When ESPN.com baseball analysts made their preseason picks this spring, the A's were the only consensus divisional winner. How could they not be considering that they addressed their biggest weakness (a lack of speed on the base paths). Boy were they wrong. Yes, the season is only at its halfway point but anyway who thinks the Mariners can be caught should wake up -- in a hurry. But hey, that's life. Just another example that there are no guarantees.
First-half MVP: Tim Hudson (9-5, 3.02 ERA) deserves consideration even though he was quite bad in April (2-3, 6.35). However, the most impressive player has been the reigning league MVP: Jason Giambi. Not only does Giambi lead the league in walks (71), but he's third behind Manny Ramirez and Carlos Delgado with 14 intentional passes, because the A's hitters behind him have struggled so much. When Giambi finally does get pitches to hit, he produces (.332, 19 HR, 60 RBI).
Biggest surprise: This has a two-fold response. First, they haven't been able to score runs in bunches. The A's did not hit for a high average (.250) but they get on base a lot (second in A.L. with 324 walks). However, for some reason they're eighth in scoring with 404 runs. Secondly, the young guns have not been consistent. Now maybe it was unrealistic to think that Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito (four combined years of big league experience prior to this season) would all win at least 15 games, but we had those expectations nonetheless.
Biggest disappointment: Where to start? Olmedo Saenz has not made pitchers pay for walking Giambi. Eric Chavez has not established himself as the most productive third baseman in the A.L. as some thought he might. And Jim Mecir is not the guy who repeatedly came through down the stretch last season. But Johnny Damon -- where have you been? The deal that was supposed to put Oakland in the World Series this year now has fans anticipating another move -- the one that gets Damon out of town.
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A's first-half comparison
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2000
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2001
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W-L
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48-38
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44-43
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HR leader
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Giambi, 22
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2 tied at 19
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BA leader
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Giambi, .334
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Giambi, .322
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ERA
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Heredia, 3.99
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Hudson, 3.02
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Second-half goals: Come flying out of the gate or expect to lose players in trades for prospects. Jason Isringhausen has struggled in spots, but many teams would be willing to gamble that he'll come through down the stretch. Damon has also been talked about since it never appeared that he would spend more than one year with the A's. However, the biggest deal would be Giambi. There's been talk that the A's would not move him this summer, but if they're under .500 in late July, they may have no other choice.
Minor-leaguer to watch: If the A's show signs that they can contend for the wild-card, they may consider bringing up a pitcher to sit down Gil Heredia. They've already called up Erik Hiljus, who won his first start on June 30. The only other Triple-A Sacramento pitcher putting up impressive statistics is Luis Vizcaino, who was with Oakland in April.
Grade:  -- Even though they're not completely out of the wild-card hunt, disappointment is the only way to describe the first half. They managed to overcome a terrible April with a good May, but could not win consistently in June. This team has too much talent to be barely over .500.
(Scale: 1 to 4 baseballs; 1 = worst, 4 = best)
We told you what we thought of the Athletics first-half performance, now you can tell us
what you think.
James C. Black is an associate editor at ESPN.com
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