From today's Talking Points: Tim Kawakami on Bay Area sports:
1-Quietly, practically under a self-imposed cloak of invisibility, the A’s have managed to put 724 runs on the board so far in 2009.
I still have to double-take when I type that number out, and now I’ve typed it a few times. 724???
That’s currently the 14th-best run total in baseball, an average of 4.78 per game, and on pace for 761.
Last year, the A’s scored only 646 runs. (The Giants are at 620 so far this year and on pace to score 656.)
There’s a simple answer, of course: We all knew the additions of Matt Holliday and Jason Giambi and a healthy Eric Chavez would get the A’s offense back percolating!
Wait. The A’s offensive eruption has mostly been done since the July 24 trade of Holliday and the Aug. 7 release of Giambi. Chavez never really was there for the A’s, again, this year.
I just went back to July 24, the day Holliday was moved to the Cardinals (for no immediately offensive help).
At that point, the A’s were 40-55, and were averaging 4.35 runs per game.
Since the departure of Holliday, the A’s have gone 33-25 (REALLY), and scored 310 runs, a Yankees-like average of 5.35 runs per game.
I’m here to note it. I can’t really explain it. No stats really pop out, other than the stolen base total, which is of course not a usual A’s/Billy Beane staple.
Team MVP: Davis, of course, with all those SBs and the .811 OPS. Beyond that, I can’t explain the A’s gusher of runs. If they could’ve loaned about 25 of them to the Giants, there might have been a playoff round or two at AT&T Park this year.
Discuss.
