A's Melvin, Weeks inject life into dead team

Is this season moving fast or what? Spring Training felt like it was five minutes ago and now, just like that, we’re a little over a month away from the trade deadline. That magical time of year when every baseball fan is slightly on edge; where every move, or non-move, could be the difference between “this could be the year” and “there’s always next year.”

For the next month, each and every fan will be hypothesizing on what his or her team needs to get over that hump and into the postseason. It’s a telling time of year. If your GM makes a move that brings in talent, you know the front office is serious about going all the way this year. If they ship out talent for prospects, you’re in the dreaded “rebuilding” phase.

A’s fans have become far too familiar with this phase over the last five years. In fact, the rebuilding phase has seemed to be connected to the building of something else. Well, I’ve got news for you (which should come as a shock to absolutely no one), that “something else” A’s fans have been hoping for and Bud Selig has been refusing to seriously address isn’t coming any time soon. They’ve got to start looking for other ways to bring fans out to the ballpark and creating an exciting team would certainly help.

You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who likes Mark Ellis more than I do. The fact that he’s been in the top five among AL second basemen in fielding percentage for the last six years speaks for itself to just about everyone except the people who vote for Gold Gloves. His stellar defense has always been more than enough to make up for his career .265 batting average and it’d be difficult to find a nicer guy in all of baseball than the South Dakota native.

But now there’s this guy on the team that is bringing an infectious energy. He’s hitting, he’s playing defense, he’s all-around exciting to watch and brings an “anything could happen” air to a game. He gets on base and the pitcher can’t think of anything other than him. The A’s can’t afford to favor Ellis over Jemile Weeks. It’d be sending a similar message that keeping Geren would have sent. Beane would be saying, “I like this guy as a person and what he’s meant in the past, so we’re going to keep him here, whether he’s the right guy for the job or not.”

I know that Ellis is a million times more liked by fans than Geren ever was, but keeping him around as a starter wouldn’t be the right thing for the team and keeping him on the bench wouldn’t be the right thing for Ellis. We just have to accept, the Ellis era is coming to a close in Oakland.  If only they could figure out a way to convince him to retire and stay on as an infield coach. We all know they need it.

I’m not a huge fan of the term, “Chicks dig the long ball.” I don’t happen to dig it all that much. Sure, home runs are exciting, but I dig the underrated guys who play defense and get on base, the guys who play hard and make things happen. But the fact is, the long ball sells tickets and that’s something the A’s have been missing. The team hasn’t had a 30 home run guy since Jack Cust hit 33 in 2008 (he also struck out 197 times that year, but hey, who’s counting). Last year, Kevin Kouzmanoff’s 16 homers led the team.

Hardcore fans find other stats that excite them and look at multiple factors and qualities in players and in games, but for the A’s to bring in more fans without the new ballpark, they need to appeal to the average fan too; and if there’s one thing the average fan likes, it’s the long ball. Who could blame them? It’s exciting knowing that at any moment your team could go from down two to up one. It’s hard to cheer for a team that gets down a couple runs and all hope is lost, and that’s what it’s felt like as an A’s fan for the last few years.

The team is headed in the right direction. I honestly believe that Melvin is going to bring out the best in these guys, Jemile Weeks is going to add a burst of personality and energy that this team has been thirsting for and if Beane could add another bat to supplement the power that Josh Willingham is capable of, the team will keep winning and fans will show up.

If you can’t build it, smash a few out of the park, steal a few bases, strike them out, and they will come.


(csnbayarea.com)