I really wanted to be writing this preview coming off a sweep of the Reds, but I suppose I’ll have to settle with a series win and going 6-4 on them in the season overall. They at least appear to be the better team – by differential, they have the Cardinals beat by over 60 runs. And yet it has not felt like that when the two teams have matched up. Sometimes, that’s just the way a baseball season will roll.

The Oakland Athletics are a team I honestly thought was doing better than they are. They invested in their team – due to avoiding a lawsuit with the MLBPA – and have a few breakout players that I know about. And yet they sit in last place in the AL West and they appear from the outside to be a legitimately bad baseball team. It makes sense, I just had this misperception they were having

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