Oak Land Athletics series preview: Seriously, these guys again?

If it feels like the Royals just played Athletics, that’s because they did. Having just finished a three-game set with the deserters of Kansas City last weekend, the dark forces in the mysterious scheduling office saw fit to schedule the Royals to travel to Oak Land just three days after the A’s left Kansas City.

These guys should be pretty familiar, fresh in our collective consciousness only to fade into being forgotten immediately after this series has run its course and the A’s no longer matter to the Royals. With no one really mattering to the Royals this season, the same could probably be said for every series.

Game times and pitching matchups are as follows

• Thursday, June 7 — 9:05 PM CDT — Jason Hammel versus Paul Blackburn
• Friday, June 8 — 9:05 PM CDT — Jake Junis versus Frankie Montas
• Saturday, June 9 — 3:05 PM CDT — Danny Duffy (L) versus Trevor Cahill
• Sunday, June 9 — 3:05 PM CDT — Brad Keller versus Sean Manaea

Don’t worry, no one has heard of Paul Blackburn. His 10 starts last year were made in the darkest timeline. They didn’t happen in ours. He’s pitched 3.2 IP in AAA this year, so expect a short start. Frankie Montas DOMINATED the Royals last time out. Jon Jay probably was not the problem. Trevor Cahill. Those two words hurt to type. Sean Manaea. Those do too.

What I wrote last Friday:

Matt Chapman, Marcus Semien, and Jed Lowrie provided the lion’s share of their production. Chapman is a defensive wizard at third. His 13 DRS is the best of any defensive player in baseball by three runs (Carlos Gomez has 10 DRS in RF so far). His 4.8 UZR is only fourth-best in baseball. He’s also got some pretty serious power—hung 30 dongs between AAA and Oak Land last year. Lowrie has cooled off after a hot start, but his 135 wRC+ is tied for 30th-best of qualified hitters.

Chapman added four more DRS in his past six games. He know leads baseball by 4 DRS. His 8.1 UZR (what did he do this past week???) also outpaces every other player in baseball now. Dude is good. Lowrie looks to be settling in.

Oak Land is slashing .242/.312/.412 with a .314 wOBA and 99 wRC+. They’ve racked up 7.9 fWAR, good for 13th in baseball.