Bay Area back to normal?

At the end of last season when the A's once again finished last in the American League west with a record of 75-87 many saw them as a young team that was improving but wouldn't come near the top of the standings for a while, but three weeks into the season the A's find themselves atop the division with a 10-7 record and one of only five teams to reach double digit wins so far.

Much like the A's, the cross bay rival San Francisco Giants got off to a hot start in 2010 and after three weeks they are second in the National League west division. Their 8-7 record doesn't display how well the team has played thus far and how well they will continue to play as long as the team sticks to their strength.

That can be said about both clubs. The Giants and the A's both lack high scoring offenses and neither features a clear superstar hitter in their lineup but both are stacked with young pitching talent. The A's rank first in the A.L in team ERA and third in the majors in that category. They are tied for the A.L lead with 10 quality starts and are second in the A.L and third in the majors in strikeouts. The Giants are third in the majors in ERA and are only.03 runs ahead of the A's. They also rank second in the majors and N.L in quality starts. The Giants and the A's rank 12th and 17th in the MLB in runs scored so it is clear that both team's strengths are not scoring runs, but keeping the other team from scoring.

Despite hot starts from both staffs, could pitching be enough to keep these teams fighting for their division leads? In the last 10 games the A's are an even 5-5 and had lost three of their past four. The giants after starting 4-1 in the first week, are just 4-6 in their last ten and are only one game over .500.

The A's haven't won a division or made the playoffs since 2006 are were projected by many to finish last again but it looks like they may be wrong. The Giants have not been to the playoffs since 2003 but were picked by many to win their division this year after the team upgraded its offense and they kept 4 of their 5 starters from last season's dominating rotation.

-J. DeClercq

Week one wonders

Week one of the 2010 Major League Baseball season is over and there certainly were several surprises. It took till the end of the week for the only undefeated team to lose while Houston remains the only win-less team. Braves rookie Jason Heyward has had a great start, hitting 3 homers in the first week, but he is no surprise. There were seven days in the first week so I will give you seven of the weeks top surprises:

7. Martin Prado. Last year Ben Zobrist emerged as the super utility man and a huge surprise for Tampa Bay, but this year it could be Martin Prado. Prado who can play almost every position in the infield much like Zobrist, leads the MLB in BA after seven days with a .519 AVG.

6. Vladimir Guerrero. Guerrero, many thought would serve as a part time DH/RF for Texas this year, but his strong spring has carried into a great first week in which he hit for an A.L leading .464 with 1 homer and 3 runs batted in.

5. The Oakland Athletics. The A's were pick by many to finish toward the bottom of the strong and even A.L west, but through the first week of the season they were 4-2 and lost only once each to division rivals Seattle and Anaheim. Strong pitching and timely hitting has carried Oakland through the first week so it will be interesting to see what of those two holds up.

4. Nelson Cruz. A breakout star last season when he hit 33 home runs and stole 20 bases for Texas, but this year so far he has the second best BA in the league at .458 and he has hit an American League leading 5 home runs and 11 RBI's. After the first week Cruz is many people's pick for the A.L MVP award.

3. The San Francisco Giants. Through the first 5 games of the season the Giants were 4-1 and it took them till the last day of the week to lose their first game. Backed by strong pitching (second in the Majors behind Oakland with a 2.82 ERA) and solid hitting from their veterans like Edgar Renteria, the Giants are poised to make a big splash in the N.L west this year.

2. Jon Rauch. When Minnesota Twins star closer Joe Nathan went on the DL to start the season and eventually we found that he would not pitch all year nobody knew what would become of what was one of the Twins' strongest attributes. Jon Rauch stepped out of nowhere to claim the closer role and hasn't looked back. The 31 year old Rauch has 5 saves in 5 chances and an ERA of 1.80 with 3 strikeouts in 5 innings of work. Much like Ryan Franklin and David Aardsma were last year, we'll continue to look at Rauch as this years breakout closer.

1. The Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto plays in the toughest division in baseball with the reigning world champion Yankees and year to year contending Red Sox, but they are looking better than both those teams. To start the year there were many concerns about the pitching staff of the Blue Jays, but Toronto has ridden strong starting pitching ( the best in the division so far) and what seems to be a comeback year for Vernon Wells into a tie for first with the New York Yankees.

I doubt many of these stories will sustain themselves throughout the rest of the year, but they do give hope to those players and teams without huge payrolls or all-star track records.

-J. DeClercq

Can't win em' all

Opening Night 2010 was an awesome event! Rumors of rain were dispelled due to the sun breaking through the clouds come game time. The festivities began when Oakland A's great Bert Campaneras was presented with his award for being inducted into the bay Area Hall of Fame. Following Campy's ceremony, the A's presented their closer Andrew Bailey with his award for winning last season's Rookie of the Year award. Fireworks capped the award ceremony and as that was going on, fans looked towards center field where members of the Oakland Police Department were holding a huge, outstretched American Flag. Color Guard escorted a smaller flag on its pole to just behind second base and the Star Spangled Banner could be heard over the silence of the emotional spectators. More fireworks exploding as the line, "the bombs bursting in air" was sung. It truly was a great way to start the new season of major League baseball.

Ben Sheets was making his first start since the end of the 2008 season and showed some rust to start the game as the opponent Seattle Mariners struck first. With one out, Sheets issued a walk to Chone Figgins who stole second and advanced to third on catcher Kurt Suzuki's throwing error. Figgins then scored on Casey Kotchman's double. Seattle struck again the next inning on catcher Rob Johnson's solo home run to make the score 2-0 Seattle. Before the A's could even get anyone past first, the Mariners had scored again on Casey Kotchman's sacrifice fly to score Chone Figgins.

With the score at 3-0 in favor of Seattle, A's fans were growing restless to see their team score some runs. Finally in the sixth inning the A's put together some hits and a single by Ryan Sweeney, Rajai Davis was able to score their first run of the night. The A's would not be done scoring however. In the seventh inning, the A's got some men on base and Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez was removed from the game. Back to back singles by Cliff Pennington and Rajai Davis scored both Mark Ellis and Travis Buck to tie the game at 3 apiece.

The momentum had changed and it seemed like this year's Oakland A's were a group of fighters that couldn't be kept down. Seattle wasn't going to go down quietly though.

Before the A's could put up any go ahead runs, Seattle had already won the game . In the top of the ninth Seattle scored twice on Casey Kotchman's single to give Brad Ziegler his first loss of 2010.

It was a tough loss, but it could have been avoided. Perhaps if the A's hadn't left five runners on base, or grounded into four double plays, or committed four errors the score could have been much different. There was a silver lining Oakland despite the loss as leadoff man Rajai Davis went 2 for 4 with an RBI, run, and a stolen base and number nine hitter Cliff Pennington went 2 for 3 with an RBI as well. Sheets pitched 5 solid innings giving up just two earned runs while striking out 3, but it was his four walks and high pitch count that forced him from the game early. A's reliever Jerry Blevins pitched two shutout innings with 3 strikeouts as he helped solidify his big league spot.

This loss isn't the end of the world since there are 161 games left. It reassured me that even though the A's home run leader for three season wasn't on the team they could still score runs. As the season continues the A's defense should shore up and prevent another error riddled loss.

-J. DeClercq