A Month-Long Swoon That Began After June

Hello again A’s fans, it is Jordan here. Times certainly are tough for our Oakland Athletics right now. They have gone into a complete tailspin since they dropped the last game of the series in Oakland against the American League leading Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who seem poised to challenge for another World Series title. The A’s have dropped 21 of their last 24 games, and are quite frankly getting tougher and tougher to watch. It is tough to take some positives out of this almost month-long struggle, but we as fans must at least try, right?

Let us start from the roster side of things, think of this as a blog entry version of our side session. The Big Hurt Frank Thomas has been activated and is back in the cleanup spot, Wes Bankston and Brooks Conrad had a bit of a shot at the Big Show, and did not really impress, and A’s fans got to witness yet another young piece of our organization, Gio Gonzalez (another piece from the Dan Haren trade. He made his debut on this past Wednesday afternoon in Toronto, a game in which the A’s fell 5-1, suffering yet another sweep, this time at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays and Gonzalez starts tonight against Tampa Bay, and Eric “Made of Glass” Chavez has been shut down for the season with shoulder surgery. With Big Frank back in the fold, A’s fans at least have some at-bats to really look forward to watching in a game, Frank brings some much needed pop to a soft-hitting lineup. Frank is old, but still can hit when he gets his pitch, so hopefully he can help rejuvenate this team and help them get some more wins. With Gio Gonzalez aboard, he joins Carlos Gonzalez (no relation), Dana Eveland, and Greg Smith up on the big club as members from the Arizona trade in this offseason. The other two members of the system that the A’s acquired, Chris Carter (not the wide receiver) and Aaron Cunningham are playing pretty well in AA, with Carter crushing the ball from the power side of things, but needs to pick up his average if he wants to be a part of the Big League club in the next few years. Cunningham has played well, hitting for a nice average, and producing runs fairly consistently. Dan Meyer (pictured) has also made a move up into the rotation. I see the Eric Chavez injury and season ending surgery hopefully being a point of the organization looking at life without Chavy. This in my opinion should be the end of the Chavez era in Oakland, and hope that Billy Beane feels the same way. I see this as a positive if it goes down the way I hope it does, and all of these things that I have mentioned are positives in my mind.

When the team is not winning, fans begin to lose interest, and only the hardcore A’s fans can stomach watching them play. I do still urge the fans in the Bay Area to continue to support the team, and roll with the punches right now. I hope everyone understands that the plan all along for 2008 was to be a rebuilding year, and we are seeing the growing pains right now. The team overachieved the entire first half of the season and gave fans hope. I still believe that the hope should be there, just hope for the future. I have said all along that I believed this team would be a third or fourth place team in ’08, and was very surprised by their solid start. This baseball season though, as we all well know, is a marathon, and teams must be consistent for a span of six months (162 games) to earn the right to fight for a championship. The A’s do not yet have the horses to do so as of right now. I did say that after the non-waiver trade deadline, I wanted the A’s to have made more moves, perhaps moving Bobby Crosby, Huston Street, or Eric Chavez (which was near impossible), in order to build for the future. A name that was moved at the deadline that I coveted from the Los Angeles Dodgers system was Andy Laroche, who was traded to Pittsburgh in the Manny Ramirez three-way blockbuster deal. The Dodgers had gone and picked up Casey Blake to play third for them on their run towards a divisional title battle with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and they had the emergence of another third base prospect, Blake DeWitt, who right now, they see as their third baseman of their future, thus making Laroche expendable. It was rumored that Los Angeles was interested somewhat in Bobby Crosby and heard rumors of their mixed interest in Huston Street. Shoulda, woulda, coulda though, as my friend Charles would say are your three best friends, and it didn’t happen so it doesn’t really matter. I do love the Joe Blanton deal that went down thogh, and am excited to see the prospects we received in the next few years. With Chavez possibly moving elsewhere (fingers crossed) the A’s need to move forward with a plan for the left side of the infield in the future, especially at third. I don’t really see Crosby sticking around either.

I am a very frustrated fan, as no one likes to watch their team consistently lose, but keep the faith everyone, this team is set up for a good future as long as a few more good moves are made. If you would like to weigh in on any of my opinions or thoughts, we would love to hear them, so feel free to post your comments under this entry, to email us at hosts@athleticscast.com or call us at 415-691-6185 and leave a voicemail message that will be played on our next show. I am coming back from vacation in the next few days, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for our next episode.

That’s how I see it…Let’s Go Oakland!