Oakland A's: Quick Take on Young Season, Hitting a Concern, Again!

The 2012 Oakland Athletics stand at 3-4 in 2012.  This record is good enough for third place in the four team American League West.

Let's throw out the record for a second; shall we? If the A's do not improve their hitting, they will not be good enough period.

The A's have six players with 20 or more at bats.  Only newcomer Yoenis Cespedes is batting over .230 (.273).  Next is Josh Reddick at .227.  The next four, Jemile Weeks, Coco Crisp, Kurt Suzuki and Cliff Pennington are batting .200 or below.  The stats of these six hitters take all the mystery out of why the A's are hitting .195 as a team, which ranks 28th in all of Major League Baseball.

Expectations for Suzuki and Pennington probably wern't that high when the season began.  As a shortstop and catcher respectively, they are usually bottom of the order guys that are there to field their positions.  Anything over .260 is a bonus for these guys.  Yes, it's still early, but Pennington is batting .167 and Suzuki sits at .200.  Both have a long way to go, to even be considered mediocre.

The big concern with this situation is Jemile Weeks hitting .200 and Coco Crisp at.192.  These guys are the table setters, they need to step their game up if the A's are going to have any chance at respectability in 2012.

Cespedes is still figuring things out. With only seven games in the big leagues, he probably has the longest leash, and he leads the team in all five major offensive categories.

Josh Reddick hit .280 in 87 games with the Boston Red Sox in 2011.  So at .227 he is underachieving as well.

Way too early

Seven games into a season is way too early to panic, but having four everyday players at or under the "Mendoza" line is at the very least a reason to raise an eyebrow or two.

Pitching

The A's pitching staff has two new faces and the rotation is basically a total face lift from the 2011 crew.

Brandon McCarthy is now the ace and Bartolo Colon is the No. 2 guy.

Colon has been uneven in his first two starts. At 1-1, Colon pitched well in his A's debut in Japan against the Seattle Mariners. The veteran wen eight innings,  allowing one run and three hits, to earn him his first win of the young season.

Outing number two was not so good; Colon was chased after 4.1 innings, giving up seven runs and 10 hits and was saddled with the loss.

McCarthy is 1-1 with an ERA of 2.50 and a 1-1 record. Like Colon the lanky right hander also pitched his best game in Japan, going seven innings, scattering six hits and earning a no-decision.

Future Ace?

Tommy Milone has only started one game, but he pitched an eight-inning shutout gem on Monday against the Kansas City Royals, earning his first win as an Athletic.

Milone has already drawn comparisons to the likes of Tom Glavine, Dallas Braden and Jaime Moyer.  Milone was acquired in the Gio Gonzalez trade with the Washington Nationals.

Same old Song and Dance

At first glance, the A's seem to be in a familiar spot.  The pitching can keep them above water, but their lack of run support ultimately sinks the team.

No life preserver is needed yet, but if Weeks and company, don't at least start treading water, it could be a worse season than A's fans expected, and truthfully, I don't think they expected much.