It’s time once again to check in on the Oakland Athletics and their final season in the East Bay: the Oakland Futility Watch for 2024 continues! We went to the game on June 21, which was a win for the A’s over the Minnesota Twins, and that was exciting (see below), but with a record of just 30-56 as of today’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Athletics are going nowhere fast—as expected, in truth. Oh well.

The team’s 17-17 start seems like a mirage now, obviously, and maybe it was: with a 13-39 record since then, the A’s have been playing .250 ball after that .500 start to the season. That feels like a disappointment, although it should not be when one looks at the roster bereft of talent. Then again, after 86 games last season, the team was just 23-63, so there has been a definitive improvement. Everyone likes that progress.

But is being 7 wins better than last year at the same time really anything to bark about? Nope. Let’s breakdown the team record by a few key splits:

  • Oakland is 12-33 on the road, which is brutal. The A’s are under .500 at home (18-23), as well, obviously, but they’ve been more competitive at home, despite the lack of attendance. Maybe the players sleep better in their own beds? It’s a significant difference there.
  • Each successive month has been worse for the Athletics: .481 winning percentage in April; .321 in May; and just .259 in June. This can’t continue, of course, as there is a law of averages, and even the worst teams win one out of three, most of the time. But that’s a sharp decline. The corresponding win totals per month have also dropped, of course: 13 in April, 9, in May, and 7 in June. Look for a rebound soon.
  • The A’s are just 3-6 in extra innings, which reflects not only a bullpen weakness but also an offensive ineffectiveness, too. We’ve seen the team fail repeatedly in fundamental execution under Manager Mark Kotsay for years now, so it’s no surprise the team struggles in extra innings with current rules.
  • With a 12-16 record in one-run games, the Athletics are showing a decent ability to hang in there during close contests. However, a 5-13 record in games decided by 5 runs or more shows how often the team is getting blown out, due to various roster weaknesses.
  • With a 12-12 record in interleague play, it’s clear that Oakland would be a middling team in the National League, and playing an American League schedule is one reason the A’s are so far under .500 this season. The team is a combined 4-23 against Boston, Cleveland, Houston, and Minnesota, for example. Kind of hurts that the Guardians are managed by former A’s fan favorite Stephen Vogt, too.

We probably will check in again with the team in July, but we’re not going to a lot of games this year as the team prepares to leave town. Our first MLB game ever was in October 1974, and this makes this the 50th year for us in attending games at the Coliseum. We will be there on the final day of the home schedule (September 26), of course, and it’s going to be a sad march all the way to that moment. We will miss the A’s.