MLB Updates: Week 3
Photo from MLB.
Jarrett Borkowski
The End of Oakland Baseball and Sports
The Athletics are almost certainly moving out of the Bay Area. Over the past 10 years, Oakland has lost their NFL, NBA, and now MLB teams. The Warriors moved across the bay to San Francisco, the Raiders have moved to Vegas, and the Athletics are to follow the Raiders to the city of sins. With the purchasing of land in Vegas, a long running battle between Athletics ownership and the City of Oakland (with fans caught in the middle) has come to an end. For years, the Athletics have requested money to build a new stadium to replace the horror that is the Colosseum, but the city hasn’t been able to reach the lofty demands. As a result, the A’s are now to move out to the desert by 2027 at the latest. Speculation has arisen that they could be out sooner, moving to a temporary location, like the smaller Las Vegas Stadium currently existing in the city.
The biggest disappointment is the end of the era of one of the more successful franchises in baseball history. Originally starting in Philadelphia, the A’s moved to Kansas City, then out to Oakland. There, they dominated the early 70’s and late 80’s. They gained worldwide popularity after the publication of the book, MoneyBall, which talked of the A’s switch to an analytically driven front office to remain competitive with their lower budget. The movie released afterwards also gained popularity. However, the release of the book and movie showed the insides of the Athletics' front office. It brought forth a new wave of management. No longer were the A’s alone in their strategy. The new winning formula was known: no more stolen bases, hit for power, play matchups, and, the most famous of all, get on base. Teams adopted this strategy. The A’s used to rely on teams like the Yankees spending money on players that didn’t necessarily equal wins. Sure, they had a lot of star power, but their underlying statistics didn’t result in big time success against this new tactic by Oakland. But when they found out how Oakland was winning, they changed their approach. Oakland used to go for the guy that was under the radar that fit the winning strategy, well now he was a big-name free agent that the Yankees would pay 2x as much for them. Since then, the Athletics have struggled. Instead, they have relied on young players coming up through their system for cheap. This opens up a window of opportunity, but only for 2 or 3 years before having to go back into a 5 season stretch of being one of the worst teams in the league.
With a movement to Vegas, revenue should see a boost and payroll could increase. In the best world, the team could be sold to a new owner who spends more money. For the franchise, this move makes sense. But the city and fans in Oakland are now dry of any major sports team. This decrease in sports reflects the overall decline the city has gone through in the last 30 years.
3 Surprises
The start of this season has been full of surprises and disappointments to begin. Here are the 3 biggest shocks this season, in no particular order:
The Pirates are… good?!: Easily the most surprising overall team so far, the Pirates are currently in first place in the NL Central, first in the National League, and the second best team in all of baseball so far this year. The starting pitchers have been great, ranking in the top 5 in ERA so far this year, the offense has been electric, and the bullpen has been serviceable. Will this last? …Nah. Will they be fun to watch? For SURE!!!
The Cardinals can hit a baseball, but can’t pitch: Boy have the Cards been off to a slow start. Slated as the favorites to win the NL Central, they currently sit in fourth with a 9-14 record, far from what they wanted to start out. The issue doesn’t seem to be the offense. They have the 4th best team batting average, 3rd best on-base percentage, and the 7th best slugging percentage. The pitching is a different story. It has been atrocious. The team hasn’t been terrible with giving up runs. They are sitting at a 4.48 team ERA, good for 21st in the league, but the underlying numbers say it should be worse. Against them, teams have the 3rd best batting average in all of baseball at .272. This is worrisome, especially with a starting pitching staff that has been horrible. Miles Mikolas, one of their better starters heading into this year, currently has the third worst ERA in the majors. They need to add some arms at the deadline like Eduardo Rodriguez, German Marquez, or *gasp* SHOHEI OHTANI!!!!
Brandon Marsh is Barry Bonds: If you had told me on opening day that Brandon Marsh would be leading the league in OPS on April 25th, I would have thought that the season would be delayed for a few weeks and that April 25th was just the second game of the year. Yet here we are. No delays. About 23 games into the season and Brandon Marsh has been dominating every pitcher in existence. To state how unlikely this was, Marsh was supposed to sit against left handed pitching this year because he was so bad against them. Both of the major projection systems, ZiPS and Steamer, had Marsh as a below average hitter this year, while only posting an fWAR of 1.7 and 1.6. Marsh already has an fWAR of 1.2. Even if Marsh slows down to his projections, he should still be a 3.5-4 win player in terms of value added. However, his underlying stats seem to back at least some improvement from past years. His HardHit% is up from the 39th percentile to the 64th. His expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA) went from the 16th percentile to the 72nd. His Barrel % has gone from the 47th percentile to the 79th percentile. The most impressive thing however, is the highly increased level of patience he has shown so far this year.
Injury Updates
Jeffrey Springs, SP, Rays: This one is a bummer. Springs had been looking like an early Cy Young candidate, but has gone down with the bane of the pitcher, Tommy John surgery. With the aspect of full reconstruction of his elbow, Springs will be out for the rest of the year and a good chunk of next season. Luckily, the advancement in pitcher health has made TJ surgery no longer a death sentence to the career of a pitcher. Just last year, 39 year old Justin Verlander came back from TJ and won the AL Cy Young. Here is to hoping for a speedy recovery to one of the better young pitchers in the game.
Garrett Mitchell, OF, Brewers: Just a heads up, this week has a lot of bad injuries. Mitchell, who has been great for Milwaukee in his rookie season, is to undergo shoulder surgery. This is a blow to a team that has had good, but wary offensive performances this year. With him gone, it removes a piece from the machine that has been red-hot this year.
Logan O’Hoppe, C, Angels: Yet another young talent going out for a long time. O’Hoppe, who has been vital for the Angels' streaky and inconsistent offense, has torn his shoulder. There is a small chance he returns for the last few weeks of the season, but it looks like his season is very much in jeopardy, a huge blow to the Angels.
Kris Bryant, OF, Rockies: The 2016 MVP, who has struggled with injuries since 2017, has been dealing with lower-back and hip pain. While it doesn’t seem to be serious, Colorado will continue to monitor him and bench him as needed.
Trevor Rodgers, SP, Marlins: A former Rookie of the Year finalist, the pitcher has struggled to match, let alone improve, his performance from his 2021 campaign. He has been put on the IL with arm soreness.
Kris Bubic, SP, Royals: Bubic was experiencing a decent start to the season, posting a 3.94 ERA across 16 innings with 16 strikeouts. Yet, like Springs, his season is done. The pitcher is being pulled out of the Royals rotation and is headed for Tommy John Surgery.
Michael Grove, SP, Dodgers: Grove, who has been alright to start the season, has been put on the IL and will miss the next few weeks with a groin strain.
Dany Jimenez, RP, Athletics: It is a shame to see Jimenez go out, but this doesn’t make an impact on this horrific A’s team. Jimenez is headed to the 60-day IL with a strained shoulder.
Trey Wingenter, RP, Tigers: Yet another pitcher injury, Wingenter is out for the next few weeks with a sore shoulder. This is disappointing news for a Tigers team that has fallen flat on their face after attempting to come out of their rebuild last year.
Top 5 Teams
These are the 5 best teams so far based on recent performance and the perceived strength of the roster.
1. Tampa Bay Rays, 20-4 (Last Week: 2)
Back on top, the Rays just lost their first home game of the season. They are still just way above all other teams in my opinion and are the early World Series favorites. Not much to say other than they have continued to be great in every aspect of their game.
2. Atlanta Braves, 16-8 (1)
The Braves stumbled after losing their 7-game win streak. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games and now hold a 2 game lead over the Mets in the NL East. The two big things to watch are Ronald Acuna Jr, who has a real shot at 50 stolen bases, and Spencer Strider, who is seriously one of the best pitchers since he came into the league. These two guys are fun to watch and will be the faces of this franchise for the next 5 years at least.
3. Pittsburgh Pirates, 16-8 (Unranked)
WOOHOO!!! Boy is this a shock. I’m firing the gun a bit early on them but I can deny that they are one of the best teams in baseball so far. The defense is great, the offense is fun, and the pitching is defense. All of this is happening without one of their best players. Oh, and they also pulled off what looked like the impossible and extended Bryan Renoylds. Without this hot start, we are talking about early season trade rumors instead.
4. Baltimore Orioles, 15-8 (Unranked)
From this year’s surprise team to last year’s. The Orioles are great again. Adley Rutschman is quite honestly the best catcher in baseball already and he is only 25 years old. They have won 8 of their last 10 games, but are still 4.5 games behind the Rays. This still means every win counts to make sure the Rays don’t run away with the division too early.
5. Texas Rangers, 14-9 (Unranked)
If it weren’t for the Pirates, the Rangers would be the most surprising team this year. They have been powered by a dynamic offense and a surprising pitching staff. Jacob deGrom has experienced some injuries already, and Corey Seager is out for some time as well. Yet, even with their best position player and pitcher having some setbacks, they are still the top team in the AL West, ahead of the reigning world champions. Adolis Garcia just had a full house game with 3 homers and 2 doubles, and Marcus Semien is off to the best start of his career. This team is performing at what most people saw as their best possible outcome, and it is glorious.
