Marty: Your prediction, that the Giants will be lucky to walk away with one win in the three game series about to start, may very well be omniscient. However, there is always a lurking danger in selling a team down the river too quickly, particularly one as baffling as the Giants. Since the season began there has been consistency in pointing out the team’s apparent weaknesses. Despite this, they are still in first place and the Dodgers, with the strongest pitching in the league have yet to dislodge them. The A’s, as I read today’s standings, are 6 losing games out of first place.

Ed, This series and your well thought out resonse to my prediction of the A’s winning at least two of three, demonstrates why baseball is such a great game, one series doesn’t make the season, but every day another compelling story is revealed. I’m looking forward to reading your analysis as the weekend progresses.

Fans click below for a view of this weekend’s A’s – Giants series.The A’s have three great pitchers and, possibly, a much overrated remaining club. Tejada and Chavez? The season is well along towards the halfway mark and neither has reached .250. This is the expressed strength of the team. One might wish to assert that this is not a very scientific analysis because it doesn’t take into account such factors as the division and/or league strengths in which they are playing. True, but the latest figures I have seen show the National League some fifteen games in front of the American League in interleague play. However, this exercise wasn’t supposed to be about the A’s but rather about the Giants and why one continues to question their success and seeks, usually unsuccessfully, for an articulable, reasonable explanation. In the series starting tonight, they are throwing three pitchers at the A’s, Moss, who has problems throwing strikes, and a couple of youngsters who, combined, have started a total of some 10 games and are in their first year in the league at the tender age of 21 and 22. They do not have a single outfielder available other than their three starters, and a Fresno player, with 7 minor league seasons behind him and a present Fresno batting average of around .260. In their game last night against LA, the two winning runs were produced by a 42 year old and a 40 year old. each hitting a home run. They are last in both leagues in driving in runs with men in scoring position. They came within 8 outs of winning a world series last year and and people are still puzzled over how that ever happened. They then proceeded to lose a Hall of Fame player who was in the yearly habit of driving in over a hundred runs and is still doing so for another club. What is it that drives this team? Ordinarily, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at the personnel on a ball club and come to a rational conclusion respecting the reasons for their success or lack thereof. The Giants have one player who is among the greatest players ever, Bonds. No one player, even Bonds, can, by himself, turn a losing team into a winner. There must be more than Bonds which, for close to a season and a half now, has made winners out of this club. The positives one can look to are a first class stopper in the rotation, Schmidt. Schmidt has came into his own this year. He has already thrown three shutouts in an era when most pitchers consider it a “quality start” (whatever that might mean) if they go 6 innings and give up three runs. They have a major league ball player on second base, hitting well and fielding his position far better than anyone expected. (By the way, what does that say about the A’s ability to recognize talent, when they thought so little of his ability to hold down a second base job that they DH’d him last year, and are scrambling to find a second baseman today?) They have a number of men, who might, if one wished to be generous, be aptly called “mature” rather than simply “old”, Santiago, Grissom, Gallarraga, who, along with Bonds, lend a no-panic air to the team and who produce far beyond what is expected of them. This no-panic air is aided by a no-panic manager. The team is leading the league in fielding and a strong defense is frequently overlooked or not given enough consideration when one is evaluating a team. They have a reserve infielder who should probably be playing regularly for them and who would be a starter on many teams. Perez. In this day, when so many players have trouble getting thru a season without injuries, a player such as Perez, who can come in and provide strong defense and timely hitting. is invaluable. That about sums up the positives. As for the problem areas which have yet to be mentioned—they have a setup pitcher for a closer, their bullpen is, as has been pointed out in the past, “shaky”, they have no left handed hitter coming off the bench to pinch hit. One of their starting pitchers, Ainsworth, apparently has a more severe arm problem than originally thought, leaving them with Williams, all 21 years of him, in a starting role. After all of that above analysis, and, perhaps, in light of it, the answer to the question, what is there about this team that keeps them in contention, is still elusive. Elusive or not, don’t sell them short. At least, wait until this A’s series is over before predicting their demise. They may not cooperate.

Ed