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This season has been a struggle for the Oakland Athletics. They are last in the American League West with a 12-23 record and nine games behind the first place Houston Astros. Oakland’s bullpen has a 2-10 record, the defense has not been up to par and the Athletics were hitless with runners in scoring position in 14 at-bats during the game on Wednesday. However, the A’s have the tools to start winning games consistently and work their way back to the top of the AL West.
First of all, their offense has been great this season. Even though they have a losing record, the A’s are fifth in MLB for runs. Stephen Vogt, Josh Reddick and Marcus Semien lead the team in batting average and have a total of 70 RBIs between them. As long as Oakland keeps producing offensively, the chances of them winning increases.
On the other hand, the Athletics have struggled defensively this season. Most noticeable is the rookie Semien, who has committed 11 errors. However, all of these players — especially in the infield — are new to Oakland and still need some time to learn how to work together successfully. Once they can figure out how to work as a team, they will be extremely strong defensively. Additionally, when Ben Zobrist returns from the disabled list, the A’s defense will be improved particularly in the middle infield.
Lastly, the bullpen has faced a lot of issues this year. Nevertheless, the Athletics have a lot of depth when it comes to relievers, and they just need to find the right combination of pitchers to sit in the bullpen. Also, Sean Doolittle’s return at the end of the month will hopefully provide some stability for the bullpen.
Oakland has all the tools that they need to win. They just need to put them all together at the same time. Once their bats are connecting, their defense is solid and their bullpen is striking out batters, the Athletics will slowly climb back up the AL West standings.
Samantha Riley is an Oakland Athletics writer for www.RantSports.com. You can follow her on twitter @Riless22.
