A’s Win AL West: Baseball!
Source: FanGraphs
13 games down on June 30th. Four games out a week ago. And now, today, division champs. With contributions from guys like Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss, and great pitching by Evan Scribner and Ryan Cook.
Seriously, what else is there to say? Baseball! just about sums it up.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
“Who the hell is that?”
Me, every time I check an A’s box score. Good on them, what a fantastic 2nd half.
Epitomizing “team baseball.” Amazing.
Truly the great thing about baseball.
This is the only day all year they’ve been in first place.
And the only day that really counts.
if the Rangers get eliminated from the playoffs, shall they be coined as going Buffalo Bills ?
downbythebay: The Texas One-Strike-Aways will have turned into the Texas One-Game-Aways.
I don’t know of a baseball team called the Buffalo Bills, but whatever sport that is, I suggest you retroactively say they got all deRanger’d.
What could be better? Beating the Yankees, then WS champs. A team no one thought would scratch out 70 wins. Astros next year? HAH!
Beane
Wow, that is all
I don’t even understand the seeding tiebreakers. If the Yankees win tonight, they have the same record as the A’s. They split their season series 5–5. Wikipedia unhelpfully informs me that the next tiebreaker is “The team with the best overall record in intradivision games.” So, do we compare the A’s’ record against the AL West to the Yankees’ record against the AL East, or is it the A’s’ record against the East compared to the Yankees’ against the West?
I guess it actually doesn’t matter; either way, the A’s are ahead. So people need to quit saying “if the Yankees lose tonight, the A’s will be the #1 seed” in tones of wonderment; the A’s are already the #1 seed.
oh, wait… never the fuck mind.
I have no idea what is going on here
wat
I admire the hell out of the As
Liam Neeson trained Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, and Batman. Furthermore, he is both Zeus and Aslan, technically making him two different flavors of God. He also punches wolves. So why would you kidnap another member of his family?
Choke? I thought you said coke!
I smell a sequel.
Oakland Athletics are the greatest story in sports.
Not Tebow, LeBron, Dwight, Jets, Heat or Yankees.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold Moneyball 2.0!!
1. Take one of the lowest payroll teams in baseball, one that finished 74-88 a year ago.
2. Get rid of next year’s NL wins leader
3. While you’re at it, get rid of one of the top 5 RBI leaders in the AL for the next year as well.
4. Just for kicks, sign Brandon Inge once Detroit dumps him and make him your everyday 3B.
5. Use about 116 rookie pitchers, including one who was a position player in the minors until this year.
6. Remove any remaining offense from the two position players that anyone has still heard of (Suzuki and Barton).
7. Have Jemile Weeks turn into Jemele Hill at the plate until he’s sent down.
8. And, just to make it interesting, only win 26 of your first 61 games.
You forgot import a Cuban.
9. Get extremely lucky.
All teams get lucky. Don’t be an ass.
C’mon now…. there’s teams getting lucky then there’s the Baltimore Orio… oh wait, we’re not talking about them.
I believe only half the teams get lucky, on average.
the one thing about 162 games is, it tends to lessen the luck factor, as all teams have their lucky stretches.
Lucky, please. Their pythagorean W-L is 92-70, and they averaged 0.6 more runs per game than their opponent. You don’t do that over 162 by luck.
Orioles on the other hand…
9. Trade reliever for potential stud position players.
Reddick WAR 4.5 is the best of the Sox or the A’s. You could potentially change 9 to “Pilfer teams desperate to succeed.”
The Sox actually followed the revised number 9 when it shipped players to the Dodgers.
Thanks for posting this for me. I had meant to put it here first but I was too caught up on the excitement of last night’s game when I posted this on ESPN.com first.
YA Booble
Actual, context free text message I sent on July 19th:
“Who the fuck is on the A’s?”
Does this prove that 162 games is actually a small sample size?
Just right in my book.
I thought that was the Orioles
I love this team.
/drinks another
You ready for As-Tigers? I know I am.
Must be asymmetric WARfare, huh.
Where’s the fangraphs article that tells me how they did it?
Let me guess…Mike Trout
You don’t quantify the unquantifiable.
The A’s are pure grit, scrappiness, and heart.
Impossible, Nick Punto is not on the A’s roster last time I checked.
And David Eckstein has been retired for years!
And Jason Kendall blah blah blah…
And Willie Bloomquist doesn’t play for them. He is the undisputed grittiest ball player of them all. You cannot forget about Willie Ballgame!
Who are all these people filling the stands and why did they take so long to do it?
God I hate the A’s.
And the Orioles.
My blood is boiling right now.
You should hate your underperforming Angels… not other teams that are playing well.
Thanks sir, I couldn’t have said it better.
I guess all you flamers have never heard of irony.
Nah, he should hate Mike Scosia. He made sure your best player started in the minors and shipped off your best hitting catcher after you refused to play him. If you had Trout to start the year and had never gotten rid of Napoli, you may not be whinning right now.
Look on the bright side, you have years and years of Vernon Wells to look forward to. That should help keep you merry through the winter, yes?
Amount still owed to Vernon Wells as of April 2012: $75m.
A’s entire payroll as of April 2012: $53m
Or to put it another way:
Angels 2012 payroll: 151M
A’s and O’s combined 2012 payroll: 137m
Amount still owed to Albert Pujols: $225 + M
A’s payroll: $53 M
In all fairness, that $225M is over, what, 9 years?
But Pujols’ average yearly salarly is still nearly half of the entire A’s 2012 salary. Scary.
It’s hilarious how much money your team spent this year.
For nothing, at all.
Trending: “MLB’s Richest Teams Impose Payroll Restrictions to Find “Price-Value Balance'”
I’ve seen this movie before. Really:
Except Lew Wolff is a man and is still going to move the team…..
with the Cuban slugger, the old 3rd baseman with the hurt shoulder, and the old pitcher who cheats
Rangers fan here:
It should have never gotten to this. The fans and media (and from I understand, to some extent the front office) has been all over Wash for being too attatched to his veterans over the course of the year. Michael Young should not have been given the 4 month leash of sub 70 wRC+ in the 5 spot he was given. Craig Gentry should not have been sentenced to platoondom for the entire season, not getting a chance for more playing time no matter HOW WELL he did. Wash never gave the young players a chance. He always just kept the status quo, essesntially ignoring the problems on the team, justifying it with “we’re in first place!”
He coasted through the entire season, preparing his team for October in April and May. And not point during the season did he ever once manage the team with a sense of urgency.
Not to take anything away from Oakland. They played lights out after the all-star break. But if at ANY time Wash had decided to address the problems on the team, the could have- SHOULD HAVE- been avoided.
I noticed that Wash and the Rangers players sounded like there was *no way* they would get swept in this last three-game series.
“We know what we have to do and we’ll do it.”
“They’re playing good ball but we just have to execute.”
The Rangers totally took their position for granted.
I would agree with that assessement. I have been saying most of this season that there has been something “missing” from the Rangers; they didn’t seem the same team as before; like they were being kicked out the door to go play.
Look man, it’s the first time it’s happened.
Wash turned into Dusty Baker this year. That’s what added pressure does to you. Next thing we hear about will be a stroke… especially if they get knocked out in this next game.
Who cares about “ifs”, anyway? If I had a billion dollars, I’d have a billion dollars. You couldn’t take anything away from the A’s if you tried.
Oof. This hurts. It got to the point down the stretch that the only hitter I was confident in was Beltre and the only pitcher I was confident in was Yu…on a team that had six other All-Stars.
At least Michael Young is a leader though…?
This whole season has been game six all over again.
Baseball!
Cameron continues his disdain for Miguel Cabrera and the triple crown.
No mention of the achievement at all.
idjut.
I agree! The perfect time to talk about Miguel Cabrera is in an A’s-Texas game thread. They are terribly related.
I wager the you’re the sort of person that feels the need talk about his bowel movements while at a five course dinner.
Maybe not the best analogy there… after all, bowel movements tend to be a direct consequence of dinner.
Thank God there was no mention, until you spoiled it with your big mouth.
Guys, this is a troll. You can’t win.
hahahahahahaha – even with the year of mike trout, one of the greatest season’s ever, the angiss could not touch this rag tag band of misfits. what does that make mike trout and his super duper season? OVERrated! I mean, good for him, and wow, probably the best individual season I’ve ever seen, but… so… what…
At least Trout won’t have to worry about “postseason performance” pundits for another year.
Just more wins than the Tigers…
No postseason or MVP for Trout.
Also lower average, less HR’s & less RBI’s.
More runs, more important position, elite level defense, elite level baserunning … do we really have to do this again.
Mike Trout was the better player. If Miggy wins it we will simply verify that the BBWA is still completely out of touch with reality.
WAR! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!
>probably the best individual season I’ve ever seen
>OVERrated!
wat
By that logic Cabrera is OVERrated too.
The A’s won more games that the Tigers with Cabrera, the Rangers with Hamilton, the Angels with Trout and Pujols, and they got nobody.
I’ll bet the A’s entire roster combined for less than 100,000 allstar votes.
I think the A’s were like 77-43 with Cespedes, or something of that nature. more games than that, though.
Yeah … your post pretty much makes no sense.
1. The Angels were 9-10 against the A’s. Basically that’s 500 baseball. Hard to suggest that the Angels “couldn’t touch them”.
2. Given that the A’s ended up with the 2nd best record in the AL it would reason that many teams had difficulty against them.
3. How does the A’s winning 94 games make Trout’s season overrated? Not sure you understand the distinction between a team accomplishment and an individual accomplishment.
4. So what? Mike Trout just had one of the greatest seasons of all time. He’s 21. He’ll be playing against your team for years to come. I would say that his season is historic and will have ramifications on baseball for many years.
Congrats to the A’s and the Rangers. The AL West proved to be the best division in baseball. The Angels were a disappointment despite an 89 win season. The M’s were the best cellar team in the game. All in all it was a solid year for the division.
ALW best winning% division by far + MLB worst Houston Astros = worst season in history 2013, enjoy Crane shouldn’t have let them move you.
You realize Miggy hits a lot of doubles so has no need to steal second.
That voids your base stealing argument.
Miggy hit a single or walked over 180 times this season. He only hit 40 doubles. He wasn’t always on 2nd…
Trout ended up on first about 180 times too, he just turned 50 of those into extra base hits by stealing.
Would you rather have 13 more doubles or 50 SBs?
Yes, it was entirely Mike Trout’s fault that his team barely missed the playoffs.
Without him, they would never have been in contention and spared the embarrasment.
Great point, James. Sincerely
Dave cannot help the fact that I am the superior player.
Clown answer bro.
Oakland Athletics = “America’s Team”
Oakland is a terrible place.
Says who?
You?
Nonsense.
I’ve said it numerous times.
The A’s won the division by 1 game. Bartolo Colon contributed 2.4 WAR this year. Your move, Texas Rangers lawyers.
Texas-based SABR-lawyers.
I’d stay uninvolved.
The Rangers got 3 extra games with the Astros while the A’s got 3 extra games with the Giants thanks to natural rivalry. Rangers swept while A’s went 1-2.
And nobody would disagree that beating the Giants is significantly harder than beating the Astros.
Not only that, but I kept the Angels out of the playoffs as well.
But I guess no one here or elsewhere will bother to mention that
As an Oakland A’s fan I can honestly say that tomorrow morning I will swear never to drink again!
Why does it say Cespedes error? It was Josh Hamilton’s error on a ball hit by Cespedes. Don’t your win probability graphs always list the player who made the error, not the player who hit the ball?
The A’s are no 1995 Mariners, but I suppose this comeback is sorta nice.
It’s unfair to punish Miggy for his lack of speed. He’s 6’4″ and 250lbs+. Speed is valuable, but it’s also the one thing you can’t really improve upon as an athlete, and even if he trained with Olympic sprinters in the offseason, the effect would likely be slight.
I suspect it is easier to improve your speed than to improve the number of bottom-of-the-order hitters who reach base in front of you.
See what you’re saying, but no.
Cabrera could probably maintain his power numbers and increase his raw foot speed (not to mention agility on basepaths) by shedding 35-40 of those 250ish lbs. Even a quicker bat too.
But he also just won the Triple Crown and making million$. Why would he give a burrowing screw.