Colorado Rockies @ Oakland Athletics 5/23 || Game Preview

Edition #85

THIS WAS AN ASSIGNMENT.

Welcome!

This is a preview of Game #3 of the series between the Oakland Athletics and the Colorado Rockies. My name is Smayan Srikanth, and let’s look deeper into this game.

Okay. Let’s begin.

PLEASE NOTE: These are the most recent statistics as of Monday, May 20th.

The Oakland Athletics were predicted to be one of the worst teams in baseball this year. But, for some reason, they began peaking around April 22nd. They got two against the Yankees (who have one of the BEST teams in baseball), they WON A SERIES against the Orioles (who are one of the BEST teams in baseball), they SWEPT the Pirates, and they won the series against the Marlins. That stretch was just amazing for the A’s. 

But, starting May 6th, the A’s have been doing what they do best. Lose games.

In the last 13 days, they’ve only won 2 games! For a team that was almost a .500, that ruined everything! And, worst of all, other than the latest series against the Royals, all of these teams were divisional opponents. If they had won all of these games, there would’ve been a chance the A’s could’ve been 1st! 

The A’s rank 24th in hits and runs. Bad. They also rank 2nd in strikeouts. Woah. And that’s because for some reason they love the long ball. Home runs. They rank 4th in that stat with 58 of them. All through 49 games. The pace the Oakland Athletics are on right now would result in a record of 64-98. With that record, they would avoid being the second team to have a streak of 100+ losses for three years. The A’s are certainly the standard of 100-loss seasons.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the stars of the league. They’re Top 3 in almost EVERY stat. That’s why they’re one of the best in the league.

Per Monday, the Oakland Athletics are 1-9 in their last 10 games. The A’s have a 0.769 winning percentage in Oakland. They have a 0.529 winning percentage on the road. Their overall record is 19 wins and 30 losses. The A’s are currently 26th place in the MLB. Their run differential is -60, with an 11-19 record versus good teams. That’s not amazing, but that’s not bad. 

The A’s have many pluses. JJ Bleday, Abraham Toro, Shea Langliers, and Brent Rooker all have a high OPS+. Unfortunately, the A’s are one of those teams where pitching injuries have crowded over them. Paul Blackburn, who has been lights out for most of the season, Alex Wood, and Joe Boyle. Plus, bad decisions. Not by the players. By the general manager. For example, giving Estuery Ruiz less playing time than Seth Brown, who’s been super slow on the field and has half less of the league average OPS+. 

Let’s look at the Rockies. 

The Rockies are just… bad… And, while they play at one of the best stadiums for HRs and while they have some budding stars like Ezequiel Tovar and Ryan McMahon (Mik Man), it’s just not a good situation right now for the Rockies. They have a 0.750 winning percentage at home. They have a 0.315 winning percentage on the road. This winning percentage could help the Oakland Athletics big time when we watch the game on Thursday.

The Rockies are 23rd in runs scored and 5th in strikeouts, but they’re 14th in hits! How is that possible? They’re also 11th in batting average. The stats certainly prefer them. So, how do the Rockies (15 wins, 31 losses) have a worse record than the Oakland Athletics?

By putting the bat on the ball… The A’s are tied for 5th place in Statcast's barrel percentage measure.  That is the barrel of the bat. To put the bat there? Easier in the smaller levels. Hard in the major leagues. The A’s have a 5.9%. The Rockies meanwhile are in 21st place with only 4.8%. That may not seem like a huge difference, but it is.

But, enough about the bats. The Rockies are losing because of the pitching, which ranks 30th in the major leagues. Dead last… They have the highest ERA given up. 29th in the number of wins. Given up the most hits and 2nd in runs allowed. Advantage must be taken. While the Rockies have had a few pitching injuries, they haven’t had it as big as the A’s have had.

Before last weekend, the Rockies were on a roll, winning 8 straight. Then… They let the handicapped Giants take the sweep against them.

The Athletics and Rockies bats have slowed down the last couple of games, but they’re looking forward to taking advantage of each of their emails. Unfortunately for the Oakland Athletics, only 2 of them have hit against Cal. Not very good. Taking advantage of Austin Gomber in the next game is key.

For the game, we’re going to watch. Ryan Feltner is pitching. While he’s only given up 6 long balls, he has given up 31 earned runs and has a 5.69 earned run average. That’s good for the A’s. Currently, for the A’s, the probable pitcher is Joey Estes. He has only pitched in 2 games this season and has given up 9 runs on the season. Since he has only pitched in two games, his ERA is 9.35. 

I believe this will be a good and much-needed win for the A’s. If Joey Estes can do what he did versus the Mariners (good team), the A’s can easily win this game. I think he’s going to have a pretty mid-game, especially because of how Tovar and McMahon are hitting right now. The main reason I think they get the win will be because of them hitting against Ryan Feltner will be the needed reset. Final score prediction 7-5.

PREDICTION FOR THURSDAY, MAY 23RD.

WINNING TEAM: Oakland Athletics

LOSING TEAM: Colorado Rockies

SCORE: 7-3

PLAYERS TO WATCH: 

Brent Rooker (A’s), Abraham Toro (A’s), JJ Bleday (A’s), Joey Estes (A’s)

Ryan McMahon (Rockies), Ezequiel Tovar (Rockies), Elias Diaz (Rockies), Ryan Feltner (Rockies). 

My personal favorite on both teams are Zack Gelof (Fav A’s player) and Ezequiel Tovar (Fav Rockies Player).

Conclusion

My bad if the transitions weren’t smooth. I did have to take a few things out for the newsletter which probably ruined the transition.

It isn’t very statistically heavy (although my first draft was…) because not many know about baseball.

LAST POLL: