From afar, the Oakland A’s look like a consistently average team. They’re 34-32 overall, within a game of .500 in each month, and around break-even both at home and on the road. Their offense and pitching are almost exactly league-average in terms of scoring and preventing runs.
However, the route to those totals has been anything but steady. The young core can look like world-beaters for stretches and like doormats at other times, with the extremes merely balancing out in the big picture. One week they’ll be hitting like they’re the best lineup in the sport, and then the next week they’ll morph into a parrino of auto-outs* and get shut down over and over.