With the wildcard game coming up, it’s time to check out the competitors, starting with the Oakland A’s.
The A’s have had a great season, and got better and better as the season went on. They’ve won 56% of their away games and 64% of their home games as of 9/23 and only have a losing record in April. They’ve gone 7-3 in their last 10 days, but as a Rays fan, it feels like they haven’t lost in months.
So what will help make them a threatening team come October?
Impact Hitters
Marcus Semien (SS)
Semien leads the team in batting avg (.287), RBIs (91), walks (72) and hits (183) and has been highly regarded by his teammates and manager.
As stated by the San Francisco Chronicle, A’s manager Bob Melvin said about Semien:
“I don’t know that anybody has been more important to a team as Marcus has.”
per the San Francisco Chronicle
Semien holds the lead-off spot and has started in every game this season to date.
He is also an above average defensive player, ranking 8th among all AL players in the SABR defensive index and 2nd among AL shortstops (behind Willy Adames, TB) as of August 18th.
Matt Chapman (3B)
Chapman has 34 home runs so far and is in the 96th percentile for exit velocity and 93rd percentile for hard hit balls in the league.
He’s a right-handed hitter with a strong ability to hit to the opposite field. He leads the team in Ks, but is also second in walks.
Chapman ranks 1st among all AL players in the SABR defensive index and is 2nd in the league (behind Nick Ahmed, ARI) as of August 18th.
Matt Olson (1B)
Olson leads the team in home runs (35). He is in the top 6% of the league in xwOBA and top 4% of the league in xSLG.
Olson strikes out a lot and has a whiff percentage of 28%, but he also makes contact on in-zone pitches 75% of the time. While he chases 22% of pitches out of the zone, he makes contact 62% of the time on them. What this means is that even though he might not always get a great read on a pitch (leading to more strike outs), he is capable of putting the ball in play on pitches he should be laying off.
Hidden Defensive Gem: Ramon Laureano
A pretty good hitter, but an even better defensive player. He has a great arm and is a threat to anyone on the bases who tries to stretch out a hit or tries to run on him. Laureano also is a top defender in terms of outfield jump (reaction time) and sprint speed.
If you want to see some of his highlight plays (they’re pretty cool!), check out this video posted by MLB:
Impact Pitchers
Mike Fiers (SP)
Mike Fiers leads the A’s in wins this season (15) and has the lowest ERA (3.91). He relies primarily on his fastball, but also throws a change and curveball.
Fiers’ fastball is typically his first pitch of an at-bat, and is average, with below average velocity and average spin. His change-up yields the highest whiff percentage (15%) and ground ball percentage (12%) amongst all his pitches. His best pitch is his curveball, which he relies heavily on when he is ahead in the count (28% of the time for LHH and RHH). His curveball spin rate is the top 14% of the league.
After an injury scare and some recent struggles, Fiers rebounded this past weekend against the Rangers and looked as good as ever, pitching 8 scoreless innings and allowing only 2 hits.
Chris Bassitt (SP/RP)
I was debating whether or not to include Bassitt, but I have a good feeling about him. Bassitt leads the team in strikeouts (139) this season. He primarily throws a sinker and curveball. He was dropped from his position as a starting pitcher and was moved to the bullpen after a shaky outing on September 13th. With Treinen out and the plethora of talented starting pitchers, it makes sense for the A’s to move an asset like Bassitt to the bullpen. There, Bassitt will be a valuable reliever in high leverage situations as the A’s continue to make a playoff push.
He seems to be exceeding in his new role (though it is too early to tell). His first relief appearance resulted in four scoreless innings and seven strike-outs. In his second appearance a couple of days ago, he got five strikeouts and allowed one batter to reach base over three innings.
Other Pitchers to Keep an Eye On:
Homer Bailey:
Ground ball pitcher who has been doing sneakily well recently. His stats seem average at first glance, but looking a little deeper into recent game logs will show that he has been pitching very well recently. Bailey’s start against the Royals on September 18th was particularly notable and resulted in 7 innings pitched with 1 walk and 11 Ks.
He’s been pitching against challenging teams with winning records as well. In Bailey’s last starts against the Astros and Yankees, he’s held them to 2 runs or less per game.
His best pitch seems to be his splitter, which he uses often. It gets a lot of swings and misses, with a whiff percentage of 21%.
Sean Manaea:
Not a ton of information to go on here because he’s been out for most of the season recovering from a shoulder surgery, but he has been phenomenal since his return. In four starts he’s given up 3 runs (all home runs) and has gone deep into the game (at least five innings in all his starts, max 7 innings on 9/8). He’s struck out 25 of 89 batters faced and his only recorded “loss” was a game against the Yankees in which he gave up one hit through 5 innings.
Definitely keep an eye on him as the A’s try to make their way into October.
Injury Struggles
The A’s have faced several season-ending injuries including Lou Trivino, Blake Treinen, Stephen Piscotty, Daniel Gossett, and Luis Barrera. Trivino was supposed to return from an early September oblique injury after falling in the shower, but yesterday it was announced that he will be out for the rest of the season.
While the injuries may put the A’s at a slight disadvantage, they have good depth and are capable of success without the help of these players.
The A’s have a lot of weapons on their team that can lead them to success. It will be interesting to see how their final week plays out, especially with their loss to the Angels last night, leaving them with only half a game lead over Tampa Bay. Should be a fun week for baseball! And a stressful one for A’s fans.