recall telling my friends at the beginning of the season the A’s were at LEAST a year away. The pitching staff has exceeded my expectations, but the offense has indeed been disappointing. Ryan Sweeney’s injury certainly didn’t help in that regard.
What we need offensively (assuming we continue to lack power), are 9 guys who are flat-out TOUGH outs. We get 9 guys hitting .265 or better, we can live w/o power, ESPECIALLY with the pitching we have.

By: crister

crister — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:18:37 +0000

Last year, you could see throughout the season that despite their record, the team had a pretty good future with regards to the pitching. You were almost looking forward for the season to be over. Not for any other reason, but for the excitement of seeing how the pitchers would improve in 2010. Sure enough, that excitement was largely warranted. I’m not the biggest Geo Gonzalez fan, but hey, the numbers don’t lie. Anderson and Cahill? Pretty good… Bailey? Huston Street who?

This year, you’re just not getting that vibe with any of the position players. The corner infield spots are bigtime question marks. The outfield? Well, Crisp’s broken finger was just dumb luck. No one’s fault… Sweeney though… What is he really? Going on 26, bad knees, quite a few injuries already, overall “ok” skill set, but doesn’t’ exactly stand out in any particular aspect of the game. Travis Buck? That train has left the station. Raj Davis… Nice spark plug. Jack Cust… I hear Japan is nice during the summer. Is Suzuki going to continue to improve is is this pretty much it? Not that he’s bad or anything. Maybe he’s just not the star that everyone thought he was going to grow into. And it all goes back to . . . Who this year has us excited for next year? The pitchers more or less got their growing pains of of the way last year. Can’t say the same for any of the offensive guys with mayby, just maybe Pennington and that’s a real maybe…

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:03:46 +0000

How exactly is this season a failure? What were people that think this expecting this season? I was hoping for 81-81 at the start of the season and as long as this Yankee series doesn’t send them into a downward spiral, they have a pretty good chance at finishing up right around there. Obviously, they need to find some offense going forward and yeah it’s painful to see the A’s fail to score night after night while Carlos Gonzalez is an MVP candidate in Colorado but…they’ve already got an excellent pitching staff, which in theory is harder to find than hitters. Now, they’ve got to figure out how to put together an offense. Let’s hope they can use the money they won’t be spending on Chavez (finally) and Sheets next year and be able to bring in 2-3 quality bats. I’m not expecting superstars because superstars don’t sign for non-playoff teams unless you way overpay and the A’s shouldn’t do that but they can get some good bats for the $20M that’ll be off the books in Chavez & Sheets.

By: COH

COH — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:51:52 +0000

an abject failure.

By: TheDream5

TheDream5 — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:14:27 +0000

I felt that this was a 500 team going into the season and it essentially is…The offense is terrible, but the pitching has been amazing. I’m very optimistic for the future because of the solid young pitching. Anybody who expecting this team to compete in 2010 in crazy…hopefully 2011 will be a different story.

By: jclay09

jclay09 — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:54:10 +0000

Positives:

The current starting 5
The bullpen
Daric Barton
Cliff Pennington
Coco Crisp
Jack Cust
Adam Rosales
The defense

The defense and the entire pitching staff have been stellar virtually all season. Cahill, Anderson, and Gio look like a force to be reckoned with for years to come. Pennington and Barton both took major steps forward and look like perennial everyday players on a playoff team. Coco, when healthy, has been an absolute beast on offense, defense, and on the base paths. With him in the lineup this is a much much better team. Cust, while not hitting for much power, greatly improved his BA and is still getting on-base at a .400 clip. Rosales has been the jack-of-all trades the team has been missing since Scutaro.

Negatives:

The bats of Suzuki, Ellis, Kouzmanoff, Rajai
Injuries (again) mainly Jackson, Sweeney, Sheets, Duke but smaller ones of Braden, Anderson, and Coco as well
Eric Chavez
The Conor Jackson trade debacle
Ben Sheets
Chris Carter in the majors
Michael Taylor
Adrian Cardenas
Jemile Weeks
Tyson Ross after April 23rd
Gabe Gross
Jake Fox
Travis Buck
Bob Geren

The A’s bet big on Carter, Taylor, and Weeks and currently they’ve all hit major road blocks. Carter the least of them, but still 0-19 with 9 K’s and not passing the eye test is a big issue. Rajai was expected to regress, but not to forget how to walk almost completely. Ellis and Suzuki were expected to hit much better, Kouz expected to hit for more power. Fox, Gross, Buck, and Chavez all colossal disappointments, some expected. The Conor Jackson trade was a major head scratcher at the time, and still is.

Overall I’d say a slight disappointment if the season ended right now, mainly because they’re under .500 and because of how badly the yankes have destroyed them this season. 1-9 against any 1 team is flat out unacceptable and getting outscored 23-54 on the season is just pathetic. Vs the rest of the league the team is 64-58 and that’s with an atrocious road record. The team has to find some offense at the corner OF positions and has to learn to win on the road.

By: Fool Manchu

Fool Manchu — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:01:41 +0000

Unfortunately, there are only 3 groups of people currently attending A’s games. The first group consists of about 5,000 hardcore fans who live and die with the team and attend all their games. The second group of people in attendance are there to see the A’s opposition, and sometimes they outnumber The A’s fans. The third group is comprised of schmucks like me. I park at the adjacent BART station parking lot for free so I don’t have to pay the $17 for parking in the A’s lot. I attend $2 Wednesday games and jersey/bobblehead give-away games. This will be the extent of my commitment to the team until the product on the field improves. The starting pitching looks promising, but none of their position players jump out at you. This season certainly hasn’t been awful, but it hasn’t been great, either. I wish I could expect better next year, but I don’t.

By: scott no2

scott no2 — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:59:23 +0000

Disappointing. I thought the offense would be better than what it was. but instead we used the DL over and over and over and over again. I worry that the organization does not provide the right trainers and conditioning.

Hope that makes sense.