Pacific Grim

 

The Giants and A's don't play too close to each other anymore, but they still feel like kindred spirits. They both went through colossal rebuilds, they both have a well-liked former player in a management position, they both have a god-tier home run hitter in their midst, and they both absolutely shat the bed this year. 

It's funny, I'm writing this on a night where both teams honestly have a lot to be happy about. The A's absolutely bodied the Rangers earlier today, and got homers from Jonah Heim, Alika Williams and, twice, Henry Bolte. Bolte is not exactly known for his power, he's a pretty fun defense-heavy outfield guy, he hits for contact, does his thing. He's a very handy guy to have around, and this game proved it. Meanwhile, the Giants' offense has been going wild recently thanks to the Pirates' pitching, with a Rafael Devers homer continuing the job from the 12-run loss [!!!]. Devers now has 32, and continues to be a very reliable power hitter with some obvious faults.

It's nice that these offenses have picked up, because otherwise there really isn't much left for either team to do.

We've reached the point in the Giants' season where Logan Webb is looking pretty cooked. Fundamentally he's still an excellent pitcher, and this isn't a concerning downturn, but after such a strong return from May on, resulting in an ASG nod, his ERA's back at 4.20, he's 8-8 and has been on the losing side his last three starts. The Pirates got 9 runs out of him yesterday, which is very concerning if you just blind yourself to how many Paul Skenes has been giving up. Without his better numbers, it's really down to Landen Roupp as a proper starting option, and...for many reasons that's just not a ship that fans wanna sail down. The Giants have thankfully been using a ton of rookies in starts recently, and both Anthony Molina and Yunior Marte look like really solid options. I also think Cesar Perdomo could start at some point, he's not too shabby either. Blade Tidwell getting starts I'm not very convinced about. You leave a guy named Blade for the eighth, don't trot him out in the 1st. No wonder the division rivals have killed him recently. 

Not a ton going on in the lineup either with a lot of people hurt. Devers is basically the draw right now. Bryce Eldridge had a decent month but is pedestrian again. Drew Gilbert is warming up now, he's got 8 homers and 36 RBIs this year, and even though he'll be 26 next year he's still looking like a future option. Begs the question, do the Mets *know* these downturns are coming when they trade these guys away? We thought they were fools for trading Kelenic, they weren't, and now 'OH WHY TRADE DREW GILBERT', well because he's hitting .236. Brandon Sproat's ERA was around 5 this year as well. What I'm saying is, Jett Williams, you are on notice.

There are some other amusing contributors, like surprise everyday catcher Drew Cavanaugh, wunderkind centerfield prospect Jonah Cox, depth outfielder Turner Hill who's hitting .350 pretty much, and erstwhile minor leaguer Oselvis Basabe trying to stay afloat given the roster vacancies, but there's really not much this team can do without so many viable pieces. 

Similarly, the A's are without Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson, Shea Langeliers and Brent Rooker, and we're very much as the 'there's no point' stage of hitting. Who is left in this lineup that can hit. Zack Gelof I suppose. Jonah Heim, cheesily. Lawrence Butler, when he feels like it. Henry Bolte in lieu of all else. But there's just a lot of empty space, and a lot of dull non-hitting. When you have all that positive offensive energy sitting on the IL, it's even more obvious. Denzel Clarke just came off the IL, and that's wonderful, but...again, Denzel Clarke is not exactly known for his offense. The A's basically feel like a minor league team at this point. I know they can't help it cause so many people got hurt, but it's just very depressing, especially considering how they were about to turn the corner in May and June.

I think the good news is that going forward, this team can rely on J.T. Ginn, Jacob Lopez and Gage Jump as a pitching backbone. I'm still waiting for more actual homegrown starters to lock into place, but maybe this is a step towards that happening.

Anyway, the Giants and A's are doing what they can to keep things interesting but they know it's kind of meaningless at this point, and at least a lot of guys who wouldn't otherwise be up in the majors are getting some nice reps in.

Coming Tomorrow- A guy that leapt and made the news. 

Might as Well...

 

I didn't think it could get any worse for the A's, but somehow it has. So they already had Brent Rooker out for the season, right? Then they lose Nick Kurtz, but they get him back, right? No. His thumb keeps acting up, he's gotta be shut down for even longer. Now we're at the point where, in addition to Rooker and Kurtz, Shea Langeliers is out [probably for the season], Tyler Soderstrom is out, Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs are out, and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer is out due to, well...having a ball overturned. The IL has a combined 10 WAR. 

The A's team WAR is a 15.6, by the way. Meaning 10 out of 15.6 of the runs the A's have scored better than everyone else...was scored by someone who is currently injured. That also means that the rest of the team is worth 5.6 WAR. Keep in mind, there's a guy on one of the other teams in the AL West who has a 5.5 WAR, just by himself. Which means putting, like, Max Muncy, Alika Williams, Jeff McNeil, Lawrence Butler, Gage Jump and the rest of the funtime gang together can get you one Yordan Alvarez. And keep in mind, Yordan Alvarez alone isn't getting it done for the Astros, it's gotta be a team effort.

So yeah. Not much left for the A's to do but close up. And keep in mind, the Angels at least have some guys still healthy. They have Reid Detmers striking everybody out, they have Mike Trout delivering a comeback season, they have Walbert Urena as a rookie, that's worth more than most of this team right now, and that's not even counting Zach Neto or Oswald Peraza. The A's are in danger of eclipsing the Angels for the worst record in baseball. And keep in mind, this isn't a year where someone's gonna chase the all-time-worst record, this is just a regular, vanilla flavored bad team. And it's probably gonna be the A's if they keep losing games like this, 3 years after being in the basement already and calling up the guys that would hopefully keep them out of there.

Gage Jump was brought up to stop the bleeding, he did for a while. He had some really tough starts in late July/early August, gave up 6 runs in a few starts, and now is looking a lot worse for wear. He's building it back, did really well against Boston, had a decent start against the Rangers, and seeing as J.T. Ginn is a little shakier since the injury, he's taking on a lot more responsibility. At 23, he's...sort of up to the task? He's got a 4.50 ERA, 85 Ks. It's a season you could build something on, given a better team and less direct hits to the lineup. Right now, the A's rotation consists of J.T. Ginn, Gage Jump and Jacob Lopez, plus two openers and the hope that the lockout somehow starts early. 

All the A's have to work with right now is a very good Zach Gelof performance, a surprisingly agile Alika Williams performance, the sudden emergence of Lawrence Butler's power numbers, and Jonah Heim killing the Red Sox. That's....not a hell of a lot, but it's at least somewhat entertaining. 

Coming Tomorrow- The year before he signed his nice-sized contracts, he hit 32 homers, 112 RBIs and got MVP votes. Now he's struggling to get his OPS above .700. 

A Minus

 

[Unrelated opening note: I keep mentally referring to Tyler Soderstrom as 'Tyler Sodeepop' every time I hear about him. That can't be good for his legitimacy.]

The way the Athletics have run out of steam this season has been frankly insulting. On June 19th they were a .500 team, mostly in second place, powering through some rough stretches but staying on target and keeping in the race. Then they go on a truly appalling losing stretch, they lose Nick Kurtz, get him back but not his power bat, and now they're so far under .500 that they're not even a competitor anymore. It's looking like some people might be dealt, and if it wasn't for the injury, Shea Langeliers would definitely be one of them. Just very, very sad, as if they'd kept their stuff together they might have had a shot.

Once again, Tyler Soderstrom, who's somehow only 24, has cemented himself as a very crucial lineup piece, with an .821 OPS, 17 homers and 50 RBIs. Not quite the power season he was having last year around this time, as his hot start got him to his first 25 homer year, but potentially evenly-displaced enough to get past that mark by October. Aside from Kurtz, Soderstrom might be the most accurate pure hitter on the A's this year, and with both Rooker and Langeliers out for a while, and Gelof and Kuroda-Grauer down for a little while [JKG had one of the single most unfortunate MLB injuries I've seen in a while, and in the midst of a stretch where he was hitting .400 no less], a lot more is riding on him. He might be one of the few people left on this team who hasn't gotten hurt or gone cold for a substantial percentage of the season. And it's weird that we're down to him. Jacob Wilson and Lawrence Butler were supposed to mean so much more to this team, but they're both having down years, with Wilson being much less accurate than his rookie campaign, and Butler only hitting .199 with 5 homers. We've seen him take off in the second half before, so I'm not terribly worried, but this still isn't great, especially for a very big piece of this team. 

I guess on the bright side I feel better about the long term development of this team's pitching than before. The Springs and Severino gambits did not work. Not inevitable but...yeah, I figured there was a chance. J.T. Ginn getting more starts was a very good thing, he could be the ace next year, he had a 3.50 ERA and 100 Ks in 22 appearances. Gage Jump is also very much MLB-ready, and has a 4 ERA and 68 Ks in 12 starts. Given a fuller season he should be on his way. Beyond that, I'm not sure though. Lopez and Morales just aren't getting it done this year. Logically Joey Estes should get another shot but who knows if he'll be any better. It's still two young, controllable arms more than I would have credited them for going into the season.

Not much else for the A's to do at this point but just ride it out and prep for 2027. Two more months of grueling play and missed opportunities, hopefully they're at least a slight upgrade from the last two.

Coming Tonight: One of the most effective power hitters in baseball. In case you were worried he'd have nothing to say this year. 

Gelof My Cloud

 

I said going into this season that if Zack Gelof went about 2026 the same way he went about the last few seasons [hitting .210 and getting hurt], it'd be a one way ticket to Colorado. So he must have heard me, cause he used an injury to Max Muncy to become an everyday third baseman and is hitting incredibly well, with an .833 OPS, a .282 average, 11 homers and 29 RBIs. After so many years of being the 'and the rest' portion of the young A's core, Gelof finally has something to say. Now...preferably it'd be happening for a non-4th place A's team, but they can get there.

I knew they wouldn't be a 1st place team forever, and they were really just one rough stretch away from where they usually are, and sure enough that's the case. They had a tricky end of the month schedule, they didn't find an upper hand barring more Kurtz homers, and now they're 41-49, trying to get back above the Astros. 

The good news is that, as this was already the fullest vision of this A's team going into the season, it's gotten even fuller as we've gone on. Here's what the A's train has gained as we've embarked on another campaign: Henry Bolte, a working centerfield bat with great defense, Gelof becoming an everyday infielder, J.T. Ginn reaching ace status, Gage Jump finding his footing in the bigs [despite a rough go of things last night against the Marlins], Jonah Heim as a kickass backup catcher, and the rise of Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, from New Brunswick, who's looking to take over for Jeff McNeil going forward, and is hitting enough to potentially unseat McNeil soon. We already established the baseline pieces of this team [Kurtz, Wilson, Butler, Rooker, Soderstrom, Langeliers], but now we're filling things out and adding some pitching mainstays, which is very helpful.

Now...of course this is the exact moment that some of the baseline pieces start going down. Brent Rooker's out for the season, which has to smart. Tyler Soderstrom's out for a few more weeks, despite a really nice June. Wilson's once again hurt, meaning Muncy's gotta cover short. Denzel Clarke is still out, hence Bolte. It's not all insurmountable, there's enough guys like Carlos Cortes, Colby Thomas and Alika Williams who can cover those positions while not just being replacement-level. But seeing the rest of this season without Rooker is pretty tough. It's also not helping that Lawrence Butler still hasn't found his groove, he's hitting .202 with only 5 homers. Granted, his whole thing is catching fire after the all-star break, but is that sustainable??

The back half of the rotation still worries me, as does the 3.75 ERA the bullpen's been sporting. But this is a better A's team than we've seen, and there's still room to be potentially good this year, even if they're not able, with the pitching, to truly go deep yet. Getting Zack Gelof in place is a very big thing though, and won't go unnoticed.

Coming Tonight: Extremely weird that this guy's stayed in one place for 10 years, and is still pretty elite.

Our Own Supply

 

Going into this season, my greatest hope was that the Athletics would develop their own starting pitching assets. Because they're tried two different tactics that completely avoid those, and they didn't work. They first tried calling up other people's pitching prospects, and tried getting by with J.P. Sears, James Kaprielian, Ken Waldichuk, Frankie Montas and that ilk. This was not successful. So last year they started over and tried the other tactic, signing decent talent to pitch the big games and farming people under that. This hasn't worked either. Jeffrey Springs has been getting lit up all June for some reason [smirk], Severino strikes people out but can't keep runs down, Civale's a short term solution and the underneath guys from last season haven't made much of an impact. And again, I get why the A's have been so ashamed to bring up their own guys, because a lot of these guys haven't been turning out great in the majors. Joe Boyle was a misfire that's now struggling to stay healthy in Tampa. Joey Estes is very inconsistent. Brady Basso's been really ineffective. Even Luis Morales has struggled this year.

However...hope has arisen. There are two guys in this rotation who are homegrown [or at least were developed by the A's in some way], and they're the most integral starters right now. Finally. 

J.T. Ginn has been on the brink of legitimacy for a few years now, and I think he's finally breaking through. He was fine in a 2024 callup, struggled a bit last year despite some nice late starts, and now he's got a 2.91 ERA with a 1.164 WHIP, 68 Ks and a 2.7 WAR. He went from a rotation also-ran to the one sure bet for a while, and even at 27 he's showing some serious presence in this rotation. Also promising is recent draft pick Gage Jump, who's got a 2.37 ERA, 26 Ks and a 0.989 WHIP in his first five starts. Dude's 23 years old and clicking into place more than Springs, the veteran. This team also has Kade Morris back in the minors, and though he got killed his first start up he's still got a high ceiling. At some point, Henry Baez will be ready, and that will make things very interesting. 

It proves how much further the A's have come even in a year, and how close they are to really being a match in the AL.

Despite a rough week or so, the A's are at .500 and still in 2nd place, and have the offense to stay afloat for a while thanks to Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers, Tyler Soderstrom and Zach Gelof. In addition, some new elements have been added, and are aiding this team tremendously. Henry Bolte is playing CF everyday and hitting .317 with 34 hits in 33 games, becoming the kind of fixture I figured Colby Thomas would be this year. Jonah Heim has been a really strong backup catcher in his return to the A's, with 5 homers and 8 RBIs in 21 games [and I know what you're thinking- Heim and a guy named Bolt? What is this, 2019??]. Jacob Wilson is healthy and back to his old contact tricks. And Alika Williams is doing more as a utility infielder here than he did in Pittsburgh for some reason. It's really cool how all of this is coming together.

Unfortunately, because of the pitching, it's not .500+ baseball right now, but it definitely could be, especially if Nick Kurtz keeps at it. I dunno if people are making Ryan Howard comparisons yet, but they absolutely should be.

Coming Tomorrow- A guy that's pitched five terrific seasons. Unfortunately only two of them have been consecutive.  

Don't Let the Mets Get You Down

 

So, story time. Back when boxes of cards were actually affordable I used to do these box breaks for the blog, and a lot of them were older, cheaper products but one time I went for a box of 2019 Topps Heritage Minors. Why not, right? It was a pretty cool rip, I pulled a Jo Adell game-used jersey card whose value has fluctuated like a gosh darned barometer, and I pulled an on-cast autograph of a Brooklyn Cyclones outfielder named Carlos Cortes. 

Now I don't really break these for the hits, I honestly do it for the XRC possibility. So a Julio XRC, a Robert XRC, an Oneil Cruz XRC, all this was the pull. The hits didn't need to be big, though the Adell didn't hurt. But getting a Mets prospect I hadn't heard of was...at least better than getting a Marlins prospect I hadn't heard of, which is my usual auto luck. Cortes could go either way. I kept the card, despite the occasional inclination of trading it.

I still have it. I reckon the value's gone up a hair this year.

Carlos Cortes has gone from a struggling power bat stuck in the Mets' farm system to a lead off schtarker with insane contact ability for the 2nd place Athletics. Cortes is now starting in right field, and hitting .333 with a .945 OPS. This was charming bench bat stuff last year, and now we're talking some lethal material, even for a 29-year-old who, for all intents and purposes, is still a rookie as far as Topps is concerned [of course, they also think anyone who debuts south of May 20th is a 'call-up' they can't profit off of til 2027, so what do they know?]. In a May that's featured injuries to Jacob Wilson and Max Muncy, Cortes has been steady, scary and more accurate than any other A's hitter, even Nick Kurtz.

It's incredible that a guy like this can become a heavy-hitter after all this time wasting away, but this is honestly the norm now. Even with the amount of pitchers most teams use now, there's still a longer wait for many prospects to actually make the bigs, hence the amount of 29-year-old breakouts we've seen in the last year or so, including Nathan Lukes, Curtis Mead, Foster Griffin, Tristan Gray and, yes, now Cortes. You can even root this back to Joey Meneses, who became an overnight sensation with Washington at thirty. As cool as these breakouts are, the career longevity is not there because the minors has ate up 5 prime years or so, so now they're breaking out, and 30 is around the corner and...well, there's gonna be a downturn. It's why Jeff McNeil and Whit Merrifield breaking out at 27 spelled doom for their long term value, though to be fair McNeil's still doing a fine job in Sacramento at 34. 

It's also a contrast from the youth-oriented core the team has developed, though not from the noticeably older rotation that's, to be clear, working. Springs, Ginn and Civale are working on nice seasons, and while it's not the approach I expected, they're getting the job done. With Sevvy and Civale getting hurt, you are seeing a desire to bring the young guys out, and uh...hopefully Gage Jump evens out over time, because they cannot keep doing the 'GET READY FOR THE BIG A'S PITCHING PROSPECT' schtick only for them to give up 7 runs and immediately need surgery. Joe Boyle, Gunnar Hoglund, Luis Morales...shit's getting old.

The A's are still in a decent position, have no issue scoring runs and are still in the thick of the divisional race. This Yankees series has the potential to slow them down a little but they're ahead of where they usually are around this point.

Coming Tomorrow- He got out of Chicago at the right time, but is it the wrong time to be in San Diego?

The 'Starter' Division Leading Team

 

The A's are at .500...and in first place. It's already weird that the White Sox are over .500 and in second, but the A's commanding the AL West, despite the Mariners still honestly playing better baseball at times, is doubly weird. We knew it was gonna happen eventually, but...even A's fans can admit that this isn't the kind of A's team they expected to flock to first.

I mean, there's still more 'okay' than flat out 'elite' on this team, and that's still enough for first. Brent Rooker's hitting .204, and Butler and Soderstrom are still under .200. The idea was that the whole team would come together and keep down the competition, but what we have here is a streaky, inconsistent roster with the occasional lethal pops. Shea Langeliers is hitting .337, which is the highest average in the bigs. He also has 12 homers and 27 RBIs, which you could have guessed. Nick Kurtz has 29 RBIs, pivoting to all-around contact demolition rather than solely the long ball. Jeff McNeil's been very handy as an under-the-radar contact bat. And look at Carlos Cortes, former Mets farmhand now starting in the outfield and hitting .340 with 34 hits, 15 RBIs and 4 homers. Cortes is going crazy at the plate and providing that x-factor the team needs with three or four key pieces down for the count.

The part that's amusing me in all of this, still, is the success of the rotation despite the lack of a homegrown ace. The closest thing to a homegrown pitching talent they have right now is Jacob Lopez, and he's got a 6 ERA through 9 starts. It's all guys like J.T. Finn, dealt for Chris Bassitt, who's got a 3.12 ERA, and the contracted guys like Sevvy and Springs, who have high ERAs but stay in for a while. The big surprise has been Aaron Civale, after his years of journeying, finally settling and returning to his Cleveland numbers. He's 5-1 right now with a 2.70 ERA and 35 Ks, keeping runs down and not overexerting himself. It's not the ideal strategy but right now it's working, which can also be said for the low-key but effective bullpen. 

The A's have somehow found a working model. I was watching them for a bit yesterday, and apart from Kurtz' continuing on-base streak, there wasn't a ton to write home about, but it just seemed like an off day for them. This is a team that can come alive out of nowhere and outhit the majority of the league. They're hitting .252 as a team, pretty much the whole lineup has over 10 RBIs right now, they've got a hits leader and a doubles leader batting in the same frame...and they haven't even truly gotten going yet.

Coming Tomorrow- One of those cases where I'm relieved the rookie novelty subsided and we just get to enjoy how good of a player this guy's become. 

Suddenly Big Amish

 

Is it funny to anyone else that a guy from Amish Country is currently leading the league in walks?

If there was a baseball stat involving a wagon, he'd probably lead the league in that too. Regardless, Lancaster native Nick Kurtz, lovingly referred to as the Big Amish, has continued his run as an offensive powerhouse for the A's. If you walk him, it's very likely one of the A's other power hitters [Rooker, Langeliers, Soderstrom] will get him home. If you don't, there's also a chance he could go yard. The big man currently has 5 home runs and 15 RBIs, and he might have had more if it weren't for that walk streak, which keeps on going. He's had 33 so far this season, which is Soto/Bonds levels. People have caught onto just how volatile this guy can be at the plate, and they're trying to avoid it as much as possible. For a 23 year old with one season under his belt, that speaks volumes.

Also, um...can we talk about the fact that Nick Kurtz and the A's are in first place right now? Seriously. The nomadic Sacramento A's have the best record in the AL West, better than Seattle or Houston. Which is what happens when you build a great young lineup and sign the majority of them to contracts.

And you can just see this team evolving as well, even from 1st. Shea Langeliers is now a .300 hitter in addition to a home run machine. He leads this team in hits! Carlos Cortes has gone from a bench novelty to an everyday outfield hit machine, batting .391 in 69 at-bats. Jacob Wilson's contact stuff, though not as three-dimensional as last year, is still very appreciated. Tyler Soderstrom is leading the team in RBIs without needing to resort to the long ball as much. And even Jeff McNeil can be a positive contributor here, hitting .286. The momentum this team has right now has made McNeil, Aaron Civale and J.T. Ginn pivotal figures in a year where I figured they'd be also-rans.

I mean, the rotation in general is still hard to figure out, because I'm not really confident about any of them. Jeffrey Springs looks good right now but he could get hurt again at any second. Same with Luis Severino, K's be damned. I thought that last year meant homegrown guys like Jacob Lopez and Luis Morales were gonna inherit the rotation and charge forward, but evidently that's not happening yet. It's frustrating, because any time there's an opportunity for someone like Morales or Joey Estes or Gunnar Hoglund to make a name for themselves, it just doesn't happen. And we're back to the veteran contract guys doing all the work. Imagine if the Brewers last year had Jose Quintana and Brandon Woodruff do all the work while Chad Patrick, Miz and Logan Henderson all shirked the responsibility. That's what this is like.

But...they're still in first place, because the rotation's at least durable enough, despite it being made up of mostly replacement level guys. So something's gotta be working.

I want this team to advance and remain a major player in this division, but some of these baby teeth are gonna need to fall out soon. This team needs a rookie pitcher to spice things up, and we need Butler, Rooker and Muncy to start hitting. This is a very nice start, but at any point the Rangers or Mariners could sweep in and make the division theirs. The A's just need to make a statement and fend all those guys off with their own might. I dunno if it can happen yet.

Coming Tonight: A former Athletic, ironically, still manning the corner further towards the water.

Capitalized

 

I dunno, I think it's kinda ironic that the Mets, this past weekend, got clobbered at CitiField by a guy named Shea.

Here's how variable the AL West has been recently. Since their New York trip, the A's are suddenly in 1st place, after starting the season 3-6. They were 1-5 before they got to Houston, and then they took two from the Astros, which isn't especially difficult this year, then two from the Yankees and then a full sweep of the Mets. And now they're leading the division. Interesting to note that I don't think anything's drastically different between stretches. I just think they've woken up, and are finally playing to potential after a rough opening week. 

It's funny, I was looking through my current hitters binder today, cause I try to collect a handful of current guys, and for the first time since everybody left after the 2021 season, the A's have a really well stocked lineup. And this is even with Rooker hurt. Kurtz, Butler, Soderstrom, Wilson, Langeliers and Muncy represent years of development all paying off at once. If the most notable 'hired hand' guy is Jeff McNeil, who actually isn't doing too badly and sprung to life against his former team, then they're doing something right.

The secret weapon of this A's team that everyone underestimates is Shea Langeliers, who's once again off to a crazy power-hitting start with 5 homers and 10 RBIs. I think it's just tough, in a division with Cal Raleigh in it, to be a notable power hitting catcher. Langeliers has it tough, Yanier Diaz, Kyle Higashioka...it's just tricky. But Langeliers, while he may lack the name brand recognition, is still a crucial part of this lineup, and he's not bad defensively either. Kurtz and Wilson are probably the more impressive all-around players, but having a catcher that belts is always a good thing. Better than having to start Austin Hedges 4 out of 5 games. 

You're seeing the A's begin to form that sort of fun depth that every great team needs. Carlos Cortes is the hungry bench bat with killer perks. Denzel Clarke's the web gem guy, in the grand tradition of Ramon Laureano and Billy Burns. Hogan Harris is the resident long relief specialist now. Jack Perkins also hosts Biography on the side, it's a whole thing. And while this team is still in desperate need of homegrown starting pitching, having comeback seasons from both Aaron Civale, which is surprising and welcome, and Jeffrey Springs, which...annoys me, is definitely helpful. Jacob Lopez is that guy filling the void, and I don't know if he's enough right now. He's also 28. 

I think the reason why everything looks so much sunnier and optimistic for this A's team is that, even keeping in mind the temporary nature of it, the A's are finally wearing 'Sacramento' on their chests and playing as the Sacramento Athletics, even if the MLB isn't word-for-word granting them that. But hey, it says so on the jerseys. Sacramento A's. No use hiding it. 

But yeah, if the A's do intend to take off and make a run, I'm 100% behind them. I think this team can outhit a lot of people, and so far they've really done so. Maybe the world is ready for the A's to be good again. I know I certainly am.

Coming Tomorrow- He made his debut over TEN YEARS AGO. TEN. Making me feel ancient. And he's still in the exact same city, playing the exact same big game situations. 

The Strangest Sights of Spring

 

Prior to 2026, Andrew McCutchen had spent approximately 3 months of his 16-year career on American League team, that fun autumn with the 2018 Yankees. Everyone assumed he'd retire as a Pittsburgh Pirate. However, Bob Nutting, in finally putting money into the team and building something of a competitor for 2026, did so at the expense of the fans, who would have loved to keep getting to see Cutch. In his place, the Pirates now have Marcell Ozuna at DH, which is arguably more value and WAR, but a much less likable player with a much more suspect track record.

And so now Cutch had to soldier on the only way he knew how, by putting out feelers for any other teams that needed veteran help and trying to make the club that way. The Rangers bit, and now we have the bizarre sight of Andrew McCutchen in Rangers blue, looking to make the club as a bench DH type. All the while, Ozuna seems to be a lock for his old DH spot in Pittsburgh, and will be trading in the green sleeve for a yellow one. Regardless of what emotion it brings out from any loyalist, either of these looks are just downright odd, even if they do last. 

And that's the main factor, as we round out the end of Spring Training. Like any preseason year, there's some sights that just don't look right. And either you get used to them during the season or they fade off in the distance, never quite panning out. I'll rundown some favorites in each of the 30 camps. It's not just 'a player in a new uniform', but it's players in uniforms that will take a while to get used to. Again, think of cutch on the Rangers, a lot like Hunter Pence on the Rangers. It's a real shock honestly.

Angels: Alek Manoah, a surprising favorite for an Opening Day rotation spot, and someone with a real desire to prove his success was not a fluke. The shift from Jays to Braves I could stomach, but this is a different color scheme and a different section of the continent. Maybe this works out.

 Astros: Nick Allen by default, but he honestly looks odd in most uniforms. An Allen-Altuve DP combo would be cool because there wouldn't be much of a height difference. 

A's: Jeff McNeil. Not only does McNeil look odd out of Mets pinstripes for the first time since his career began in 2018, but he just looks odd standing next to all of these young, talented players starting their careers. McNeil will be sharing playing time with Zach Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom, and attempting to prove he's still a durable MLB option. 

Blue Jays: Jesus Sanchez. In my defense, this is the first time in his career he's not in wholly dark tones, and the more optimistic light blues and whites of Toronto will be interesting. It'll also be interesting to see what he can add to this team after standing out in Miami and falling short in Houston.

Braves: Mike Yastrzemski. Seeing him in Kansas City blue was also weird for the record. I think I just assumed he'd stick with SF til the contract ran out, then keep re-upping, and seeing him now as a crucial piece of this return-to-form Braves squad is something I wasn't expecting.

Brewers: Akil Baddoo. Even if he doesn't make the team it'll just be a weird note after a bunch of Tigers seasons.

Cardinals: There's actually a lot of competition. Ryne Stanek in bright red looks odd, Ramon Urias in bright red..I'm giving it to Dustin May because it's a complete inversion of how I pictured him in LA.

Cubs: Lord have mercy, welcome back to the bigs Tyler Austin!! Austin was a Yankee farmhand around the same time as Aaron Judge, flamed out, then became a big star in the Japanese leagues. Here he's back, and is trying to crack the overstuffed Cubs roster. Honestly, with Seiya Suzuki hurt he's got a chance. Mostly want him to succeed for the joy of it, but man is it weird seeing him out of pinstripes.

D-Backs: Nolan Arenado, as discussed. Verging on Longoria vibes.

Dodgers: Edwin Diaz probably, but there really isn't much competition. I think I'm still extremely used to seeing him in Mets colors, as is most of the league. Odd that it really was SEVEN SEASONS in Queens. It didn't feel that long.

Giants: I think this'll be Harrison Bader, because this is the furthest west he's ever played and the most he's ever been in black. 

Guardians: Either Colin Holderman or Rhys Hoskins. Equally known for either one team or one shade or so. Hoskins in the AL will be very interesting.

Mariners: Rob Refsnyder for sure. This'll be the first time in a while he's suited up for a team that isn't the Red Sox, and the M's are banking on him in a full time DH role, which is huge. I sincerely hope it works out for him, he's the exact kind of guy that could work in Seattle.

Marlins: Really just Owen Caissie. Cubs fans thought they'd be getting him next, then the Cabrera deal happens, now he's become the latest and greatest big time prospect to try to make it in Miami.

Mets: Clearly there's a lot of competition, but of all of them I think Jorge Polanco looks the strangest. I never considered him a possibility to play for the Mets. You know how some people just have that 'yeah, the Mets will go for them' feel? Polanco's not one of those guys for me. Hell, 1st base isn't even his position, and he'll be covering for Pete Alonso, so that's even stranger.

Nationals: Miles Mikolas, as I just assumed he wouldn't play anywhere else other than St. Louis. Still red, but just slightly off.

Orioles: Shane Baz. I think mostly because I think of him as a kid in dark tones, and now he's there wearing the orange highlighters. A little off. Really hope he works out in Baltimore though.

Padres: Nick Castellanos narrowly beats German Marquez. Mostly cause it just makes me sad.

Phillies: Brad Keller in a color other than blue. Though, real talk, I really hope he keeps it going for us, cause we deserve some good bullpen luck, FINALLY.

Rays: Cedric Mullins. I'm thinking I'll get used to this, but Mullins just seems like a different kind of player from the sort of veteran the Rays usually bring in. Perhaps he'll be dealt by June.

Red Sox: Willson Contreras in the AL is the weirdest bit of this, weirder than Ranger Suarez in the AL. I think I'm mostly just caught off guard still by the Cardinals trading him. And now he's the first baseman, supposedly for this Sox team, or maybe the DH. It might work but it doesn't compute for me at the moment.

Reds: Dane Myers probably, but Pierce Johnson and J.J. Bleday come close. Myers might actually work better in Cincinnati than he did in Miami. Slightly better team.

Rockies: Michael Lorenzen I think. I just never expected to see him on an 'it's a living' signing, not after the Tigers one.

Royals: Starling Marte, like his old teammate Andrew McCutchen, has only spent 3 months in the AL, from his 2021 stint in Oakland. This will be an odd venture, not only as a KC DH, but on likely his last legs. I remember when he was the speedy, powerful rookie, and now he's just kind of hanging around. That's very odd.

Tigers: Kenley Jansen's really the only one of these that looks anywhere close to strange. It's not the Dodgers, after all.

Twins: Orlando Arcia, probably. A shame so much of this team is just people trying to keep playing. More minor league than anything else.

White Sox: Anthony Kay, another returning guy from a couple continents over. Used to him in Toronto colors, now he tries Act 2 as a White Sox. Hope it goes as well for him as...well, teammate Erick Fedde, though perhaps sustained over a longer period of time.

Yankees: N/A. Cause even Ryan Weathers is a second-generation Yankee. Nothing looks too out of the ordinary...yet.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2025: Athletics

 

It's extremely ironic that, in the first year of being stripped of their national identity and having to play in a minor league park in Sacramento without a credited city while they wait for their stadium in Las Vegas to be build, the Athletics finally formed a team identity for the first time since Fisher sold the farm in 2022. I can now tell you exactly who this team is, what they're trying to do and how far along they are. I couldn't tell you that during many of their last Oakland years. 

In 2025 alone, the Athletics reaped the benefits of two separate rookie stars, Jacob Wilson and Nick Kurtz, while getting 30+ homer years from veterans Brent Rooker and Shea Langeliers and a 20-20-20 season from Lawrence Butler. Yes, they also dealt Mason Miller this year, but they got Leo de Vries in return for him, which is a very good thing. 

Does that mean every big piece is gonna hit the ground running immediately for the A's? No, not even remotely. Max Muncy was an April call-up that spent the majority of the season with the team, and did so without making much of an impact until far too late. Max Muncy, not to be confused with that other corner infield guy for the Dodgers. This reminds me of when the A's gave an Opening Day lineup spot to Kevin Smith, not to be confused with Kevan Smith the catcher, and Kevin Smith bowled an absolute gutterball in the majors. Muncy was...marginally better. At the very least he had 9 homers and 23 RBIs, but aside from a June run, he was mostly ineffective, and spent a lot of time in the minors.

2026 Prediction: Seeing as he will have competition at both 2nd and 3rd [see later in the post], he'll need to get into what prospectors have been talking about. I say he gets there, but I also think if the A's are gonna trade any of their infielders this offseason, it'd likely be him.

Denzel Clarke got a special award during Awards Week for the big 'web gem' of the year, which could have been any of his incredible catches in the outfield. The Toronto native may not have had the contact hitting part down during his rookie season, but his defense made him a crucial piece of the team's development. Even in games where the A's got embarrassed, I'd hear something insane Clarke did in center. He also stole 6 bases in 47 games, meaning if he gets a starting job next year, him and Butler could be a fun, speedy duo.

2026 Prediction: The A's wouldn't have released J.J. Bleday if they didn't think they had something in Clarke. I think if the A's build themselves up enough, they can use Clarke in the same way the Jays used Myles Straw this year, as a defensive substitution with the occasional contact perk. As for who'll get the majority of the offensive starts in center, uh...well, see a little below.

So...the wild idea Fisher had of getting Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs on contracts to start, uh...didn't really work. Springs flirted with greatness but was mostly fine. Sevvy struggled all year. Even J.P. Sears wound up getting dealt anyway. So a lot of local guys and scrubs had to start games for the A's, and one of the more prevalent ones was J.T. Ginn, who came up towards the end of last season. Ginn made 23 appearances, 16 of them starts, in 2025, and went 4-7 with a 5.08 ERA and, importantly, 99 Ks. The A's are gonna try to make sense of this rotation next year, with Jacob Lopez, Luis Morales and Gunnar Hoglund impressing in late months, and Ginn may be one of their most reliable rotation arms remaining.

2026 Prediction: A surprisingly great season that's a great audition for a better team to trade for him.

The Red Sox used Sean Newcomb as an Opening Day rotation guy this year, in case you've already forgotten. Because it's no longer 2018, that didn't especially work. So they cut him, and the A's picked Newcomb back up and used him, once again, in long relief. Somehow, this move led to Newcomb becoming one of the A's best relief pieces this year, posting a 1.75 ERA in 36 appearances, leading to a 1.7 WAR.

2026 Prediction: I actually think relief is the way to go. Somebody like the Reds or the Brewers is gonna pick him up and he's gonna be really useful. 

Two years ago, Zach Gelof was thought of as one of the foundational prospect pieces for the A's. He was brought up with Tyler Soderstrom, and was joined by Lawrence Butler some time later, and the idea was that they'd lead the team to greatness. Last year was...passable for Gelof, but he still led the league in strikeouts with 188. This year he missed almost the entirety of the year with injuries, and only made it up for 30 games, in which time he hit .174 with 46 more Ks. Either he's cooked or he's getting this out of his system.

2026 Prediction: Gelof will be higher in the depth chart than Muncy, and I think the A's will give him 2nd from the start, and some great games will follow. However, if he gets injured again I don't think the team will give him another chance.

The A's also had rookie Colby Thomas in the outfield mix, primarily in right field. Thomas seems like a decent piece, with some power perks, hitting .225 with 6 homers and 19 RBIs in 49 games. Thomas could be the missing piece to the outfield formula on offense, between Soderstrom and Butler.

2026 Prediction: Yeah, will get tons of starts at RF/CF with Bleday gone, will come into his own next year. Assuming the guys who broke out this year stay great, he could be a part of a great A's lineup next year.

Coming Tomorrow- Not sure if you heard, but the Blue Jays made a World Series this year. Here's a few people on that squad that I didn't get to during the year.

Rookies of the Year: Sentimental Value

 

Just because I called both of these doesn't mean that I agree with them.

Of any of these awards, the Rookie of the Year award is the most likely to vex me, because the MLB has managed to make so many rules to classify what makes a 'great rookie', which they don't always follow. Like, a rookie can debut midway through the year and not get a Topps rookie card until the following year yet still qualify for the award, yet if they appear in games in one season that isn't full and make a definitive impact while they're there, they can't qualify. Luis Gil and Randy Arozarena did not deserve Rookie of the Year awards because they weren't rookies. Luckily, both Nick Kurtz and Drake Baldwin made the cutoff for Topps Update, and played almost the entire season in the majors, so there's no loopholes or anything there.

It really comes down to nuance. Can you definitively say that this player made the most impact of any first-year player in the league? One of these, I say absolutely. The other is more complicated. 

Nick Kurtz is the one I agree with, because for a month and a half he was one of the single best hitters in baseball, and finished the year with a 1.002 OPS. Kurtz hit 36 home runs and 86 RBIs in 117 games, the majority of those homers coming in an unbelievable midyear stretch. Said stretch also included an absolutely wild four-homer game against the Astros. The A's are a rebuilding team putting down a ton of great young players they can build on, and Kurtz is absolutely one of them. It's even to the point where Kurtz lapped Jacob Wilson, an early-season ROY candidate who started the All-Star game for the AL but struggled after getting hurt in said game. Wilson and Kurtz were both important to the A's season, but Kurtz is the next step for the A's towards competing again, and you can see it already. So him I completely agree with. That's absolutely the Rookie of the Year in the AL.

It's Drake Baldwin that is confusing me. Because I don't know what he really represents in regards to shifting the story of the season.

Let's look at Drake Baldwin in context of the 2025 Atlanta Braves. Baldwin is the 3rd-best Brave statistically, after Matt Olson and Chris Sale. Sale was limited by injuries for about a month or so. The majority of the Braves that would have lapped Baldwin's 3.3 WAR, such as Ronald Acuna, Spencer Schwellenbach or even Jurickson Profar, Reynaldo Lopez or Spencer Strider, were all limited by injuries. Most crucially, the team's starting catcher, Sean Murphy, who is the highest paid catcher in baseball by the way, missed some time due to injuries early, then only hit .194 the rest of the season, despite continuing to be an excellent defensive catcher. 

It comes down to this: if the Braves do not have an absolutely cursed year, Drake Baldwin does not get chances to start, and does not become a major player for this team. Further, even with the opportunities given to him during this cursed season, Drake Baldwin was only an ensemble piece of this Braves team. The Braves were not the Drake Baldwin show this season, like the A's were the Nick Kurtz show, because the Braves still relied on Matt Olson, Ronald Acuna, Grant Holmes, Michael Harris and Hurston Waldrep. Baldwin was, at the very least, reliable, hitting .274 with 19 homers and 80 RBIs, with slightly-below-average defensive numbers. He was a solid piece of a Braves team that was doomed from the start, and Baldwin made them only slightly less doomed than they already were. Considering the fact that Sean Murphy is still on this team, and is better defensively, I genuinely do not know if the Braves will get 5 to 10 more years of Drake Baldwin behind the plate, or even if that's something they want.

To me, the NL's Rookie of the Year this year was Cade Horton. Dude popped into the Chicago rotation midyear, went on an incredible run, became one of their most indispensable pitchers, and made them the low-key wild card juggernaut they became. To the point where they honestly struggled without him in the playoffs. Cade Horton is a big piece of why the Cubs made the playoffs, and a big piece of why they didn't make it to the World Series is that Cade Horton wasn't there every three games. That guy made or broke a season of a major competitor, and that's a more accurate ROY to me. Baldwin was very good for a mediocre team, and took full advantage of the opportunity given to him. 

I knew he'd win Rookie of the Year because sportswriters love that sentimental stuff. Baldwin appeals to the idea in many writers' association guys' heads of 'the guy that pops in unexpectedly and saves the team'. And they don't think it through enough to ask if he really actually saved the team. The people who voted Drake Baldwin to win the Rookie of the Year fell in love with the idea of Drake Baldwin over what Drake Baldwin actually was. And yes, there are lots of Braves fans who can speak to how Baldwin excelled this year, and how he was one of their best pieces, but even they'll admit that he has his limitations, and even they'll admit that they're not sure how much of a ceiling he has. So it's really a vexing outcome.

I could be very wrong, and Cade Horton could be the flash in the pan I was thinking Baldwin would be. But just from where I'm sitting, I think this is a move that won't age well. Still, congrats to both winners. May the glory never end. 

The A's Approach .500?

The way things are looking right now, the Sacramento Athletics have a chance of finishing the season only 10 or so games away from .500, and potentially even not in last. The whole season the A's flirted with staying out of the bottom spot, settled there for a bit, even lapped the Rangers, and now are ahead of the Angels as the season draws to a close. The A's might, at the very least, finish with a better record than they did last year, and most certainly will not lose 100 games. 

It helps that this team has a lineup that can actually chase good teams. Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson, Shea Langeliers, Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom...that's better than the front core of a lot of teams honestly. That's three 30-homer guys, a .300 hitter, a 20 steal guy and possibly a 100 RBI guy, and this is just as they're building. Kurtz has ROY tied up, and that's something even Jacob Wilson, who was a favorite for most of the year, will be alright with. Soderstrom and Butler showed staying power this year, and Langeliers and Rooker had explosive midsummer moments. If they all keep at it and stay synced, this team could take off very soon. I'm very anxious to see which other pieces fill out the team, be it guys like Colby Thomas and Zach Gelof or newer figures. Hell, maybe Carlos Cortes actually becomes a fixture of this team rather than an unsung hero. Who knows?

It's the pitching that makes me concerned that the rebuild may take a little longer. Because yes, John Fisher stocked this team with pitching contracts to ensure they were better this year, but...they weren't very good pitching contrasts. Luis Severino is perfectly serviceable. High ERA, occasional velocity perks. Jeffrey Springs is FINE. Not Rays-level good but fine. He's not the ace though. Lined up behind them you have these guys like Jacob Lopez, J.T. Ginn, Luis Morales and Mason Barnett, and...again, I don't see who the center of this rotation is. There are good performances, like Lopez and Morales, but not a standout one. I guess Morales has a chance, as he's 4-1 with a 3.08 ERA and 34 Ks through his first 7 career starts. It could be Barnett if he figures out MLB hitting. The fact that I can't tell, especially when the lineup is as advanced that it is, isn't a great sign. This is what held back the Padres for all those years, it was just a bunch of guys with no order. You can't bat behind that. 

Look, I could say all this and the A's could line up next year and all this pitching disorder could dissolve to reveal a rotation that knows exactly what they're doing. It just doesn't look that now. It looks BETTER for sure, but I'm just not sure I see where it's going. Unlike the lineup, where the future's very evident. Maybe by the time they get to Vegas they'll have this all worked out.

Coming Tonight: Not a lot of true heroes left in Denver, so here's a decent reliever they forgot to trade.

Who Needs Chaperones Anyway?

 

The current status of the A's is that they're down to only five people on the active roster who are over 30. One of them, Brent Rooker, is 30 exactly. The others include 3 relievers and Jeffrey Springs. It's just them, plus Severino and a couple other spare parts on the IL. Everyone else is under 30, young and thriving. Is it a coincidence that the A's have lapped the Angels right as the last major thirtysomething in the lineup got DFA'd?

Here are the latest batch of young people who have been aiding the Athletics: Luis Morales, a 22-year-old starter who's 2-0 with a 1.19 ERA in 5 games this year; Colby Thomas, another young outfielder who already has 4 homers and 13 RBIs in 29 games; Max Muncy, who finally seems to be getting the hang of this whole MLB thing and has 9 homers; Darell Hernaiz, who's backing up Jacob Wilson at short and is a .250 hitter himself; and Jack Perkins, who, before he got injured, was becoming a solid enough fixture in the ninth. We can also lump in Jacob Lopez, who was having a nice season in the rotation before his injury, with a 4.08 ERA and 113 Ks. And now we even have the rookie Mason Barnett, a former Royals prospect who faced the Rangers for his debut last night.

That is a lot of youth, and a lot of rookies in big positions. You'd expect a few of them to not work, and Muncy, Hernaiz and Lopez all struggled for a bit before locking into gear. Pretty much every major piece of this team can remember those moments of struggling, like Lawrence Butler in 2023, or Rooker before he got to the A's, or Shea Langeliers before...like, June. A lot of them have clicked, which helps tremendously. Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Brent Rooker and Shea Langeliers are the heart of this team, and they're all surging. Kurtz is headed for the Rookie of the Year, and not even Jacob Wilson can be too mad about that. Langeliers is looking at 30 homers, and it's not too far out of the realm of possibility for Rooker either. 

There's enough power on this team that it distracts from the fact that there's still some room for growth, like a few more solid rotation options or a better bullpen or slightly better defense. The important thing is that this is a team that can be an offensive match, even now, for competitors. Your worst A's team could be a slam dunk win for a competitor two years ago, and now with Kurtz, Rooker and Butler you can't quite be certain. Remember, the 4-homer Kurtz game happened in Houston. The Astros are clinging to a small lead in this division because of losses like that making them human. That couldn't have happened in 2023.

The A's, while still a bad team, are embracing their youth and getting way stronger. Next season will have a lot of questions answered, and I reckon they'll step even closer to a competitive idea. 

Coming Tonight: A Rockies infielder who was way better before he had to play for this specific version of the team.

Everybody Trades Off

 

The cool thing about the A's is that this is a team where Tyler Soderstrom, Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers have all had scorching runs at the plate, with many of them chasing 25 to 30 homers this year. The depressing part is that these runs haven't happened at the same time.

We're not at the stage of development where everyone in this lineup can synchronize and be on at the same time. Right now they're all kinda trading off. Tyler Soderstrom hit .284 in April and .386 in August, but in between he hit .242. Soderstrom got off to the kind of start this year that seemed to indicate a consistently powerful year, and it didn't happen. Brent Rooker hit .300 in June and .250 every other month. Nick Kurtz had that incredible July, hitting .395 with 11 homers and 27 RBIs, and now hasn't had a homer all August, with 12 hits and only 3 RBIs. The streaks have been awesome, but the cooldown periods have been rough.

That's why seeing Shea Langeliers become the A of the moment in August is still concerning. To be fair, in July Langeliers hit .293 with 7 homers and 13 RBIs, but already in August he's hitting .385 with 6 homers and 10 RBIs. He was astonishingly okay during the first half, and now his power bat is taking off, with 24 homers overall this year and 53 RBIs. Langeliers has always been a power-centric catcher, but this has been Langeliers' most consistent season at the plate. He's hitting .272 where he normally hits .230. Granted, his defense hasn't been terrific this year, but the bat more than makes up for it. The Sean Murphy deal only happens if the A's are confident they're getting a future catching option back, and honestly Langeliers is worth more to the A's right now than Murphy is to the Braves. 

But like everyone else in this lineup, Langeliers could drop off and make yet another Athletic have to pick up the slack. Will it be Max Muncy? Will it be Colby Thomas? Will it be Lawrence Butler for real this time? Who knows.

I do like that you're seeing the true everyday players of this A's team come into the fold. Gelof seems like the 1st baseman going forward, Jacob Wilson the primary shortstop, Butler and Soderstrom have two of the OF spots down. What's odd is you're seeing people that were initially big parts of the team to come finding themselves out of the loop. Zach Gelof spent a couple games in the majors after missing the majority of the season with an injury and now is back in the minors. I still think he's a good idea to cover 2nd for these teams, but he didn't perform as well as Urias, Schuemann or Muncy while he was up. Similarly, J.J. Bleday is now replacement level, and he may be a liability going forward. If Denzel Clarke and Colby Thomas can do better, then what's the point?

It's nice that a last place A's team can still include a bit of intrigue, and some interest. They're not competing, probably not for a while, but you can definitely see a competitor forming, and if everyone lines up they could be dangerous in a couple years.

Coming Tomorrow- Brought up around the deadline, he represents his team's hopes for a new chapter in their history.

Throwing 100 MPH Doesn't Keep the Lights On

 

Well, midway through the year and it looks as though we are reaching the limits of the 'throw 100 miles per hour all the time' strategy. Justin Martinez is injured, Ben Joyce is injured, Mason Miller is struggling. It's the kind of thing where only the professionals should throw that hard. Mere mortals are gonna have wear and tear. Aroldis Chapman and Paul Skenes can keep at it consistently, but they're built differently.

I guess Mason Miller has more success with throwing that hard than most, he did make an all-star team last year and does currently have 19 saves and 57 Ks. But the thing about throwing that hard is you need to still have some level of craftsmanship so people aren't predicting where you're gonna go. Cause Miller is throwing that hard and still blowing saves. He's got a 4.00 ERA. It's a neat trick but if it's not leading to success it's just that. Chapman can throw that hard and still be consistently good at his job. Miller is making some easy mistakes out there, and it's costing the A's some wins that they might have if Miller was a little more on target. It's a very good thing he's still healthy, but there's always the chance of a strain coming on or some injury still happening. It's happened the last two seasons. 

Ultimately I do want good things to happen to Mason Miller. He's a good kid, he's from West Virginia, and some family friends are from his area and are rooting for him to stay great. He's been given a valuable gift of velocity, and he's been lucky to come up at a time where overthrowing and overgassing is the hip trend. But I worry that, when we look at this period in about 20 years, we won't be able to separate him from the trend. I think about the Japanese players from the late 90s and early 00s who weren't Ichiro or Nomo, and how they've faded into the background, or the two-way guys from the late 2010s who weren't Ohtani. Being trendy is nice but being great lasts forever. Mason Miller is flirting with greatness but is more trendy than anything. It is telling, however, that the A's are relatively opposed to trading him this week. Means they see a future with him.

The A's, for the record, will still have a pretty cool team even if they do deal people. I don't even know who they'd be alright parting with. I guess Rooker would get inquiries but he's got a lot of money left there. Somebody like Springs or Sears could go I guess? The thing is that so much is working, and controllable, that trading people would just come off as excessive. This is now the era of Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson, the team that Lawrence Butler and Tyler Soderstrom can rep. I see those pieces lasting til Vegas. I really want Rooker to last til Vegas, the fanbase needs a guy like that to stick around. 

Intriguing, however, is the addition of former Mets prospect Carlos Cortes, who's already had some nice contact moments. I have a Heritage Minors auto of Cortes that I pulled a while back, and just assumed it'd continue to be worthless. Imagine if he suddenly becomes somebody. That'd be pretty cool.

Coming Tonight [?]: Former #1 overall pick. The team that drafted him is now a first place team. He is playing for a last place one.

Where It Kurtz

 

Even if the A's don't finish above .500 this year, they will still finish the year without completely fading into the background. There are things this team has been doing to command attention all season. Tyler Soderstrom had his home run lead in April. Jacob Wilson is parlaying his amazing rookie year into an ASG appearance. Toronto-born Denzel Clarke has been leading the season in unforgettable outfield grabs, and may continue this for a while. And now you have Nick Kurtz, with 12 homers in 45 games. Remember, Soderstrom, who was piling up homers before, has 14 in 85 games. 

The home run guys in Sacramento...they're multiplying. 

We already had Brent Rooker, who thankfully started getting hot this month, he's at 17 homers and 44 RBIs. Soderstrom followed behind, and looks to be a similarly great power bat. Kurtz has been very hot as of late, homered Saturday against the Yanks and even snuck in a run yesterday during the rout. Kurtz isn't special at 1st, and isn't great on the base paths, but he's 22 years old and can already hit MLB pitching. Yet ironically Max Muncy, but not that one, is 22 and has been up for a similar amount of time and isn't hitting at all, much like past infield phenom Kevin Smith, also not that one nor that one. 

Even as the A's pray the Vegas stadium goes off without a hitch and suffers through playing in a minor league stadium [Severino's thoughts on this were well reported, and come off as a lot funnier now that he's gotten lit up in Yankee Stadium as well], they are still building a core. If they weren't I'd be worried, I mean this isn't the Pirates after all. But Kurtz has joined pieces like Wilson, Soderstrom, Rooker, Lawrence Butler and Mason Miller as foundational pieces for what could be an eventual run. They've got a ways to go in terms of filling things out, and there's still a few pieces [Clarke, Max Schuemann, Zach Gelof] where I'm not sure if they're starter pieces or long haul pieces, but you can see a ballclub here, for once.

The starting pitching still worries me, though, because I don't see as many long term answers there. Severino, Springs, Sears and Lopez can fill innings for now, but basically every homegrown young fireballer has gotten injured immediately. It happened to Joe Boyle, it happened to Gunnar Hoglund, I assume it's happened to Joey Estes. Juggling 32 year olds is not gonna be the way forward, they need a guy they can build a rotation around. And he really hasn't arrived yet, even if J.P. Sears is fundamentally the closest they've gotten.

The A's are a better team now than they've been since the exodus, and are close to getting out of punchline status, but they're maybe a few more trusted pieces away from really getting there. Once they don't have to trot out Luis Urias and Gio Urshela every game I'll be a little more excited.

Coming Tonight: The most likely Colorado Rockie to make the All-Star team.

Some A's Are Better Than Others

 

There are gonna be some truly dismal stretches discussed this year, mostly pertaining to the Colorado Rockies, but I do think the A's run from May 6th to June 4th will definitely be remembered. In that time, the A's went 3-24, including two losing streaks, a 9-game one and an 11-game one. Even after a 20-16 start, and a very respectable one, this team hit an absolute wall that they're only now beginning to pick up from. It's not certain what happened, as there were no big personnel losses in that time, but considering that this stretch included series' against the Yankees, Dodgers, Giants, Phillies, Astros and Twins, perhaps it was just a rough run of scheduling.

And it does illuminate the fact that, while the A's are a better team, fundamentally there's a lot that's keeping them from being a great team.

For instance, this pitching staff. It's not a good sign that J.T. Ginn and Connor Hoglund, not long after getting called up, both suffered arm issues and are now hurt for the foreseeable future. You can't keep cooking your young arms. It's a wonder Jeffrey Springs is still healthy, though seeing as he's got a 4.64 ERA after years of minuscule ERAs with Tampa, maybe all those years of injuries have dulled his appeal. They're going with Mitch Spence as a starter now, which, judging by the fact that all the remaining starters have ERAs over 4, can't be much of a downgrade. Even Mason Miller has a 4.63 ERA, despite his 100mph work and his 13 saves. The pitching, even if the right people are on board essentially, just isn't cutting it, and in May especially let this team down. Obviously Luis Severino, J.P. Sears and Mason Miller are good pitchers, but they've had very bad luck recently.

Yet even still, the hitting persisted. Tyler Soderstrom has 14 homers and 44 RBIs, and has been a very trustworthy power bat. Jacob Wilson is hitting .366 with 93 hits, 38 RBIs and 8 homers, already a favorite for both an ASG spot and some Rookie of the Year votes. Lawrence Butler finally heated up, he's hitting .268 with 9 homers and 29 RBIs. And now Brent Rooker's hitting, with 13 homers and 37 RBIs. The core of this lineup is lethal, formidable and functional, regardless of the quality of the team itself. You can now say that there's several A's players who you can expect to get up there day-in and day-out and hit, especially for power. The other end of that is that you're now seeing upticks in defense. Max Schuemann is still a major upgrade as an infielder, and now you've got Denzel Clarke leaping over fences and making incredible catches. This team is coming together, even as the losing streaks still loom.

I think making the playoffs is irrelevant at this point. If the A's finish over .500 after all that May nonsense, it'll all be worth it, and while it's looking tricky at the moment, June and July could be a lot better for this team, especially considering what happened last year.

Coming Tonight: A third-baseman trying everything in the book to get the hell off his current team. 

Athletics Update: So Much For That Edition

 

Did y'all enjoy the brief instance where the Sacramento Athletics were in second place? Wasn't it fun? Well, after a 2-9 skid, that's all a thing of the past. After a good couple weeks of looking pretty decent, the A's have returned to their regularly scheduled mediocrity. Yet...there still exists the slightest chance of a rebound.

The Athletics, for the first time in a while, have multiple people they can seriously count on. J.P. Sears and Luis Severino in the rotation, Soderstrom, Rooker and Wilson at the plate, Holman and Sterner in the 'pen, and potentially people like Butler and Miller if they stop slumping. The core is finally developing, and you can actually see an identity in this A's team. Which is ironic, considering that until this team gets to Vegas, they're in their single most anonymous era of the team's history. Even the Kansas City teams had an aesthetic to this. What are people gonna say about the lasting historical appeal of the No Use For a Location A's? Sacramento has its own basketball team, it has name brand recognition, but apparently not enough for a baseball team to allow the use of it. 

Jacob Wilson is the kind of player a team like the A's can base the next couple years off of. He's an extraordinary contact hitter, already hitting .343 with 26 RBIs, and he's the highest valued position player with a 1.4 WAR. So far he seems to be a reverse negative of his father Jack, who played for the Pirates for most of the 2000s. Jack was a defensive whiz at short but only really contact hit during his peak season in 2004. Meanwhile, Jacob is an excellent contact guy with below-average shortstop ability. Hopefully he works on that as the A's essentially give him the position. I'm excited for the prospect of a Wilson-Gelof DP combo, with no offense towards Luis Urias, who's been above average filling 2nd so far. 

The rookies have also been pretty exciting. Gunnar Hoglund has 3 starts under his belt and has a 3.78 ERA with 15 Ks. With J.T. Ginn down, he seems like a pretty sturdy solution at SP5. Meanwhile, both Justin Sterner and Grant Holman have been excellent bullpen pieces in their first full seasons of MLB play. Not every 2025 rookie has completely met expectations, as Max Muncy needed more time in the minors and Nick Kurtz hasn't gone above .200 yet, but the A's are building this at the correct pace.

Even if the A's got swept in the bay area classic, and lost a series against the Dodgers, they're not exactly out of the race. It's still May, there's still a peak underdog period ahead, and there are still pieces the team can regain that can make them good again. If something doesn't happen this year, I predict there'll be a competitive team once the Vegas residency begins.

Coming Tomorrow- A team so bad, even the breakout catcher seems like a disappointment.

The Bronx-Oakland Starter Exchange Program

 

There have been enough Yankees-A's deals over the past few years that you can kind of see the trends setting in. Every couple years, the Yankees will trade for a powerful A's pitcher, who will end up doing basically nothing in a Yankees uniform while the returns populate the next generation of the team. In 2017 the Yankees got the worst years of Sonny Gray while the A's got James Kaprielian for a spell and, ultimately, Jorge Mateo. In 2022 the Yankees got like 8 starts of Frankie Montas and like a week of Lou Trivino in exchange for Ken Waldichuk, who is still injured, and J.P. Sears, who has been holding up the rotation ever since.

And what's funny is that in this current, Sacramento-based iteration of the A's, there's now even more ex-Yanks populating the team. Miguel Andujar has an everyday role in left, and he's hitting .325, having revived his career. Gio Urshela's currently the starting third baseman, and he seems more than happy to take some small pay just to play everyday. Sears is 4-2 with a 2.94 ERA, and he's been genuinely terrific. And right in the center, thanks to some extra funds John Fisher apparently had lying around, is Luis Severino, formerly one of the biggest Yankee prospects on the planet. Pitching beautifully. 

Sevvy's Yankee tenure was not a completely smooth one. There were some excellent seasons, especially his breakthrough 2017, and numerous injury-plagued campaigns that rounded out the rest of his contract. He was very good when healthy, but he was playing hurt quite a bit, and in the years where we really needed him he was not at 100%. Then he goes to the Mets and has his best season in years, and fully healthy as well. I think ultimately, despite his strong start, Sevvy just wasn't meant to be a Yankee. It happens to a lot of pitchers. Sonny Gray, Marcus Stroman, now Devin Williams by the looks of things at the moment. So I'm honestly happy the guy's finding success, and is off to such an excellent start.

The issue with Sevvy, at the end of the day, is gonna be the higher ERA and runs, even in win scenarios. He can certainly strike people out, and has 33 Ks already, but he's not the completely dominant, keep-the-balls-close type of guy anymore. Though, that being said, being a workhorse with velocity perks isn't bad either. The A's rotation, as good as Sears and Severino have been, have lots of guys like Osvaldo Bido and Jeffrey Springs who have decent mechanics but just aren't keeping runs down. The good news is that Mason Miller already has 10 saves. I'd love if he had another great year, he deserves it. 

The A's, a month in, are over .500, circling 2nd place and getting great seasons out of young players like Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson and Lawrence Butler. This is exactly what they wanted, and sooner than expected. I'd love for them to stay in the race and subdue Houston, even if logically Houston may have longer legs this year. Yet tonight the A's just announced they've brought up Gunnar Hoglund, a pitching prospect who's also credited as a two-way player, with previous stats at 1B and RF. Can the Astros say they have a guy like that?

Coming Tomorrow- At the very least the worst team in baseball has a rookie hitting very well.