Three games into the Cactus League and the A\u2019s have collected twenty-five hits, resulting in only four runs and zero wins. Their run differential currently sits at negative nineteen, better than the Detroit Tigers by a single run. The only team with more losses are the Milwaukee Brewers, and that\u2019s only because they\u2019ve played more games.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no reason to panic just yet, but you can\u2019t help but eye roll. Hovering around mediocrity is the minimum we\u2019d wish for in Spring Training. Nobody wants to go into Opening Day after getting kicked around all spring. Especially a young and impressionable A\u2019s team like this one, who have proven to be easily shaken when faced with adversity.<\/p>\n
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The battle of the winless clubs takes place today between the A\u2019s and the Brewers. Shall this be the day the tides turn in our favor? I\u2019m choosing to feel optimistic. Watching David S. Ward\u2019s Major League last night helped curb the angsty doubts that start to roll in when the W\u2019s aren\u2019t stacking up. Let\u2019s not forget that that those Cleveland Indians struggled out of the gate in their own Spring Training jaunt. Plus, nothing as embarrassing as Willie Mays Hays attempting to steal second base and coming up five feet short, has yet to happen \u2013 \u2013 so there\u2019s that.<\/p>\n
I guess I\u2019m just hoping the A\u2019s get a little more rowdy this spring. I want Hohokam to be all worked up in a frenzy by the end of March. Every bar in Mesa, Arizona should be full of reverse teetotalers holding court, talking about how the 2026 A\u2019s are going to be a problem. That\u2019s the energy I want. Maybe players should start picking fights with other teams? There hasn\u2019t been a really good Spring Training brawl since that Piazza vs. Mota incident back in 2003. For this reboot, I nominate Michael Kelly to go after Zac Veen. That way the Las Vegas series against the Rockies in June has a little buzz behind it.<\/p>\n
Just throwing it out there.<\/p>\n
I see it to be particularly crucial that the A\u2019s capitalize on any bit momentum for the next month, as the first six series out of the gate are all against the Blue Jays, Braves, Astros, Yankees, Mets, and Rangers :\/<\/p>\n
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Now I\u2019m not saying that this stretch will determine how the 2026 A\u2019s will fair by season\u2019s end, but if the last two season have taught us anything, it\u2019s that no early first half game should go undervalued. The last thing anyone wants is another season where we\u2019re looking back at April and May as the reason we didn\u2019t get a shot at a playoff bid.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s right the ship! It all starts today against the Milwaukee Brewers.<\/p>\n
In Mason Barnett we trust.<\/p>\n
A\u2019s Coverage:MLB News and Interest:Best of X:<\/p>\n
Day #1 of the Jump Dynasty is in the books!<\/p>\n
Couldn\u2019t agree more. Would love to see him in a \u201cYusmeiro Petit with 97\u201d type role.<\/p>\n
Juuuuuust a little off :\/<\/p>\n
A DFA notification by June.<\/p>\n
He always looked great in A\u2019s colors\u2026<\/p>\n
I am never not thinking about his thumb injury in the 2014 AL Wild Card game.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s just throw him in the there to kick off the season and see what happnes.<\/p>\n
Is it just me, or does Jeff McNeil not feel like he\u2019s actually on the A\u2019s yet? I just don\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three games into the Cactus League and the A\u2019s have collected twenty-five hits, resulting in only four runs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2391],"tags":[3806,537,5,377,5250,7328,7792,53,52267,1332,43042,101,20354,59,4,3226,142,54200,1399],"class_list":["post-591986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-athletics","tag-andy-ibanez","tag-athletics","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-cactus-league","tag-cleveland-indians","tag-danny-coulombe","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-geovany-soto","tag-jeff-mcneil","tag-mason-barnett","tag-mets","tag-michael-kelly","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-athletics","tag-yankees","tag-yusmeiro-petit","tag-zac-veen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116131080767610233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}