Matt Olson, Jed Lowrie, and Mark Canha Are Off to Hot Starts for the Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics have a few players having hot starts this season; Matt Olson, Jed Lowrie, and Mark Canha. But beyond being successful with standard metrics the A's are getting things done in a way that is illustrative of how baseball is played in 2021. In today's SI Insider, Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci explains the success of the Oakland Athletics early this season.

Tom Verducci is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who has covered Major League Baseball since 1981. He also serves as an analyst for FOX Sports and the MLB Network; is a New York Times best-selling author; and cohosts The Book of Joe podcast with Joe Maddon. A five-time Emmy Award winner across three categories (studio analyst, reporter, short form writing) and nominated in a fourth (game analyst), he is a three-time National Sportswriter of the Year winner, two-time National Magazine Award finalist, and a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient. Verducci is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame, Baseball Writers Association of America (including past New York chapter chairman) and a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 1993. He also is the only writer to be a game analyst for World Series telecasts. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, with whom he has two children.