by Jerry Feitelberg

A’s report for July 31st 2014

Today’s report was just going to be a pretty strait forward report on the upcoming ten game home stand against the Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays an Minnesota Twins.

All that changed this morning when A’s General Manager Billy Beane pulled off a huge trade on the last day that non-waiver deals could be made. The A’s acquired the ace left handed pitcher, Jon Lester, and an old old friend, Jonny Gomes, from the Boston Red Sox early Thursday morning. As exciting as that was getting those two players, the big news is the the A’s are sending their All-Star left fielder, Yoenis Cespedes, to Boston. Cespedes in the third year of a four year contract and would be a free agent after the 2015 season. It was doubtful that the A’s could pony up the kind of money that Cespedes could command as a free agent in the future.

What this says is that Beane wants to win it all in 2014. The A’s under Beane have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs except for 2006 when they were swept by the Detroit Tigers in the AL Championship Series. Beane know that good pitching will stop good hitting and he now has four starters that all could be an ace on anyone’s team Lester, Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir and Jeff Samardzija

are all terrific pitchers. The fifth man in the rotation is still Jason Hammel who has been ineffective since coming to Oakland in a trade.

The A’s then traded lefty Tommy Milone to the Minnesota Twins for outfielder Sam Fuld. Fuld was with the A’s early in the season but was Designated for Assignment as the A’s had too many outfielders at that time. Fuld is hitting .263 with an on base percentage of .356 and .722 ops.

The A’s plan to platoon Fuld and Gomes in left field. Gomes will play against lefties and Fuld will face the righties. Gomes is a local lad from Petaluma and he had a great clubhouse presence when he played he in 2012. Welcome back, Jonny.

Now to look at the three teams the A’s will face in the next ten days. The Kansas City Royals arrive Friday night for a three game set with the A’s. The Royals are currently in second place in the AL Central. Their record is 54-50 and they trail the Detroit Tigers by 4 ½ games. The Royals sent three players to the All-Star game. The standouts are outfielder Alex Gordon, catcher Salvador Perez and closer Greg Holland. The Royals also feature Eric Hosmer at first base, DH Billy Butler, third baseman Mike Moustakas and second baseman Omar Infante. The Royals cannot be taken lightly.

The Tampa Bay Rays arrive in Oakland on Monday with a record of 53-55 and have been playing better lately. The Rays had a lot of injuries to the pitching staff early in the season but some of the pitchers have returned from the DL and have been pitching well. One pitcher the A’ s won’t have to face is former Cy Young award winner, David Price. Price went to the Detroit Tigers Thursday in a three-way trade between the Rays,Tigers and Mariners. The Rays received Drew Smyley from Detroit and Nick Franklin from Seattle while Austen Jackson went to Seattle. The Rays, under Joe Maddon, play the game the right way and the A’s will be tested during this three game set.

Rounding out the home stand will be a four game series with the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are in last place in the AL central with a record of 48-58. The Twins have always played the A’s tough in the past. Former A’s catcher, Kurt Suzuki, is the team leader hitting .304 so far this year and Kurt made the AL All-Star team.

It will be interesting to see how the revamped A’s starting rotation performs during the next ten days.

The A’s have four goals in mind right now. One, win the division. Two, win the ALDS, 3, Win the ALCS and finally, win the World Series. They have made the moves to make this team very formidable. All the A’s have to do is go out and win.