The A’s have been rolling. Unfortunately, the Mariners have been the hottest team in baseball and the Angels haven’t been too shabby either. So despite winning eight of ten, the A’s have actually lost ground on the Mariners and picked up just one game on the Angels. Still, there’s a lot of games to be played and a five game deficit, while formidable, is far from insurmountable.
The emergence of Shannon Stewart has been a very nice story for the A’s. And while his slugging percentage is just .341, he leads the team with 31 runs and he has a very impressive 24/20 walk to strikeout ratio. And after struggling in April, he’s played very well since then. Both of his homeruns have been with men on scoring position and when you factor that in, he has an impressive .842 with RISP. He’s even better with two outs and men in scoring position with a .414 batting average.
Danny Haren continues his run at a Cy Young. He’s won five straight starts and he hasn’t given up more then two runs in either of them. And a 76/21 strikeout to walk ratio will help do that trick, as will a .179 batting average against. Oddly, he’s been death on lefties with a .147 batting average against.
And for those of you who are Bobby Crosby fans, he was profiled over at Baseball Prospectus. It’s one of those great columns where you learn everything and anything about his playing career.
