Looking at the A’s 2023 Schedule
You might be filling in your Last Dive Bar calendars with plans for the new year. Or you’re exhausted from being with family for the past week, and need to look forward to something positive. Maybe you’re just cold and wet, and dreaming of summer baseball nights. If you’re all of the above, like me, you’re itching for the soft clap of ball in glove, the camaraderie of your seatmates, and the hopefulness that a clean season brings. Let’s huddle together to look ahead at dates that could potentially become our new favorite memories.
Opening Weekend
Per usual, our boys will be facing off with in-division rival (for last place) the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, starring MVP runner-up Shohei Ohtani and MVP of his generation Mike Trout. The surfer boys in red have been making some noise this off-season, adding Brandon Drury and Hunter Renfroe, but outside of taking on Tyler Anderson on a 3 year/$39 million deal, they are still chronically underwhelming on the mound.
I am choosing to go into the first Angels’ series with the same indifference I always do. It always feels like a fair match-up, even with their star power. The scariest thing they typically bring is one stone-cold A’s killer at the plate. Formerly it was Kole Calhoun, and more recently the bat of David Fletcher has been particularly unkind at the Coliseum. But they don’t intimidate me, not yet anyhow.
One oddity to keep your eye out for is that we start that premier set at home on Thursday, March 30th, and then skip Friday, finishing the series over Saturday and Sunday. No start times have been announced yet, so I’m not sure if we will get an Opening Night or if we will be playing all day games until the following week against Cleveland. There are no events scheduled at either the Coliseum or the neighboring Arena for Friday the 31st, so it’s a head-scratcher why we would ramp up excitement just to sit out a potential Friday night reunion at the ballpark. The Yankees’ home opener with the Giants has the same stopgap. MLB was boasting about this being the first Opening Day where all teams will play since 1968, but it appears they’ve only scheduled five games for Day two. This is where I click my trusty shrug emoji.
Early Season Standouts
If you haven’t heard yet, MLB has refined team schedules so that all teams in all divisions will face off for the 2023 season. This brings with it new faces we don’t often see at Rickey Henderson Field and some new airports for players. According to Baseball Savant’s Travel Schedule Map, the A’s will lead the league in distance traveled this season with 51,527 miles, up from 42,918 last season. West coast teams always sit atop the travel list, but there’s a kicker this time around. The Cardinals and Cubs fly to London for their international showcase in June, and we still have them both beat by 20,000 miles. That’s a lot of bags of peanuts, even for Stomper.
With this new, fully-loaded schedule, the A’s will host some big, exciting teams we usually see only every three years. But I have good news for you, wary baseball fans. The standout teams that have spent their off-seasons stockpiling talent only face the A’s once this year, and we can get it over with early in the season. The Moneybag Mets, A’s of Christmas-past Atlanta, and Post-season darlings the Philadelphia Phillies, all show face at the Coliseum in the first few months of the year. Home field advantage was a non-factor for us last year. I won’t remind you what our home record was; I don’t want to pop your New Year's positivity balloon already, so I’m not saying that is a reason to highlight these games. However, at the very least we can see some of our favorite old friends in person as they visit Oakland.
This is also good news for the difficulty going into the second half. Aside from those one-series battles, we also wipe the Yankees, Cleveland, and Tampa from our to-do list all before July 1st.
Being done with these competitive clubs before the All Star break could bode well if we start finding a rhythm and are playing for a wild card spot. You never know!
The Heart of it All
Baseball runs the longest of all professional sports. If a team can’t find their footing, those summer months creep by at a snail’s pace. Whereas if you’re rolling, sometimes it can be the time where a club really shows who they are at their core. Looking at the planned games in July and August, there is a stretch where this team could possibly hit a stride if we have some momentum flowing, and maybe catch up on some needed wins.
Further roster moves in the AL Central and NL East could obviously shatter my confidence on this, but I do think we have some wiggle room here.
Our hardest battles depend on the strength of our own AL West. It feels like the Texas Rangers are beefing up their chances with every press release that drops. Now, with Captain Bochy at the helm, they may be able to finally piece together what they hoped to last year, with the added pitching boost of veteran Jacob DeGrom. Seattle may also give us a tough go if they can stay healthy and continue the magic they found late last summer. Luckily we know these clubs, will have seen them already by then, and may be able to set lineups to our best advantage. The A’s could play .500 ball these months if they are performing at even a decent clip.
September and… Beyond?
Here’s where things get tricky again. After all the long flights with short turnarounds, the last month of the season has the least mileage to cover, yet the steepest climb of the second half. Should the Angels be competing at all nearing the trade deadline, they may make some moves to build further for a playoff push. Toronto is already a conglomerate of A’s lost loves and all-stars. The Padres have improved on their roster since their impressive NLCS showing in 2022, plus they will have Tatis back in their lineup. Then, to top it all off, we have a remaining series in Houston to worry about mid-month. And It’s not fun to admit this, but they are really good. September will likely tell us what we already know about our team by then. I am doubtful there will be one last surprise, but if we are playing well going into it, the final month will still be an uphill finish.
Team rosters aren’t concrete for any team yet, so this whole breakdown could be null. Carlos Correa still hasn’t passed a physical with either of his interested clubs. No team has signed our old friends, Jurickson Profar or Chadwick Pinder, and they could be real game changers for any lineup.
Jomboy Media’s Talkin' Baseball Twitter account posted the following tweet the other day.
The responses were full of jokes estimating as high as “double digits,” but the more serious guesses landed in the 70’s. Personally, I’m not going to pick a win count. I’m going to let this team tell me how it does once we’re on the road, or at least when we test drive Spring Training in March.
Nevertheless, baseball optimism is immune to reason. It’s hopeful and romantic, and can be quick to forgive. Last year sucked. I say that freely and unapologetically, but my fan-brain has moved on. While I will keep my expectations low, I’m going to gently remind you all that we could top Twitter’s sub-80 presumption. Weirder things have happened. And with only a few months to go, I’m putting my chips on the unpredictable.