Elephant Rumblings: A’s have attainable goals in final weeks of season

Happy Tuesday, all!

An awesome weekend series was followed up last night with a loss to the AL West-leading Texas Rangers. It was a close 5-3 defeat that saw the A’s give up five unanswered runs. Wins at this point of the season don’t matter but there is one goal the club could use for motivation in these final weeks.

The early part of the season, when the A’s were historically struggling, saw Oakland on pace to match or exceed the worst record in modern MLB history, the 1962 New York Mets who had a 40-120 record.

The A’s have started to pick it up recently however. They’re not going to set the world on fire by any stretch of the imagination but a lot of the younger players the club has high hopes for have begun playing better as they get more acclimated and comfortable in the big leagues. The promotion of second baseman Zack Gelof has in particular provided a spark of energy for this club.

For the A’s to avoid the worst-record feat, they only need to go 9-38 the rest of the season. Avoiding those ‘62 Mets feels much more doable than it did even one month ago. And if they want to do even better, they can have a better record than the 2003 Detroit Tigers if they go 12-37 the rest of the season. Again, feels doable with the way the club is playing lately.

The club has gotten some reinforcements in the form of Gelof, Tyler Soderstrom and Esteury Ruiz. Jordan Diaz is swinging the bat well, and even Nick Allen seems to be seeing the ball much better now. And (long shot here) perhaps they even add a healthy Mason Miller back to the pitching staff if he’s healthy. Long story short, the A’s are much more exciting to watch now than they were at the beginning of the year and have some very realistic goals that they should be striving for in the final weeks of the season.

A’s Coverage:

• Ramon Laureano claimed on waivers by Cleveland Guardians
• The coffee shop in Tahoe where John Fisher is banned
• Nevada outlet opinion piece cites lack of Asians and Blacks as reason Vegas is better for A’s than Oakland
• Hot dog vendors face crackdown at Coliseum

MLB News & Interest:

• MLB issues suspensions for White Sox/Guardians brawl
• Rangers’ Josh Jung fractures thumb
• Ohtani stands alone with yet another multi-tool stat
• White Sox refute Middleton’s claims of “no rules” culture
• Red Sox’ Trevor Story to return Tuesday, Sale likely Friday
• Orioles remove announcer for referencing team’s struggles vs. Rays
• Astros promote former top prospect Jon Singleton
• Mead’s call up sparks intercontinental family odyssey
• Today in Baseball History

Best of Twitter:

What’s wrong with stating facts?

God I miss Semien…

Oh, we will:

Swaggy: