Finding Reasons To Smile During May

What a month that was, right? The A’s closed out the month of May with an eight game losing streak. Way to finish the month strong, guys. It was definitely a trying month for many A’s fans to say the least, but I did manage to find a few reasons to smile in May. For one, there are a few players who caught my attention this month that I enjoyed watching despite seeing the A’s free fall all the way from second-place to last-place during their miserable month of May.

Oakland’s offense was downright offensive, scoring just 12 runs over their final eight games of May. That was not impressive to say the least and seriously served as a reminder of how awful the A’s offense truly is. The A’s offense isn’t built to score runs, I guess. Heck, I’m not sure what it’s built to do.

Still, I’m supposed to write about the few reasons why I ended up smiling about the team in May, right? Not an easy task by any measure, but here it goes:

Josh Reddick: The A’s have scored big time with this guy. Reddick, who was brought over in the trade that sent Andrew Bailey to the Boston Red Sox last winter, has been an absolute pleasure to watch and root for. He currently leads the team with 14 HR and 27 RBI and has provided the only real spark on offense this year. He currently owns a .266/.333/.547 slash line in addition to a .281 ISO and 143 wRC+ this year. He’s been a huge part of Oakland’s offense; without Reddick, the A’s would have scored three fewer runs during their eight game skid. He’s got All-Star written all over him.
Jarrod Parker: The A’s seem to have a pretty good understanding of how to find quality pitchers. The A’s seemingly always put together a nice, young, and inexpensive core of young talented pitchers each year and Jarrod Parker is no exception. Parker, who was acquired in the deal that sent Trevor Cahill over to Arizona this past winter, has pitched like a top prospect. The A’s should be happy with the numbers Parker has posted so far in his stint with the big league club. He’s currently 1-2 with a nifty 2.88 ERA over 40.2 innings of work. He didn’t enjoy a successful spring and didn’t break with the big league club in March, but he’s here now and he’s a reason why I smiled a little bit during May.
Ryan Cook: While his scoreless inning streak stopped at 23.1 innings during the A’s eight game skid, Cook’s streak definitely had me smiling during the month of May.
The Welcoming of Brandon Inge: This move wasn’t earth shattering news, but the A’s needed some help over at third base. Oakland’s decision to sign Inge after he was released by Detroit had me smiling all day and night, especially when he had that walk-off grand-slam back on May 8th, my 21st birthday no less.
Tom Milone: I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, I’m a big fan of Milone. The A’s have done a solid job this year putting together a group of young pitchers who could end up as reliable major league starters one day. Milone, Parker, Brad Peacock, Sonny Gray, A.J. Cole, and a few others have caught my attention, but Milone, who leads the team in wins with 6, is currently my favorite.

I won’t mention what didn’t make me smile this month, because this post would definitely go on for a long time. Instead, I encourage all of you to list some of the things that impressed and/or bothered you about the team during the month of May. Also be sure to…

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