A’s unable to keep to pace in Opening Week

Cleveland spun the A’s out of control this weekend, and it was measurable down to the second

“Wait that was only the second out?” 

A’s fans who had their eyes on the field this weekend were in consensus about their disappointment. The guys in green put on a record-breaking defensive showing, or rather their lack thereof, which led the innings to drag on for the 2024 Opening Series. Oakland amassed eight errors over four days against the Cleveland Guardians, and five more in Monday night’s duel with Boston. 

Beyond the box score, there were frustrating moments at Rickey Henderson Field that don’t get red ink from the official scorer. Still getting their footing in their home stadium, the corner outfield spots were a mixed bag of imprecise relay throws and some wonky routes that led to bonus bases for the Guards. And aside from a few glowing moments, the pitching staff was all over the place. One particular example from Sunday: entering the game mid-inning to settle things down, newly acquired Austin Adams loaded up for his first pitch only to throw it fully behind José Ramirez, to the backstop. That particular at-bat for the five-time All-Star resulted in a fielding error by Nick Allen, bringing a run across the plate.

That sequence was about par for the series; All the games felt wildly off-balance. When the Athletics were in the field on defense, it felt never-ending, whereas when the team had their chance to bat, it seemed comparatively quick. The disparity in time spent at the plate felt extreme, but was it?

Possession time is not often talked about in baseball the way it is in other sports. Unlike basketball and football, baseball legendarily holds its own pace. Traditionalists get loud about any attempt to wrangle the sport into a cleanly timed box. Even with the recent addition of the pitch-clock, it’s still not a true clock sport. But the difference in plate-time between the two clubs was so clear over the weekend that I was curious to dig further.

Acknowledging something as seemingly obvious as offensive time possession may seem redundant when there are plenty of cool, new-fangled analytics in the game, but what possession really highlights is that time is control. And this weekend the A’s had none.

Unfortunately this idea was inspired by watching games in live-time, and none of the online databases that cover MLB keep track of such a thing, so I had to do some MacGuyvering for data. Using my home-DVR, I ran back through the first four games of the season, and time-stamped how long teams spent on offense, rounded to the nearest 30-second mark (and before you worry about my mental health, I did it on fast-forward). I started counting from the lead batter entering the box, and closed when the pitcher walked off the mound, and sure enough, the numbers highlighted the extreme lack of balance I felt watching the games the first time.

For some insight into my research methods, the numbers took shape under the following guidelines: In the sake of fairness, I was mindful of mid-inning pitching changes, as it is time-regulated by MLB, so I subtracted those, because they shouldn’t differ from ones done during inning/commercial breaks. I did, however, feel mound visits should be on the clock in this instance because the offensive team is creating a situation volatile or stressful enough to require such a break, or further guidance to gain control. Replays were also included in offensive possession, regardless of who called for the review, as well as injury check-ins with trainers. The pitch clock itself neutralizes some individual eccentricity. For example, gone are the days of Nomar Garciaparra’s glove adjustments or Kenley Jansen taking his time to psych out a batter from the mound.

GAME 1: Cleveland 61min, Oakland 42min

GAME 2: Cleveland 65min, Oakland 49min

GAME 3: Cleveland 77min, Oakland 61min

GAME 4: Cleveland 53min, Oakland 51min

Above you can see the differential ranged from 15-20 minutes per game, save for the A's walk-off win on Sunday, where the teams spent about equal time at bat.

For a more complete understanding of these numbers, I also kept track of two other games across the league to see if they averaged a similar differential. Because possession isn’t a regular stat, I genuinely had no idea what I would find. With this small sample size, the non-A’s MLB games had the losing teams at about 10-15 minutes shorter on plate time.

4/2 MIL vs. MIN: Milwaukee (W) 65:00, Minnesota (L) 51:00

4/2 TEX vs. TB: Tampa Bay (W) 60:00, Texas (L) 49:00

The argument about time in control ties into the lack of clean play demonstrated by the error totals. Everytime a ball gets kicked around, it can feel like the game is in a free-fall. And on the other side, if you don’t put the ball in play, you don’t stand a chance to fight back, which is what happened Opening Night when Guardians’ Shane Bieber handed out 11 of Oakland’s 13 K’s. 

To clue further into why the losses over the weekend felt so drastic, I dug into the numbers of pitches seen by A’s players so far this season, curious if they were rushing at-bats and therefore their trip back to the bench. Through the first five games, Oakland averaged 3.91 pitches per plate appearance, which is close to the league average of 3.89 (per Baseball-Reference). To fans who watched these games, it will come as no surprise that the two most patient players at the plate were the two who worked walks most memorably over the weekend,  including Abraham Toro’s being the game-winning base on Sunday and Kyle McCann who walked twice on Saturday.

Oakland A's, Pitches per Plate Appearance(through first 5 games)

Abraham Toro, 5.5

Kyle McCann, 5.25

Brent Rooker, 5

Ryan Noda, 4.56

Lawrence Butler 4.06

Esteury Ruiz (40-man), 4

Shea Langeliers, 3.93

League Average, 3.89

Seath Brown, 3.88

J.D. Davis, 3.87

Zack Gelof, 3.48

Darell Hernaiz, 3.29

Nick Allen, 3.23

JJ Bleday, 2.75

Cleveland Guardians, Pitches per Plate Appearance (through first 5 games)

Austin Hedges, 5.44

Bo Naylor, 5.25

David Fry, 4.08

Steven Kwan, 3.92

League Average, 3.89

Tyler Freeman, 3.74

José Ramirez, 3.67

Ramón Laureano, 3.6

Andrés Giménez, 3.52

Brayan Rocchio, 3.47

Estevan Florial, 3.33

Will Brennan, 3.14

Gabriel Arias, 3

Josh Naylor, 2.89

Conversely, Cleveland actually worked fewer pitches than the A’s over the series, averaging 3.7 per player, with only four of their players seeing more than the league average. This paints an interesting picture, as the narrative of this Oakland club is rooted in their youth and inexperience, but Cleveland’s roster is actually about two years younger. And even with their eagerness at the plate, they were far more successful. This highlights a pure mis-match in terms of skill and plate approach that is reflected on both the lopsided box scores and the clock.

Less than 10 games into their 162, I can’t imagine this is the tone Mark Kotsay hoped his guys would set. This young group does feel chaotic, and not in the fun ways of young A’s teams’ past. Players always talk about slowing the game down to reset, and we will have to wait and see if this squad can do just that. Will they get it together and take ownership of the diamond in a manner comparable to the other pros in this league? Only time will tell. But with the stadium situation jerking fans around at every turn, the most that Oakland fans could hope for is to learn to love this roster. Unfortunately the future of the organization is seemingly going rogue, and the play on the field is reflecting it.