Here's a Thought: Examining Dallas Braden

At this point in the season, the 61-76 Oakland A's have little to play for. As a columnist, this fact gives me rather little to write about them. There are no playoff aspirations at this point, and it doesn't really matter how well certain players do in the next few weeks. At the same time, there's no real need to go on some sort of rant against the team: I'm confident that the long-term plan will work. What is the long-term plan, you ask? Well, the A's clearly are building around a very young and surprisingly competent pitching staff. They also have a number of top hitting prospects, most notably Chris Carter, Brett Wallace, and Adrian Cardenas, in Triple-A. Once those three make it to the majors, they should begin to turn a terrible offense around. As the offense goes from bad to decent, and the pitching goes from good to great (which it should if most of the pitchers follow normal development patterns), the A's could have similar results to the teams from ...