Oakland Athletics

Power Rankings

Date	Ranking	Previous
01/26/2012	28	27
Good business: They jump-started phase 18 (a) (iii) of their rebuilding effort by trading their two best starters and their closer. The players they received in return are said to be good ... Bad business: ... but let's be honest: Even the prospect mavens haven't seen any of those guys play more than four or five times. Maybe they're good, maybe they're not. Either way, prospect-fetishism is as much a scourge as chronic nail-biting. Prognosis as of 11:14 a.m. GMT on Jan. 26, 2012: They'll hit the bad, boring and hopeless trifecta.
10/31/2011	27	19
2011 eulogy: Stadium mess + cheapwad ownership = baseball's most impossible situation. Offseason to-do list: Remember the days when the franchise employed cornermen with some minimal degree of thump, and sigh longingly ... Attempt to move Gio Gonzalez before potential trade partners get wise to his control and home/away splits ... Invest some of that oft-trumpeted organizational intellectual capital into figuring out why the team can't keep its players healthy. Dr. Moneyball, Baseball Doctor seems a natural for NBC's 2012 fall schedule. Odds of achieving Cardinals-like glory in 2012: Meh. Why bother?
09/28/2011	19	21
What went right: Reclamation project Brandon McCarthy out-FIP'd most of the free world ... Josh Willingham did many Josh Willingham-y things, like walk and slug ... The midseason manager switch proved once and for all that clubhouse chemistry and employee satisfaction are less important than, you know, hitting. What went wrong: Given the recent injury issues, it seems entirely possible that the A's medical resources don't extend beyond a single physical therapist, a roll of duct tape and a kiddie pool filled with lukewarm chicken broth ... On the other hand, neither Brett Anderson nor Dallas Braden seem like medical-malpractice-lawsuit kinda guys ... Kurt Suzuki started at DH on three separate occasions. Regular-season epilogue: I'm statutorily required to get in one last Moneyball dig here, but I don't have the energy or the heart. Sorry. Judge players on their OBP or on the steeliness of their gaze. It's all the same to me.
09/20/2011	21	20
So this disorder atop the Giants' organizational hierarchy might give the A's the opening they need to get the hell out of the ballpark-cum-hovel that is The Coliseum. The thinking goes like this: Maybe MLB won't approve the new CEO guy unless the Giants pocket their veto on the A's move to San Jose, which lies within their exclusive geo-territorial turf or something. Or maybe MLB doesn't need to approve the new CEO guy, but he's not militant about keeping the A's out of San Jose. Given how MLB's "study committee" on the Oakland stadium situation hasn't issued its findings more than a year after it was impaneled, you can probably figure on home games at the dump through 2015.
09/13/2011	20	20
What the dickens has happened to Gio Gonzalez in recent weeks? Monday night's start notwithstanding, the dude has stopped throwing strikes again. This wouldn't be much of a tragedy, but for his presence on my playoff-contending roto team.
09/06/2011	20	20
Oooh -- there are only 17 more days until Moneyball opens in theaters nationwide. The biggest questions: Will they use a Steadicam tracking shot for the scene where Billy Beane pushes a helpless grandmother out of the way of a speeding Giambi? And which big-name friend of Brad Pitt will cameo in the role of BABIP? I'm guessing Clooney. It's gotta be Clooney.
08/30/2011	20	22
If Oakland ownership allows Billy Beane to leave and take the Cubs president/executive director of analytics and handsomeness gig, what happens to all the intellectual property Beane created during his Oakland tenure? Who gets the patents for Worcestershire sauce and silly string? How about the inventions he started thinking about while watching the A's reverse-Moneyball the Yankees around the basepaths, to the tune of 13 walks, last Thursday afternoon? We should settle this sooner rather than later.
08/23/2011	22	20
On the list of "things the A's do not need about now," a New York/Boston road trip ranks right near the top, behind only an ad campaign to grab public monies for a new ballpark. ... But don't fear, because El Scrappo himself, former Brewers, Tigers and Astros manager Phil Garner, has been crowned "special adviser" and will travel with the team from time to time. This means that the A's won't be takin' no guff from nobody no how, which translates into myriad cannonball slides into second base and a 160 percent jump in the team's dry-cleaning bills. Nothing bad can possibly come of this.
08/16/2011	20	19
On that cruelly circuitous Seattle/Tampa/Toronto road trip, the A's traveled an absurd 6,544 miles, according to Travelmath.com. Perhaps somebody ought to buy the MLB schedulemeisters an atlas for their birthday ... Not that Rich Harden starts were ever the model of economy, but the first inning of Sunday's A's-Rangers tilt might've been the Richest Hardenest inning of all time: HBP, lineout, single, wild pitch, single, walk, sac fly, foul out. That's three runs in and 38 pitches thrown before his teammates stepped anywhere near the plate. Separately, let's keep him far away from the waiver wire, lest he accidentally ensnare himself and lose a hand.
08/09/2011	19	20
On Saturday, they stole seven bases. On Sunday, they won a one-run game on the road. Interesting!