Eyeball Scout On First 8 Games...A Mixed Bag, Of Course

The present should be a lot better than the past, but perhaps the future is still what holds the most hope for the A’s — Nick Kurtz and Denzel Clarke are off to terrific starts at AAA and if fast forward to a lineup that has Kurtz at 1B and Clarke in CF you might have a team that is suddenly special, not just improved.

But that’s for another day, as the current roster is the current roster. So how are the “first 26” doing? Here’s what the Eyeball Scout has noticed, once in person (Tuesday’s almost respectable loss to the Cubs sandwiched in between two epic clunkers), the rest on TV amidst dogs and chocolate martinis...

Pitchers

Luis Severino

Severino has been, to a large extent, “as advertised,” which is not to say he’s been great, only that he has been about what we should expect. He has shown plus velocity and “front of the rotation” stuff, without the consistent command that would elevate him to actual “front of the rotation” stature.

He is a pitcher who relies on his stuff to get him through bouts of wildness both in and out of the strike zone and we have seen that sometimes (Mariners) it works and sometimes (Cubs) it doesn’t.

To me Severino is the epitome of a “#3 SP”: talented, sometimes dominant, worthy of going up against other teams’ best pitchers, but also inconsistent and prone to wobbling around. That’s who he is and that’s who he’s been so far.

Jeffrey Springs

I am at slight disadvantage here because the one game I had to miss watching was Springs’ start against the Cubs, which took place as I was driving home from Sacramento. Clearly he wasn’t very good after I watched him carve up the Mariners in his debut.

If Springs is healthy, I’m not worried — he’s a really accomplished pitcher and every pitcher has a clunker now and again, especially if they are rusty. In all likelihood Springs will be the A’s best SP this season.

Osvaldo Bido

I think Bido pitched better than his line yesterday, hurt by Lawrence Butler’s inability to track a fly ball that turned into a triple and also by making a couple terrific pitches that were lunged for and blooped for hits.

Bido “wobbled but never fell down” in Seattle but showed his 2024 form in Colorado. He gets weak contact and the stuff plays, so I’m still very optimistic he could pick up where he left off last August.

JP Sears

Sears looked fantastic in his first start, with a sharp “sweeper” and effective changeup to go with a fastball that plays better than its 93 MPH velocity. He made all of one mistake and sadly it cost him the game, but you could only be encouraged by the start.

Joey Estes

Estes feels to me like the front office’s guy to be blindly stubborn about. Nothing earned him the 5th SP job in spring training, his flaws were well evident in 2024 and not addressed with any changes in repertoire or approach, yet he was given the ball for the home opener in what is expected to be a fairly HR friendly park.

It didn’t go well. Not only did it go terribly with Estes serving up 3 HRs and 6 ER in 4 IP, he showed decreased velocity (91 MPH) and we saw last year that at 93 MPH every missed location lands in the bleachers.

So the A’s announced him as the starter Sunday at Coors Field. Meanwhile, sinker baller JT Ginn’s first 2 AAA starts? 11 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 19 K. The sooner the A’s punt on Estes the better, but I worry it’s going to cost the A’s a few games before they do what they should have done all along and that’s give him AAA time to figure out something different to do rather than just attacking hitters aggressively with subpar stuff.

Overall: I think the A’s rotation is going to be fine, just lacking an ace. The front 4 all give you a chance to win, with enough inconsistency thrown in that it’s a group of “mid-rotation guys”. That’s ok.

Position Players

Tyler Soderstrom

Soderstrom is off to a great start, and I have appreciated how solid he has looked at 1B so far. Offensively, he has been the A’s most productive hitter but I do want to note that some of his old bad habits still emerge as a warning sign.

Case in point: He was given a 3--0 green light yesterday, got a slider in off the plate and took a check swing and miss at it. In other at bats he has swung at balls and taken meaty strikes to where you wonder if he is guessing.

But his natural talent is carrying him nicely with HRs to all fields and 10 hits through 8 games. You can’t argue with a .323/.364/.645 start even if my eyeballs warn some regression is due.

Max Muncy

If it weren’t for a Tayler Saucedo absolute meatball in low leverage, Muncy’s start to his career would be even more brutal. As it is, clearly he has struggled going 3 for 26 without a walk (9 Ks).

Defensively, Muncy has looked good outside of one error that opened the game Tuesday. But he has been an excellent DP partner with his high school DP partner Jacob Wilson and he has not appeared to be overwhelmed by the pace or pressure of playing 2B in the big leagues.

What I would emphasize around Muncy is that if you are going to give him the 2B job out of spring training then you have to be ready to watch him struggle just as he is doing and “stay the course” without being too reactive.

Striking out a bunch and hitting .115 isn’t going to ruin Muncy’s confidence — we all knew it was a likely outcome in his maiden journey through unfamiliar pitchers with more command than he’s ever seen.

What would potentially harm Muncy is to react to a slow start of a handful of games by benching or demoting him. Just let him play until Zack Gelof is back and see where he is by then. If he knows he has that time he won’t press as much and he may turn the corner to become an asset, we’ll see.

Jacob Wilson

Have a start to the season, Jacob! He has hit in all 8 games, homered twice, and is batting .379 without a strikeout. Defensively he has been nothing but solid. I would like to see him walk maybe, y’know, like once? But it’s hard to quibble with what he’s doing so perhaps he should wait until he his batting average gets below .350 before drawing his first walk.

I will say I’m always surprised at how fast Wilson isn’t. He has the profile of a speedster: a slick fielding SS who makes a lot of contact and isn’t known for slugging. And yet on the bases he just seems to take a while to get from point A to point B.

But that’s just an eyeball observation — if he hits .379 he can crawl to 1B for all I care.

Gio Urshela

Oh dear. Urshela’s bat looks slow to me, which makes it good that he seems very willing to hit to RF. Even on his RBI double in the 11th his swing looked slow to me, but at least he is hitting some balls on a line (including a few of his recent outs).

Defensively I haven’t seen so many balls hit to him that distinguish a plus fielder from a weak one — what’s hard about judging defense is that most plays are relatively routine and are made by strong and weak defenders alike, so you have to pick apart the outliers in order to separate wheat from chaff.

I suspect Urshela’s defense will still rate at least average over time, but I fear his bat is not going to really come around. Whether he’s a place holder or “the 2025 guy” remains to be seen and might be determined largely by how he performs in the 1st half.

Shea Langeliers

Langeliers does look like an improved hitter to me so far. He struck out only once all of spring training and is emphasizing using the whole field so as not to commit so early to pitches. So far it seems to be paying off.

The key stats, IMO, are his BB and K rates: a 10.3% BB rate (excellent) and a 17.2% K rate (excellent). He’s only hitting .231 but that’s subject to small sample variance (26 at bats): one more hit and he would be at .269. He is showing the power he had last year but with more walks and fewer Ks.

Behind the plate, clearly his throws have not been nearly as good as previous seasons but I have to hold the pitchers largely responsible as they have been terrible at holding runners and forced Langeliers to rush throws he probably shouldn’t even be making.

What is encouraging is to my eyes Shea’s technique on balls in the dirt has been better than before. He is moving more and stabbing less and actually made a couple nifty blocks on tough chances recently. That’s crucial and great to see.

Miguel Andujar

I will try not to dwell overly on his epically bonehead play yesterday bailed out by replay review. Offensively he is contributing to the A’s improved contact rates, though his power has not shown up at all — he has just one extra base hit and that was yesterday’s double.

It’s in the field where I have the most concerns and even though he made a nice play yesterday to save a 2-run double, the reality is that he is going to be a liability in LF. A good example is a pop fly hit yesterday that Andujar fielded on two hops which an accomplished LFer would have read better off the bat, used more speed to close in on, and caught.

I do fear that OF defense is going to be one of the team’s biggest Achilles heels and if he doesn’t start slugging a bit Andujar is going to be a liability even with a shiny batting average (currently .261).

JJ Bleday

At the plate it seems like Bleday is playing an awful lot of pepper with the 2Bman. Oh my, I just paused to look it up and guess what his “ground ball percentage” is so far this season? Last season it was 34.1%, the season prior 43.5%. So far this season, it’s a whopping 66.7%.

In CF, it’s well known that I just don’t think Bleday has the skill set for the position, lacking the speed to cover up his tendency to freeze or go back on balls in front of him. He has been perfectly “solid” so far, but too many pop flies fall in that an accomplished CFer is going to catch.

So overall not the most auspicious start for Bleday. Hopefully he figures out how to get more balls to leave the infield off his bat and more balls to find his glove in shallow CF.

Lawrence Butler

To my eyes Butler has been late on pitches, often resulting in lazy fly balls or whiffs, but on the plus side he has drawn 5 walks against just 3 strikeouts. My take overall is that following his contract extension, Butler came out of the gate pressing a bit and trying to do too much but he has always been a player willing and capable around making adjustments and I trust the bat will come around sooner rather than later.

Defensively is where I have my concerns. I stated them before the season started, then read about how he wants to be a gold glove RFer and is working hard at improvements. I will never count Butler out on that which he puts his mind to.

But ... so far he looks to me about the same as he did in 2024, very inconsistent around reads, jumps, and tracking. So still very much a “work in progress” I would say.

Brent Rooker

Better than last season’s first week! But still not in his groove. I don’t have much to say about him as we know who he is and when he heats up, look out.

Bullpen

Jose LeClerc threw some nifty sliders yesterday, but the fastball velocity is still very inconsistent and with it so has he been.

Tyler Ferguson’s inconsistency is pitch to pitch, and I predict his wildness will catch up to him in his quest to hold the “7th inning guy” job.

On the plus side, Justin Sterner looks like a waiver wire steal who might find himself in high leverage sooner rather than later. His fastball plays up and his slider has late and deceptive action.

I don’t know if was a good day or his coming out party, but Noah Murdock came up big yesterday. At the very least he appears to be someone you can throw into a tough spot and the moment won’t be too big for him.

OK that’s a lot of thoughts for you to comment on with agreement, disagreement, or your own observations. 5:10pm first pitch later today with Sears on the mound.