Oakland Athletics Fantasy Retrospective

To echo many fans’ sentiments, the Oakland Athletics are looking abysmal. After a great series against their cross-town rival, the Giants, the A’s were swept by a far-worse team in the Pittsburgh Pirates. The A’s sit at a terrible record many games .500 and remain with essentially no shot of making the playoffs. But which A’s can help your fantasy team?

In March, I wrote an article on the A’s fantasy outlook. In April, I told fans to stream or keep Sean Manaea. Let’s review at these predictions and see how to help your team best moving forward.

More from White Cleat Beat

• Zach Logue yet another disappointing Oakland A’s trade return
• Luis Barrera heading to familiar foe in Los Angeles Angels
• Looking back at Ruben Sierra with the Oakland A’s
• San Francisco Giants showing Oakland A’s offseason could be worse
• Lucas Luetge what Oakland A’s need in bullpen

1. Sean Manaea – I will admit to being very mistaken about this. Still, Manaea is a guy you can play with certain matchups. For instance, the A’s have won every game in which he pitches against a team in Texas (whether Houston or the Rangers) this year. He rocks against left-handed hitting, with an even 5.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio against them, so if he is facing a left-handed leaning lineup like the Giants, he ends up doing well (he did win against the Giants, striking out four in 5 2/3 innings in his last outing).
2. Sonny Gray – Another mistake. But no one could have predicted the third-place finisher in the Cy Young race could have lost velocity and control the way he did in this season. We see flashes of Sonny Gray being the Sonny Gray of old, and we expect to see him push through a situation and get past it, but he doesn’t. He won’t get you any trade value, so you’re stuck with keeping him in your lineup and hoping that he’ll get better. In a dynasty league, you have to keep him, thinking about things like, well, even Dave Stewart had bad years.
3. Billy Burns – When I wrote about him, he was being drafted in the middle rounds, but is now a part-time platoon hitter along with Coco Crisp in center field. He is going through a typical sophomore slump as pitchers have learned how to pitch to him. He will need to play as much as he can in order to improve. Still, you may safely drop him in a standard 5×5 league if you have him to find someone who plays more often.
4. Josh Reddick – Since returning from his injury, Reddick has been moderately harmless. It’s tough to drop him because of his great first two months, but then he looks exciting in games like last Saturday where he went 4-for-4. In a tighter league, you may be able to trade him and sell high given the recency bias of that game, like Billy Beane and David Forst might do, but he may yet produce for your team especially as it is entirely likely he will be traded to a contending team this year.
5. Khris Davis, Marcus Semien, Danny Valencia – Three underrated guys going into the season that ought to be owned by now based on their power potential. Davis and Semien still strike out a lot, but it’s especially valuable to have power in leagues that have a lot of OF and SS depth. Valencia is a guy who hits for extra bases often and for a high average, so he’s worth keeping around if you need an extra corner infielder.
6. Sean Doolittle – With his recent injury, it is best for you to drop him and get Ryan Madson instead, if you hadn’t already like most A’s fans did in April.
7. Stephen Vogt – The catcher position is always a weaker one, but among catchers, he is the second best AL catcher in terms of batting average (behind Salvador Perez) with at least 220 at-bats.
8. Henderson Alvarez – He may not be active until September, if ever.

Most of these players are guys you may be able to pick up on the waiver wire, as in most ESPN and Yahoo leagues they are no more than 75% owned. Are there any other bargains to be found in the A’s fantasy team? Rich Hill comes to mind, the likely A’s All-Star candidate.

Next: Losing Patterns Emerge Against The Pirates

Who do you think deserves a spot on your fantasy baseball roster? Leave a comment!