The Athletics season is winding down and unless they win out, it’ll be their first sub-.500 season since 1998. You wonder if Billy Beane is losing it. I’d still rather have him in there then anyone but with the whole Moneyball thing, it’s like everyone is on to us and it’s had somewhat of an effect. Still, there’s some positives heading into 2008.
Namely, the rotation. Dan Haren is an ace in the true sense of the word and if not for a mediocre second half, he’d be in the talk with the other Cy Young contenders. Joe Blanton is a very formidable number two guy. Throw in a solid Chad Gaudin who can get that walk rate down and the A’s have a solid front three in rotation. After that though, it’s kind of iffy and it’s the back end of that rotation that the A’s have to work on. Rich Harden is the wild card. He’s looking a lot like a Kerry Wood where when he’s in there, he’s good but it’s just not very often. At this point, while we can’t write Harden out, it’s hard to factor him into the team’s plans.
Jack Cust has obviously been the huge surprise and in just 116 games, he has a team high 28 homers and 78 RBIs. If given an entire season, he probably would have struck out 200 times but the near 100 walks and the .413 OBP are all very acceptable.
Nick Swisher has been solid too. He had those tough middle months but an .854 OPS is nothing to scoff at. He also picked up his 100th walk and that’s the first time he’s reached that milestone.
So there’s some potential studs in place, the A’s just have to do a good job building around them. The whole Milton Bradley thing kind of blew up in their face but what can you do. It’s hard to blame the front office for making that kind of move with a volatile player.
Eight games left. I’ll be watching, but it’s always tough when you have to say, “Maybe next year.”
