Our weekly Oakland Futility Watch now ventures into the second half of the season, even though the All-Star break hasn’t arrived yet. For whatever reason, age-28 outfielder Brent Rooker was chosen as the Athletics’ token representative to the Midsummer Classic, and we disagree with that pick wholeheartedly. It doesn’t really matter, though, in the grand scheme of the universe. The A’s are bad, so who cares, really?

First, the updated details: Oakland is now 23-63 after picking up a few wins last week at home. Three, actually, as they beat the New York Yankees once and the Chicago White Sox twice. The A’s had a chance late to sweep the Pale Hose, but their ninth-inning comeback came up short. We attended the second loss to the Yankees, where it was 3-2, Oakland, after five innings … in a game N.Y. ended up winning, 10-4. Typical!

Projecting forward, the A’s are on pace now for 43 wins, which would help them avoid some ugly history, of course. Nothing is certain until the final out on October 1, however. But Oakland did itself a lot of good in June, winning 10 games in the month after earning just 12 victories in March, April, and May combined. As we suggested a few weeks ago, if the Athletics can win 6 games in July, they’ll be doing okay, really.

While the team and its ownership take a lot of undeserved hits on Twitter from people with no critical thinking skills, the players on the field just want to play ball. The fans who do go to the stadium just want to enjoy the baseball itself. We’ve often felt that it’s more fun rooting for a losing team, since expectations are lower—thus the viewing experience is more relaxing. On a beautiful summer day, baseball is heaven. Truly.

Which brings us back to the All-Star issue: Rooker is 28 years old, and he is with his fourth MLB organization since 2020. His numbers are okay—14 HRs, 41 RBI, .816 OPS—but we feel his selection was like one of those honorary Oscars given out for the career grinders, rather than one celebrating true worthiness as an All Star right now. We’re happy for him, as this may be the highlight of his career, sadly.

We believe the real Oakland All Star is outfielder Esteury Ruiz, who is just 24 years old and with his third MLB team in just a season and a half. He currently leads MLB in stolen bases (42), which is impressive. He has 33 RBI, mostly out of the leadoff position, which is no easy task. His overall batting numbers are mediocre, but we have seen him make impressive plays in center field, too, while Rooker is a DH guy.

Perhaps the moron picking the bench players for the AL squad decided that Ruiz has a brighter future in front of him and can make the All-Star team some other time. Maybe that moron is right, thinking his team will cheat its way to another AL pennant this year, so that he can select Ruiz next year for the All-Star squad. We cannot pretend to know what the moron is thinking, in truth—nor do we really care. This is just wrong.

What we know is this, in the here and now: the A’s are improving, and Ruiz should have been an All Star.