Jarrod Parker will need to bring his "A" game in the first game of the series against the Angles. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

The Athletics are 3-4 during their current homestand and people are starting to wonder whether the A’s are for real.  The doubt is all coming after Oakland had the best July in franchise history with a 19-5 record.  This month allowed the A’s to come storming back in both the Division and Wild Card standings.  Nationwide people are finally taking notice of this Athletics ball club.  After the month of July and the current slight downgrade in performance during this homestand many are wondering if the month of July is a fluke.  Was it a fluke? No!  Are they going to repeat what they did in July? No! But none of that matters because they do not need to repeat what they have already achieved.  The Athletics have already gotten themselves back into contention for the playoffs and that is why this series against the Angels will be very important.  It will not be easy either.

The Angels will be sending one of the best pitchers in all of baseball to the mound on Monday.  Jered Weaver will be going for his American League leading 15th win of the year.  Yes, Weaver has been phenomenal this entire season.  He has tallied together a 14-1 record, a league leading 2.29 ERA and has compiled 92 strikeouts.  He has been dominate all year and it does not seem as if he plans on slowing down anytime soon.  Over his last three starts Weaver is 3-0, he has a 2.45 ERA, and has fanned 15 hitters.  The Athletics are going to need to take advantage of any chances they can get against Weaver and cannot afford to fail.

On the hill for the Oakland Athletics will be the impressive rookie starting pitcher Jarrod Parker.  He is currently 7-5 with a 3.44 ERA.  Parker, who started off the season so well, seems to have hit somewhat of a rough patch his past few starts.  He finds himself 1-1 in his past three starts, with a 4.74 ERA and 15 strikeouts.  Parker will be back at home where he has thrown 65.1 innings and has a 2.48 ERA at the Coliseum.  This should be and will need to be the start where Jarrod Parker finds his groove on the mound again.

DownSide: The Athletics will be facing one of the best pitchers in baseball and will have to find ways to score against him.

UpSide: The A’s will be sending out a pretty good pitcher as well and they have the pitching to match the great Jered Weaver.

This series against the Angels can do a lot for the Athletics.  If the A’s can win all three games, they can jump from a ½ game ahead of the Angels in the division to 3 ½ games ahead the Angels in the division, allowing themselves to have some breathing room in the second place spot in the division.  Oakland can also use these three games to keep pace with the division leading Texas Rangers as well as keep pace with the other American League teams fighting for the wild card spots.  Lets not jump the gun though, the A’s will have their work cutout for them over the next three days.  They will just have to take it one game at a time.

Probable Starters:

Tuesday, August 7th at 7:05 PM

C.J. Wilson (9-7, 3.27 ERA) vs Bartolo Colon (8-8, 3.55 ERA)

Wednesday, August 8th at 12:35 PM

*Zack Greinke (0-1, 4.14 ERA) vs Dan Straily (0-0, 1.50 ERA)

*Grienke’s stats are from his first start with the Angels after being traded over from the Brewers and Straily’s stats are from his first start with the Athletics after being called up from Sacramento.

Dec 5, 2011; Dallas, TX, USA; Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane on the MLB network set during the MLB winter meetings at Hilton Anatole. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

I’ve gone back and forth in my head about what I wanted the A’s to do this year, with a clear opportunity to make the playoffs well within their grasp it’s hard to resist wanting to go for it all.  But that certainly can come with consequences in the form of losing top prospects.  Nobody wanted to see 2012 breakout prospect Dan Straily moved out of the organization, or top draft picks Michael Choice, Sonny Gray, or Grant Green either.  And none of them were.  It appears to me that Billy Beane’s strategy coming in was to try and improve the team now, if and only if he could do so without mortgaging the future.  The market dictated that was not going to happen, so Billy kept quiet.

There’s no telling what kind of deals nearly came to be like the Hanley Ramirez deal that almost was.  But as the Texas Rangers, in perhaps a moment of extreme panic with the knowledge that Neftali Feliz is having Tommy John surgery traded a top 100 prospect in 3B Christian Villanueva for Chicago Cubs starter Ryan Dempster who for a week seemed destined for Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Angels acquisition of Zack Greinke from the Brewers over the weekend, the two main rivals of the A’s made moves for the here and now.  Those moves do not scare me.  Besides Billy Beane has two aces up his sleeve perhaps in the form of rehabbing starters Brandon McCarthy and Brett Anderson who should be activated within the month of August.

The A’s do not have the perfect roster by any stretch of the imagination, as evidenced by last night’s horrific lack of contact in racking up 21 K’s against the Tampa Bay Rays.  But they somehow managed to win that game.  That’s what they’ve often done over the last month or so.  Perhaps a deal could still be in the works as the month of August plays out though, it just becomes a little bit tougher as players have to pass through waivers to be traded.

I think the possibility of picking up someone like Jimmy Rollins would still remain a distinct possibility.  Given the fact that Rollins is in the first year of a 3 year contract with the Phillies for a pretty hefty salary it seems almost guaranteed that he’ll go through waivers untouched.  He’s certainly not the player he once was, but I find it hard to imagine he wouldn’t be a significant upgrade over the Eric Sogard/Brandon Hicks tandem the A’s have right now.  Cliff Pennington has been lost all season and there is serious doubt now that he is actually the A’s SS of the future.  There remains some question as to whether Rollins would allow himself to be traded to Oakland in the first place (The opportunity to play alongside Nate Schierholtz is pretty enticing), but one would really have to think he’d be intrigued by the idea of playing in his home town.  It seems like a crazy idea for the cash strapped A’s to take on a player like Rollins, but aside from the money he really shouldn’t cost much of anything.  Rollins may be the perfect solution as he can help the A’s now, and not risk the bright future of this organization.

We’ll just have to wait and see as all the frantic wheeling and dealing get’s started up once again as the dog days of August roll on.