Will the A's Go the Distance?

The last time the Oakland Athletics won a playoff series, the year was 2006, and they were sweeping the Minnesota Twins in 3 games. I'm gonna just...assume that nobody left on the 2019 team was playing for the A's in 2006. Matter of fact, the most recent retiree on the 2006 team is Santiago Casilla, who retired last year...after finishing out his MLB career with the Oakland Athletics.

...we were one year away from actually having a 2006 Oakland A on here. We were that close.

Of course, after that 2006 season, the A's let go of everybody, including Frank Thomas, Barry Zito, Jason Kendall, Milton Bradley...and Jeremy Brown, the guy from Moneyball who had the single most embarrassing home run trot of all time. And then they became a punchline for 4 years, then had those nearly-good-enough playoff teams, lost a bunch of division series' and wild card games, then lost everybody again, became a punchline again...and then fought back last year AND this year to be right there in the wild card race.

If the A's didn't have to compete with the Houston Astros (like...if they were considered a Central team rather than a West team...so, like, pre-2013 rules), they'd be leading this division, looking at a solid third-seed in the playoffs, ANNNND a rendezvous with the Yankees in the playoffs, which would be prophetic considering the Yankees annihilated their playoff hopes in 2002. But...we're living in a weirdly-warped MLB, where the Astros are an AL team, Harold Baines is a hall of famer, and the home-run rate goes up without people blaming Rob Manfred for changing the balls.

Once again, this team has been built with the cheapest contracts possible, and only Khris Davis and Stephen Piscotty have built up multi-year deals that impact the team's future. Everyone else is either a couple year-deal, or waiting for arbitration. So guys who are ruling this team, like Mike Fiers, Matt Chapman, Mark Canha, Liam Hendriks and Ramon Laureano...are all doing this cheaply.

The A's currently have a leg-up on the competition, have a fun team pulled together, and have FINALLY gotten Sean Manaea back in the rotation, so they're cruising towards a potentially longer-than-usual playoff run. BUT...I do worry that because of the lack of strong contract options, this team could lose its base again, start at zero again and go through the same cycle we've seen three times now without any results. That's an extreme worry with a homegrown team like Oakland.

But something tells me they could be dangerous in the postseason this year. So I kinda hope something good happens to them this year.

Coming Tomorrow- How the hell is nobody talking about this guy for Rookie of the Year? He had a consistent run in Miami, he's having a consistent run in Arizona, and he's been stronger than both teams. Give him at least SOMETHING.