Page 10 - Burch Smith News Today

100.0 None of them had the launch angle to clear the fence, resulting in two singles and four outs, but if you want to bet against Olson at those EV marks then that’s up to you. The 115.3 at the top is tied for the third-hardest contact by any A’s hitter since Statcast began in 2015, just 0.6 mph behind the top spot. Put it all together and Olson’s average exit velocity so far is 99.5 mph, which is the best in the entire majors for hitters with at least 10 plate appearances so far. Wha...

*** Halfway through this contest, it already felt like it was over. The Astros tore apart A’s starter Cole Irvin in his debut for his new club, with hard contact in over half their batted balls against him. The lefty was able to gut through a couple early rallies with minimal damage, but he was pulled in the 5th inning with two runners on base. Reliever Lou Trivino served up a homer to plate his inheritance, and Houston jumped to a 5-1 lead that turned out to be as insurmountable as it ap...

In the 8th, Matt Olson led off with a double off an outfielder’s glove, and then came around on a pair of productive groundouts. Not glamorous, but it provided a valuable run at a high-leverage moment, and it was exactly the kind of mini-rally the A’s couldn’t put together enough of last summer. However, even after the promising news of a solid scoring effort, there was still a downside. Laureano exited the game with a jammed left wrist due to the sliding play below, though fortunately t...

Oakland A’s announce 2021 Opening Day roster Share this story Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images The Oakland A’s announced their 2021 Opening Day roster on Thursday. They left a couple decisions down to the last moment, but we now know which 26 players will suit up tonight at the Coliseum for the first game of the season against the Houston Astros. The A’s made a few transactions in order to finalize things. Placed RHP Added 2B Skye Bolt (link) Optioned RHP That leaves the fol...

Two pitchers will be held back entering Opening Day

Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images The Oakland A’s lost their Cactus League exhibition on Tuesday, by the score of 12-3 to the Arizona D’Backs. The game wasn’t devoid of positive highlights, especially in the power department for the lineup. On the pitching side, most of the damage was concentrated among just a couple Oakland hurlers. First the good news. Jed Lowrie played his fifth game of the spring, and he finally collected his first hit. It wasn’t cheap, either, as he got all of one...

Montas is pitching Sunday, but he’ll need to be activated first

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images The Oakland A’s took a tough loss in the Cactus League on Tuesday, and if it was a regular season game we’d all be pretty bummed out about it. But since the final result doesn’t affect anything, we can instead focus on the positives that happened leading up to the disappointing conclusion. The final score was 9-8 against the Chicago Cubs, so naturally our good news begins on the offensive side of the ball. Before even considering who played well...

Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images The Oakland A’s dropped their Cactus League game on Friday, 7-3 to the Angels, due mostly to their bullpen giving up a steady flow of runs. The damage was done against mixture of minor leaguers and backend MLB relievers. Instead, let’s focus on a few positives. First on the list is Matt Olson, who went deep off Shohei Ohtani in the 2nd inning for his second homer of the spring. The first baseman is looking for a bounce-back after batting just .195 last ...

It might be even better than 2020