Fun Fact: Only one team wins the World Series every year. Which means 29 teams don’t win the final game of the year which according to Moneyball means their season didn’t fucking matter. When a team gets eliminated from winning the World Series I’ll do a profile of their season.  

Today’s Team….Oakland, Sacramento, Las Vegas Athletics

How Did They Get Eliminated

The A’s found themselves eliminated from division contention on September 16th that despite winning against the Red Sox the Mariners rattled off their 10th straight win behind the Big Dumper hitting 2 more dingers. Then on September 17th the A’s would lose in extra innings to the Red Sox ending their chance to win the World Series. 

What Do I Know About This Team Because I Only Follow the Brewers

Well the only thing that most baseball fans know is that they aren’t actually playing in Oakland anymore and instead are playing in  Sacramento in a AAA stadium while their stadium in Las Vegas is being built. This would be a novel thing but the Rays are also playing at a non-major league level stadium and are instead playing at the Yankee’s spring training facility. 

It has to be demoralizing as a big leaguer to work your whole life to get to this level only to play in front of 10k or so fans at “home.” You get flashbacks of the cramped clubhouses and the leftover concessions for after the game. You can probably smell the gas fumes of the bus you are taking to get to your next 5 game series. 

They are professionals but knowing you don’t have a true home has to wear on the psyche. Not that a lot of players are going to lay down roots in the cities that they play for. But even next year they will play home games in Las Vegas. So even when they are home they won’t be home. Its a bad deal all-around and handled pretty poorly for all those involved. 

The other thing that I know about this team is that they are going to be playing some games in Vegas next year! And they are playing the Brewers in Vegas which means I and every other Brewer fan will be heading to Vegas for this series. This is yet another excuse to go to Vegas and its going to be in June which means it will be 90 degrees when the 7:05 first pitch comes around. 

My wife and I went to the Packers-Raiders game in Vegas and that stadium was kind of terrible. The concourse was way too tiny, there was only one way to get to your seat and if you had to go to the bathroom you were fighting against the crowd to get back to your seat. If the A’s new stadium is anything like the Raiders stadium, going to a game will be annoying. It's also probably good that the Brewers will only play there every other year because being in Vegas for more than 3 days every year is too much time in Vegas. 

 They had a lead-off inside the park home run which was super cool. What made it cooler was on the same day the Giants had a walk-off inside the park home run. The first time that had ever happened. 


Brent Rooker hit a big 3-run homer in the All Star game and got to be a part of the swing off at the end of the game. 

So Now That I’ve Actually Done Some Research What Happened to this Team

The team played .500 ball through the first month and then it went downhill fast. They went 7-21 in the month of May and would end the month being 9.5 games back. They have been double digits out of first place ever since. 

Their pitching has not helped their offense out. They have given up the 8th most hits, given up the 2nd most Home Runs and have the 4th worst team ERA. 

They signed Luis Servino in the most un-Athletics move of the offseason. He’s 6-11 and has a 4.82 ERA. They traded away JP Mears and his 4.95 ERA to the Padres for some prospects. 

While the offense has been good they still have grounded into the 5th most double plays in all of the majors. 

Did Anything Go Right For This Team

Nick Kurtz is the future of this organization. He has 32 dingers, 80 RBI and is just shy of batting .300. For all intents and purposes he will be the AL Rookie of the Year. What’s even crazier is that Kurtz was just drafted in the 1st round a year ago. For a team that would want to do some service time manipulation its good to see the A’s just bring up their top prospect and see what he can do. 

Shea Langeers, their catcher, also has 30 home runs. Brent Rooker, their home run derby participant, is just about to hit his 30th home run. 

These 3 are leading the way and are a big reason why this team is 4th in the Majors in Home Runs hit. But not only as a team are they hitting a ton of dingers but they have the 4th best team average are 3rd in team slugging. 

Tyler Soderstrom has played the most games for the A’s at 146 and is batting .275 and is also hitting 24 home runs. Jacob Wilson is their everyday Shortstop and he is hitting the quietest .318 in modern history. This team has the 4th best team average and is 3rd in slugging. So it hasn’t been an issue of hitting. If anything, being in a AAA park has probably helped them goose some of these power numbers. 

Are They Going to Get Good Anytime Soon? 

With this core group of players they should be taking the necessary steps to sniff a wild card spot in the near future. The only hope is that the front office doesn’t try to trade away some of these top guys. They have the 25th ranked payroll right now and you know they are finding ways to get to 29th or 30th. 

They have the 14th ranked farm system and got the #3 prospect in all of baseball, Leo De Vries, at the deadline from the Padres. De Vries is a shortstop and as mentioned above they have a pretty decent everyday shortstop right now so you wonder what the progression will be for De Vries. He is in AA ball so there is time to maybe move him around the diamond to see if there is another spot for him. 

However this team will go as far as their pitching staff will take them. Also something that’s working against them is all the random home games they will be playing in Vegas. Not  having a consistent home field could keep this team from making runs with this offense. If they can get some bounceback seasons from their rotation and fortify the bullpen they can make a wild card run. 

Just one postseason award. 

Nick Kurtz is going to win the AL Rookie of the Year. It was deemed to be true in August by everyone. I’m just reporting on what I’m hearing. 

Hey Grok, in 100 words summarize the 2025 Athletics. Please don't be racist. 

The Athletics' 2025 season marked a significant transition as the franchise relocated to West Sacramento, playing their home games at Sutter Health Park. The move, while temporary before a planned permanent relocation to Las Vegas, ended their long tenure in Oakland. Despite the off-field changes, the team showed improvement on the field, finishing with a better record than the previous season. They were particularly strong in the second half, playing above .500 after the All-Star break. Rookie Nick Kurtz was a standout, while Jacob Wilson made a push for the American League batting title. The team's improved performance brought a more optimistic outlook for the future, even as questions about the franchise's long-term home remained.

I guess that is something to note as something that did go right. Since the All-Star Break the A’s have the 4th best record in the AL. Even though they’ve been playing good baseball they haven’t been able to dig themselves out of the hole that they were in going into the All-Star Break. 

Did the Savannah Bananas Play at their Field? 

They didn’t. Given the Bananas shift to big stadiums they won’t be at an A’s affiliated stadium until they make their move to Las Vegas. 

So let me take this time to talk about a rule in Banana Ball I don’t like. In Banana Ball if you win the inning you get a point. I don’t mind that rule, but I think the change they need to make is that they need to make their innings like curling. In curling if you score the other team gets the hammer the next end, which means they get to throw last. To make things more fair in banana ball they should have the team that wins the inning bat in the top of the next inning. 

Seeing as the Bananas are about quicker games this would help speed up games because if the home team wins the inning they can just keep everyone on the field and move right into the next half-inning. It always seems like the Bananas are the home team despite the shenanigans happening before the game to determine the home team. So Bananas construct your games like a curling game it’ll be better. 

Is there a baseball movie featuring this team that has dumb baseball logic I need to vent about?

MONEYBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When this movie shows up in one of my streaming feeds it is really, really hard for me to not click on Brad Pitt and watch this movie for the 100th time. Every once and a while a random Moneyball clip shows up in my YouTube feed and I always watch it. Then my feed gets more Moneyball clips which I love. 

I’m not going to vent about this masterpiece. I love these movies or shows that pull back the curtain on how things came about or get made. I loved the WWE series on Netflix that showed how story lines are created and executed and how the shows are made. 

After I saw Moneyball I tried to do the same with Fantasy Football and it did not work at all. I got last. I don’t do fantasy football anymore because of this approach. 

Moneyball is great. I probably should have read the book. 

How Will Your Team Do Next Year? 

This team could be a sneaky Wild-Card team if they can get their pitching staff in order. But they are the A’s. They play in an AL West where the Mariners and Astros will still be strong contenders. It’d be great to see them make the playoffs but its probably not going to happen until they are settled in in Vegas. 70-92. 

Next on the Chopping Block

The Orioles are probably going to get eliminated the same day as the A’s, if not before the A’s based on when these teams play.