Uh, let the "piling on" begin.
Now is the time when you get all of the A's detractors out to tee-off on our season thus far.
I'm willing to bet we will be hearing more chirppings out of Joe Morgan too...just wait.

Oh, we get a semi-plug in here too.

This time it is ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.

For the full article visit the following link:

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=2056116

NEW YORK - Oakland manager Ken Macha was assessing his team's chances against the struggling Yankees on Friday when he launched into a tale about a California prospector during the 1849 gold rush. The sudden burst of animation was uncharacteristic for Macha, who rarely opts for a colorful anecdote when a guarded platitude will do.

Let's put it this way: He's no Ozzie Guillen.

"Did you hear the story about the miner?" Macha asked reporters in the dugout. "He mined and he dug, and he mined and he dug, and nothing. Zero. So he abandoned the mine. Then the next guy came in and he only had to go two inches, and he hit the mother lode."

The story was Macha's way of reminding people that the Yankees, a team loaded with big-name, talented players, could bust loose at any moment. In reality, he could easily have applied the same lesson to his own club.

Problem is, those last two inches will be a chore. The California gold rushers had to deal with disease, poverty and a lack of social order. The Athletics have serious concerns of their own, most notably a chronic lack of power and an inability to produce with runners on base.

Skeptics figured Oakland might have difficulty competing this year after general manager Billy Beane's bold roster revamp sent Tim Hudson to Atlanta and Mark Mulder to St. Louis in trades over the winter. How could a team so reliant on starting pitching contend in a competitive AL West with such a youthful new look in the rotation?

So much for Cactus League speculation. A month into the season, Oakland's pitching is doing fine. It's the hitting that's awful.

The numbers are readily available, and they're not pretty. The Athletics are last in the majors with a .651 OPS (on-base average plus slugging percentage), last in runs scored and 27th in home runs. They've been shut out six times after being blanked only three times all last season, and their .203 average with runners in scoring position is the worst in the big leagues.

Oakland's feeble offense helps explain why Rich Harden, Barry Zito and Joe Blanton have pitched well and have a combined 3-9 record to show for it. Zito and Blanton have received a combined 4.77 runs a game worth of support, or slightly more than half the 9.07 per game that the Chicago White Sox have given Jon Garland.

Eric Chavez, Oakland's franchise player, is hitting .190 and looks lost at the plate. Jason Kendall, acquired in a trade from Pittsburgh, is batting .225 in his adjustment to a new league. And Eric Byrnes, counted on to provide power from the right side, is hitting .208 and waving at way too many sliders in the dirt.

Erubiel Durazo, Oakland's leading run producer, has 14 RBI - which ties him for 45th in the American League with Tino Martinez, Julio Lugo, Ronnie Belliard and Chone Figgins, among others.

After a 6-1 loss to Texas last week, Beane spent an hour in a closed-door meeting with the manager, and Macha emerged to tell the media that it was an "internal matter.'' Just as pitching coach Curt Young received criticism last year when the team's staff hit some bumps, hitting coach Dave Hudgens came under scrutiny in April. But the A's insist Hudgens' job isn't in jeopardy.

"With our veteran guys, it's hard to imagine the hitting coach having much difference either way,'' said David Forst, Oakland's assistant GM. "He's there to make sure their approach stays consistent and they have information going into the game. The coaches work their butts off and the only time they get press is when something bad happens. That's kind of the nature of the beast.''

While rumors persist that the A's might trade closer Octavio Dotel for a bat, that would be difficult at the moment because: a) Huston Street, Dotel's natural heir to the job, has 15 appearances in the majors; and b) setup man Kiko Calero recently missed time with elbow tendinitis and has been shelled in two of his last three outings. The new, deeper Oakland bullpen is 9-2 with a 3.24 ERA, and Beane is wary of taking a team strength and blowing a hole in it.

You can also disregard those Byrnes-for-Reggie Sanders trade rumors making the rounds on Internet chat boards. The A's profess to little or no interest in Sanders, who is 38 years old, making $4 million this season, and hitting .247.

The middle of Oakland's lineup continues to be an issue. The Athletics are exclusively left-handed with Chavez, Durazo and Scott Hatteberg in the 3-4-5 spots, which makes it easy for opposing managers to mix-and-match in the late innings.

Some bad luck with injuries has exacerbated the problem. Shortstop Bobby Crosby, who bats right-handed, and rookie outfielder Nick Swisher, a switch-hitter, are on the disabled list and might be out until early June. Their absence puts even more heat on Byrnes, and he knows it.

"I think there have definitely been periods when I was pressing,'' Byrnes said. "A lot of times the harder you try, the worse it gets.''

Chavez, Oakland's resident 30-homer, 100-RBI lock, can't seem to do anything right. When he's aggressive at the plate, he swings at too many balls. When he tries to be patient, he finds himself down 0-2 in the count. And if he actually hits the ball hard, it's usually right at someone.

Two weeks ago Chavez concluded that he was driving himself crazy with apprehension, and he vowed to quit taking every bad at-bat home from the park. At the suggestion of Hudgens, Chavez even skipped extra batting practice when the A's arrived in New York on Friday.

But a man can only do so much to defy human nature. Chavez is extraordinarily hard on himself, and every hitless day produces more tentativeness and self-doubt.

"I got to that point where I was really drilling myself,'' Chavez said. "Then it got so bad I just said, 'Forget about it. Let it go.' I'm trying to keep a cool head and hoping my numbers will be what they always are. But when you're going through your bad streak, you never know for sure. It might be one of those Pat Burrell years.''

He's referring to 2003, when Burrell slumped to .209 with 21 homers and never got it going. If that happens to Chavez, the Athletics are toast.

This much is certain: The A's aren't going to improvise their way out of this funk. They currently rank last in the majors in stolen bases with five, which leads to the old complaint about Oakland teams being unable to "manufacture'' runs.

"Their lack of power is a serious concern,'' said an AL executive. "An offense filled with guys who draw walks but don't hit for average and don't hit for power isn't going to score a lot of runs, no matter how much 'little ball' they play.''

The longer the problem persists, the more creative Macha might get. In a 6-3 victory over the Yankees on Friday, the A's determined that they could get some good jumps against Carl Pavano. So Kendall and Bobby Kielty stole bases, and Kendall also executed a perfect hit-and-run.

Oakland batted around and scored three times in the 10th inning without hitting a ball out of the infield. But just when the mood appeared to brighten, the A's dropped two games, 5-0 and 6-0, this weekend. They even lifted the spirits of Kevin Brown, who worked out of two bases-loaded jams in a span of three innings Sunday.

"Even when we get guys on base, it's so mentally tough when we don't get them in,'' Forst said. "I think it snowballs. We harped on situational hitting in spring training. Then we went into a funk the first week and I think guys start grinding the bat handle a little bit. I don't know how you get out of that cycle.''

As Macha is quick to point out, you just continue to run out players with proven track records under the assumption that they'll produce eventually. And you keep hoping, in the face of evidence to the contrary, that the mother lode is two inches away.