by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–The second half of the 2016 baseball season resumes Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum. The Toronto Blue Jays, currently residing in a second place tie in the AL East with the Boston Red Sox, are just two games behind the Baltimore Orioles. The Jays have been surging as they have won eighteen of the last twenty-five and are 51-40 overall. The Jays have a strong offense, starting rotation and bullpen. Josh Donaldson, the reigning MVP, and former Oakland Athletic is having another strong year and could repeat as MVP. Donaldson is hitting .304 and has 23 homers and 64 RBIs. Donaldson, facing the A’s in Oakland, is five-for thirteen with a home run, two doubles, and five RBI. Many fans still rue the day that Oakland traded Donaldson to Toronto and view that move as one of the factors that have taken the A’s down to lower depths of the AL West. Michael Saunders, an All-Star this year, is having a career year for Toronto. Edwin Encarnacion leads the AL with eighty RBIs and has twenty-three dingers to his credit. Catcher Russell Martin started slowly but has been performing better lately. Other key offensive threats are shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and center fielder Kevin Pillar. Right fielder Joey Bautista will not play this weekend as he is on the DL with a turf toe. As you can see, the Blue Jays are loaded, and the A’s pitchers will have to be sharp to contain the Toronto Offense.

The Blue Jays’ starters are Marcus Strom, Aaron Sanchez, R.A.Dickey, and J.A. Happ Stroman (7-4, 4.89 ERA) will pitch Friday night for Toronto. Sanchez (9-1 2.97 ERA) is pitching well and made the AL All-Star squad this year. Happ is 12-3. Jesse Chavez, another former Athletic, Drew Storen, Jason Grilli Brett Cecil and Roberto Osuna headline the bullpen. Osuna has eighteen saves in twenty chances so far this year.

The A’s will send Daniel Mengden to the hill Friday night. Mengden is 1-4 with an ERA of 4.54. Mengden has pitched well enough to have a better record, but the A’s offense has not given him enough run support. Hopefully, that will change Friday night. The A’s, since May 1st, are 25-39 and are 37-51 overall. There is a lot of speculation regarding players that might be traded before the July 31st deadline. Contending teams are looking at Rich Hill and Sonny Gray as well as Josh Reddick, Danny Valencia, and Stephen Vogt. The A’s are not going anywhere this year. The front office will be making decisions soon about the future of these players. What do the A’s have to do to become contenders? Do they trade away their assets for prospects? How many times will the A’s rebuild the team? The phone lines are ringing in the A’s offices now. Hopefully, the trades the A’s make will get them back on the road to respectability.