Saturday, October 02, 2004
No Playoffs for Oakland
Posted by Aaron GleemanAfter four straight trips to the playoffs, the Oakland A's will miss the postseason after dropping the first two games of their three-game series to the Angels. Oakland really faded down the stretch, as their usually outstanding starting pitching let them down. Not today, however, as Barry Zito turned in a very good performance. Today, the bullpen let them down (which has also happened quite a bit this season).
Assuming most of the voters haven't mailed their ballots in already, I'd say this pretty much wraps up Vladimir Guerrero's 2004 AL MVP award. Oh, and if you thought the anti-Oakland, anti-Moneyball stuff was bad before, just wait.
Aaron Gleeman is a freelance writer whose work can also be found regularly at AaronGleeman.com, Fox Sports, Rotoworld, and Insider Baseball. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions via e-mail.