I can't believe this reality of 2012 A's Baseball!

D a m n I wish Bill King were alive to see this magic!!

I've been negative on here in the past, but let the past be the past. It's buried and dead for now!!!

I am so happy that Chris Carter is finally getting a chance to shine!!!

WOW!!!!

Billy The Bum is Now Billy Benius. That's Genius of course!!!!!

I hope that Brad Pitt will give the green light for the sequel of "Moneyball" in a few years.

Even though I did my math wrong on another thread the A's are on target to be over .500 by the All Star Break.

Ironically I am a CFO. LOL!

Anyway the A's are the real deal and Billy has been making all of the right moves on the green and gold chess board of life.

I'm all in! Are you???

RUSH ON!

Bob Melvin is proving to be legit, no doubt. Our schedule gets tougher in the second half but we just need to keep stroking the ball. Weeks is gonna come around IMO & with Carter coming into form....watch out. I cannot believe the power weve shown over the last mo but maybe it's for real? What a game though......Carter smashed that #hit bro!

A'S FOREVER

Hey bro! That was a HUGE BOMB!!!!

Again I am soooooooooooo happy for Carter!!! He deserves it!! I thought the A's Ownership were going to kick Carter out the door!!!

The Powerhouse A's are BACK!!!!!!!

Even little Weeks is finally doing what he does best! Stroke for singles and get on base!!! So glad he is not swinging for the fences anymore!! Our team finally has enough POP for that!!!

A'S FOREVER!

Melvin is the best A's manager since ART HOWE.

JMO

Both are tall, stoic,down to earth and absolutely RULE!

The A's are doing great. I always have faith in them no matter what others say.

My faith gets tested a lot and I love to mouth off about it on here but lately my faith has been restored.

At the end of the day no matter what I type or say I will love the A's forever.

"Our schedule gets tougher in the second half but we just need to keep stroking the ball."

That's the key. In April the A's scored the fewest runs in MLB (12 less than the 13th place team). In May they again scored the fewest (18 less). But in June they were 6th (only 5 less than the second most).

If they can keep scoring like they have in June then I look at the extra games against teams like the Orioles, Rays, and Indians as more chances to catch up and pass them.

Good for you. I wish the A's well.

Only 3 1/2 back from a wildcard.

Hey stranger!!

You are the only Giants fan I like in the world. LOL!

It s u c k sss that the A's were blown out tonight but if they win I will take .500 at the break!!

Cheers!

That's how I feel about them.

Cheers!

Yep! They are on the right path! I think Melvin is the right man to put the pedal to the metal and race to the finish line.

if its money ball get you pocket book out A's are 200 to 1 right now to win the WS. I put 25$ down thats a entertainment value.

lets go Oakland!! ! ! !

Carter looks like a different hitter up there now.

Disiplined, short stroke, looks so much more confident now! No telling what kind of light tower bombs he's going to launch. Kinda reminds me of Bo Jackson type strength...scary!

The game is July 13, against Josh Willingham and the Twins. Josh has two bombs already!
It just torques my gut, to think BB let him slip away! The A's should just give him the Barry Bombs treatment, and walk him.

That Minnesota park is sure beautiful! But its huge field has kinda put the kabosh on Mauers and Morneaus power numbers. Ploufe looks like a legit slugger. But the Twins kinda "gave away the store" when they lost Thome, Young, Cuddyer, and Kubel....they did a major rebuild when they didn't need to! It could have been a salary dump like BB does.

Home run hitters just cost too much nowadays, and that is why they are trying to limit the number of homers now, I believe.....bigger strike zone, bigger new parks.

The A's have had 14 walk off wins so far this season! The most od ant ML team! That makes them exciting, for sure!

A's have only had 8 walk-off wins this season, and yes, it leads the league in walk-offs so far.

loving the way they're playing, for sure!

I don't think there is any kind of effort to reduce home runs. The powers that be know that is what puts butts in the seats more than anything else. Take a look at this chart:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/bat.shtml

Look at the HR column. This is per game. Before 1994, it had only been above 0.95 once in the history of the game (remember 1987, the year of the home run?). Starting in 1994 it was over 1.0 every year Until 2010? That's when the effort was made - to boost HRs. As the labor impass grew serious everyone in the game wanted as many HRs as possible to get the fans back as soon as possible.

The mold was cast after the black sox scandal. That's when the HR craze first started. They went back to the same trick 75 years later. Home runs are going down because the steroid era has ended. We're going back to balanced baseball. For those of you who can't remember anything before the bash brothers it may take some getting used to, but I welcome it.

i think one of the more effective ways of reducing HRs is if MLB were to ever incorporate a computer to call balls and strikes or allow instant replay. then, we'll see A LOT more strikeouts as umpires do change the strikezone for certain pitchers, teams, hitters, etc.

Hey!!! Now you are talking!!! I might have to take those odds!!

Could you imagine if the A's still had Willingham? He homered again off of the A's pitching yet the A's got the win!!!

One game over .500 in mid July?

I might have to put my money where my mouth is.

The second wild card will be won by the 2012 A's. BOOK IT!

CHEERS!

Why not he first wild card? They're only four games behind the Angels and they still play them ten more times. If they go 7-3 in those games then that makes up the difference and they only have to be one game better than the Angels against the rest of the league. They also have six games to play against both the Orioles and Rays, seven against the Indians, and three against both the Red Sox and Tigers. Their are plenty of opportunities to pass all of the teams ahead of them.

The biggest problem is their nine games against the Rangers and seven against the Yankees. They really need to find a way to win at least half of those games to get the first wild card.

Edit: if they can get that home game then they can pitch Milone in that game for an almost automatic win, then have, hopefully, McCarthy, Anderson, and Parker to start off the next series.

I agree! Why not the first wild card! If the Yanks can hold off the Angels in the ninth it would be SWEET!!!!!

A's must win tonight!!!! I think Melvin should start having his pitchers walk Willingham. Don't you agree?