How'd the A's Get Here?

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski on September 9, 2014 at 3:00 PM

Grant Brisbee looks at five mistakes the A's made to wind up in the position they're in. (Specifically, as to that position: to wind up shitty.)

Well, that's not quite right. The idea is more generally five mistakes they've made in the last two months, so Brisbee is able to include trading Addison Russell even though that trade (or, specifically, who they gave up in that trade) has nothing to do with their doing well or not. But in any event, it's hard to argue with any of his five points:

  • Jeff Samardzija isn't an ace and paying an ace price for him was probably a mistake (though he's likely an upgrade on whoever would have pitched those innings if they hadn't acquired him, whether that's a tiring Jesse Chavez, an overmatched Dan Straily, or someone else);

  • Leaving their sub-replacement second-base situation alone was probably a mistake, though Billy Beane was likely betting on upward regression from his existing players, and it was justified in the case of Eric Sogard, who's hit .277/.373/.362 since July 20th, with the problem being that a fair amount of that goes on the shortstop portion of the ledger because of Jed Lowrie's injury (which coincided with Nick Punto's, thereby decimating the A's middle-infield offense and defense simultaneously);

  • The A's have probably been unlucky, both in the classic sense of misdistribution of runs and close games not going their way and in the particular distribution of talent across the league in such a way that the three best teams in the American League might all be in their division. Of course, they were probably playing over their heads in the first half, in terms of certain players outproducing their talent, but the Baseball Gods aren't supposed to let individual regression happen simultaneous with a rash of injuries simultaneous with unfortunate distribution. That ain't right, Baseball Gods.