Oakland Athletics: 5 Key Takeaways from Series vs. Texas Rangers

Nathaniel Jue — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:09:11 -0400

How quickly the tides turn.

Back on April 17th, the Oakland Athletics were sitting pretty atop the American League West, sporting a gaudy 12-4 record. The Texas Rangers, meanwhile, were plugging along at a formidable clip themselves, winning nine of their first 14 games.

The early part of the 2013 campaign had the makings of another nose-to-nose seasonal battle between two ballclubs that clawed one another to the bone last season in an epic division title showdown.

One month later, however, the Rangers are continuing to flex their mighty muscles, undaunted by Oakland’s hot start. And the Athletics are the ones struggling to keep pace. Since that April 17th apex, the A’s have taken a beating physically and on the field, having gone 8-18 in the process, falling into a second-place tie with the Seattle Mariners in the AL West. Texas has opened up a seven-game lead on the A’s and looks locked in: They currently have the AL’s best record at 26-14.

This past midweek series at the Oakland Coliseum was important for both squads. The Athletics were looking to right their ship, while the Rangers were seeking a bit of revenge at the venue where the 2012 division crown slipped out of their collective gloves. Oakland took the first game of the series on Monday, but the Rangers bounced back to win the next two in decisive fashion.

Here are five things we learned about the Athletics during their series against the Texas Rangers.

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Oakland A's: History Dictates That It Is Far Too Early to Panic over 2013 Start

Clarence Baldwin Jr — Tue, 14 May 2013 06:50:01 -0400

After their first 40 games, the Oakland A's are 20-20 in the 2013 season.

Remember 2012? The A's started 20-20 as well. In 2006, The A's—led by Frank Thomas—rode a five-game winning streak to get to 21-19 after 40 games.

Historically, the A's have tended to be a slow-starting team. Under manager Bob Geren, the club never started better than 23-17 through 40 games (2008) and started as slowly as 15-25 (2009) while opening 20-20 three times.

Go back to the Moneyball era when the A's opened 21-19 (2000), 18-22 (2001) and 19-21 (2002) after 40 games. Oakland went on to win 91, 102, and 103 games those three seasons, respectively.

In many ways, the 12-4 start that the Athletics have raced out to this season was a bit of fool's gold. Eleven of those 12 wins came at the expense of AL West foes Seattle, Los Angeles (Angels) and Houston. Those teams sit a combined 31 games under .500 heading into Tuesday, May 14.

Once the torrid starts by guys like Jed Lowrie and Seth Smith died down, so did the early offense. Add to those laws of averages the injuries to Coco Crisp, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick, Brett Anderson and Jarrod Parker as reality dragged the A's back down to earth.

The only thing is that this is still a very talented team. WIth a quarter of the season gone, the projected Oakland lineup has played less than 15 total games together. Even if the A's don't duplicate their wins from 2012, there is no way that Anderson and Parker continue to post ERA's of 6.21 and 6.86, respectively.

It is still a marathon in the game of baseball and right now, the A's have run roughly 6.5 of the 26.2-mile 2013 race. They're just getting warmed up.

Relax and hope that players like Daric Barton can hold the fort down when called upon until all of the gang gets back. When they do, the A's will take off like they traditionally do when the talent takes the field in Oakland.

Read more Coco Crisp news on BleacherReport.com

Bleacher Report - Coco Crisp

Oakland Athletics: 5 Key Takeaways from Series vs. Texas Rangers

Oakland A's: History Dictates That It Is Far Too Early to Panic over 2013 Start