CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The rebuild in Oakland has drawn harsh criticism, especially among fans and media because of the potential relocation of the franchise to Las Vegas.
The A’s are the worst team in baseball at 19-56 entering play Wednesday night but they seem to be trying to replicate Cleveland’s philosophy of developing pitchers.
“I like what they're doing,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “I know that their record isn’t going to reflect it, but they have some baseball players on their team, which I think is good. They’ve got some big arms that don’t always command. Whether they’ve commanded against us or maybe we haven’t made them pay the price for not commanding, maybe a little bit of both, so that’s probably because some of those arms are terrific.”
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Both the A’s and Guardians have five rookie qualifier pitchers with 25 or more innings this season. No other team in baseball has more than three. The A’s have had 39 starts this season by rookie qualifiers and Cleveland is second behind them with 32.
Wednesday night, Gavin Williams, Cleveland’s top prospect, makes his big-league debut and joins a rotation that already features youngsters Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee, plus Peyton Battenfield and Triston McKenzie, who are on the injured list.
“For us to remain competitive, we need to produce or develop these pitchers because that’s the one thing, we probably can’t go get them,” Francona said. “I mean, you see what they get on the market. We’ve got to stay in our lane and so if we can develop starting pitching and bullpen, I think there’s a difference.
“It’s just the money's out of this world, so if we can develop them, we have a chance to be competitive.”
Get ‘em in – Tuesday night the Guardians were 3-12 with runners in scoring position but it was just enough to pull out their sixth extra inning victory and 14th win in 31 one-run games this season.
As a team, Cleveland is hitting .252 – 155-616 – with runners in scoring position, which is about 10% off the Major League average this season. So, how can they improve in those situations?
“More opportunities,” Francona said. “It’s like when you have to do it when you only get a couple [chances], it can become glaring when you have a lot of opportunities. A lot of times people gloss over it on a night because you had a bunch of opportunities that that’s the best way. It’s like when you have to do it or you’re going to win or lose, that gets tough.”
Get even – Cleveland entered Wednesday night’s game just one game behind Minnesota for first place in the AL Central despite being four games below .500 at 34-38.
Even if they overtake the Twins, it’s hard to consider the Guardians a contender if they remain below .500
“I guess it depends what the team ahead of you does, right,” Francina said “I think we certainly need to get to 500. That’s hard to imagine if you don’t that it would stay this way.”
Not as bad as it looks – Oakland’s record might the worst through 75 games since the 2003 Tigers, who were 18-57 and went on to lose 119 games, but the A’s are a scrappy bunch despite four losing streaks this season of at least six consecutive losses.
Seven of the A’s last 10 games have been decided by a run and they are tied with the Guardians and three other teams with 10 extra-inning games in 2023.
Close calls – The Guardians and A’s have played four nailbiters so far this season with three of the four games, including last night’s 3-2 Cleveland victory, going 10 innings and three of the four games have also been decided by a run.