by Charlie O Mallonee

Stats tell the story in baseball and it’s a game that’s centered around stats and in the course of following and reporting on baseball I’m becoming more and more of a sabermetrics guy. You look at the A’s right now they have a record of 41-50 they’re nine games under .500 their in fifth place they’ve been in fifth place for 64 days now.

The A’s are 8.5 games behind the Angels for first place in the Western Division, they are eight games out of being in position to take a wild card spot. Their 5-5 in their last ten games, they’ve won two games in row and that’s both in Cleveland and went 3-3 on the road trip in New York and Cleveland and in our podcast last week and we talked about the A’s they needed to win one in New York and two to Cleveland.

That’s exactly what the A’s did they won one in New York and won two in Cleveland and if you look at it right now their 18-26 at home, 23-24 on the road, they are one game back of Seattle and doesn’t it seem like the A’s have been behind Seattle for fourth place for about ten weeks. It’s just been crazy and the A’s have not been able to get over that hump to be able to get out of fifth place.

Yet when you look at some of the things that have happened to the A’s it’s hard to believe that they are in the state that they are. The A’s have the third best record in the American League since May 23rd. Since May 23rd they have a record of 27-20 and this is the first time that the A’s have had a losing record at the All-Star break since 2009. 2009 at the All-Star break they had a record of 39-53. I don’t want to bring up bad news but that year they finished in last place with a overall record 75-87.

One of the things that’s been so curious about this team is their win-loss record for one thing their home field advantage hasn’t been there and it’s always been there for the A’s. The Coliseum has in the past has been really truly a friendly confine for the A’s. This year their 18-26 at home and 23-24 on the road. Even on years that they have had losing records they’ve almost always have had a better than a .500 record.

So the A’s really haven’t been able to really pin anything down on why that’s the case right now. The A’s are 26-29 in night games 14-21 in day games. If you remember at one point they were 1-13 in day games. They’ve improved themselves over the situation. These numbers really shock me, the A’s are 5-17 against left handed pitchers, they are 35-33 against right handed pitchers so this is a team that has been built to go up against right handed pitching.

Charlie O does A’s commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below