East Coast Media Not Afraid to Call Out A Pathetic Team

Today I wasn't able to watch the A's game until the game had already started and the Yankees had claimed a 2-1 lead. I watched until the point where the game was about to go to 4-1, Yankees.

I was listening to the A's broadcast because lets face it Michael Kay is a terrible announcer. Anyways onto my point.

Ray Fosse and Glen Kuiper were talking about the media in New York. Fosse got defensive over the New York Post's George King. Fosse is quoted as saying this "For a longtime baseball writer I was kind of surprised to hear him say the A's are pathetic. It's a little harsh."

I'm sorry Fosse feels this way, but it is the absolute truth. The A's are pathetic. Fosse went on to say in a few years the A's will be a winning ballclup. That's fine and that's good for the future, but as of right now the A's play pathetic.

All you have to do is look up the A's statistcal categories on the offensive side compared to the rest of the American League.

Overall:                Stats Ranking

Batting Average:    .250    Last

Runs                    411    12th

Hits                      804     12th

Home runs               78       Tied for Last

Doubles                 160     10th

Triples                   9        13th

RBI                        394     12th

Stolen Bases            64       6th

On-Base Percentage  .320     11th

Slugging Percentage   .378     Last

On the offensive side the A's have only one statistical category where the team is not ranked near the bottom of the American League and that is in stolen bases where the team is ranked sixth.

Going further we can examine how the A's perform if you split the performance up:

Home:

Batting Average        .251        12th

Runs                        228         9th

Hits                         392         10th

Home runs                43           13th

Doubles                   82           10th

Triples                    6             10th

RBIS                       218           10th

Stolen Bases            24             10th

On-Base percentage  .330           11th

Slugging Percentage  .394           13th

Road:

Batting Average        .249           10th

Runs                       183            12th

Hits                        412            11th

Home runs                35              Last

Doubles                   78             10th

Triples                     3               Last

RBIS                       176             12th

Stolen Bases             40              5th

On-Base Percentage   .311           9th

Slugging Percentage   .363           Last

Day:

Batting Average          .242          13th

Runs                          141          7th

Hits                            268          9th

Home runs                    30            9th

Doubles                       50            10th

Triples                         2              Tied for Last   

RBI                             135            7th

Stolen Bases                 19             7th

On-Base Percentage       .317           12th

Slugging Percentage        .372          12th

Night:

Batting Average             .253          13th

Runs                             273           11th

Hits                              540           12th

Home runs                       48            Last

Doubles                         112           8th

Triples                           7              11th

RBIS                              261           11th

On-Base Percentage         .321          10th

Slugging Percentage         .379          Last   

Pitching wise here's a look at the A's:

Overall:

                                Stats       Rank

ERA                           4.29         8th

Hits                           857          10th

Walks                         323          8th

Strikeouts                   646          8th

Saves                         20           10th

WHIP                          1.40         10th

Home:

ERA                            3.73         4th

Hits                            429          7th

Walks                          135          3rd

Strikeouts                     324         6th

Saves                          8             12th

WHIP                           1.31          3rd

Road:

ERA                             4.76         12th

Hits                             428           8th

Walks                           188           Last

Strikeouts                      322          6th

Saves                           12            8th

WHIP                            1.49         12th

Day:

ERA                             3.69           3rd

Hits                             283            9th

Walks                          107            6th

Strikeouts                     213           8th

Saves                          6              12th

WHIP                           1.32          2nd

Night:

ERA                            4.61          9th

Hits                            574           7th

Walks                         216           10th

Strikeouts                   433            6th

Saves                         14             9th

WHIP                          1.44           11th

As for the pitching that has been the A's strongest part to their team. Curt Young has done an excellent job especially with the young starters the A's have taking the mound nearly every game.

The problem is there's not enough offense to go around. Their defense has been horrendous this year as well and the A's quite honestly own the worst coaching staff in baseball, except for Young.

Although, the A's offense has come alive of late the A's pitching has floundered since the All-Star break finished up. It seems like when the A's get offense the pitching now doesn't show up, but even with that if you were going by which was more consistent since there has been only a handful of games since the all-star break, the A's pitching has been the most consistent.      

Even with the hot start by the offense so far since the All-Star break the A's offense hasn't even been close to getting out of the bottom of any of the significiant offensive categories.  

I can understand being optimistic regarding the future, but for right now the A's are spiraling and having to play eight games against the top two teams in the East is looking like at least an eight game losing streak, so what will Fosse say after the A's have lost eight in a row?

The A's team is pathetic, but at least the East Coast is not afraid to call out a team that plays miserably on the opposite side of the country.

Maybe it is because the A's play on the West Coast where things are more relaxed, but for the life of me I cannot hazard a guess to why the Bay Area media will not call out the A's for their awful play.

Over the years the A's offense has progressively gotten worse. Under the direction of Bob Geren the A's have gone from a winning ballclub to a team that struggles in every aspect of the game.

What's even sadder are the boneheaded decisions that Billy Beane has made in regards to coaches. He did not hire Ron Washington who's currently leading the Texas Rangers to a surprise run at the division title with a record of 53-41.

Ken Macha who was the coach before Geren is in his first season with the Milwaukee Brewers and is 48-48 and fighting for first place in the NL Central.

Don Wakamatsu is even leading the most surprising team in the American League in the Seattle Mariners to a 51-44 record and a slight chance at the division, although it seems like the Angels are pulling away with the division.

Even more of a laugher, though, is the fact that Beane did not hire Terry Francona who is a former bench coach for the A's. The Boston Red Sox are currently in second place in the AL East with a record of 56-39 and since taking over the Red Sox team Francona has a record of 525-379 with two World Series titles.

So, if the East Coast media wants to call the A's pathetic. I'm perfectly fine with it because under Geren the A's are pathetic. You could even argue that the A's are worse than pathetic, in fact you can say they are unbearable to watch!