Currently, the A's are 30-41 which is a horrible record.
They're in last place in their division, trailing the 1st place Astros by 11 games. That's a lot of ground to make up and they can do it, but it will be hard.
Their offense is as potent as last year. They can score runs by playing small ball or by hitting homeruns. The A's offensively are led by Stephen Vogt and Josh Reddick who are putting up all star caliber statistics. Stephen Vogt is in position to head to the festivities in Cincinnati while Reddick needs some more votes because as of now, he's not one of the top 3 outfield vote getters.
The A's starting rotation is also doing extremely well. They're pitching deep into ballgames, keeping the A's in the game, and mostly having quality starts. They're led by Sonny Gray who's 8-3 with an MLB leading 1.95 ERA and is probably under consideration to start the all star game for the AL. The A's five starters are also really young except for Scott Kazmir who's the veteran of the group. Young pitchers tend to have more upside, so that bodes well for the future.
The A's have to get better production from their defense and bullpen if they want any shot of turning things around this summer.
They have committed the most errors in the majors as they've committed an error in most of their games this season. Semien has been really bad at shortstop with a league high 22 mistakes, but the A's hired Ron Washington to help out Semien and Marcus Semien says that Wash is being really helpful.
That's a good sign because Semien is only 24 and he looks capable of one day developing into a solid major league shortstop.
The A's bullpen has also let the team down as the bullpen has posted the worst ERA in the majors.
They have blown so many leads late in the game and I think that the only reliever Melvin trusts is their closer Tyler Clippard as he's been great lately.
I saw a bullpen explosion myself on friday when I was at the A's game. The A's had a 7-4 lead when Sonny Gray was removed and the bullpen gave up that lead. It was brutal and I think that the bullpen coach should be fired if the A's relievers continue to struggle.
The A's relievers have also had a lot of injuries to relievers who were doing well and faces coming and going in the group.
For instance Mujica and Venditte both were doing well when they first joined the bullpen and then they got injured. Mujica has since come back and in his first outing back, he got shelled. Venditte is still on the DL with a shoulder strain.
Because of the A's record and Billy Beane's love of trading free agents to be, every other GM expects Beane to trade Kazmir, Zobrist, and Clippard during or before the trade deadline because their contracts all expire after this season.
Other teams have already begun talking to the A's about these three veterans because all three of them will help a club down the stretch run and in the postseason.
Kazmir-will provide rotation depth. He has been linked to Boston, the Dodgers, the Astros, and other teams who need a proven left handed starter to strengthen their rotation and don't want to give up their best prospects for Cole Hamels who's a tier above Kazmir.
Clippard-will help shore up the back end of whoever's bullpen he gets traded to. He has been linked to Toronto, the Cubs, and other teams with bullpen problems.
Zobrist-will help provide versatility on defense, will be a leader in the clubhouse, and on offense provide a veteran bat who knows how to hit in the majors. He has been linked to the Cubs because he used to play for Joe Maddon with Tampa. He has also been linked to many other clubs.
I think that Beane will wait until the deadline to trade off these players and I hope if he trades, he doesn't trade anyone who won't be a free agent after this year.
If, the A's make a miraculous run to the top of the standings, then that will change what Billy Beane does with this season's A's team.
I hope that the A's can pull off a miracle run like in 2012 and catapult back into contention in their division, but my more reasonable goal for the 2015 A's is to reach 500 and not finish the season with a losing record.
It should be an exciting rest of the season with the all star game and trade deadline coming up in July, then the final 2 months stretch run, and then the postseason.
I'm excited for what will transpire over the rest of the long season and I can't wait for the end of September to see which teams come out on top of their respective divisions. I especially want to see if the Astros can keep first place for the rest of the season and if the Twins can stay in contention because both teams weren't expected to be this good so soon.
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