Canha Hardly Wait

 

Okay. So Mark Canha isn't a natural with a wireless mic on. It's the early stages, this takes time, and maybe Canha was a good choice.

The bottom line is the A's are healthy again, and all 30 teams are playing again, and even if the A's are dropping some games to San Diego, they're still leading the AL West by a few games, and they still have a pretty strong core right now. 

The Chapman-Olson-Laureano-Canha core is still working, and Matt Chapman is still one of the best players in the league. Marcus Semien is having a down year, but the A's still have Robbie Grossman, Stephen Piscotty, Tony Kemp and now rookie catcher Jonah Heim playing well. The lineup is still a bit spotty in terms of average, but this lineup could go up against the AL titans, and probably will in order to stay on top of the division. As hot as the Astros are right now, they lack some of the stability and consistency of this team, especially now that they've lost Altuve.

And as Fiers-Manaea-Bassitt-Luzardo-Montas continues to be a solid rotation, Mike Minor is, yes, being moved back to the bullpen, which...I'm not entirely for, but if the A's think it'll help, sure. The bullpen already has some awesome numbers from Liam Hendriks, Burch Smith, TJ McFarland, Joakim Soria, Yusmeiro Petit, Jake Diekman, J.B. Wendelken, Jordan Weems, and SHIT THAT'S BASICALLY THE ENTIRE BULLPEN. THE ENTIRE A'S BULLPEN HAS ERAS LOWER THAN 3. THAT IS INSANE. Mike Minor, if he continues to relieve games, would be spiking the bullpen ERA singlehandedly.

So clearly, crazy things are happening with this A's team, especially considering they just took down the Padres, who are also red-hot right now. After the Padres series, the A's go to Houston and fight for the division in real time, which will be very interesting. I hope they hang onto it, because I like this A's team a lot [more than the Astros].

Coming Tonight: Remember how the best player in baseball is in LA? He still is, it's just not the same one as the last couple years.