Oakland Athletics Week 2 Studs & Duds
By Lance Marlow
Welcome to the second edition of Studs and Duds. Two weeks into the season the Oakland Athletics currently stand at 6-7, which is good for second in the division. This past week was pretty tumultuous, especially with all of the drama that unfolded in Kansas City, but a few players really stood out even through the extracurricular excitement. Although some players went above and beyond, others struggled. We’re here to give props to the studs, and put the duds on blast!
Studs
Davis makes this list for the second week in a row. He had a solid slash line this past week of .368/.429/.579. He went 6 for 19 with 7 hits, a double, a home run, 2 walks, 2 RBI’s, and 3 runs. When he wasn’t mashing at the plate he was playing outstanding defense. Something the A’s have lacked at first base for a long time.
We all believe in Stephen Vogt, and this past week showed us why. He had a great week at the plate finishing the week with a slash line of .368/.400/.789. In 19 at bats he had 7 hits, with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 4 RBI’s, and 3 runs. It’s always nice seeing some pop coming from behind the dish.
Kazmir made two starts this week. He finished the week with a 2.03 ERA going 13.1 innings, giving up only 3 runs, 4 walks, and striking out 13. Opponents were held in check with a .181 batting average against the lefty. Mr. Kazmir is definitely off to a good start once again this season.
Honorable mentions: Jesse Chavez, Ben Zobrist
More from Oakland A's News
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- Luis Barrera heading to familiar foe in Los Angeles Angels
- San Francisco Giants showing Oakland A’s offseason could be worse
- Lucas Luetge what Oakland A’s need in bullpen
- Oakland A’s bring Deolis Guerra back on minor league deal
Duds
While Super Sam continued to make jaw jopping plays in the outfield, his bat definitely suffered. He had a poor showing this week posting a slash line of .182/.250/.364. He went 4 for 22 with 5 strike outs. However, in his defense, all 4 of his hits were for extra bases. That’s always nice, but we need to see our lead off man (On most days) get on base at a better clip.
But Semien hit a home run this week!? Yeah, but that’s about all he hit this week. He finished the week with a .190/.261/.381 slash line going 4 for 21 with 6 strikeouts. He did have a homerun, 2 walks, and 2 RBI’s as well, but overall his week was poor at the plate. His fielding also left some to be desired after he committed 3 errors this week.
After debuting the season on the studs list last week Sonny drops into the duds category this go around. He didn’t have a terrible day, but we hold him to a higher standard. Sonny started 1 game this week going 6 innings, giving up 11 hits, 4 earned runs, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts. Like I said, not a completely terrible day, but we expect quality starts from our team ace. I’m not mad Sonny, I’m just…disappointed.
Elephant in the room
Last week this was a group award earned by the entire bullpen. This week there was major improvement overall from the pen, but it continues to be an issue. I fully expect things to tighten up down there as the season goes on. This week I won’t put the entire bullpen on blast, but two players earned this not so flattering title:
Both O’Flaherty and Otero gave up costly runs this week. Each gave up 2 earned runs and 5 hits. O’Flaherty went 3.1 innings total, walking 1 with 3 strikeouts, while Otero went 2.2 innings with 1 walk and one strikeout.
*All statistics based off last 7 days and are courtesy of MLB.com