The Oakland A's are …
The thing about the Oakland A's is …
The Oakland A's are kind of good this year! A game over .500. That makes me think about the time that …
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Nothing. I got nothing. Luckily my co-worker, Jeff Sullivan, has watched the A's play 48 times this year thanks to the magic of the unbalanced schedule. So I asked him what his thoughts were on the A's. He was gracious enough to provide me the following information:
-josh reddick wears a mouthguard-eric sogard wears glasses
-yoenis cespedes is on the dl
done
At which point he resumed not thinking about the A's. But I don't mind the Giants playing the A's every year. Heck, I kind of like it. I am Katy Perry and the Giants playing the A's are girls. Is that pop-culture reference timely? For this site, you bet it is. And how.
But interleague play doesn't bother me in the slightest. Next year, when the Astros are in the American League and there's an interleague game every day? That'll get annoying. The way they've had it for the past decade-plus, though, is just fine with me. Breaks up the monotony, it does.
The real monster is the unbalanced schedule. Do you realize that we still have to watch 12 Giants/Padres games? The last 28 games of the season are against the same four teams. Over and over and over and over and over again. So amazingly boring. Padresdiamondbackspadresdodgersrockiespadresdodgersrockiesrockiespadresdiamondbackspadrespadrespadresdiamondbacksrockiesrockiesdodgersdodgersdiamondbackspadrespadresrockiesrockiespadrespadresguuhhhhhhhhhh.
The A's? I can dig the A's. They're different. And by different, I mean that they can pitch and not hit worth a damn. Did you see that their Opening Day third baseman had an OPS+ of -49 over 50 plate appearances? I mean ... wow. I'm doing that thing where I make a fist and thump my own chest because respect, you know? That's dedication. Josh Donaldson was 4-for-49 and a sac fly, which gave him a .082 batting average and a .080 on-base percentage. That is dedication to his craft, man. I mean, if the Giants are going to do this thing, they might as well make it special. The A's are keeping it real.
There will be low-scoring games. There will be those adorable split-hats. There will be all kinds of Stan Javier talk. It's an A's/Giants series. It's not that exciting, but at least they aren't the Padres. I mean, they are the Padres for the most part. But they're just different enough to make this better than the typical Padres/Giants series. And I will take that.
Hitter to Watch
Hahahahaha
Pitcher to Watch
I remember thinking the Gio Gonzalez trade was the A's' best trade of the offseason -- do you really apostrophize the A's, or do you break down and refer to them as the Athletics? -- but I'm started to become enamored of the Jarrod Parker/Trevor Cahill deal. Parker has a chance to be really, really good, and I think Cahill's ceiling is somewhat limited. So Parker is my pitcher to watch.
Here's where I'd make a joke about the Giants needing a pitcher to hack instead of a pitcher to watch, but they've been walking! That'd be an unfair joke.
So I'll turn it over to Jeff Sullivan. Say, Jeff, do you have a pitcher to watch?
tyson ross throws like he literally has a stick up his ass
Tyson Ross is also a pitcher to watch.
Prediction
One of the teams takes two out of three, and there is much hubbub and gnashing of teeth! Then the series shifts to the other park in a little bit, and the other team wins the series. This is how it will always be until the end of time.