Oakland has been a team that’s had many obstacles in its way. From a small market team salary, an occasionally fanatic fan base, to a stadium that just cannot compete with others across the league, much less the one across the street. Is there something that the Athletics can do to start righting the ship?
1st Story: Is there anything exciting about the Athletics offense?
Khris Davis was able to provide a little bit of a power show for the Athletics. Considering this is his first shot at regular playing time, it’s actually an affirmation of the power many thought was always there. Taking his stats and playing from his stint and averaging them, he would average around 35 HR over 162 games. If he’s able to replicate that sort of success, that will at least provide some spark offensively.
Yonder Alonso and Ryon Healy so far are having fairly successful campaigns, hitting 16 HRs and 13 HRs respectively. Both of whom have exceeded power expectations to this point with their current totals. Alonso has only been able to hit at most 9 in a full professional season before, and Healy, although being a young player, has only hit 16 HR in High-A ball. Healy was able to hit 13 HR’s in 78 games with the Athletics last season, so maybe he’s grown some and will start capitalizing on this power increase.
Either way, if these guys can continue their success so far, the Athletics will be putting balls in the stands for a good part of the season.
2nd Story: Is Sonny Gray moving up or moving out?
What’s going on with Sonny Gray?
Sonny Gray had a rough season in 2016, but 2017 has only been marginally better. He’s healthy, but his FB/HR rate is still incredibly high, at 17.9%. It’s still very early in the year; it’s likely that Gray will be able to turn around his season and return to the 2014 and 2015 version of himself.
Gray’s K/9 is actually higher than in both 2014 and 2015, so the movement on the pitches is there. The biggest issue Gray is facing right now is that is his Hard % and HR/FB are both in line with what his 2016 numbers were. His Hard % in both 2014 and 2015 was about 25%, but in 2016 and 2017 it’s at 33%. This has correlated with an increase in his HR/FB percentage from approximately 9% to over 17%. This has increased his ERA and put much more pressure on the offense to support him in his starts.
3rd Story: Is it time to take the plunge and start rebuilding?
Since Billy Beane has taken over the helm in Oakland, he’s never committed to a full rebuild. He’s always been able to walk that line of half rebuilding, keeping younger players to ensure that the team is competitive, and legitimately trying to keep the team exciting to watch.
However, the pipeline flow has dwindled in the last few years. The Samardzjia trade pulled some of the better prospects that are just starting to make their way in the majors.
Bleacher Report ranks the Oakland A’s farm system at 12th in the majors, which is actually up from 16th in 2016. Bleacher Report gave them four Tier 1 prospects, meaning that they do have four prospects that should be productive major league players. This isn’t quite enough to really support a major league club that’s running out of position players they can afford.
Ultimately, Beane will do what he thinks is best and attempt to keep the team competitive. Personally, I think it’s time to get a return on what is available and prepare for the future.
