What Do the A's Do The Rest of the Way?

The current playoff standings from Baseball Prospectus show that if the season was to be played out a million times, the A's have a 5% chance of making the playoffs at their current position. The good news is that they are more likely to make the playoffs than the Angels (2%). Unfortunately, the bad news, is, well, the 5%.

If you're willing to bet that the rest of the season will play out in the 95%, the A's are done with 2010, and should start taking a look at what they can do for next season. Keep in mind that knowing that the season is over and knowing that the season is over are two different things, and it's been hard to accept, even with almost zero expectations on the year. I'm happy to see the changing of the guard in the AL West; admittedly I like Seattle better than I like Ron Washington, but I have always liked Vlad Guerrero, and adore Nelson Cruz, and think the Josh Hamilton story is a good one.

My disappointment is still palpable; however, it's been no secret that I am less-than-impressed with, really, the way the A's are built. We all know the A's pitching has been good, but do you know how good they really are? They go back and forth with the Rays on the ERA leaderboard and Rays and Twins in WHIP, showing that they have one of the best--if not the best--pitching staff in the AL. (And it goes without saying that our $10 million pitching investment contributed a 4.5 ERA and 1.39 WHIP to that statistic.) I've heard over and over how the A's are so lucky to even be at .500, but I want to turn it around. They have the best pitching staff in the whole league and they are only a .500 team?!

The explanation, of course, is that the A's offense is so terrible that even with the very best pitching staff in the league, a .500 record is all the A's can eek out. If the A's had the pitching, of say, the Indians, they'd be easily 30 games under .500. Even pitching like the Angels would have buried them. Part of me wonders if even two or three league average hitters would have made a difference; part of me worries about the toll it takes on the young pitchers, knowing that they will receive little-to-no run support for their efforts; part of me is just disgusted to see the attention paid to sacrifice bunts, and the rest of me is just tired of begging for one run.

So what do the A's do the rest of the way to prepare for 2011? Who should be getting the A's at-bats for the next two months? Who is going to be a part of the A's future and who are we going to lose in the off-season? Is there anything you would have done differently last winter, or this season? Who could we have signed for the price of Sheets? Is there anything that could have been done to compete? And what does the rest of the season look like?