77-62

85-55

83-57

39-25

You would be forgiven if those records don’t immediately ring a bell to you. They are, in order, the records of the 2013 Beloit Snappers, 2014 Stockton Ports, 2015 Midland Rockhounds and current record of the 2016 Nashville Sounds (the Low-A, High-A, Double-A, and Triple-AAA affiliates of our Oakland A’s).

So, why do these matter if the big league team sucks? Well, for one, these are really good records, and two, they were accomplished by a lot of the same prospects currently knocking on the door of a big league callup.

There’s been a lot of talk on this site recently about "building a core" and "sustaining success". Those two concepts go hand in hand with establishing a winning culture. And these records above, even though they don’t mean much compared to the record of the big league club, illustrate both a core coalescing together and sustaining success through multiple years. The "common denominator" prospects of these teams are guys like Olson, Maxwell and Nunez (having played together since that 2013 Beloit season), as well as Brugman, Healy and Pinder who joined that threesome in Stockton in 2014 and have been together ever since. These guys undoubtedly have great individual talent, but they have also overcome collective challenges and peaks and valleys, and have won together and won big three and a half years running.

In the minors, big talent usually wins handily over "great chemistry"; but with a sample size of nearly 500 games to evaluate, perhaps these guys might be showing that there IS something to cohesion, chemistry and just building a culture where familiarity MAGNIFIES individual talent to a degree where these guys just know what to expect from each other, know they are going to win more often than not, can pick each other up after tough losses and sustain positive momentum.

I’m usually on the BWH side of the fence when it comes to not worrying much about roster turnover at the big league level: these guys are pros and if they have the talent, they should be able to deliver wins, regardless of whether they gel with their compadres in the clubhouse or not. However, I think that the lack of familiarity/cohesion/chemistry or whatever you want to call it with the big league team both last season and this one has had tangible negative impact on the squads’ ability to compete. The FO pretty much admitted to as much last offseason and (seemingly) made moves to correct that - although such a correction is difficult to effect when the team is just not very good.

As we come up on trading season and a near-inevitable reshuffling of the A’s big league roster stemming from a likely sell-off, I’d like to point to the records above to hopefully bring some hope to the A’s of 2017 and beyond. Healy and Brugman are absolutely crushing the ball for AAA right now and both play positions where there will probably be big league vacancies sooner rather than later. I could see both up with the big club by at least September, and maybe sooner. Pinder and Olson have fought through some early season struggles to get back to respectable overall numbers and have been hot lately, Nunez has shown flashes of greatness and Maxwell has been pretty steady offensively, and by all accounts, is a pretty good defensive catcher after focusing on that side of the game for much of his career up to this point.

These guys are not can’t-miss prospects and some are probably playing a little over their heads relative to their true talent (Brugman, Healy) but they have produced consistently, moved up together regularly and at this point, seem as a group to be "greater than the sum of their parts". If they can come up, at least play well defensively and fundamentally sound on both sides of the game, then I have no reason to believe that they wouldn’t be able to leverage their history of playing and succeeding together towards meaningful progress on the big league squad.

Granted, I am under no illusions that even if these guys come up and play well, they will be able to make the A’s a legitimate contender again on their own. What I think can happen though, is that instead of seeing a bunch of NL-bred one/two year chaff/placeholders, these guys can come up, provide a "backbone to respectability", solid clubhouse culture that is seemingly already "seasoned" and a product on the field that gets better each game out.

The organization will definitely need another bushel of effective (healthy) starting pitchers and a few more everyday position players to compete again, even if the above comes to pass, but with Hill, Reddick, Valencia and a few decent bullpen arms to market this summer, I think some of those holes could be patched via trade very soon. Clearing some of the salary in those trades and letting potential free agents walk, you could be looking at this base-level type of 2017 roster before even thinking about any additions:

SP

1 - Sonny

2 - Alvarez

3 - Manaea (please god, be ok!)

4 - Mengden

5 - Graveman/Hahn/Overton/Gossett/Alcantara

RP

Madson

Doolitle

Axford

Hendricks

Dull

Triggs/Coulumbe/Schuster/Wendelken/Healy

Long reliever/LOOGY

LF - Canha/Davis

CF - Brugman

RF - Vogt

3B - Lowrie

SS - Semien

2B - Pinder

1B - Healy

C - Maxwell/Phegley

DH - Davis/Canha/Butler

BU - Burns

BU - Sogard/Walsh

Lineup (against RHP)

1 - Brugman (CF)

2 - Semien (SS)

3 - Lowrie (3B)

4 - Davis (DH)

5 - Vogt (RF)

6 - Canha (LF)

7 - Healy (1B)

8 - Maxwell (Catcher)

9 - Pinder (2B)

Lineup (against LHP)

1 - Brugman (CF - no substantial platoon splits in the minors)

2 - Semien - SS

3 - Lowrie - 3B

4 - Davis - LF

5 - Canha (RF)

6 - Butler (DH)

7 - Phegley (Catcher)

8 - Healy (1B)

9 - Pinder (2B)

That team would:

1. Cost only about $62 million (including Butler), which leaves the team with $20 million easy for FA additions or to take on a salary in trade

2. Most likely play better team defense, with strengthened up-the-middle options (Maxwell, more Phegley/less Vogt at C, Pinder a big upgrade over Lowrie, Lowrie an upgrade over Valencia, more Canha/less Davis in LF)

3. Probably get better throughout the year as they mature together

Granted, it’s not a really robust lineup. But it’s got some upside with the younger hitters once they hit their stride, and is versatile enough to withstand some base-level injury issues.

If you add to that base/core with say, a reunion with Jesse Chavez (something I like and something that Chavez seemingly has interest in doing), along with another upside/bounceback starter play (maybe someone like Jorge de la Rosa), and whatever additions the team can make via trades this summer, then you could be looking at a decent team at least headed in the right direction that could get progressively better with additions like a more polished Matt Olson, Renato Nunez, Matt Chapman, Franklin Barreto, Richie Martin and the top-3 draft pick pitchers from this recent draft class over the next 1,2,3 seasons.

Overall, I think it would just be very intriguing to turn the page and roster over to a group that has consistently won together, rather than cycle through band-aid solutions with a mantra of "If everything breaks right…". Letting these guys go, giving them time to adjust to the big leagues without a ton of pressure and trusting that they’ll eventually do what they’ve always done - overcome slow starts/inevitable challenges of the game, play fundamentally sound baseball, get better with time, play well together - seems like a worthwhile gambit relative to the alternatives, and one that would be refreshing, with the payoff of establishing a winning culture that could last awhile with a more or less cheap, homegrown backbone that would allow the FO to strategically add pieces around them...