Where's The Beef?….

Isn’t baseball a funny game? Everyone, including myself thought the A’s offense would be vastly improved going into 2009 and their pitching staff would struggle because they were so young across the board. I even wrote back in March a post titled “A’s beef up on offense.” Through 29 games this year, it’s been the complete opposite for the A’s.

The “beefed” up A’s offense look more like one of those Weight Watcher’s Smart One meals that the girls in my office eat for lunch on a daily basis (I could eat 10 of those things, by the way) and their pitching staff is currently 4th in the AL with a 3.88 era. The A’s offense has been dreadful. They are last in the AL in batting average (.236), home runs (18), on base percentage (.310) and runs (121). The worst of those stats is the on base percentage. Billy Beane must be hitting the bottle every night looking at that poor OBP.

A .282 OBP is not good

The A’s brought in Orlando Cabrera, Jason Giambi, Nomar Garciaparra and most importantly Matt Holliday in the offseason and all of them have looked terrible so far. How terrible? Take a look at these stats…

Orlando Cabrera – .223/0/6/.278

Jason Giambi – .208/3/13/.345

Nomar Garciaparra – .231/1/7/.262

Matt Holliday – .226/4/20/.282

Ouch!! The good news for A’s fans is A. all of these guys have a track record of producing, so things should get better and B. believe it or not, Matt Holliday is on a pace for 114 RBI despite batting .226.

The A’s are currently in last place in the very mediocre AL West. If their bats don’t come alive soon, that’s where they will be at the end of the year.

*Please note this post was written before last night’s game between the A’s and Royals. Ironically, the A’s torched the Royals 12-3 in Oakland. Maybe that game will get the A’s offense going.