And how have they fared since tri-B’s exceptional trades? Let us recap:

8/1 Lost 0/1 to Kansas City 8/2 Won over KC 8/3 Lost to KC
8/4 Won Over Tampa Bay Rays 8/5 Won over TB 8/6 Lost to TB
8/7 Won Over Minnesota Twins 8/8 Won over MT 8/9 Won Over MT
8/10 Lost to MT 8/11 Won over KC 8/12 Lost to KC
8/13 Lost to KC 8/14 Lost to KC 8/15 Lost to Atlanta Braves

That’s 7 wins and 8 losses for an average of 0.466. That is the an average slightly above the Houston Astros, 4th in the American League West. Oakland is now only 1 game ahead of the Los Angeles Angels. Oakland will play the Angels 6 times before the end of the month. Care to project where the results will be by 8/31? I shudder to think. But what the heck – I’ll just put it out there and predict by 8/31, the Oakland A’s will be 3 games out of first place to the LA Angels. As I said before, they will be battling with Seattle for the Wild Card slot. Nice goin’, Bean Ball.

Dictionary dot com defines fever as an abnormal condition of the body, characterized by undue rise in temperature, quickening of the pulse, and disturbance of various body functions. So World Series fever would be a disturbance of right thinking in pursuit of a now likely unattainable goal. Like Napoleon in Moscow. Hitler in Stalingrad. King Arthur in Monty Python. You get the idea.

Post Script: Oh, this is the best part. The guy they ousted Chavez to make way for, Jason Hammel, the 6 million dollar man? He’s won 1 game since joining the A’s July 4th. His current ERA is 6.75 (that’s really bad). Jesse Chavez’ ERA is 3.33. His salary is $480k. So Billy has paid 11 times as much for Hammel as he was paying Chavez, and the man has won one game. One game since 7/4. It’s beyond comprehension.

There’s talk about bringing Jesse back. Not gonna happen. Billy’s going to ride this runaway train all the way to the station. Nice goin’, Bean Ball.