How To Improve The A’s On The Field Immediately

“Have better pitching” is not a strategy, it’s a project the front office, scouts, and development coaches, need to work on continuously until the team isn’t 30th in ERA — yes the A’s are currently even a tick worse than the Colorado Rockies, 5.55 to 5.53, thanks to completing their 18th game last night in which they have given up 10 runs or more.

However, some “insta-improve” strategies exist in a world where the manager has a few connected brain cells and the team brass rediscovers the art of being resourceful and clever towards the art of “winning an unfair game”. And evidence has even surfaced very recently.

Hit-And-Run

It’s not just for drunk drivers anymore. You don’t have to look far to find evidence of Mark Kotsay’s lack of tactical acumen, from ill-advised bunting to statistically unsound use of intentional walks to his love of parading myriad different relievers until he finds a bad one.

But right up there is the A’s reluctance to utilize the skill set they have to become one of baseball’s more prolific hit-and-run teams.

If it seems like the A’s hit into an awful lot of double plays it’s because guess what? “not hitting into DPs” is another area where the A’s are 30th out of 30 teams. For real, no team hits into DPs at a higher rate than the A’s, whose 0.92 DPs per game are more than double the output of MLB’s best DP avoiders, the Cubs (0.44).

The beauty of the hit-and-run is that it always opens up one side of the infield for a batter skilled enough to take advantage, and a hit almost assuredly moves the base runner from 1B to 3B. And even a ground ball that is fielded usually avoids the DP and advances the runner into scoring position.

Of course you need to have good contact hitters who won’t swing and miss and hang runners out to dry. Maybe hitters who even have an uncanny ability to “place” where they hit the ball.

But enough about Jacob Wilson, who came up last night against the leading ground ball pitcher in all of baseball in Framber Valdez, 1B/3B one out in a game the A’s trailed just 2-1. If ever there was a time just screaming for a hit-and-run it was that particular at bat, but what did the A’s do? Sat back as Wilson hit into a rally ending DP — his 10th of the season in 70 games played.

With Wilson, with Miguel Andujar, with Max Schuemann, even with Tyler Soderstrom if the count is right (Soderstrom has hit into 11 DPs), if the A’s utilized this tool with their better contact hitters it would instantly improve their offense’s ability to sustain rallies.

Multi-Inning/Tandem Relievers

I have said for a while now that I think the high leverage multi-inning reliever is the future. Nowhere is that more essential than in Sacramento where the bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster.

The A’s need to embrace more of a 6-2-1 and 5-3-1 model of approaching a game’s innings in games they hope to turn over to Mason Miller in the 9th. Parading a slew of mediocre 1 inning relievers like Grant Holman and Tyler Ferguson and TJ McFarland has predictable results we have endured time and time again.

One way to do this is to fortify the bullpen not with “good and erratic 1 inning arms” like Michel Otañez, Elvis Alvarado, Ferguson and Holman, but rather with relievers like JT Ginn. We saw the model work to perfection on Monday night when Mitch Spence tossed 5 solid innings and turned it over to Ginn, who was clearly on his game from the time he entered. Ginn threw 3 scoreless innings, Miller pitched the 9th, and the A’s had a tidy win.

With just 2 of these “high leverage 2-3 inning guys” culled from the depth chart of SPs, you have the means to utilize only these relievers in up to 4 games each week. They are a single bridge from a 5-6 SP to the closer.

Meanwhile, a well chosen “tandem” pair could be planned for the same “every 5th game” turn and the A’s have a natural pairing in Jacob Lopez and Mitch Spence once the rotation adds a replacement SP in Jack Perkins or Ken Waldichuk, both inching closer to joining the big league club.

It’s a good pairing because with one LHP and one RHP, the reliever will benefit from a lineup that has platoon advantages built in, and because Spence has been strictly a “5 IP pitcher” in need of a tandem/bridge partner. And Lopez might sustain success better in more of a 3-4 IP role.

If Perkins is called up, with his innings probably being limited he becomes a good candidate either for a tandem partnership or to move Lopez into a multi-inning reliever role. Hogan Harris and Sean Newcomb are potential multi-inning bridge relievers, as would be Brady Basso if he could ever get and stay healthy, Waldichuk if he needs a transitional role coming back from TJS.

Two quality “bridge relievers,” e.g., Ginn and Harris, one tandem reliever, e.g., Lopez, two late inning “plus relievers,” e.g., Michael Kelly and Miller — that’s only 5 of your relievers, but they are quality pitchers who are covering the bulk of your 6th-9th innings in winnable games with 3 “best of the rest” riding the AAA/MLB shuttle. Now you have an effective bullpen just with the relatively mediocre options currently in the A’s system.

Rediscover “The Black”

The best pitch location in baseball is not the recently popular “across the top of the zone,” it’s a fastball spotted on the outside corner at the knees (“the black”). That pitch is hardest for a batter’s swing to get to and is very low risk for slugging. It also forces hitters to lean out more protecting the outside half of the plate, making pitches to the inside half all the more effective.

No one needs to master this more than the one great reliever the A’s have, Mason Miller. Despite throwing his fastball at an an electric 101-102 MPH, batters know where to look for it and when they connect on his fastball at the top of the zone they can launch it to the pull side too frequently.

But Miller’s fastball on the black is devastating, not only because it is quickly past the reach of the swing but because it sets up his chase slider beautifully. If a hitter has to protect against what looks like a fastball on the black then the slider that starts there gets a lot of swings on a pitch that lands down and away far from the hitting zone.

Bill Caudill, whose career included Oakland along with the Cubs, Mariners, and Blue Jays, made a living as a closer spotting fastball after fastball on the black. It’s still the best pitch and location in baseball and if Miller, in bullpen sessions, can effectively zero in on that location repeatably then his high fastball, his chase slider, everything else becomes a true weapon and he returns to being the game’s elite closer he should be.

And that’s just 3 of many “small but big” tweaks that can make this A’s team far more competitive. Play the outfield shallow to the off field against non-power hitters and take away a lot of cheap hits. Bunt for hits to vacated portions of the infield when shifted, whether that’s down the 3B line or to the middle of an 80 foot gap between 1B and 2B. Look “middle middle” first pitch and be ready to swing if you see it.

In other words, be smart, not dumb, and you can win a lot of games you’ve been losing.