The Oakland Athletics keep on winning. Playing in the shadow of the San Francisco Giants (World Series titles in 2010 and 2012) and the free spending Los Angeles Dodgers, the A's have managed to dominate the AL West since 2012 and have only been stopped twice by Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers in critical games of the 2012 and 2013 postseasons in their quest to reach the World Series. No team has won more games to date (220) than the Athletics since 2012. With 94 wins in 2012 and 96 in 2013 they are on pace this year for 101. They keep rolling despite missing 2 key members of the starting rotation to Tommy John surgery for the 2014 season (Jarrod Parker and AJ Griffin).
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| Billy Beane at Detroit 2013 (zimbio.com) |
Billy Beane, the "Moneyball Maestro" runs a tight ship and makes few mistakes signing solid cost efficient players and Manager Bob Melvin makes a lot of right moves on the field leading to astounding success at a relatively low cost. To do this one year might be a fluke but the repeatability takes it to another level.
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| Bob Melvin in Chicage 2014 (zimbio.com) |
Fangraphs says the A's team WAR (9.4) is only second to the Los Angeles Angels 12.1 despite having a line that looks similar to the Chicago White Sox:
PA RS HR avg/obp/slg WAR
Oakland 1919 245 50 .252/.339/.408 9.4
Chicago 1926 243 54 .261/.324/.415 5.3
With a walk rate of 11.1% (1st in the AL) compared to the 7.9% of the Chisox that makes for about 190 more walks for the season with a much lower strikeout rate (22.9 to 17.8%) giving them a lot more opportunities to keep the offense rolling. The A's defense is also rated above average.
With no real star players on the team, Josh Donaldson has become their best player. Here are the numbers since 2012:
PA HR WAR PA/HR
Yoenis Cespedes 1298 57 6.1 22.8
Brandon Moss 988 62 6.3 15.9
Josh Donaldson 1179 43 11.8 27.4
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| Josh Donaldson vs Indians (zimbio.com) |
Moss and Cespedes provide a nice quota of power with Moss being relatively unknown.
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| Brandon Moss vs Mariners at Oakland (zimbio.com) |
The pitching ERA is 2.88, the best in the AL with a 6.6 WAR, 3rd best despite a bullpen that has only 9 saves (league low is 8) has lost 9 games and has blown another 8 saves (league high). No starting pitcher with 40 + IP has an ERA over 4.00 with Sonny Gray the leader at 1.99, Jesse Chavez at 2.54 and Scott Kazmir at 2.56. These three have a 14-5 combined record. There should be some regression here as the season goes along. Jim Johnson, the 10.0 million dollar closer is the worst pitcher on the team with 25 hits and 13 walks in 19 IP and a 6.63 ERA. The track record is there to keep waiting for a return to form.
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| Sony Gray vs Tigers 2013 (zimbio.com) |
Despite the A's payroll spiking some this year, they still remain in the bottom 4 of the AL. The cost of doing business has increased league wide.
2012 59.5 M (15th) 2013 68.6 M (13th) 2014 83.4 M (12)
Comparing to what the Los Angeles Dodgers have spent
$ W
2012 129.0 M 86
2013 220.4 92
2014 235.3 86 (projected)
Total 584.7 264
During the same time period the Athletics will spend 211.5 million and get close to 290 wins.
It will cost the Dodgers almost three times as much to win a game. Moneyball seems to be alive and well for those that want to embrace it.
Top 5 paid players A's Top 5 paid pitchers
Yoenis Cespedes 10.5 Jim Johnson 10.0
Coco Crisp 7.5 Scott Kazmir 7.0
Jed Lowrie 5.2 Luke Gregerson 5.1
Alberto Callaspo 4.9 Jesse Chavez 0.8
Brandon Moss 4.1 Sonny Gray 0.5
Josh Donaldson is paid .5 million for 2014
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