A golden era in bay area baseball

Here, in the San Francisco Bay Area, we are enjoying the dawn of a golden era in baseball with two talented MLB teams, two superb managers, and two highly-capable general managers. Bruce Bochy delivered a second title to San Francisco. Bob Melvin delivered an impossible division championship in Oakland. Brian Sabean has built two World Series teams, and Billy Beane built a winning team with a shoestring and some pocket lint. I must use this space to look across the bay to Oakland and acknowledge Bob Melvin for his accomplishments, and to cast a small ray of light on them. Oakland Athletics’ manager Bob Melvin was named the American League Manager of the Year. He absolutely deserved the honor. The evisceration that took place in Miami last week felt exactly the same as in Oakland last year. At this point last year, A’s General manager Billy Beane gutted Oakland’s uber-talented starting rotation. He traded off the teams’ All-Star closer, got rid of their franchise catcher in mid-season, and basically fielded a team of triple-A no names. Fans only recognized Coco Crisp or Yoenis Cespedes. They were a shell of a team: like the Marlins are today. Imagine the Marlins winning the NL East next year; overtaking the Nationals or the Braves during the last nine games of the season to do so. That’s what Melvin and his team accomplished this season. The universally panned Oakland A’s won their division. No one; and I mean no one predicted the A’s would win even 70 games this season. Their only divisional race would be between them and the Mariners to see who could avoid the AL West cellar. I believe a great manager is a guy who has a solid baseball philosophy and foundation. He is consistent, and patient. Yet he is not prone to ruts, or is stubborn in habits and practices. He is not afraid to employ unconventional methods at the exact right moment in a game. A great manager doesn’t impose his will on his team; he inspires players to play at their peak, naturally falling in line with the manger’s will and his approach to the game. The A’s won 94 games in 2012. They beat their division rivals the mighty Rangers and the newly-loaded Angels to win the AL West, and they clinched the title with a difficult schedule. They went 51-25 from the All Star break on. They had winning records on the road and at home. And they won impossible games on a routine basis throughout the entire season. At no point during any game, no matter the score or the situation, could you count the A’s out. Melvin had nothing to work with on opening day of the 2012 season. He lost his ace Gio Gonzalez to the Nationals, where Gonzalez was the only 20-game winner in the National League this year. He lost his All-Star closer Andrew Baily to the Red Sox, and he lost his number-two-ace, Trevor Cahill to the Diamondbacks. And his remaining guys, Dallas Braden and Brett Anderson were largely out of action. The only sign of hope that the A’s ownership had not totally given up on the team last year, was when they signed the Cuban sensation, Yoenis Cespedes. Many were surprised with the high-profile deal, during a time when the Angels were making headlines with their Albert Pujols / C.J. Wilson acquisition. What Melvin did with what was left after Beane’s fire sale was nothing less than amazing. The fact that the A’s came back from a five game deficit with only nine games left was spectacular. And they had to get through the gauntlet of playing the Orioles, Tigers, Yankees, and Rangers down the homestretch in order to win the division. Winning the division was not enough, though. Melvin took the remaining ashes from last winter and transformed them into a phoenix. His pitching staff ranked second in the American League with a team ERA of .350. The Oakland pitching staff ranked second in the AL in winning percentage and was second to last in earned runs. Only the Tampa Bay Rays allowed less runs. No one saw that coming, either. The pitching staff was gutted, and Oakland had to start a brigade of rookie arms. As I mentioned earlier, we are in the midst of a golden era in baseball. Our baseball teams on both sides of the bay have top-notch skippers who know how to win games. They are both division champions. And they both have every reason to expect more success in 2013. There was mild talk in October about a possible Bay Bridge series. Though, I found that unlikely to happen, I cannot rule it out of possibility over the next season or two. Like the A’s not being favored to win anything, the Giants were not favored to win their Divisional Series against the Reds, nor the LCS against the Cardinals, not to mention the World Series against the Tigers. The point is that the experts didn’t predict the success that the A’s and the Giants enjoyed this year. The pundits will not discount the Giants or the A’s next season. For the Bay Area baseball fan, the next few years will deliver quality baseball, played by teams with enormous talent, managed by skippers with a touch of genius, who are both capable of winning a lot of games, and finding success in the postseason. I am optimistic we will see more playoff baseball on both sides of the bay next year. The post A golden era in bay area baseball appeared first on Bay Area Sports Nut.