Strange A's

Lots of nonsense is going on in the AL West right now. The Astros have lost 6 straight games. The Angels and A's have won 7 of their last 10. The Texas Rangers are the 6th-best team in the AL right now. And nobody's asking any questions because, from the exterior, this looks like a normal division. Oh, lovely, Astros are 8 games ahead of everybody, nothing special there. BUT THERE IS, THOUGH.

Like...this A's team is a hella weird third-place team, but they're still above .500 and technically a competitive team. Marcus Semien and Matt Chapman have become...essentially the thinking man's Bash Brothers, in that they actually do lawful baseball things like hitting .300 and not inane things like shoving syringes in dark places. Semien's 13 away from 100 hits, has a 3.7 WAR, and will likely nab a reserve spot on the ASG roster. Chapman will probably join him if the world is fair.

And yet, with Frankie Montas suddenly gone after a suspension (that syringe joke setup was supposed to have a payoff, but it surprisingly wasn't this), and with Sean Manaea not back til next month, this team doesn't have a lot of other concrete heroes or standouts. Like, who are we supposed to watch for a heroic game? Liam Hendriks? Robbie Grossman? Josh Phegley? Nobody's doing too terribly, but the rest of the team is so...perfectly fine, that it's hard to really be bothered to care about them.

And this is a complete contrast to the Rangers, who are balls-to-the-wall showy, even in trainwrecky ways (I direct you to Drew Smyly and Shelby Miller). The Rangers have a lot more players in hero positions, a lot more going for them, and a lot worth writing about. They do have visible flaws, like...the back half of their pitching staff, but they're also a lot better than they had any right to be. The A's, meanwhile, were expected to repeat the late-season tear they went on in 2018, and I don't know if that's going to happen.

For now, the A's will just have to hold onto Semien and Chapman for dear life, or else it'll be a long, long rest of the season.

Coming Tonight: Probably the single most unlikely guy to become a home-run-hitting threat in Phoenix.