by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–I love pitching, do not read me wrong. But didn’t the Oakland Athletics have enough pitching before they acquired Jon Lester? Their starters earned run average, as well as their bullpen (relievers) have been at the top since April.

The Oakland A’s have been in first place since April 28th, leading the Western Division. I understand when A’s General Manager Billy Beane got Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel, that made all the sense in the world. Jon Lester is one of the best pitchers in postseason, but the Athletics first need to win the division, I do not think they would like to be a wild card and play one elimination game for all the marbles.

Beane is tired of losing game 5 to the Detroit Tigers, understood, but even hours after he traded Yoenis Cespedes to Boston for Jon Lester, Dave Dombrowski General Manager of the Detroit Tigers traded for David Price.

So now the A’s have a rotation of: Gray, Lester,Kazmir, Samardzija and Hammel. The Tigers have: Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Price,Rick Porcello and Anibal Sánchez. That is the last three American League Cy Young winners, the American League co-leader in wins, and last year’s American League champion. I think the Tigers rotation is above that of the A’s, even with the addition of Jon Lester.

Now, the Athletics hitting. I know we live during a time in baseball where everything is numbers, and I realize that numbers are very important, but at this pace we are just going to have mathematicians and statisticians running the game. It is ridiculous, like back when Ichiro was in Seattle, I remember they had stats of when Ichiro got a hit with the roof open, and when he got a hit with the roof close at Safeco, yes I was there and I remember those “notes”.

Some believe that a sacrifice bunt is giving an out away, yes, but if you can advance that runner with a bunt, and then you get a hit, you can drive in a run and win a game for…a guy like Lester. We all know playoff games are very rarely 14-12 affairs. I know these deals were made by both General Managers with the postseason in mind,so let us not ‘beat around the bush here.

Assuming that Detroit plays the A’s for the third consecutive ALDS, and leaving the pitching aside, the Tigers have not only a better starting rotation, but a much superior lineup; even more this year. Case #1 JD Martínez who came from Houston to Detroit in the past winter, is having the season of this life, with the “other”Martínez, Victor who usually hits more Home runs than he has strikes out, not to mention a man that hits over .380 with men in scoring position, Miguel Cabrera and the rest of the supporting cast. The only advantage today the A’s have over the Tigers is the bullpen, there the A’s better. Detroit recently signed Joakim Soria, who is now helping closer Joe Nathan.

Yoenis Céspedes was the soul of the Oakland Athletics. A trade of this sort, rips the soul out of a team, and yes the A’s also receive aside from Lester, the very popular Jonny Gomes, from Petaluma, who can get in the heads of the young hitters and all that…bla…bla..bla…and that is good, and who knows, he might win a big game for the Athletics in the playoffs, that is the beauty of baseball,remember Boston fans Bucky Dent?

So yes everything is possible in this fascinating game. I respect Beane the GM at the Oakland A’s, he is an astute man, not a genius in my book, a genius has to at least win a World Series, and that has not been accomplished, yet.

Maybe this is his best shot. Everybody understands that the possibility of the A’s re-signing Céspedes after the 2015 season was as probable as snow in Arizona in August. Yes, the A’s made a huge splash in the baseball world, and for a week a team that seldom receives the publicity that it deserves got the attention of the baseball world, networks and all media. And that is good. However, I was not a fan of this trade, and I hope it works and brings a World Series to the forgotten city of Oakland for the first time since 1989.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice of the Oakland A’s and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com