Magic Beanes

If you’re wondering how the A’s, after a dismal start, wound up the hottest team in baseball, going 43-14 since May 30, David Pinto’s Day by Day database provides answers yet again:
Oakland Batting 5/30/05-8/2/05
Oakland Pitching 5/30/05-8/2/05
A few quick thoughts:
*The return from injury of Bobby Crosby and the arrival of Dan Johnson seem to have coincided with the awakening of Eric Chavez, Nick Swisher and Jason Kendall from deep slumps, giving the A’s the offensive core they’d lacked in the early going. They actually now look like a pretty good offensive team, if still not the Yankees.
*Harden, Zito and Haren are 24-3 over that stretch, bringing back memories of the May 2002-May 2003 golden age of the Big Three, when Hudson, Zito and Mulder went a combined 61-16 over a 162-game stretch.
*If Ryan Glynn hadn’t gone 0-4 with a 6.88 ERA subbing for Harden, the A’s would look really scary.
*Smoked Joe Blanton has actually been striking people out, a crucially important development.
*Huston Street is already one of baseball’s elite closers. And Justin Duchscherer and Kiko Calero are one heck of a 1-2 setup punch.
*Of course, some credit should go to Bobby Kielty, who was one of the few guys hitting before this run.