The Last Day of the Season

Unless you are in Texas it is hard to imagine any baseball fan not hoping for the Oakland A's to be successful in pulling off one of the most remarkable comebacks in baseball history. The A's, now tied for first place, and now facing a winner take all game with the Texas Rangers, have won 67 of their last 100 games. What is most remarkable is how they have done it. The hero last night was Johnny Gomes. Gomes who I have over the years picked up a few times for short periods of time for my fantasy baseball teams, as he is notoriously streaky, seems to have found a home in Oakland. Over the years various managers, Tony Larussa, comes to mind, have used platoons to succeed. As a long time baseball fan I can still remember the platoon of John Lowenstein and Gary Roenicke for the great Baltimore Orioles of the early eighties. Still what Oakland does takes it to another level. With righthanders like Chris Carter, the aforementioned Gomes, Josh Donaldson and lefties like Brandon Moss and Seth Smith the A's seem to be a team with no ego's and no set lineup. Even more incredible is the fact that all five starters for the A's are rookie pitchers. AJ Griffin, Travis Blackley, Tommy Milone, Jared Parker, and Daniel Straily currently make up the rotation. This team simply does not lose. The Rangers on the other hand look like a team that is tired and desperate to hang on. It is hard to see them finding energy to compete even once they get to the playoffs. Josh Hamilton will be a free agent at the end of this year and while I suspect the Rangers will make a show of trying to keep him it is destined to fail. Hamilton who, my guess with his constant injury problems, caffeine crisis, and recently missing five critical games with a sinus infection, will soon realize that his market will be limited. New York, Boston and the like would eat him alive and the Rangers might well be ready to make some changes. If I were a betting man I would predict he ends up someplace on the West Coast in a city that starts with the prefix San.