Teams To Root For, Part 4

The fourth team on my list of teams to root for now that the Mariners are definitely out of the running is...
...the Oakland Athletics

Now, if you didn't see this coming, you must not know me very well. The GM that pioneered an approach that emphasizes objective statistical performance analysis (you guys probably lump it all together and call it sabermetrics -- that's close enough, I guess, but they really are somewhat different), Billy Beane, will have to work some magic again this year.

The pitching has been strong. If you didn't know that, you probably don't follow baseball enough. The Big Three (Hudson, Mulder, Zito) was supposed to become the Big Four (adding Harden), but things haven't quite panned out in that regard. Harden's still good, of course, and there's always Blanton on the way, so the A's have plenty of talent to deal.

If you don't have an affection for sabermetrics, then these guys are also the ideal underdog. Continually spending less to get a comparable team onto the field, the A's management has been leading the campaign to debunk the myth that "small market teams can't compete," going to the playoffs several times, and winning the second most games this century (for seasons in 2000-2003, one behind the M's, thanks to the 2001 miracle).

This year, they're doing it without Tejada, and they've fared well enough so far. Recently losing Chavez for several weeks won't help, as his bat was truly beginning to break out against lefties (he was always known for mashing righties and struggling against lefties) and his defense is always incredible. What they do (or don't do) between now and the All-Star Break to try to catch the division leading Angels could make the difference in their season. I know most teams make their moves between the ASB and the trading deadline, but I think these guys should move now and ask questions later. They are almost always improving their team down the stretch, and I wouldn't expect this year to be any different.

As the Mariners fizzle away, I hope to see the A's climb their way to the top of the AL West, as a victory for the underdog, to dispell the myths that Bud Selig keeps trying to propagate, and to show that sabermetric concepts are successful.