Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

OAKLAND – The A’s have lost four in a row. And things haven’t looked this good since 1992.

In recent seasons, it’s been the same old story in Oakland. Come out of the gate slow, get lost in pack, coast along until the All-Star break, then get sizzling hot and make a short-lived run at the post-season.

But no matter how well the Old Big Three was throwing in August and September, the A’s were always in too many close games. They lacked the speed and situational hitting to generate offense when their power wasn’t enough to put teams away. And their management and fans dreaded handing games over to a bullpen that melted down quicker than a stick of butter on a hot stove.

Click below for more!Oakland’s post-season run finally seemed to run out of gas in 2004 and 2005. Mulder and Hudson were traded. And Zito, in his free agency year in 2006, may be on his way soon. Meanwhile, however, the A’s line-up has been completely transformed and upgraded, and a new group of starting pitchers has emerged.

Finally, the seemingly indelible legacy of Jim Mecir and Octavio Dotel is gone, and as much as anything this seems to have changed the whole dynamic of the club. The ability to hold a lead might be the biggest single reason why this A’s club has the potential to go deep into the fall.

Now, for the first time beginning a new season, Ken Macha has a complete set of bullpen tools. Justin Duchscherer, Joe Kennedy, Kiko Calero, Kirk Saarloos, and Houston Street are going to disappoint a bunch of would-be heros and hold onto to a lot of hard-earned leads.

Now, the New Big Three of Harden, Haren, and Blanton doesn’t have to be as perfect as the original trio of Zito, Hudson, and Mulder – who spent their careers here looking over their shoulders to see the likes of Billy Koch and Ricardo Rincon getting ready to routinely give it back the leads they had so painstakinglly forged.

For the first time in of memory Oakland looks solid on all fronts. Defense, starting pitching,the bullpen, power, the bench, even speed, this is a very well-balanced, deep, and talented ball club.

Since the departure of Miguel Tejada, the club has been waiting for a three-run homer from Eric Chavez every day. But we all know baseball doesn’t work that way, not winning baseball. Now that the increasingly lively bats of Milton Bradley and Frank Thomas have been added to the lineup, we are starting to see those hitter’s counts, and regular big flys from Chavy. And the more cautious opposing pitchers get with the Big Hurt and the Game Man, the more pitches Chavez will see.

And now the A’s don’t even have to wait for that three-run job. One day I looked up and there was actually speed on the bases. Milton Bradley, Jay Payton, Antonio Perez, Marco Scutaro, even Bobby Crosby – suddenly this is a team that can run. To complement the bevvy of speedsters, the club has situaltional hitters – such as Mark Kotsay and Jason Kendall – that can move these runners along when Oakland needs to manufacture a run.

But this column isn’t quite ready to name the A’s a post-season favorite. Yet.

A lot of writers have gotten carried away with the Bobby Crosby-as-MVP story. Let him lose the Eric Byrnes-like extra motion in his swing and you might see some big numbers. But first have a bona fide (and injury-free) good year before talking about the Hall Fame. And we want Jason Kendall to prove he can hit major league pitching, after a career of .300 seasons in the Triple A NL with the Pirates.

Perhaps most importantly, Kirk Saarloos has to replace Esteban Loaiza in the rotation and resume his routine solid outings at the back of the rotation, and leave it to the front office to worry about who to blame for the scouting on Loaiza and that $21M boondoggle.

This is an outstanding team defensively. How could it not be with three centerfielders in the outfield on any given day, Kotsay, Bradley and Jay Payton? And Nick Swisher is a vastly improved outfielder. All four can throw. There won’t be a lot of extra bases taken on the A’s this year.

The infield is very solid, with Chavy headlining the highlight reel at third, and a huge upgrade of Dan Johnson over Scott Hatteberg. Marco Scutaro provides outstanding bench defense at short and second, and he and newcomer Antonio Perez (who led the Dodgers in BA in 2005 at .297) will supply many big stops and key hits for the Athletics.

It’s not quite a Yankee-like murderer’s row, but the A’s are now carrying some heavy lumber, a look we haven’t seen around the Coliseum since the Giambi days. Beyond Chavez,Thomas, and Bradley, pitchers ought to be careful with a trio of hitters who are going to hit their share of home runs – Nick Swisher, Crosby,and Dan Johnson.

This is a much stronger team than in 2005. Joe Kennedy might be the secret weapon if a southpaw spot in the rotation opens this summer. How the club handles the transition from the Old Big Three, and the almost inevitable mid-pennant race departure of Barry Zito to the East, to the New Big Three is the one question whose answer will probably most determine Oakland’s success in reaching the post-season, and ultimately whether they can get past the first round ALDS, in 2006.