Sorry, just realized that was a dumb question. But it would be impressive if you had a JT Snow avatar. Maybe on a throwback day.
MLB: 2014 Oakland A's
- Thread starter The_Architect
- Start date
Haha! That's ok. I DO have a JT Snow jersey, though. He was one of my favorite Giants from the late 90s-early 2000s.
Oakland now has a run differential of +145.
Going back to at least 2002, there hasn't been another team with that high of a run differential before the All-Star break. The next closest was St. Louis last year with +126.
Going back to at least 2002, there hasn't been another team with that high of a run differential before the All-Star break. The next closest was St. Louis last year with +126.
Just saw this from SFGate.com - the Raiders have been having discussions about tearing down the Coliseum next year, while the A's are trying to finalize their ten year lease contract to stay at the Coliseum.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matie...lks-to-tear-down-Coliseum-despite-5607825.php
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matie...lks-to-tear-down-Coliseum-despite-5607825.php
As I figured, the A's took 3 of 4 in the Bay Bridge series - both games in Oaktown and splitting in SF. The one Giants win showed what the Giants had been able to do up until the first week of June (which was look like a dominating club). The other three games showed what they've looked like since - a crappy team that scored 2 total runs in those three losses.
Oakland is just a beast this year. I really hope they hold off the Angels, claim the division and the best final record in MLB, and make it past Detroit, should they meet up in the postseason again. This team is just damned fun to watch. It's too bad most of their games are buried in late-night television (9:15 p.m. CDT starts for west coast games), or more people could see how much fun these guys are.
That's an interesting article. The stadium is a toilet bowl yet they owe 180 million on it. Still I'm curious why the A's aren't more interested in building a new baseball stadium? By all accounts where they play now is pretty lousy. Zero interest in the current ownership which is interesting.
They are interested - in San Jose. The problem is they turned the San Jose territory over to the Giants a few decades back when the Giants were struggling financially as a favor, now the Giants won't let them move there.
Which is completely stupid. A's fans in the South Bay will remain A's fans. Giants fans will remain Giants fans. And baseball fans will be happy. I honestly don't get why the Giants care that much about refusing to give up that "territory." It ultimately won't affect them, imo.
It's too bad the A's cannot find private funding to get a dedicated ballpark for the team remain in Oakland. It took the Giants a decade (and nearly losing the team to Tampa) to figure out how to make it happen, but once they did, they wound up with a gem of a facility. There has to be a workable solution, but no one has figured it out (yet).
I agree - the A's should be allowed to move to San Jose. The money and fan support is clearly there, and while the fan support is there in Oakland as well, either the money isn't (which is a real possibility because Oakland) or nobody's willing to spend it.
Baseball territory rights is one of the dumbest things in sports. It's preventing the A's from moving out of a bad situation into a good one, it nearly prevented the Nationals from moving to Washington (because of Baltimore), and it nearly cost the Quad Cities its minor league team when an ownership transfer was going bad because Clinton's and the Quad Cities' territories overlap.
I would hate to see the A's leave the Bay Area, but I am not sure these people get that the franchise will leave, eventually, if something doesn't change. Some city that would love an MLB team will build a stadium and the A's will be gone. I don't think there are many cities that could honestly support a pro baseball team long-term. Ideally, you'd want a metro area of at least a couple million people in order to try and fill a 40,000 seat stadium over a span of 81 games. There are some growing markets that are closing in on that, and some that support very well what they have already (I'm thinking Nashville, specifically). But these markets are few and far between.
In the Bay Area, you have nearly 8 million people, many of which would travel a decent distance to see their team play in person. Once BART gets extended to San Jose (under construction now), it would be relatively easy to get Oakland area fans to a new stadium down there. While "San Jose A's" doesn't exactly have the same ring, it would be better than leaving the Bay Area altogether. Oakland is already losing the Warriors in a few years, they don't need to lose another source of pride.
Already itchy for games to resume after Thursday. Oakland gets to host Baltimore, then Houston, before traveling to Texas and Houston to finish out July. August beings with a home stand against Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and Minnesota, before hitting to road to face KC and Atlanta. I'm liking that schedule. Hopefully they can put some distance between them and the Angels.
Should be a good second half. I heard Buster Olney note that the A's have the easiest second half schedule by current win percentage in the league, proped up by a bunch of games vs. Texas and Houston. I am curious if Okland can make one more move for a 2nd or SS to shore up their only sub average position? Not that Beane really needs to due to them being deep everywhere else, it is really their only current need after picking up Shark and Hammel. The race in the second have between the Angels an A's will be fun.
Especially with the Mariners playing the dark horse in that division. One hot streak and it's a three-way race.
I agree, the Mariners just need to find some more offense somewhere (trade, minors) obviously they are loaded pitching wise. Right now I expect three AL West teams to make the Playoffs, which would be the case if the season ended today. Including the NL, the West Division's is where the best base ball is being played this year.
The A's had a brilliant walk-off win last night at home against the O's. Josh Donaldson smacked a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 9th to erase a 4-2 deficit. Good stuff! Video in the links:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/inde...oak#gid=2014_07_18_balmlb_oakmlb_1&mode=video
http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=340718111
#GREENCOLLAR
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/inde...oak#gid=2014_07_18_balmlb_oakmlb_1&mode=video
http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=340718111
#GREENCOLLAR
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Looks like all sides have agreed on the 10-year lease for the A's to stay in the Coliseum. There were some ruffled feathers last week after the Oakland city council made some (modest) changes. It seems that has been worked out. There are still plenty of other things that can happen, but as of now, it at least buys the A's some time to figure out what to do (or try to do) next.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-A-s-lease-settled-Lew-Wolff-accepts-most-5638870.php
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-A-s-lease-settled-Lew-Wolff-accepts-most-5638870.php
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Almost feel bad for the A's. Horrible stadium situation. Even with renovations it will just be polishing a turd.
The crazy MLB rules regarding a team's market area is killing Oakland. They can't get into San Jose and would need the approval from another team to relocate (or multiple teams in an area like Portland) .
Seems like a well run organization. To field competitive teams with smoke, mirrors and duct tape is quite amazing.
The A's DFA'd Jim Johnson this morning. The last straw was Johnson giving up 4 runs on four hits (with zero outs) in the 8th inning that made what was a large 9-2 lead into what ended up as a 9-7 final. Johnson had racked up 101 saves with Baltimore over the two previous years, but stunk from the moment he set foot in Oakland, losing his closer spot two weeks into the regular season.
Oakland had another big scoring game again today, with a 13-1 win over Houston that included a grand slam by Brandon Moss. The A's are now 63-38 on the season. They head to Arlington, then Houston, for three games in each city beginning Friday.
Oakland had another big scoring game again today, with a 13-1 win over Houston that included a grand slam by Brandon Moss. The A's are now 63-38 on the season. They head to Arlington, then Houston, for three games in each city beginning Friday.
Moss is such a stud. That was his 3rd slammy of the season IIRC. I hope Cespedes can come back 100% from the thumb injury. Samardzija has got to be loving the run support.
Tigers beat the Angels too. It'd be nice if they could get them started on a little losing streak.
