This is the first time this season I’ve taken a look at the team’s VORP standings on Baseball Prospectus. If you don’t know what VORP is, it stands for Value Over Replacement Player and you can read more about it here.
Offense
Top three performers:
Daric Barton – 14.3
Kurt Suzuki – 8.8
Adam Rosales – 8.7
Barton at the top [...]

I did not see this coming.
This was supposed to be the 10-game road trip from hell, and the A’s – who were one of the worst in the league on the road – were supposed to get eaten alive by the opposition. I mostly feared the Detroit Tigers, who dispatched the A’s so easily last [...]

I love that the A’s won the first game of the Tigers series last night, and that they are 3-1 on the current road trip.
But man, that game had “frustrating loss” written all over it.
Dontrelle Willis was wild in the first inning. So wild, that Jim Leyland actually got the bullpen going with one out [...]

Yesterday was May Day, and it was a good day for the A’s. They won, Gio Gonzalez pitched well, and new callup Josh Donaldson hit a 2-run home run in his first major league at bat.
But the past week has not been so kind to the A’s. If you had asked me who are the [...]

Today’s loss against the Orioles is not going to kill the A’s in the standings. They still won the series and are 3-1 on a 10-game homestand.
But both Daric Barton and Cliff Pennington left today’s game due to injuries, and that could be tough to take if either or both are out for any length [...]