There Is An “A” In “GrAvediggers”
· Yahoo Sports
29 teams have now celebrated their first win of the season now and then there’s the A’s. 0-4 and continuing what is now a disturbing trend of digging an early grave and then spending precious time trying to dig out.
The last winning season the A’s had was 2021 and that season they opened 0-6. In 2018 their return to the post-season came with 97 wins but only 5 of those occurred in their first 15 games. Then there’s 2023, admittedly with a team short on talent, that began 2-9 and 3-16, “playing out the string” for the season’s last 90%.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
So here the A’s are, only 4 games into a season they have entered with higher hopes than any year since 2021, already 4 games under .500, 2.5 games out of 1st place, and looking like a team whose alarm clock surprised everyone when it went off on March 27th.
The question is why. Why do the A’s so routinely open the season looking either unprepared, overmatched, or like a deer in the headlights staring at a car that announced its impending arrival 5 months ago? Some possible explanations, none suggested to be accurate just available:
Youth
The A’s generally field a team whose average age is on the much younger side and one can expect more jitters, more “try to do too much” from a younger group. That doesn’t really explain the contributions guys like Brent Rooker or Michael Kelly have made to this team’s 0-4 start but certainly this A’s roster features a glut of young talent, some of it very much unproven (Denzel Clarke, Max Muncy, Luis Morales).
Flawed Roster Construction
Limited payroll contributes to a fair amount of “wishcasting” for parts of the 26 man roster and nowhere is it more evident than in the A’s Opening Day bullpen that looked shaky on paper and lived up to its billing by game 2.
If you’re looking to Elvis Alvarado to fill up the strike zone or Michael Kelly to nail down a save or Luis Medina to keep you tied in extras, you’re likely to be disappointed. Just put Saturday’s game in the win column and even a 1-3 start looks closer to palatable than a 4 game losing streak.
The A’s front office identified starting pitching as their #1 priority this off-season yet fortified it with only Aaron Civale, and acknowledged the need to address the bullpen yet added more “medium leverage” arms in Mark Leiter Jr. and Scott Barlow.
Undisciplined Approach
When I watch the A’s hitters, what strikes me most is how undisciplined the approach is from so many of the hitters even when what they are doing clearly isn’t working. As the A’s were whiffing a record 50 times in the Blue Jays series, what stood out was how hard and wild they were swinging even in situations where they needed base runners more than they needed to slug — right down to the last out where just needing a base runner any which way Muncy swing harder each time to record K #50. (There were exceptions, notably Jeff McNeil, who had poor results but at least a watchable approach, and Nick Kurtz, who saw few pitches to hit but at least took his walks.)
If I’m coaching a group that is striking out at record pace, I urge hitters to think about punching balls the other way with a shorter swing just until the team is out of its collective whiffing funk. You can always go back to a more violent swing, and HR derby approach, later if that’s what you really want. But the A’s seem a bit slow to make these adjustments and it contributes to a sluggish — but not sluggish — start.
Here’s what we know: across baseball, scout, pundits and analysts all agree the A’s have the makings of a high run producing group, often predicted to be a “top 5 lineup”. Yet once again here are the A’s coming out of the gate slower than molasses and digging a hole.
On the pitching side perhaps it’s more what was expected: decent starting pitching but nothing dominant or lengthy followed by a shaky pen.
Defensively, wouldn’t you know that the costly gaffe on Opening Day was by a Platinum Glove candidate, Clarke, strangely getting mousy about taking charge in an outfield that is officially his to claim from alley to alley.
The question today is: why? Why do the A’s so routinely have the poorest at bats, defensive setbacks, inability to get games to the house, at the outset of the season, rather than arriving to the first game ready to play and ready to win? They always seem to spend weeks trying to undo their opening act, forced to just try to maintain relevance until intermission. Frustrating for them I’m sure and frustrating for fans I’m even more sure.