White Elephant Weekly

Oakland has never looked better. Well, at least in two of their first four games — for a team that’s supposed to have fast legs and very little muscle, the A’s combined for 18 runs and 12 extra base hits. Not bad. But in their two losses the Green and Gold also only put two men across the plate. It’s an inconsistency that must be addressed as the team gels moving forward in their 2015 campaign.

Owner Lew Wolff doesn’t seem concerned, as he promised fans that this year will result in a deep run to the playoffs. Let’s hope that these division games early on don’t snake bite the A’s later in the season.

Those comments were overshadowed by the A’s imminent move to another stadium, but hey. We still have 158 games to play.

  • The Athletic’s hottest hitter is local 1B Mark Canha (.444), who had a spectacular MLB debut with 4 RBI and came an inch away from a grand slam in his first ever at-bat. He’s just the second rookie in the past 101 years with that many runs batted in for his first big league appearance. The other? Former Athletic Bob Grieve.
  • Although just four games into the season, but the A’s (2-2) split the series with Texas giving them an unfortunate 3rd place start early on in the AL West race. Their upcoming series with the Seattle Mariners serves as another test for the new-look A’s, and it starts tonight at 7:05 p.m.
  • Oakland had a good thing going with their pitching situation, at least until Cactus League play was over — rookie Kendall Graveman (0-1) had an MLB-best 0.36 ERA until his Thursday night start, when he got rocked for eight runs — seven of them earned — in just 3.1 innings pitched. Ouch.
  • The A’s made three transactions this week in acquiring former Giants’ post-season hero Cody Ross, who was inserted into the lineup immediately against Texas and hit an RBI. The team also optioned OF Billy Burns to Nashville and designated OF Alex Hassan for assignment.
  • Here’s a fun fact: The Reverend M.C. Hammer began his Entertainment career dancing like a maniac outside of the Coliseum during Oakland A’s games.

White Elephant Weekly is edited by Emily Thompson, who translates, writes, and processes archives in Seattle, WA.