Oakland Athletics: Can Khris Davis Reach 50 Home Runs?
By Joey Lopez
The Crystal Ball is back as we look at Khris Davis and his chances of reaching 50 home runs.
The Oakland Athletics have not had much to celebrate this year. Aside from a few surprising players and a commitment to rebuild the franchise, the A’s have had an extremely tough season.
Despite the team’s struggles this year, Khris Davis remains one of the club’s most entertaining performers. Davis, 29, enters Thursday with 39 HR and 99 RBI. He is slashing .241/.330/.530 overall on the year.
The A’s have followed Davis’ lead this year and rank 6th in the AL with 197 home runs. Unfortunately the surge in power has done little to help Oakland in the standings. Davis and the A’s are on pace to finish dead-last in the AL West.
What’s The Point?
The A’s have been disappointing and at times unwatchable. Fans have been active in voicing their disappointment with the club’s performance throughout the season. For the casual fan, there is not much left to root for. Except…
Except the fact that Davis has a shot, albeit an outside shot, at capturing 50 home runs. Davis has collected three home runs in September and hit 10 back in April. The A’s slugging outfielder needs 11 more to reach 50.
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Despite the team’s lackluster offense, Davis continues to carry the load this month. In addition to his three homers this month, Davis is slashing .417/.481/.917 over his last 24 at-bats.
It will be a tough path to reach 50 homers, but Davis has demonstrated plenty of times before that he possesses great power. He has four multi-homer games this season and is on a hot streak.
Heading In The Right Direction
Davis has a higher walk rate (11.2%) this year compared to last season (6.9%). While his strikeout rate (31.5%) is astronomically high, Davis is providing more power this year. It is a trade off that the A’s are likely happy with (his .289 ISO is higher this year than his .277 mark in ’16).
The A’s offense is much younger than it was when the season began. The A’s have replaced Stephen Vogt, Trevor Plouffe and Yonder Alonso with the likes of Bruce Maxwell, Matt Chapman and Matt Olson. The power continues to be a defining characteristic of the team’s offensive attack, though, despite the changes.
Davis has some help around him in the lineup and that could benefit him in his quest to reach 50 homers on the year. Will he reach that remarkable total?
Certainly it remains a possibility, but our Crystal Ball thinks he’ll end up with something closer to 46. He has three homers this month and would need to have 14 homers in total this month to reach 50.
Davis will almost certainly surpass his mark of 42 from last season with relative ease. His recent hot streak will make things very interesting moving forward and should provide even the most casual fan with plenty to root for.
CRYSTAL BALL SAYS: 46 HR
What do you think? Can Davis reach or even surpass 50 homers this year? Sound off below in the comments!