Good Riddance Oakland

[WilltheThrill]

I am so glad that Oakland was eliminated tonight by the Tigers. If I had to hear one more story about how they were the feel-good magical team of destiny with the best fans in baseball I was going to puke. I'm still waiting for anyone to tell me what is so magical about a bunch of scrubs who hit like the career scrubs they were for two months of the season then all decided to start juicing so they could all hit more HR's than they ever had before. Even then they still only managed to get into the playoffs because of the Rangers' ineptitude and total collapse. And lastly, their fan base is a pathetic joke. They can't even draw 30,000 fans during the last week of their magical season, but now suddenly there are 35,000 towel waiving "loyal" fans (half of whom are armed to the teeth and looking for an excuse to commit an assault and the other half just waiting to sue someone).

You want a feel good magical season? Look at the Orioles.

Yeah, Oakland temporarily has bragging rights over us. Hope the loss in the Divisional Series was worth the bacne, shrunken balls, and increase in cancer risk boys.

 

[Windingmywatch]

I'm still waiting for anyone to tell me what is so magical about a bunch of scrubs .

What's so magical? You mean other than whipping TEX who played like a 4th place team the last two weeks? You may not like OAK ... but they won and the TEX spares with their self inflated opinions of themselves not only lost ... but deserved to lose. Bunch of spares.

Maybe some of them will get the message when TEX releases Young next week. No reason to keep him around. He is the biggest scrub of them all.

 

[Voltaire26]

I am so glad that Oakland was eliminated tonight by the Tigers. If I had to hear one more story about how they were the feel-good magical team of destiny with the best fans in baseball I was going to puke. I'm still waiting for anyone to tell me what is so magical about a bunch of scrubs who hit like the career scrubs they were for two months of the season then all decided to start juicing so they could all hit more HR's than they ever had before. Even then they still only managed to get into the playoffs because of the Rangers' ineptitude and total collapse. And lastly, their fan base is a pathetic joke. They can't even draw 30,000 fans during the last week of their magical season, but now suddenly there are 35,000 towel waiving "loyal" fans (half of whom are armed to the teeth and looking for an excuse to commit an assault and the other half just waiting to sue someone).

You want a feel good magical season? Look at the Orioles.

Yeah, Oakland temporarily has bragging rights over us. Hope the loss in the Divisional Series was worth the bacne, shrunken balls, and increase in cancer risk boys.

Fuck the Orioles ... they were lucky all season. The best teams in the AL this year (in order):

1 Texas Rangers
2. Los Angeles Angels
3. Tampa Bay Rays
4. Detroit Tigers
5. New York Yankees

Maybe switch 4 and 5.

I am tired about the over doting given to Oakland and Baltimore.

 

[Taz_Hokie]

Fuck the Orioles ... they were lucky all season. The best teams in the AL this year (in order):

1 Texas Rangers
2. Los Angeles Angels
3. Tampa Bay Rays
4. Detroit Tigers
5. New York Yankees

Maybe switch 4 and 5.

I am tired about the over doting given to Oakland and Baltimore.

How the hell is a team lucky for the whole season?? If we had a good month, but dropped off, I could see a lucky month. But the way we played ALL FUCKING YEAR LONG is not lucky.

 

[ThruTheEyesOfRuby]

Good riddance indeed. I for one felt no affinity with the A's and I'm glad they've been ousted.

 

[WilltheThrill]

What's so magical? You mean other than whipping TEX who played like a 4th place team the last two weeks? You may not like OAK ... but they won and the TEX spares with their self inflated opinions of themselves not only lost ... but deserved to lose. Bunch of spares.

Maybe some of them will get the message when TEX releases Young next week. No reason to keep him around. He is the biggest scrub of them all.

Yes, and you just proved my point for me. What is so magical about whipping a team that was an absolute no-show for the last month?

I never said the Rangers deserved any credit. They did have over-inflated egos. They did play like garbage. They didn't deserve to win. Agree on all points.

But just because the Rangers were miserable doesn't mean Oakland was some feel-great story. I don't really think that a team with a large number of its players on steroids who wins a division because of another more talented team's complete ineptitude and arrogance is some story for the ages.

 

[slugger82685]

Jesus you people are the biggest bunch of whiners I have ever seen....Rangers played like absolute crap the last month of the season, A's stepped up and and took advantage of that. You can't discredit the A's for playing amazing ball for the second half of the season just because you are a bitter fan, that is just being a piss poor sport. So save your whining for the kiddie table because the true fans give credit to the A's.

 

[scotsman1948]

What's so magical? You mean other than whipping TEX who played like a 4th place team the last two weeks? You may not like OAK ... but they won and the TEX spares with their self inflated opinions of themselves not only lost ... but deserved to lose. Bunch of spares.

Maybe some of them will get the message when TEX releases Young next week. No reason to keep him around. He is the biggest scrub of them all.[/QUOTE]



anyone who believes that the Rangers are going to release Young while losing Hamilton, Napoli & some others is crazy. at best, according to Nolan, MY will see a reduced role with the team so let's move on from this

 

[Al Falfa]

Yes, and you just proved my point for me. What is so magical about whipping a team that was an absolute no-show for the last month?

I never said the Rangers deserved any credit. They did have over-inflated egos. They did play like garbage. They didn't deserve to win. Agree on all points.

But just because the Rangers were miserable doesn't mean Oakland was some feel-great story. I don't really think that a team with a large number of its players on steroids who wins a division because of another more talented team's complete ineptitude and arrogance is some story for the ages.

Come on Will, the steroid accusations don't hold water. Give the A's their do. They stepped up and took it when the Rangers and the Angels couldn't.

 

[Al Falfa]

Fuck the Orioles ... they were lucky all season. The best teams in the AL this year (in order):

1 Texas Rangers
2. Los Angeles Angels
3. Tampa Bay Rays
4. Detroit Tigers
5. New York Yankees

Maybe switch 4 and 5.

I am tired about the over doting given to Oakland and Baltimore.

If you watched any of the Orioles playoffs games and still think they have been lucky then you are a ceritified idiot.

 

[Hambombs]

If you watched any of the Orioles playoffs games and still think they have been lucky then you are a ceritified idiot.

Well based on advanced metrics they are lucky

 

[WilltheThrill]

Come on Will, the steroid accusations don't hold water. Give the A's their do. They stepped up and took it when the Rangers and the Angels couldn't.

They don't hold water how? It's just a giant coincidence that Bartolo Colon was busted for steroids and suddenly all of his teammates who were previously .200-hitting spares suddenly started hitting HR's at an unprecedented rate in a spacious pitcher's park? It's just a coincidence that 10 of their hitters bested (and in some cases shattered) their previous per game HR ratios? It's just a coincidence that Brett Anderson, notoriously known for being injury-prone and a slow healer suddenly returns from the DL in top form? Seth Smith is suddenly a power machine in Oakland but he wasn't in Colorado? Josh Reddick went from a career best 8 HR to 31. Chris Carter was on a 40-HR pace. Brandon Moss has been with 4 different teams and never had any kind of real power. Suddenly he's a better hitter than Adrian Gonzalez?

I give good teams their due. The Orioles beat the Rangers. I give them all the credit in the world. Why? Because they have good players. Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, etc... all legit players. Same goes for Detroit and NY.

Mediocre hitters don't magically turn into 30 and 40 HR hitters overnight, especially not several of them on the same team at the same time of the same season.

And as for the A's juicing theory, it isn't one I just came up with on my own. I was suspicious of it the more HR's they hit, but numerous fans, blogs, and even a few writers have posed the same theory.

If you're not even the least bit suspicious then you just having been paying very close attention. Find me one team over the last 20 years who had that many guys, career scrubs for that matter, shatter their all-time HR totals.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Jesus you people are the biggest bunch of whiners I have ever seen....Rangers played like absolute crap the last month of the season, A's stepped up and and took advantage of that. You can't discredit the A's for playing amazing ball for the second half of the season just because you are a bitter fan, that is just being a piss poor sport. So save your whining for the kiddie table because the true fans give credit to the A's.

Orioles knocked us out of the playoffs and I give them all the credit in the world. Kind of blows your whole "piss poor sport" theory out of the water.

And true fans know enough about the mediocrity of the players in Oakland to know that a sudden extreme power surge by almost every last hitter on the team resulting in career-shattering numbers in a pitcher's park is very unnatural.

Or maybe you think no one would raise an eyebrow if suddenly Mike Young, Craig Gentry, Geovany Soto, Leonys Martin, and Luis Martinez all hit 40 or more HR next year.

 

[Windingmywatch]

Orioles knocked us out of the playoffs and I give them all the credit in the world. Kind of blows your whole "piss poor sport" theory out of the water.

And true fans know enough about the mediocrity of the players in Oakland to know that a sudden extreme power surge by almost every last hitter on the team resulting in career-shattering numbers in a pitcher's park is very unnatural.

Or maybe you think no one would raise an eyebrow if suddenly Mike Young, Craig Gentry, Geovany Soto, Leonys Martin, and Luis Martinez all hit 40 or more HR next year.

Getting swept in OAK by OAK pitching ... not their batting ... scoring only 9 runs in 3 games when it mattered is what did TEX in ... not OAK bats.

 

[slugger82685]

They don't hold water how? It's just a giant coincidence that Bartolo Colon was busted for steroids and suddenly all of his teammates who were previously .200-hitting spares suddenly started hitting HR's at an unprecedented rate in a spacious pitcher's park? It's just a coincidence that 10 of their hitters bested (and in some cases shattered) their previous per game HR ratios? It's just a coincidence that Brett Anderson, notoriously known for being injury-prone and a slow healer suddenly returns from the DL in top form? Seth Smith is suddenly a power machine in Oakland but he wasn't in Colorado? Josh Reddick went from a career best 8 HR to 31. Chris Carter was on a 40-HR pace. Brandon Moss has been with 4 different teams and never had any kind of real power. Suddenly he's a better hitter than Adrian Gonzalez?

I give good teams their due. The Orioles beat the Rangers. I give them all the credit in the world. Why? Because they have good players. Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, etc... all legit players. Same goes for Detroit and NY.

Mediocre hitters don't magically turn into 30 and 40 HR hitters overnight, especially not several of them on the same team at the same time of the same season.

And as for the A's juicing theory, it isn't one I just came up with on my own. I was suspicious of it the more HR's they hit, but numerous fans, blogs, and even a few writers have posed the same theory.

If you're not even the least bit suspicious then you just having been paying very close attention. Find me one team over the last 20 years who had that many guys, career scrubs for that matter, shatter their all-time HR totals.

can you please provide stats to back up these claims that you are pulling out of ur arse?....first off, only one person hit even 30 HRs and that was Reddick with 32 which he is more than capable of doing....yes Colon got busted, but he obviously didnt contribute to their surge down the stretch and he only had 10 wins for them during the year....so please tell me how you came about this ridiculous theory...

 

[Al Falfa]

They don't hold water how? It's just a giant coincidence that Bartolo Colon was busted for steroids and suddenly all of his teammates who were previously .200-hitting spares suddenly started hitting HR's at an unprecedented rate in a spacious pitcher's park? It's just a coincidence that 10 of their hitters bested (and in some cases shattered) their previous per game HR ratios? It's just a coincidence that Brett Anderson, notoriously known for being injury-prone and a slow healer suddenly returns from the DL in top form? Seth Smith is suddenly a power machine in Oakland but he wasn't in Colorado? Josh Reddick went from a career best 8 HR to 31. Chris Carter was on a 40-HR pace. Brandon Moss has been with 4 different teams and never had any kind of real power. Suddenly he's a better hitter than Adrian Gonzalez?

I give good teams their due. The Orioles beat the Rangers. I give them all the credit in the world. Why? Because they have good players. Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, etc... all legit players. Same goes for Detroit and NY.

Mediocre hitters don't magically turn into 30 and 40 HR hitters overnight, especially not several of them on the same team at the same time of the same season.

And as for the A's juicing theory, it isn't one I just came up with on my own. I was suspicious of it the more HR's they hit, but numerous fans, blogs, and even a few writers have posed the same theory.

If you're not even the least bit suspicious then you just having been paying very close attention. Find me one team over the last 20 years who had that many guys, career scrubs for that matter, shatter their all-time HR totals.

I wasn't aware that the Enquire covered baseball.
Suspicion is one thing proving it is quite another. How in the world does one player get busted and the rest of the team skate? Doesn't make sense. If Brett Anderson used steroids to come back so fast I wonder why Brandon McCarthy is hurt all the time? They won with pitching and if they did it with steroids then you have to wonder why are they not still playing?
Most everything I read and heard about the A's for the last two and a half months was that they wouldn't hold up to the pressure or that their pitching was to young to sustain them in a pennant race.

 

[Al Falfa]

Well based on advanced metrics they are lucky

Well I guess based on advanced metrics the Rangers were just unlucky.

 

[Voltaire26]

Fuck the Orioles ... they were lucky all season. The best teams in the AL this year (in order):

1 Texas Rangers
2. Los Angeles Angels
3. Tampa Bay Rays
4. Detroit Tigers
5. New York Yankees

Maybe switch 4 and 5.

I am tired about the over doting given to Oakland and Baltimore.

If you watched any of the Orioles playoffs games and still think they have been lucky then you are a ceritified idiot.

I would take any of the five teams I listed over Oakland or Baltimore. Hell, I'd take the top 3 over Detroit. Some teams have lucky years, some not so lucky.

 

[Windingmywatch]

I would take any of the five teams I listed over Oakland or Baltimore. Hell, I'd take the top 3 over Detroit. Some teams have lucky years, some not so lucky.

If you don't make the playoffs your teams' potential means squat. IMO under the new system being in the WC play in is not post season ... or else it wouldn't be called a play in.

 

[WilltheThrill]

can you please provide stats to back up these claims that you are pulling out of ur arse?....first off, only one person hit even 30 HRs and that was Reddick with 32 which he is more than capable of doing....yes Colon got busted, but he obviously didnt contribute to their surge down the stretch and he only had 10 wins for them during the year....so please tell me how you came about this ridiculous theory...

First of all, I already posted the stats you're asking for in a thread with about one week left in the regular season. You know, when the Rangers were still well in control of first place. So your theory about me being a whiner because we lost the division just shows you are way off here. If you had been around for more than 40 posts, you'd know that. In that thread, I listed the 10 A's hitters who were on career HR paces, their previous bests, and the teams with whom they accomplished those career bests. It's right there for you to see. Even if the A's had collapsed and finished out of the playoffs I'd still be saying the same thing.

Secondly, apparently all you were capable of doing was looking at the HR column of the A's page. If you had looked at the whole picture, you would have seen that several of the A's who "only" hit 15-25 HR did so in HALF of a season's worth of at-bats. Hitting 15 HR in 250 at-bats is over a 30-HR pace.

You want more stats? How about this one:

From the All-Star break until the end of the season, no team in all of baseball hit more HR than the Oakland A's. Not the Yankees, not the Rangers, not the Angels... I repeat... nobody hit more HR than Oakland. Stephen Drew, Brandon Moss, Josh Reddick, Derek Norris, Cliff Pennington, Chris Carter, and Coco Crisp hit more HR than any other team. They did so in the 2nd worst hitter's stadium in all of baseball.

Since apparently you're not familiar with just how mediocre or in some cases awful those players are, let me help you out. We're talking career .220 and below hitters. Maybe a few .250 ones mixed in there. And not a single one of them has ever been known as a power hitter. Ever.

Lastly, since apparently reading comprehension eludes you, let me point out that this "theory" is not just my own but widely speculated upon in baseball media circles. I can guarantee you too that more than just a few players have thought it too. And I'm well aware Bartolo Colon did not help them win games down the stretch. You missed the point entirely there. Bartolo Colon is an Oakland Athletic. Bartolo Colon was busted for using steroids this year as an Oakland Athletic while having his best season in ages. Numerous other Oakland Athletics also had career years this season well beyond their norms. See any possible connection there.

Maybe instead of just writing off the notion of Oakland using steroids as whining you should actually keep up with players, their stats, and what they've historically been capable of. Any time a player goes from being a career 10 HR hitter to a 30 or 40 HR player in one season, it raises major red flags. Brady Anderson. Bret Boone. Melky Cabrera. What do they all have in common? Career average hitters, one ridiculous power season, and a bunch of needles.