Athletics Offensive Flops Undermines Pitching Precociousness

Sure, sometimes statistics can fail to tell the entire story, but the numbers don’t lie when it comes to the surprisingly ineptitude of the Oakland Athletics as we approach the mid-point on the 2009 season. With remarkable consistency, the A’s have suffered through an abysmal offensive season that has begun to take its toll on the team’s surprising strong pitching staff.

With April's Opening Day, baseball analysts expected the exact opposite from the revamped A’s. Hitting, bolstered by veterans Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera, and perhaps the return of injured starters Eric Chavez and Mark Ellis, was supposed to the team’s strong-suit. The pitching, stocked with rookie starters and a mish-mashed bullpen, was suspect.

As the cliché goes, that’s why they play games, even if Oakland might have wished they wouldn’t have. A quick pass through the numbers shows little to be enthused about.

1. Terrible batting average: The A’s are dead last with the San Diego Padres in batting average at .236. Only three other teams are below .250. The nearest American League team is the Chicago White Sox at .251.
2. On base flop: A’s GM Billy Beane started the obsession with on base percentage, so it must be particularly galling that his team again ranks dead last in this gold-standard statistic. The patient, workmanlike offenses of the late 1990s and early 2000s are a feint memory for recent A’s teams that hack away like chopping through a jungle with a machete.
3. Power outage: At the start of the season, the A’s had four potential 30 home run hitters in their lineup. Eric Chavez had just 30 at bats before back surgery, ending his season. Jack Cust, Matt Holliday, and Jason Giambi are all on pace to hit fewer than 30 home runs this season. The team is 25th overall in home runs, last in the American League.
4. The little things don’t mean a thing: The A’s have long eschewed traditional baseball strategy like sacrifice bunts and stolen bases. But in this post-steroid era, small ball is coming back into favor, particularly for teams that lack the power to bash their way to victory. The A’s lack that firepower, but still fail in the little things that can keep a team competitive, ranking in the lower third of Major League baseball in stolen bases, sacrifice flies, and sacrifice bunts.
5. Across the board disappointment: Individually, there is plenty of blame to go around. Up and down the A’s lineup with amazing consistency are hitters performing below their career numbers. Orlando Cabrera is at .243, Holliday .269, Cust .227, Giambi .205, Bobby Crosby .190, and Nomar Garciaparra .254. Only catcher Kurt Suzuki, hitting .278 with four home runs, is approaching a normal season offensively. Youngsters like Ryan Sweeney (.254, two HR), Landon Powell (.182, two HR), and Jack Hannahan (.191, one HR) have failed to break out offensively.

The bright side is just about any time the A’s pitchers take the hill. For all the offensive problems, the pitching has exceeded expectations, especially a young rotation that has relied heavily on four rookies. Overall, the team is 12th in ERA, fifth in the American League. Starters Dallas Braden, Trevor Cahill, Josh Outman, and Vin Mazzaro all have posted ERAs below 3.75, in a combined 47 starts.

Rookie Andrew Bailey has joined last year’s rookie sensation Brad Ziegler in the back of the bullpen to post a combined 14 saves.

In baseball statistic often tell the story, and this is no exception. For the A’s, a league-worst offensive with poor in-game execution has torpedoed pitching that has exceeded expectations, which all adds up to the one stat that matters the most: The A’s are 31-40, in last place in the American League West and eight games behind the division leading Texas Rangers.

Expect the fire-sale to begin shortly after the fireworks explode in Oakland.