Oakland A’s mailbag: Answering your questions about an underwhelming offense

The trade deadline passed and the Oakland A’s are officially embarked on a push for a fourth-straight postseason appearance. The front office traded for a reliever and three position players to increase their depth on a team that was looking a little flat on offense in the weeks heading into the July 30 deadline.

The nature of those moves signals the team’s strongest win-now approach since 2014.

You all had questions about this A’s team, the offensive woes, possible bullpen additions and even the offseason. Here are some answers for part one of this week’s mailbag.

@Invader_Dib_ on Twitter asks: Will Darren Bush and his anemic offense be acknowledge at some point? How important is the work of a hitting coach at MLB right now?

I get asked about A’s hitting coach Darren Bush a lot as frustrations bubble over the A’s underwhelming offense. I’ll say this: Based on what I’ve heard internally, what’s been insinuated through comments from team officials and departed A’s players, I’d point a finger at the team’s lack of resources as a reason they appear to be falling behind.

We know A’s ownership as one that shuts down long-term deals for beloved players or free agents, but a smaller budget for baseball operations also means they aren’t spending on tools or the sheer number of personnel equipped to disperse information. Though the A’s are pioneers in the analytics revolution and still are at the forefront of it, they could be falling behind while high-budget teams spend more to build a bigger staff and provide tools that can more efficiently provide to players the information they need.

A few examples.

When Marcus Semien signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, he said he was impressed with the quantity and quality of the Jays’ support staff — strength trainers, dietitians and, notably “new ideas and resources.”

“What I’ve noticed here in Toronto is there’s a lot more staff here to help you work on your game,” Semien told Toronto reporters in February.

Marcus Semien says via Zoom that he's been impressed with quantity & quality of #BlueJays' support staff – strength trainers, dieticians etc. exposing him to new ideas & resources.

"What I've noticed here in Toronto is there's a lot more staff here to help you work on your game"

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) February 22, 2021

Oakland officials, coaches and staff won’t openly comment about how the lack of resources impacts them, but do concede that they’re just trying to keep up with other teams.

When reliever Jake Diekman told us about the new virtual reality headsets in the A’s clubhouse during spring training this year, we asked manager Bob Melvin about how the tool could be used.

“Some of the other teams are using it extensively,” Melvin said in March. “So, just trying to keep up technology-wise.”

Matt Olson’s attributed most of his tremendous growth at the plate this year to a little red machine that spits out high spin-rate rubber balls. A machine Olson didn’t know about until Tommy La Stella brought it with him to Oakland from the Los Angeles Angels mid-season in 2020.

For an upcoming story on the A’s pitching analyst Samantha Schultz, an astrophysicist, general manager David Forst commented on how the team hires, operates and wins with one of the smallest research and development staffs in MLB. Again, the theme of trying to keep up with fewer tools arose.

“We’re, frankly, trying to keep up,” Forst said. “With the teams that have other resources we don’t — they have a mobile Trackman at every affiliate or Statcast wired into their minor league stadiums. And we’re trying to keep up with everybody. With a smaller group and less to work with, we’re doing a good job.”

Look across the bridge to a team run by a Billy Beane disciple in Farhan Zaidi. He’s using A’s principles but operating with a significantly bigger budget. Zaidi’s first course of action when hired as president of baseball operations was to hire eight new coaches to expand the staff to 15, the largest coaching staff in baseball. The A’s rank toward the bottom with eight on staff. It’s no coincidence that the San Francisco Giants, with little star power before landing Kris Bryant at the deadline, hold the best record in baseball.

Of course, the flip side to this is the danger of drowning in information, or “paralysis by analysis,” as Forst put it. Most players are happier to avoid the influx of information. The A’s, and every other team, always have to walk a fine line.

I wouldn’t say the A’s offense is stale, at times, because of the hitting coaching on staff, but because of what they don’t have in comparison to their competition. That comes down to money.

@WesSager on Twitter asks: Do you see A.J. Puk working out of the bullpen by September?

I think that’s the hope. Puk, the A’s top pitching prospect at age 26, has made significant progress in Triple-A this year. Puk will need to pitch back-to-back days before a potential return to the big league team’s bullpen. Something he hasn’t done yet.

Puk has been with the Triple-A Aviators in Las Vegas since May, first to rehab an injury and then was immediately optioned after his IL stint to show that he could string together consistent, healthy appearances. He didn’t give the A’s too much of a reason to call him back up after putting up a 10.80 ERA in May and 9.42 ERA in June. But Puk hit 98-99mph on his fastball in his last outings this month and gave up a total two earned runs in 14 innings over eight appearances.

If Puk can pitch like he has this month in a hitter-friendly Triple-A West, he could be a key addition to the A’s pitching staff down the stretch with high-velocity offerings. He would supplement Andrew Chafin and Jake Diekman from the left side.

@Supremeyamaka3 on Twitter asks: Any possibility of re-signing Mark Canha and or Starling Marte?

While it would be nice to keep both players as an ideal one-two punch atop the lineup, it seems unlikely they’d be able to afford Marte, who will be a coveted veteran at age 32 coming off a six-year, $31 million deal. Oakland doesn’t typically land coveted free agents.

Which brings me to Canha, a fan favorite, hometown hero who emerged in Oakland as a Rule 5 draft pick in 2015. Canha’s grown into one of baseball’s most underrated hitters with a career .249 average, .347 on-base percentage and .790 OPS with the A’s over seven seasons. The A’s may want him back, but it’s unlikely another team won’t swoop him up for a little more money in free agency.

@nate_frogg on Twitter asks: Based on trade talks, how do teams (including us) view AAA stats in Vegas?

Each team has its own model to park- and league-adjust players’ numbers, so they may interpret a high OPS for one player or high ERA for a pitcher in a hitter-friendly league and ballpark differently than we do just looking at basic stats online. Those adjusted numbers absolutely come into play when trades are made.