Oakland begins another season with low outside expectations and thoughts that the low-budget club will be at the bottom of the AL West and perhaps even the American League. The A’s are counting on their revamped bullpen after the club was a MLB-worst 19-35 in one-run games last year.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
Believe it or not the White Sox have increased their win total in each of the last three seasons, though they haven’t reached the break-even point and were out of the playoff picture long before each year ended. It’s widely considered the Sox need to take a bigger jump this season to avoid massive changes that would likely involve manager Robin Ventura. It won’t be easy in a stacked AL Central that includes the defending champion and two-time AL pennant winning Royals. Oddsmakers have the Sox at +563 to win the division, behind the Royals, Indians and Tigers.
Money ball isn’t going to help the Athletics this season. The AL West should be ruled by Texas teams in 2016 and the A’s will be on the bottom looking up. If the A’s want to improve on their 68-win last season, better play at home would be a nice start. Oakland was an MLB worst 34-47 at O.co Coliseum in 2015 and open the season with 10 of its first 13 at home.
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Jose Quintana is one of the most underrated players in baseball. The lefty compiled a 3.36 ERA over 206.1 innings last season, but was rewarded with just nine victories. He’s the first pitcher since 1901 to toss at least 200 innings with an ERA lower than 3.55 and not more than nine wins in three consecutive years.
His 25 quality starts were the second-most in the AL and his 3.62 run support was the second-lowest. Quintana is looking for his first career victory over Oakland in three starts.
Rich Hill made his first start as a MLB pitcher since 2009 last September with Boston. In between the lefty appeared in 119 games in relief. He was 2-1 with a 1.55 ERA in four starts at the end of 2015, turning that into a one-year deal with Oakland.
Hill has been limited over the past several seasons due to shoulder surgery in 2009 and Tommy John surgery in 2011. He struggled during the spring, but his audition late last season was encouraging enough for Oakland to sign him.
LIVE BETTING
A good deal of Oakland’s problems last season could be traced to a problematic defense that saw new shortstop Marcus Semien lead the league with 35 errors and a bullpen that allowed a staggering 74 home runs. The bullpen has been upgraded, but the dagger could again be the defense. It’s not so much that the A’s led the majors in errors this spring, although that’s troubling, it’s that they showed a propensity for the non-errors, too, the throwing-to-the-wrong-base or missing-the-cutoff-man kind. And it’s strange because the team spent an exceptional amount of time working on its defense this spring. “We might not be a great defensive team, but we can’t be a bad defensive team. We have to make the routing plays,” manager Bob Melvin said.
QUICK PICK
Both teams made significant roster upgrades during the offseason to try and reach contender status. The top of Chicago’s rotation is solid and Quintana has the stuff to get him over the nine-win hump – he’s won nine games in each of the past three seasons. The Sox dealt with some controversy during the spring when designated hitter Adam LaRoche suddenly retired after he was told his son couldn’t hang around the clubhouse so much. The move is probably beneficial since LaRoche couldn’t hit and was stealing money.
Chicago 6, Oakland 2
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