Elephant Rumblings: What a difference a few weeks can make!

Jacob Wilson celebrates his homer by wearing the team elephants mask. | Getty Images The A’s are off today as they travel to Texas to finish off a 6-game road trip. The Rangers lost to the Pirates today, so despite the A’s loss to the Mariners, our Athletics start the Texas series in first place by

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What is the story about?

The A’s are off today as they travel to Texas to finish off a 6-game road trip. The Rangers lost to the Pirates today, so despite the A’s loss to the Mariners, our Athletics start the Texas series in first place by a half game over the Rangers.

It’s way too early to get excited about the standings. I’d be saying the same thing if we were in last place in the American League West Division with the same nonchalance. I may even say the same thing on September 1, albeit the A’s in first, third or fifth.

But what I think is significant is how the team is trending overall. It was not too long ago (April 2) that I griped about how that day’s starting lineup had a horribly anemic batting average. Here’s the quote:

“In today’s lineup 9 of 11 batters finished at or below the “Mendoza Line”, and if we add Nick Kurtz in from yesterday’s lineup it would be 10 of 12. In fact, the A’s rank 30^th out of 30 teams in batting average with a pathetic team batting average of .177.”

In just about three weeks that has changed. The team batting average has gone from .177 to .240. Which moves them from dead last in the MLB to #14 overall. On that same date they were last in OPS and now they are ranked fifteenth. I think I speak for many of us in A’s Nation when I say this is more of what we expected this season, and we expect these rankings to climb. We are also ranked thirteenth in team home runs. So, the hitting has come around.

Let’s peek at our pitching. We are currently ranked twenty-third in the majors with a 4.69 team ERA. We are tied for seventh in fewest home runs allowed with nine. And we are tied for twenty third for highest batting average allowed with .251. So, our pitching needs work. Sutter Health Park isn’t helping our pitching stats and probably is helping our batting to improve.

Let’s get all of our starters healthy. Let’s keep trending in the right direction. And let’s keep winning ball games!