Baseball Musings: The Oakland Offense

May 06, 2008

The Oakland Offense

The Oakland Athletics rank fourth in the American League in runs per game with a 4.74 mark. Their 2-1 win over the Orioles last night, however, both demonstrates the strengths and glaring weakness of this team. They picked up eight hits, four walks, and no extra base hits. So for the game, their batting average was .222, their OBA .300, and their slugging percentage .222. For the season, the line is .253/.339/.362. It's a low hit, low power, high walk offense. They've draw 145 walks, most in the AL, thirteen more than the second place Tigers.

This is the type of offense that's fairly easy to shut down, and you can see it in Garrett Olson's line. He went 6 1/3 innings, allowed four hits and just one walk and the Athletics picked up just one run. It was Johnson who walked three in 1 2/3 innings, issuing one to Frank Thomas in the tenth to put the winning run in scoring position.

Put the ball over the plate, and the Athletics are a mediocre offense. Try to fool them off the plate, and they'll take those pitches and walk you to death. This is exactly the kind of team that loses in the playoffs. They go up against a team that throws strikes, and their high OBA is reduced to their low batting average. Unlike the Athletics teams of the late 1980s, this squad doesn't even have power to fall back on. Simply put, to beat Oakland, throw strikes. They can't hit them.

Posted by David Pinto at 07:58 AM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Oakland lowered its team ERA to 3.12 last night. So they don't have to score much to win. They've put a total of five (5) points on the board in the last two games and won both. Similarly, Toronto (second in the AL with a 3.27 ERA) has scored three runs a game for the last five games and won all five.

Offense in the AL has been awful lately, but I don't expect that to continue. The NL is scoring at a pretty robust clip fairly typical of post-1992 levels. If and when the hitters in the AL snap out of it, I expect Oakland and Toronto will find it tough to keep winning with their rickety offenses.

If, on the other hand, this really is a low-scoring year in the AL for some odd reason, Oakland and Toronto could contend in the regular season and the postseason. In fact, with that pitching, both teams could surprise some people regardless of overall offensive levels.

One caveat: Oakland's hurlers get lots of help from their gigantic-foul-ground park. Toronto's pitchers gets no particular help from their essentially neutral park.

Posted by: Casey Abell at May 6, 2008 08:30 AM

Maybe I was a little harsh on Oakland's offense by describing it as "rickety". They only rank ninth in the league in team OPS, but their ballpark is brutal for hitters. The Oakland park is essentially the AL's answer to PETCO.

Oakland looks to have a pretty average offense when the ballpark is factored in. The A's big scoring earlier this year was the result of unsustainable overperformance with runners in scoring position.

But if you combine average hitting with good pitching, you can win a lot of games. Keep an eye on Oakland.

Toronto really is a bad hitting team, tenth in the league in team OPS in a neutral park. They also have the misfortune of playing in the same divsion with the hated Red Sox.

Posted by: Casey Abell at May 6, 2008 08:45 AM

That's a nice little analysis. I don't imagine their offense will keep scoring at this rate then, because scouts will notice this too - if they haven't already. Their stadium needs less foul ground

Posted by: Stat Pattern at May 6, 2008 10:30 AM

I'd rather have solid pitching than solid hitting if I had to choose one. At least you are still in the game until the end.

Being a Jays fan is like being Rodney Dangerfield... we get no respect.

Posted by: Andrew at May 6, 2008 10:43 AM

If the A's somehow find their way into the playoffs, I will be happy to see their offense shut down by a pitching staff that throws strikes.

Posted by: geb4000 at May 6, 2008 11:25 AM

Hey, I'm not belittling the Jays. As their announcers continually and accurately pointed out last night on Extra Innings, their rotation has done nothing but throw quality starts lately.

That kind of performance is something to build on. No, the Jays offense isn't fearsome, but neither is it the worst in baseball. I can't see Toronto getting past the hated Red Sox with that offense, but they could make a run at the wild card if the rotation holds up.

Oakland might have a real crack at their division because the Angels aren't so dominant. As another poster pointed out, you never give up on teams that can pitch.

Posted by: Casey Abell at May 6, 2008 02:33 PM