Oakland A's bring good bullpen, decent defense, and terrible offense against Tigers

Following a much-needed win against Houston, the Tigers look to continue their impressive season against the A's. We come into this series with a 42-33 record and a 4 game lead over Minnesota and a 5 game lead over the White Sox in what is turning into a 3 team race for the division title. With a series against the Twins at that joke of a stadium following this one, the Tigers need to take at least 2 of 3 in this series to ensure that they will at least hold a share of the division lead at the halfway point of the season. And, while baseball is always a tough game to predict, the A's are a struggling team and it is time to bury them.

The A's come into this series having lost 5 straight games and with the second worst record in the AL at 31-43. The biggest culprit? An offense that is flat out terrible. They have the worst batting average in the AL at .238, the worst wOBA at .300, the worst OPS at .673, and are the only team in the AL with a slugging percentage below .400 at .361. Their OBP of .312 is tied for last in the AL. They have the fewest HR's, tied for last in triples and 3rd to last in doubles. Despite all of this they are still only the 3rd worst team in the AL in terms of runs scored. All signs point to them eventually taking over dead last in that regard. Bottom line, this is an atrocious offense we are about to face. Other than Matt Holliday (who is having a down year for him) and Adam Kennedy (who is having one of his best seasons) they do not have any hitters that should strike fear in an opposing pitcher.

How about the pitching staff? Not bad, not bad at all. B/c I will profile each of their starters in the game previews, I will just focus on their relievers. Their relievers have a 4.03 ERA, which is sixth in the AL and better than the Tigers. Even better, they have the best FIP in the AL at 3.64. The A's also have the second best K/BB rate in the AL for relievers at 2.16. They have the sixth best WHIP and a BABIP of .304 so there is not much to suggest that this is a fluke. They appear to have a legit bullpen. Mike Wuertz, Andrew Bailey, and Brad Ziegler are their three best bullpen arms.

Defensively, I am sure we all remember the 6 errors they gave to us in our last series. Overall, though, they are a decent fielding team with a 5.1 UZR. Individually, Orlando Cabrera is one of the worst defensive SS in the game with a -7.6 UZR. Jack Hannahan is a good defender at 3B, Matt Holliday is a good defender in LF, and they have a good platoon in CF defensively with Rajai Davis and Ryan Sweeney.

I'll be back later with a preview of their starting pitcher tonight, Brett Anderson.