Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 111 | Oakland Athletics | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

The Oakland A's got to another wild card game but couldn't advance. Then they didn't do much in the offseason. So do we think the Athletics take a step forward this year? Let's talk about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back to another team player, team profile and projection. Ooh, yeah. Today we are doing your Oakland Athletics. Previously the Kansas City Athletics. Is that correct? Kansas City Athletics. And previously before that? Baltimore Athletics.

Philly. Philadelphia. I knew that. I knew that. Historic. When's the last time they won the world? Series? The last time they won the World Series,

Cheapers, creepers, where'd you get them peepers? 1989. Our birth year. Yeah, I was born. It was right around my birthday. The earthquakes. Oh, yeah, wow. Susan Waldman.

That's amazing story. I'm sure a lot of A's fans don't care about that, but Susan Wallman has a great story from the Earthquake World Series. Look it up. She was the only reporter to stay and report through the earthquake. Don't have to look it up anymore. Bad ass. Yeah.

Oakland A's uniforms. You think they're badass? I like them. I like what they vibe out as. I like some. I dislike others. I appreciate all of them. Yeah.

Because you need different colors. It's not a bad way to put it. Yeah. Like some I think are very ugly. Some I think are very cool. But I appreciate that they're doing something different. That's how we'll start. That's how we'll start.

What about the elephant mascot? You like that? Yeah, I can get into that. Okay. I can get into that. A's fans. if you're listening, I went on Trevor Bowers. I did some stuff with him,

and they asked what ballpark food is the worst you've ever had. Hands down the dollar dogs in Oakland. They shouldn't be legal. I did dollar dogs in Texas one time, and I mean maybe the sickest I've left a baseball stadium. The Oakland ones, like if you have one, only a crazy person would, like, go back for a second. They're like the size of my pinky.

Right. And they're like a shriveled hot dog. Yep. That like just snaps and then it's like all blind. It's disgusting. Yeah. Shouldn't be legal. Been there.

This team is pretty good. I love the ace. And they are the low key team of the offseason that hasn't gotten mentioned too much. Everyone's talking about the Dodgers, how much they got screwed from all the Houston stuff. Talking about the Yankees getting screwed from the Houston stuff. Oakland stuff. been a 97 win team the past two years. And yes, Houston hasn't been found of doing anything guilty in 2019. They were doing stuff. To what level? I'll let your brain imagine and wherever you want

to travel the internet. But the Oakland A should be pissed off. And they have a really good team. The left side of their infield back-to-back years has had an eight-war player. That's incredible. that's an MVP level player. Matt Chapman and Simeon, he's in a contract year this year, one of the most underrated infields in baseball, and a great pitching staff, and there's always young talent. I love the A's. Pitching staff's their weak point, I think.

Really? Well, it's not really like a knock, but their defense is amazing. I think that's their biggest strength, is they have all that extra foul ground, which helps. I'm adding that to their defense. It's like an 11th outfielder. It's like an 11th fielder. the foul ground.

Okay. Because you're going to make outs at home that other teams can't make those outs just by limitations of the ballpark. So that helps them defensively. Then the actual players in the outfield and the infield are special. The players are special. I mean, the outfield, both teams get to play with that when they're in Oakland. Uh, yeah, but yes.

But, I mean, over the course of a season, there... It helps the pitchers. It hurts the hitters. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I like their... lineup a lot too. Okay. I don't think their pitching staff is bad. I just think out of the three, I think it ranks third. I think it goes like defense, offense pitching. Yeah, I don't know. I think I

disagree with you there. I think, I mean, Manaya, he was out all of last year pretty much. He came back for September and he was great. Frankie Montes had an over, you know, kind of overlooked how good his season was. He did have the steroid stuff happens. I mean, a lot of the good players, if you're going to name like the prospects now, like, we don't fully know. We don't even fully know what Frank. Montes is 27. I'm not including him. After him, if you were going to start naming like Puck and I was going to say fires first. And I mean, he's reliable and he's on his own FU tour. But yeah, and I am on the young guys, but I was told I can't go there. So I won't go there. I'm just saying the young guys are, or have a lot of promise.

and hope, but, like, as a staff, who knows? Like, who's their one, too? And compare it to the other teams. Mania and fires. Yeah, compare that to some of the other teams we've done. That's not, like, a top tier one, too. I think Mania can go with a lot of people. I mean, he was impressive last year when he came back,

and this is also, I think this is probably the best bullpen we've done so far. I know we're getting into the good bullpins, but, you know, this team was seventh out of 30, or they were eighth, eighth in starting pitching ERA last year and seventh in relief pitching ERA last year. And I think, yeah, I mean, they're two, the starting pitching and the relief pitching are two top 10 level major league teams. It's a good, it's a good overall rounded team. I'm not saying the pitching's bad. I think it's the weakest of the three assets of this squad.

Like I like the lineup and the defensive ton. The defense is, I think they're one of the best defensive teams in baseball, especially the infield. I mean, Chapman is special. Olson on the corners, they're really good. Luriano got hurt last year. You know, he's one of my favorite players to watch in baseball. Simian's really good, but if you ask Simian,

he's like, well, Chapy takes care of my right side. Yeah. But still, that's how good they are. And he's a good story. I mean, he was a project at shortstop to get where he is now that if he has another good season, I mean, he's going to get the Brinks truck backed up. And yeah, I think it's kind of,

funny, look how far we've come from this Oakland A's team relying on Chris Davis to now he's, hey, if we can get him back to being Mr. 247. He said he's getting back there. And that's his call, kind of. That this lineup can do a lot. And yeah, I think it gets a little thinned out at the end. You know, I'm not sure what I can expect from Robbie Grossman. I'm not sure, you know, Sean Murphy did some nice stuff as a catcher last year.

I do like him. but let's see it over a full season. And then second base is kind of the question. Franklin Barreto is a big prospect for them. Right now, Fangraps has Tony Kemp in there. Can Jorge Mateo step up? He's former Yankees farmhand. Sheldon Noisy, we saw him come up last year.

But, I mean, the meat of this lineup, however they can get Simeon, Chapman, and Olson in a row with the potential for Luriano. In Davis. A lot of people like, yeah, and Chris Davis, if he can turn around, and Mark Kana had a low-key nice year last year. But I mean... Kana. Kana.

I mean, Chapman, Simeon, and Olson can be special. Yeah. On both sides, dude, they're good. Yeah. And I think they are completely overlooked by everyone. Are they the most overlooked good team in baseball? Probably. I mean, they're raised West.

They are. And I think we're doing the raise next. Their raise was. Oh, spoiler. Spoiler. Damn. First spoiler on this. Yeah, and I don't know, man.

Again, I'm going to go back to the pitching here because Liam Hendrix last year was one of the most fun pitchers to watch in baseball last year. And he kind of starts the back end of that bullpen and they could go Petit, Soria, Deekman, Trevino. I think Wendlken had a good year. And they literally turn into Ray's West. Basically anyone that comes into the game for them, including John Boy Media favorite, Birch Smith as the long reliever listed right now. Not sure if he breaks camp, but he is maybe our favorite player in baseball. We have a long history of Birch Smith.

I'm rooting for him to grow out his hair again and to just be the Birch Smith we know and love. And I think the elephant in the room is they have two of the best left-handed pitching prospects in baseball. Puck and Jesus Lazzardo. Lazzardo coming up this year. And, hey, I understand it with young guys in baseball. I think Lazzardo's special. Puck is a scary dude. We saw him out of the bullpen briefly last year. I'm interested to see what he likes.

Looks like as a starting pitcher, he got nicked up in spring training too. But I think they are impact pieces with the pitching as well. I don't think Puck is like breaking camp with the team. He's hurt right now. He had a mild shoulder strain. So we'll see what that program looks from. But, I mean, he was number six pick in the draft in 2016. He came up and they used him in the playoffs. Yeah.

Or I forget if they used them in the playoffs. But he was up for that. So I don't know. Them, those two and Sean Murphy, the catcher, has mentioned, are, you know, top 100 prospects. Murphy, you know, played really well last year. If he's good and Chris Davis, if they can stretch that lineup a little bit,

this is a really good team. They won 97 games. Oh, that's a bummer for puck, dude. He had Tommy John the year before. Came back, made 10 appearances out of the bullpen, looked good, who he's supposed to look like, and then gets hurt now and is getting pushed back further again. I don't think this is a big injury, but just still,

it's a bummer for him. Yeah. And they, I mean, they do, they lose some innings from last year. They lose Roark, Brett Anderson, Homer Bailey, who came over in the trade, training, training, trinen, who was supposed to be good for them,

but he was bad last year. So I will say that. I mean, they lose some innings, and you're hoping that, you know, Montas doesn't get suspended, and that, you know, Mania is back. And he's the same dude, because this is a guy who threw, like, 101 out of the bullpen,

Frankie, and then, like, 98 as a starter. But he was on steroids. Right, right, drugging. So hopefully you're saying. You get the full year of Mania, you hope some of those young guys pan out. And yeah, I don't know. I just really like this Oakland team.

And again, with everything that's going on in Houston, you know, the athletics won 97 games with a 107 winning team in their division. Houston ain't winning 107 again. They lost Garrett Cole, Verlanders nicked up. And guess what? They're getting booed 162 games this year. They're going to be pretty miserable.

81. You think they're getting booed at home? Yes, I think so. I think people are literally planning trips to go to Houston. Just to boo them. There's going to be fights. You think someone's going to die in Houston, like a bad fight? I hope not.

I hope not. I'm going to say no. There will be a lot of fights. But, yeah, man. All things are going to be a mess? Are the Angels going to be better? Yes. Are the Mariners going to be better?

No. Could the Rangers be better? Maybe. We're interested to see. they're one of our bigger coin flip teams this year. But the one team ahead of the athletic should be coming down to earth at least a little bit. And I don't know, man. Like I said, this A's team should be pissed.

They have the meat in the lineup if they can stretch it out. I like their pitching. Do you think it's better than their offense? They're pitching? Yeah. A little bit, yeah. I think the field is a factor there. Like I think if they played in Texas, I think they're hitting would be their strength.

So we're kind of on the same. similar wavelength there a little bit. But they just have dudes that gets out. Like it's a little bit of raise. It's a little bit of Brewers. Like, when it comes playoff times, they're going to let dudes go until they go, and then they're pulling them.

They're not going to rely on, you know, Verlander Grinky Cole like Houston did last year. Who was the pitcher? Chad Pinder. That had like a curly mustache and high socks. Mengden. He's hurt. He's hurt? But I think he had a,

arthroscopic elbow surgery on 210, so it doesn't sound great. He was fun to watch last year. And the other guys, I mentioned Chad Pinder, jokingly about him pitching, but that's the other thing with these A's, man. I mean, they roll deep. Stephen Piscotti's hurt. He's a guy that you could see him in their lineup. He's an important part of the team.

And they just have guys that step in, and I don't want to be rude to Chad Pinder. Be rude. When you hear Chad Pinder's name, I wouldn't say there's a fear factor, but the dude comes in and does his job, which I don't think you can say about a lot of guys. I like Menea, if we're saying that right. Manaya, Manaya? You say, man.

Dude, fires, like, stats are good. Yeah, man. There's better than you would think when you look at them. All right. I'm judging this team as a contender team. Like, I'm not judging them against the Orioles or the Royals or the Tigers. Sure. So when I talk about the rotation, I'm not saying it's a, it's a,

Upper echelon rotation or a team. But when you compare it to the other playoff teams, I think suddenly it becomes not a playoff rotation. Like, Manaya, if he gets twirling, like if he has a great season, like he can, then yeah, he's a good guy in the playoffs. Like, he's going to be their one, though. Right.

And then you have fires, and they're both good. And I don't like the strategy of bullpen in the playoffs. I actually don't think it helps that much. So that's where I'm judging them again. those top tier teams. And maybe that's the factor for you right now because I mean, you know, if you look at them and more so a brewers or Ray's light, although the race do have guys that could step up starting pitching wise. And the A's do too. You know, like fires, like you said, his numbers are better than you thought. You know, you could go into a

playoff series potentially with Mania, Montes, and fires and feel pretty good about it. Do you know, maybe Lazzardo steps up? Manaya, Baseball Savant, and Chris Bassett had a nice year last year. Yeah, he did. Sub 4 ERA. Manaya, dude,

he had a good season in 2018. Yeah. 27 starts, 359 ERA, 116 ERA plus, 426 FIPP, but baseball savant does not like like Manaya. I didn't realize that.

He doesn't light up any of the analytic peripherals. Like fastball velocity is real down. Fastball spin down. Exit velocity. Everything is bad. Look at that chart. I think you and I had a mania off last year. Yeah.

That's the worst I've ever pulled up from a pitcher. And he's gotten results. He's just a thrower, man. It gets people out. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, good luck. I witnessed him no hit the Red Sox in person, so I'll fan forever.

Boom. It was a pretty weird no hitter because there's a hit early on. in the game that they just didn't, the guy said wasn't a hit. So you don't think, so let's, let's do this American League. Yeah. A's, who's got a chance in the American League? A's, Houston, Twins, Ray's. Maybe another team from the Central sneaks up, Ray's, Yankees.

Yeah. You don't think this team can go toe to dough for five-game, seven-game series? Not a seven-game series. Not a seven-game? Okay. I don't think so. Okay. I mean, the Yankees tried to do it last year. The players themselves said, like,

you need two starting pitchers to go deep. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I still have too much of, like, the Red Sox mold in my head that, like, the Red Sox got to the point. But they use starter pitchers as relievers, not relievers. Right, and I think the A's could use that. I mean, you could go to a Lizardo for three innings. You could go to Montes for three innings, like you said.

But their relievers are better than their starters. Like, you, like, the Red Sox. starters were better than their relievers. That's why that worked. When you have relievers that are better than your starters like the Yankees last year, that's when it doesn't work. Right, but this could also be thrown off by the Houston effect. I mean, what would we be saying if potentially the Yankees could have beaten Houston in 2017? Like, we're playing by new rules that we don't know if those rules are perfect yet. Like, I think the A's could put together a nice playoff series between fires, Montes, um, Lise, um, Lise.

Maniah, Liam Hendricks on the back end. Petit is still doing it. Like, I think they still have the bodies that they have enough arms all around. Like, the Yankees plan last year was clearly, like, get to their four dudes in the bullpen and go six, seven, eight, nine. Like, I don't think the A's need that plan or have that. Okay, then can I say it's similar to the Phillies, where if they lose fires or Mania or one of those guys, both those guys aren't great, then they might be in trouble? I think a little bit, but I think a little bit. Especially come playoffs. But it's the A's.

Like, it's kind of what the A's do. Like, they find a way. They find guys that get out. I mean, we just both looked at Chris Bassett stats and we're like, holy smokes. The Yanks would kill for that guy. I wonder if his peripherals are bad because Mike fires another dude. He has, the only plus thing he have is a curve spin.

Yeah. It's weird. Yeah. I mean, I look at these baseball-sabon things a lot, and I've just never seen a good, starting pitcher have such bad things as Manaya did. Kind of blown me away. And I know that he's talented and gets good results.

Oakland does it a little differently, baby. Yeah, Bassett's different too. Yeah. Man. You know what's the best thing to have as an Oakland pitcher? What's that? The barrel. If you can be a pitcher that doesn't run into barrels,

especially in the Coliseum with all that foul territory, that's like living, like fuck Kay's if you're in Oakland pitcher. If you're the Oakland analytics department, don't go get a lot of a pitcher strikes everyone out. Pitch to con. Can afford them. And anyway, they did with Brett Anderson last year. They can afford them.

The owner's just cheap. Brett Anderson had 176 innings pitched last year, 90 strikeouts. Yeah, who cares? Just let them pop up and foul out. Yeah. Got Matt Chapman over there, All-World defense, Luriano and Center. Yeah, you got all the foul ground and great defense,

so just pitch to contact if you're an Oakland pitcher. I'm the Oakland A's pitching coach now. You're the Oakland A's pitching coach now. It's official. Damn. Yeah. If I'm an A's fan and you have a pitcher that nibbles at the zone and refuses to throw strikes, especially at home, that would be so frustrating. Yeah. Dude, just toss it up there.

Do you have a chance, man. Bass it. Is there a world? Yes. Okay. Check. Next question. We live in a world. Is there a world where the Oakland A's can win the ALE West?

Yeah, sure. Okay. Sure. I think it's going to be fun. I think that's going to be a fun division. Okay. I think the first half of the division may lead to a lot of hot takes. Like the Rangers may go crazy for a little bit.

Okay. And the Angels. Like, what if we get to All-Star Break and the Angels and Rangers our head? Like, barely. Or even with the A's in Houston. Yeah. I think that's slight, but a slight possibility by All-Star Break. And we're like, oh, man, this is going to be crazy.

And then it figures itself out. then Houston and the A's are at the end. That would be fun. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think between Texas and the HALOs, I think one of those teams sorts each other out, however that works. Haney getting the opening day start for the Halos, by the way.

Why? Because Otani's broken and they don't have pitching staff. Otani can't, is he, oh, Otani, oh, yeah, Otani's not ready yet. Yeah. So he had a 491. last year. Anyways, in Texas is the coin flip team. We talked about a bunch of TPPs before. I don't know, man. I think if you're Oakland, like, Oakland is going to become the people's team this year.

As long as they stay within striking distance of Houston, I mean, the country is going to be around the Oakland A's. Oh, they can become America's darling. Like baseball is lying. I think I just realized that. I think they're going to. All right. What are you rooting for? you rooting for more. Okay. The A's to win the division. Okay. In the last series of the season, it comes down to A's Houston.

And the A's win it, which gives them the division. Sure. Whenever that last series is, they play each other. Okay. And it's dramatic to the end. Dramatic to the end. Or the A's go like 15 and 3 against Houston over the course of the season. It's not even close.

But they don't win the division? No, they win the division, but it's not even close. Do you want to lead Houston on and then the A's get their revenge? Or do you want them to just fucking smoke them all season? I'll go. I like the drama at the end. Who doesn't? I mean, Oakland, A, if it's in Oakland, I mean, that stadium has been rock in the past few years.

That's a lot of fun. But I also want the Astros to just be humbled. Yeah, I mean, either way, it's a win-win in that situation. But, yeah, haven't given Mark Cannes enough love. four and a half war last year. Good for you, dude. Partly because I never know if it's Kana or Kana. Yeah. So I just avoid talking about him. That's kind of on him, right?

Let's see. Kana. It says Kana on baseball reference. Bad news. Okay. They don't, the Astros and the A's don't play each other at all in September. You want to feel your pecker move? Yo, what the hell? They don't play each other at all in August either.

Guess Kana's OPEC? PS last year. 8.51. 913. Yeah. He was good. He was good. I remember, like, talking about that.

Yeah. The last time the Astros and the A's play each other is in July. That's it? That's the last series against each other. None in August or September? Yeah. Unless I'm dumb, which I am. Which there is a chance of at this point.

No. I mean, August I've checked twice. None. So they have to play each other. They only have two series after the break. That means they have like six series before the break. They have two in July, one in June, four games set in May, and then two series in April.

Front-loaded. Yeah, so I guess 15 and 3 then. Yeah. Actually, that's like, if we think that it's coming down, If we think, if you're an A's fan, and you think that you're, you guys have a shot, and you should to beat the Astros and win the division, they got to do a lot of work early against the Astros. Yeah.

I mean, you can't like, I mean, March, you have a series against the Astros in March, and then a series in. Well, it's kind of win-win, right? April. I mean, I'm just saying you can't be like, you do your, you can't have a bad April and May. I think you can. then you spin it and say, well, we got all our Astros games out of the way. You got to beat them, though.

Time to go. I think it's going to come down to the season series. So whoever wins the season series wins the West between the A's and Houston. Wow. I think that's kind of how it usually goes if you have two good teams going against each other. Whoa. So you got to get to work right away. That's a weird schedule.

Yeah, that's tough. It left out a lot of the fun. Yeah, in September, Houston. Houston plays, they finish with, well, I'll go in reverse order. Braves, Yankees, Orioles, two games with the Angels. Yeah, that's, Houston September is good for them. We'll talk about that on the Houston TPP. What's the over-under for Anaheim, are we there?

Yes, but do you have the TPP Google.com? I do have the TPP Google.com. and the Oakland A's are, I have 91.5. A lot of games. 91 and a half? A lot of games. That seems low to me. And now it's at 89 on this on oddchark.com, because those are a little older.

This happens every year, man. I'm going to go over on that. I'm over too. I mean, you just said Haney's the opening day pitcher for the eight angels. Oakland's won 97 games the past two years. They need to take care of the Astros. If I have a super hot take, I'm boiling down that division to that series. I've already said it.

Yeah. It's a hot take. It's a little hot. 10-9 Oakland and they win the division. Yeah. All right. And it all happens early. All happens early.

Might not matter at all. So this overrunners is an 89 and a half and you have it for 91. Yeah. I'm taking the over and bold. I'm still over. Yeah. It's an Oakland and Ray's effect that. You know, maybe on paper you don't see the star power or whatever it is.

But in Oakland, you should see the star power. I mean, Chapman, Olson. I haven't talked about Olson. Let me go on a little Olson rant. A, gorgeous. Just one of the best-looking guys in baseball. He hit 36 homers in 127 games last year. Olson's a monster.

I love these guys. Matt Olson, best-looking guy in baseball? I just think he's attractive. Like he's not trying to be attractive, but he's attractive. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I don't know. I mean... His baseball reference pick ain't helping him out.

Yeah. I'm not seeing it. Not ugly. Not ugly. I'm seeing... When you see him come to hit, like, it's all there. I mean, that one picture we posted of Dansby Swanson interviewing with us. Like, that's a pretty boy in my mind.

No, see, you were looking at me, not Dansby in that picture. I'll show you that picture. You're not even in the picture. It's Dansby and Max Reed. Oh. That one. Yeah, no, again. Yeah.

I mean, whatever. But, yeah, over, free money. Oh, yeah, easy over. Do we have a trivia on there? Fun fact? Fun fact, trivia for the way out with Mike Fires is the deep throat of Major League Baseball. So. What is there?

Oh, the deep throat. That's the, uh... You got it. Politics. Politics and politics. I can't believe you just brought politics into the show. You told me to read the fun fact. I would have, I would have audible to move on the line.

No, no, no, no. I can't believe it. The one time you read the fun fact. Inaudible. You go political on us. You got the takeout music? Yep. Nice.

Nice. See you later, Oakland. You got a good team. Your stadium sucks and your owner's a cheap dick. See you. Bye.