The Oakland Athletics sit one game over .500 and find themselves in first place in the American league west. Great news right? Well, maybe.
The season is barely a week old and there is still a lot of baseball left to be played. The biggest test they faced was in the previous series versus the Seattle mariners. Despite clutch hitting and plenty of offense, the bullpen could not hold late leads and the A’s dropped two games. Following this series against the Houston Astros comes an even greater test against the defending west champions the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
As we prepare for that series I thought it would be wise to check into what has made the A’s successful so far.
This team isn’t bashing the most home runs and doesn’t have the highest batting average or on-base percentage in the league, but it is still scoring the most runs. With 55 runs the Athletics hold a slim lead over the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals for best offense in baseball. I know, just what everyone predicted.
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What has made the Oakland Athletics successful early on has been has been the ability to extend rallies. The A’s lead baseball in hits and are second in the league with 24 doubles, nearly ten more than Detroit and Kansas City. Additionally the team has struck out just 54 times, good for sixth best in baseball.
In 2014 the A’s were 22nd and 24th in baseball in hits and doubles, respectively, but finished second in strikeouts and 13th in home runs.
The past three A’s teams have made their living by hitting the long ball, but this led to long scoring droughts and made the hitters more vulnerable to slumps.
The 2015 lineup has sacrificed some power in an effort to make more solid contact. In 2014 the A’s were 27th in baseball in line drive rate and first in flyball rate. Currently the team has the fourth best line drive rate in baseball and is 22nd in flyball rate.
There is nothing wrong with home runs, but the kinds of home run hitters the team has had in years past were more all-or-nothing hitters rather than pure hitters. The 2015 A’s lineup features better all-around hitters like Ben Zobrist and Billy Butler.
I know, I know. It’s just a week’s worth of games, but these early season stats are indicative of the types of players Billy Beane acquired this winter. And moving forward I expect to see much more of the same baseball we’ve seen from Oakland this past week.