Same with us. We also refuse to lose. We're just getting started. Playoffs is another gear. We just need to stay healthy and/or get the youngsters ready. Expect the unexpected. Ride all sorts of emotions. Battle-tested.
I wish the Oakland A's were NOT in the playoffs, but they are. I am more confident that the Astros can beat the Red Sox and the Yankees than the A's. They don't lose much. If the Astros win the AL, they will repeat. I don't see anyone in the NL beating them. But, the A's bother me.
Boston is the only team that's a real threat to the Stros in the AL. A's are not better then boston or hou. Toss up bw them and NY. Nice turnaround but they'll flame out just like how Cleveland did a year ago when they were overhyped
Oakland has been playing extremely well. But in a 5 or 7 games series, I don't think they match up against any other playoff team due to the injuries to their starting rotation. Mike Fiers has been their ace over the last month. They could certainly beat NY in a one game, winner take all wild card game. But I think they flame out, even if they win that game.
So going 12-7 against them this season, including winning the last series against them, doesn't give you confidence? And I'll reiterate what @DaChamp and others have said... Mike Fiers is their ace. Mike Fiers.
While I would not give A's good odds against Astros or Red Sox, I wouldn't call it a "flame out". A's problem is that they play in the AL this year. Astros and Red Sox this year are better than the best team in most years. That said, Red Sox and Astros have to play well if they play the A's as the A's aren't a pushover.
yup, their pitching is no where good enough to be a legit threat in the playoffs to beat the champs or a team like boston. They might get lucky in a play in vs NY though just bc its a toss up game
Yeah, not demeaning their team. The A's have been the story of the year. Most prognosticators at the beginning of the season estimated that they would win 75 games or so. They'll likely win 100 games. That's an incredible amount of overachieving, and it hasn't been due to some statistical anomaly of lucky wins in 1 run games, like the Mariners enjoyed for four or five months this season. They have a real good team. But they also have real problems in their starting rotation. Their offense and bullpen has been able to hide a mediocre starting rotation for several months, but I don't believe they can continue to do so against teams with equivalent offenses and much better starting rotations (i.e., Boston, Cleveland, and Houston in the AL). Kansas City was able to parlay a talented team with a mediocre starting rotation into a World Series win, but I think Oakland's current starting rotation is much worse the KC's three years ago.
Oakland's rotation is definitely a weak spot. They have nothing but back of the rotation guys, most of which are way outperforming their advanced numbers. Kind of reminds me of the 2001 Mariners, who really weren't a team of stars (Ichiro being a rookie, and Edgar Martinez being their biggest name going into the season) and had a mediocre starting staff that just outperformed their career norms. Of course they aren't at the level that Mariners team was, but I see similarity.
I think too many people are overlooking Cleveland. I expect Houston to win but I expect that series to be very tight.
This is semantics, but usually there aren't teams close to the A's offense with great rotations. MLB is in a swing in which the talent is concentrated in a few teams especially in the AL. The NL has more parity. I don't think 2015 KC is definitely better than the A's. That KC team did not have to play a team that is the caliber of the Astros, Red Sox, and Yankees this year. Edit: The A's are going to win ~98 games and be the second wild card without needing sequencing luck. The second wild card is usually 88-90 wins. The A's aren't a pushover. They just have really bad luck that there are significantly superior teams this year.
I don't think many are overlooking the Indians. They have the starting pitching to match what we throw out there. Kluber, Bauer, Clevinger, etc can go off at any moment. That offense is scary at times, but when it comes to the bullpen... it's not that great... I mean... maybe a resurgence happens with Miller and Hand actually steps up but that's all they got. Outside of that, the Astros should be the heavy favorites to take the series on sheer depth. We can match anything they bring and some. Gameplan should be simple... play Astros brand baseball. Score early, get the pitch counts high, make them get to the pen early so we expose the weakness. Get a solid 2-3 run lead and let our bullpen do their thing. S*** will happen and games will be close but we just need to enjoy the ride.
While they have a legit run differential (as opposed to the Mariners), and A's ARE 31-13 in 1-run games - much better than the Astros (22-24) or even Mariners (36-21). Their +18 leads MLB and them and the Mariners are the only two teams above +11.
And those Mariners got crushed in the ALCS. Not nearly as much as I was last year. I wasn't sure if we get to the World Series if we played Cleveland in the ALCS. They swept us last year. This year is different. When you look at their season, they have a losing record against the AL East and West. The Central is a horrible division, being the only one with only 1 team over .500. They're just not as scary as they were last season, IMO.
The A's win percentage in games not decided by 1 runs is a lot worse than one would expect based on their run differential.
They do have Kluber, Bauer, & Carrasco and despite their bullpen struggles you can't overlook Andrew Miller. The AL is so good they may be preferred, but there is no easy going this year. That is a touch challenge in a 5 game series. I'm not sure they aren't better off putting Bauer in the pen and starting Clevinger.
Don't get me wrong...they're still very good. It will not be an easy series. I'm just not as concerned about them this year as I was last year. Going into the playoffs playing as ridiculously well as they were and the fact that they just owned us...I was happy to play the Yankees even though that turned out to be a very difficult series. I did not think we would beat Cleveland last year.
