Some items from Oakland…
- Khris Davis has been hampered by a left hip contusion, though manager Bob Melvin told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle and other reporters that the team hopes to have Davis back in the lineup for Friday’s game. Davis suffered the injury crashing into the wall to make a catch in foul territory on Sunday, which necessitated an early removal from the game. He attempted to return on Wednesday, though was removed in the fifth inning once his hip again caused discomfort. While this abbreviated appearance means an IL stint couldn’t be backdated three more days, it doesn’t yet appear as though the problem is serious enough for Davis to miss much more time.
- Mark Canha is slated to begin a minor league rehab assignment on Friday and is expected to be activated from the injured list next week. (MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos was among those who reported the news.) A sprained right wrist sidelined Canha on April 29, though he’ll likely end up missing only slightly beyond the minimum 10 days. Canha was off to a solid start prior to the injury, hitting .200/.377/.375 over his first 53 plate appearances of the season. As Gallegos notes, Canha’s return could mean the end for Kendrys Morales on the Oakland roster, as Davis’ health issues may have given Morales only a brief respite now that Matt Olson is back from the IL.
- Pitching is the main focus of Slusser’s latest fan mailbag piece in the Chronicle, as the A’s continue to deal with uncertainty in both their rotation and bullpen. Slusser figures the A’s will look to add a reliever or two if the team is in contention at the trade deadline, though in terms of in-house names, Oakland isn’t likely to part ways with Fernando Rodney any time soon. Four of Rodney’s 15 appearances this season have resulted in multiple runs allowed, including an ugly outing on Sunday that saw him allow four runs in just a third of an inning in a walkoff loss to the Pirates. Rodney has an 8.78 ERA and a 6.1 BB/9 over 13 1/3 innings for the Athletics this season, though Slusser says the A’s will give Rodney time to get back on track in lower-leverage situations.
- Sonny Gray took the mound for the Reds against the A’s on Wednesday, leading The Athletic’s Julian McWilliams (subscription required) to look back on the trade that sent Gray from Oakland to the Yankees back in July 2017. Specifically, the piece looks at Jorge Mateo, who is off to a .340/.378/.578 start in 156 Triple-A plate appearances after struggling at the Triple-A level in 2018. That lost year knocked back from his previous status as a top-100 prospect in baseball, though it might have ended up being something of a needed “wake-up call” for Mateo, McWilliams writes, as scouts had questioned Mateo’s effort level and focus. “At some point in time he’s going to be in the big leagues, whether it’s this year or next year. He’s a really talented kid,” Melvin said. Mateo has played exclusively at shortstop and second base over the last two seasons, potentially tabbing him as a replacement for Marcus Semien (who is scheduled for free agency following the 2020 season).
Fernando Rodney has always been a favorite of mine and because I’ve watched him for years, I’m aware that these ugly stretches are pretty typical for him. I expect him to bounce back to numbers that are more in line with his career figures, despite his age.
Agreed, the key is knowing when he’s in a bad run and then only using him in low lev situations, if managers give him too long a leash, they’ll get burnt.
Throwing him straight into that kind of a situation wasn’t an ideal, but we were spread thin that particular night.
The key is knowing when he’s on a bad run or when he’s done. He might be fine for one or hitters, the seeming trend for bullpens these days, anyway, but too often it seems even one or two hitters might be too much.
He’s had a fine career, no shame in admitting he can’t do it anymore.
This team stinks. They lucked into those wins last year.
That’s a lot of games to lucky, or maybe in fact they are a good team that needed some lucky breaks.
We didn’t luck into many wins, but we our rotation definitely overachieved relative to where they were expected to be.
And that’s literally how most teams compete nowadays.
I agree the rotation overachieved expectations mightily with all the injuries that occurred, for sure. The A’s won games because they have a legit offensive and defensive core of players now. Plus, an excellent closer, set up man and relief pitchers. A’s have a good team and with starters Manaea, Cotton, Puk, Mengden, and hopefully catcher Murphy surely coming in the second half, the A’s are to team not to be taken lightly.
A’s have lost games that they easily won last year. For example in the last week they lost 2 games if they had a healthy closer. They also lost a game on a error that a normal 2B makes all the time. Lowrie was very steady last year for them. They have also gone through a lot of injuries this year unlike last year.
Not having Manaea, Cotton, Puk, Luzardo, Murphy, etc., is the entire reason we were 2 years early. Our entire starting core is on the IL, along with our backstop of the future.
The games we easily won last year were because of Treinen because a dirty boy going 2 innings. Profar is having to relearn the 2B arm slot, apparently, which is why he’s making so many errors, and they’re ALL throwing errors. He gets to the ball, then throws it away, releasing the ball too soon or overthrowing it.
Yankees, Mets and Red Sox rotations definitely don’t have to overachieve – some teams still believe in rotations.
.200 is a “solid start”? I get that the OBP is nice and he has a decent enough ISO, but thought that was odd.
I knew someone would bring that up. Unfortunately, it’s all about on base % and slugging these days because as Bill James pointed out: the aim of the batter is to acquire as many bases relative to outs to help his team win.
I admit it’s ugly and I don’t like it but the point of the game is to advance on the bases so a team can score.
It’s like they told you in Little League “walks as good as a hit, put ducks on the pond!” With today’s extreme shifting, defenses are taking away a lot of singles. In my fantasies MLB outlaws shifting but who am I to stop “progress?” It’s the new normal for now. Get used to seeing so weird stuff for now. Ever check out Joey Gallo’s stats? Surreal! And I’m a Rangers fan but a traditionalist but the game has changed and past me by. Sorry for the long post but I’m not happy with the new normal. But what you going to do? My other favorite team the Astros are slaying the analytical game. So there…..
Outlawing shifting is never going to happen. Defense can stand anywhere it wants. Original positions were arbitrary when game was first incepted.
On the offense to figure it out. They want to leave entire left side open, take the bunt single (or double), get good at it and defense will be forced to play “honest”
I know! A fan can dream…..
If .200 BA and .377 OBP is good then they may as well keep Morales.
It needs to be supported with a slugging % of at least .400 to be above average. I miss all the singles. Of course I am
old…..
Gotta keep Mark Canha around while the Sharks are still in the playoffs. It’s tradition.
That said, Canha won’t get that many starts because there are so few lefties in the league right now. Miley for the Astros, Skaggs for the Angels, Minor for the Rangers, and Canha has always annoyed the Mariners regardless of who is on the mound for them, but they have 2 lefties in their rotation so he’ll get a good amount of AB’s against them.
Mateo can take over for Profar at any time. Sooner than later hopefully.
I see Profar trending up. Some more hits are landing, so now it’s about the grind, and getting that average up. His peripherals as a hitter are still good. Not striking out a lot, taking his walks, the contact is solid.
The defense has been problematic, but it’ll be similarly problematic when Mateo comes up, because Mateo has almost exclusively played at short this season.
Profar has an .845 OPS over his last 8 games and .722 over his last 21 games. He’s getting better by the week.
Maybe Rodney’s motivation is less as he is not closing anymore.
I don’t think the team would keep him if that was the case. The A’s always have a really good sense of what’s going on in their clubhouse, and this isn’t one of those Billy Butler Danny Valencia situations where they didn’t really have a choice.