Oakland Athletics: Instead of a Recap, a Plea—Clean House!

I usually use this to discuss how the A's both impressed and disappointed me over the past week.

This week, I must adopt a more somber tone.

The A's lost five straight after sweeping the Angels in a two game series. They are surprisingly only two games out of first, and in LAST place.

The A's are tied for a season low (or is it high?) three games under. The season is certainly not lost, but my faith is fleeting.

Last Monday we saw the A's tie the game with two outs in the ninth and win in extras over our "rivals," the Angels. The following night what fans showed up through the rain were treated to an offensive cataclysm better known as a 14-0 victory.

Things were looking up for the A's. Their strong pitching was dominant, and they were starting to hit. The lowly Twins were coming to town and the A's looked ready to build momentum for a trip across the bay.

Then disaster struck.

A Daric Barton error led to an extra innings loss to the Twins on Wednesday. Tyson Ross exited after seven pitches on Thursday and the A's fell 11-1. Swept by the Twins, our green collar heroes entered the cellular bastion that is AT&T park looking to regain a shred of dignity.

It didn't help that Ross went on the DL on Friday and was accompanied by Brandon McCarthy.

40 percent of a rotation in a single day. Three starting pitchers on the DL, plus the closer.

Trevor Cahill was masterful on Friday, Bob Geren was not. Cahill was pulled for a pinch hitter in the seven after throwing only 83 pitches. Stupid NL rules.

Not only did the A's not score, but the bullpen eventually whittled itself down to Brian Fuentes, who manages to let the magic of the Giants surround him and yielded another walk off hit to the "Greatest Team in Bay Area History" (Most Bay Area historians are from San Francisco and never heard of Oakland between the years of 1972 and 1990)

I don't blame the Giants, they are a solid team that has incredible luck.

I blame our woeful manager Bob Geren. It's about run prevention, not run scoring. This is not a team that mashes. Case and point, Saturday vs Tim Lincecum. Again, don't get me wrong, he's probably the best pitcher in the NL. But he's not as good as the A's "offense" made him look.

Nine, count em', nine home runs by players in the starting lineup.

Sunday began equally as dreary, though the A's managed to get a few timely hits and take a 4-2 lead into the eighth. Naturally, the bullpen managed to implode as Nate Schierholtz hit a game tying home run, one handed into the right field arcade.

Still, we pressed on until the great overused one, Brian Fuentes found his way into the game and managed to give up hits to Darren Ford (better known as Legs) and Emmanuel Burriss (better known as the great Fresno to SF traveler) and once again baseball magic rained down upon the Giants, and for the A's it just rained.

Five straight losses, is the season over? No. Are we in trouble, uhh duh.

We're down to three starters, and only two relievers I trust, Joey Devine, and Andrew Bailey (yeah he's hurt, but he'll be back soon, maybe).

Honestly. I'd like to blow up the entire team and only keep those five players. Everyone can and must go. Including Bob Geren, and I'm gonna say it. Billy Beane. He's rested on his laurels for too long now. Geren is a puppet and is only managing at the big league level because of Beane.

Beane hasn't made a good major league move since he traded Dan Haren. He hasn't drafted well since Trevor Cahill, and the team hasn't had any success since we lucked into Frank Thomas in 2006.

Seriously, blow up the team. Any set of AAA players could hit better than the team is now. Call up Sacramento, and send down Oakland. I'd much rather see Adrian Cardenas and Jemile Weeks play than David DeJesus and Daric Barton. Michael Taylor is playing well, so why not give him a chance?

Something must be done, and it starts at the top. I'm not gonna blame Lew Wolff and this whole stadium debacle on the A's troubles. I'm blaming Beane. It's his team.

Time to face a reckoning for this most recent week of "baseball" or in the A's case "ball" because they didn't spend much time on base.