Oakland Athletics 2013 Season in Review

Oct 5, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics catcher Stephen Vogt (21) celebrates with teammates after hitting an RBI single for the walk off win against the Detroit Tigers in game two of the American League divisional series playoff baseball game at O.co Coliseum. The Oakland Athletics defeated the Detroit Tigers 1-0 with a walk off win. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

And that brings us to the end of our season review of the 2013 Oakland Athletics. If you’ve read this far, congratulations, most people left about 15 minutes ago. And we didn’t even get to talk about individual accomplishments and injuries! It’s a shame, we could’ve gone for 4,000 words! Another time, I suppose.

What stand out the most? A few missed opportunities are magnified when looking back with the full season under our belts. A few more wins instead of losses in series like the ones against the Brewers, Indians or White Sox and I might have been writing a game recap of an ALCS matchup instead of a season review, as the A’s would’ve faced the Rays and not the Tigers in the Division Series. The A’s had a habit of leaving men on in big spots at various times throughout the year, and that came up to bite them in a big way in Game 4. The pitching staff was fantastic for most of the season, but they were never talked about as an elite group even though their numbers said they were, and the loss to Detroit hurts that much more because of the way they lost, as if the young talented pups couldn’t hang with the big dogs in the moment they needed to, which is how the narrative develops regardless of whether or not that’s actually the case. The fact that the A’s got shut down by a superior pitcher that has done it to them before makes them seem helpless, and a feeling of impotence and frustration is an awful sour taste to have in one’s mouth for an entire offseason.

But I will not label the season as a failure. The entire organization came together and put themselves in a position to make a run in October, and at the end of the day that’s all you can really ask of your team. There’s no doubt that the way it all turned out was disappointing, because this is a group that really was talented enough to win it all, but baseball can be a cruel mistress, and the A’s found that out the hard way for the second year in a row. Let’s hope their success can carry over to next year, because baseball sure is a lot more fun when the Oakland A’s are playing into fall.