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Billy Beane is doing it again. He’s putting together a roster of misfits that are doing nothing but win baseball games. And it’s all being done with the fourth lowest payroll in the majors, and a bunch of guys the casual fan can’t name.

Heading into action on July 27th, Oakland’s winning percentage is .583, good for fifth in Major League Baseball. And they’re leading the Texas Rangers in the American League West by four games. All this with a roster of cast-offs and no-names, and a ballpark that has a history of sewage backups. 

Despite all the disadvantages Beane and company have to endure, the A’s are one of the best teams in baseball.

And they’re doing this while flying far under the radar, as evidenced by their All-Stars.

They had exactly two. Bartolo Colon, and Grant Balfour.

Over the past year, not just this season, the A’s have been really good. Excellent, in fact. Take it from Buster Olney.

It’s very interesting just exactly how the A’s are winning games with so few resources. And yes, there are reasons; this isn’t just a long stroke of luck. So let’s start with the first and most important reason.

The Pitching Staff

It might seem too general, but World Series have been won with pitching and not much else. And Oakland’s staff is one of the best.

Some statistics off the top: The A team has an ERA of 3.60, sixth in the majors, a deep rotation that is fourth in baseball in innings pitched with 634 and an entire staff that refuses to walk anyone—as evidenced by their major league low 2.38 BB/9.

The staff is also tied for eighth in baseball in wins above replacement, or WAR.

Need more? The A’s are seventh in the league in K/BB, with a ratio of 2.88. They’re tied with the Reds and Pirates for the lowest WHIP in the MLB, at 1.19. And they’re holding teams to a measly .239 batting average against. That would be fourth lowest in the majors.

They’re not a sexy pitching staff. They don’t have the big names, or the guys who strike out 200-plus batters. They don’t have anyone who throws 100, and the way they get guys out isn’t always pretty.

Also, is it too mean to make a joke about Bartolo Colon and not being sexy? Probably. Let’s just move on.

What all this means is that despite how the staff may look, or how they go about business, they get the job done.

They don’t give out free passes very easily. So they force lineups to hit them. And lineups can’t seem to hit them. Despite the staff throwing fastballs at an average velocity of 90.6, ahead of only the Twins and Giants.

What this tells me is that the A’s in general have pinpoint control. They don’t throw too hard, and they don’t mow down lineups. They locate their pitches, and force batters to hit the pitches they give them. They don’t make the mistakes that hitters love to feast on. 

If you watch the A’s play, don’t expect to see a pitcher take the mound and look like a prototypical ace. But they sure will pitch like one.

The Lineup

Just like the pitching staff, it might not look like much. But the A’s hitters sure do get the job done.

They’re ninth in the league in runs with 457, yet 23rd in the league with a .243 batting average.

And other than those two stats, they’re really middle of the pack in every other notable category. They’re between 12th and 18th in the league in home runs, stolen bases, OBP, slugging, and strikeout rate.

Yet they’re in the top 10 in runs, and have been all year.

Just like with the pitching staff, the secret lies in walks. The A’s lead baseball in walks and BB percent, and are second in walks per strikeout.

What this translates to is a way to counteract an atrocious batting average. Even though they’re only hitting .243, Oakland’s OBP is .320. Instead of hitting singles, they’re trotting to first on ball four.

Although that doesn’t quite explain all of it. The other part is that the A’s love to hit home runs. Or at least they love trying to.

They lead the league in fly balls, hitting them 40 percent of the time. But they’re only 12th in the league in home runs with 107, which is explained by their home run to fly ball ratio of 9.8 percent. That has them tied for 23rd in baseball, and an average ratio is around 11 percent, good for 23rd in baseball. 

And all indications are that the A’s should be hitting more homers. They have the home run hitters in Josh Reddick, Yoenis Cespedes, Brandon Moss and Josh Donaldson. And they’re 13th in isolated power. So there should be an uptick in homers down the stretch.

So really, this offense should improve. As unconventional as the strategy is, it seems to be working. Draw walks and swing for the fences. It’s an odd formula, but so far a successful one.

The How

Just like in years past, the A’s are having success with a lot of leftovers, players that other teams didn’t want.

First of all, huge shout-out to FanGraphs for all the statistics throughout this article, and then for this piece on exactly where many of the A’s key players came from. I’ll run through some of the highlights here.

Coco Crisp was signed for two years $14 million, along with a third year team option. Not bad for someone who’s WAR over the past two seasons is 4.4.

Josh Donaldson was a throw in to a deal that sent Rich Harden to the Cubs. But this season he was a near All-Star with a WAR of 4.3.

Brandon Moss was cut from the Phillies, but now has hit 38 homers in 179 games in an Athletics uniform.

The A’s have paid Bartolo Colon $5 million over two years. The same Colon who has 14 wins and a 2.54 ERA this season.

Jarrod Parker and Brett Anderson were acquired in trades, and AJ Griffin and Dan Straily were late draft picks. And their other All-Star Grant Balfour was signed to a two year $8.1 million dollar deal after his time with the Rays. Pretty good rate for one of the top closers in the game.

The only guy the A’s really spent money on was Yoenis Cespedes. And when you look like he does, run like he does and have such a pretty home run swing, you can’t blame them.

There should be a theme that’s starting to pop out. Almost all these guys were forgotten about, or cut or drafted extremely late. 

But Oakland brought them all together. They reinvented moneyball, just in a different way. This time there are no stars like Barry Zito or Miguel Tejada or Tim Hudson. 

Just a bunch of guys who believe in the strategy, believe in each other and believe they’re great when not many people even know their names. Josh Donaldson being one of them.

They may not be household names, but they play like they should be. And if they keep on winning, everyone will know who they are.

All statistics, unless otherwise noted, come from FanGraphs.com

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It’s likely that at the beginning of the 2013 season, no one would have assumed that starting pitchers Bartolo Colon of the Oakland Athletics and Hisashi Iwakuma of the Seattle Mariners would be anchoring their pitching staffs.

Colon pitched brilliantly last season—posting a 10-9 record and 3.43 ERA—before being slapped with a 50-game ban for violating MLB‘s joint drug program.

Iwakuma was injured at the beginning of last season and worked out of the bullpen before joining the starting rotation, ending his first year in the league with a respectable 9-5 record and 3.16 ERA in 30 appearances, 16 of them starts.

Yet on Friday, they matched up against each other, Colon with a 9-2 record and 2.89 ERA, which included a six-game winning game, and Iwakuma with a 7-2 record and impressive 2.06 ERA.

In fact, Safeco Field has proved to be a safe haven for both pitchers.

The A’s got to Iwakuma quickly as he yielded a two-run home run to Yoenis Cespedes in the top of the first inning.

The Mariners answered right back, however, when second baseman Nick Franklin connected for a three-run shot off Colon in the bottom of the third.

Colon settled down after Franklin’s shot, working quickly and flawlessly through eight innings.

But Iwakuma wasn’t quite so lucky. He gave up two more home runs, a solo shot to Jed Lowrie in the fourth and another solo blast to Coco Crisp in the sixth.

It just wasn’t Iwakuma‘s night, exiting after seven innings and allowing four runs on six hits, three of which went yard.

On the other hand, Colon was efficient after Franklin’s blast, giving up just four singles for the rest of the evening and once again showing off outstanding velocity and command.

The 6-3 victory by the A’s lifted Colon to 10-2 with a 2.93 ERA, joining Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer as the only other hurler with double-digit wins in the American League.

At least one person on Twitter expressed incredulity at that fact.

At this point, it would be hard to overlook Colon as a deserving All-Star selection. At 40 years of age, he has a legitimate shot at a 20-win season, which would make him one of the oldest in MLB history to achieve the feat.

But for now, the A’s and Colon will simply enjoy the seven-game winning streak and hope that it doesn’t stop anytime soon.

Doug Mead is a featured columnist with Bleacher Report. His work has been featured in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, SF Gate, CBS Sports, the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle.

Feel free to talk baseball with Doug anytime on Twitter.

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For all of you forward-thinking fantasy players, you’re probably way ahead of me in coming up with a list of players who’ve given you great value in the first half, but won’t come close to maintaining production for the remainder of the season. You’ll spend the next few weeks looking for the best trade before their value begins to dip too much.

If you need help identifying this year’s version of Asdrubal Cabrera (.286 BA, 11 HR, 42 RBI, 20 2B, 34 BB in 1st half of 2012; .251 BA, 5 HR, 26 RBI, 15 2B, 18 BB in 2nd half of 2012), let me give you some suggestions.

Here are seven players you should consider trading before midseason. 

Begin Slideshow

When Bartolo Colon signed with the Oakland A’s last year there weren’t high expectations for him.  

Although he had won a Cy Young earlier in his career, he was expected to be an average middle-of-the-rotation starter in 2012.

Colon surprised everyone in 2012 as he went 10-9 with a nice ERA of 3.43.  

Colon’s season would come to an abrupt end when he tested positive for illegal substances in the summer and he was hit with a 50 game suspension.  That suspension will carry over into 2013 and he will be held out of the first week of the regular season.  

Coming of the suspension, it is not a sure thing that Colon will be back to his 2012 form in which he relied on his PED-fueled fastball to blow hitters away with 91 strikeouts.

When Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games, he never quite regained his prior form and he struggled so poorly that he couldn’t crack the A’s 25 man roster in the spring of 2012 when the A’s were struggling on offense.

When Colon was suspended and Brandon McCarthy was injured late in the season, the A’s showed off just how much pitching depth they have when Dan Straily and A.J. Griffin came up from Triple-A Sacramento to continue carrying the A’s down the stretch.

The A’s potentially could start the season with their five-man rotation being Brett Anderson, A.J. Griffin, Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone and Dan Straily.  Notice that Colon is the odd man out.

With Colon’s suspension costing him the first week of the season, plus the potential for his production to dip coming off such a long suspension, and factoring in the depth that the A’s have in pitching, Colon may not be on the A’s 25 man roster at all.

Colon could find a back-door way onto the team through the bullpen perhaps, but Colon will have to fight to be in the A’s starting rotation come April.

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The highlight reel for the Oakland Athletics‘ 2012 season rivals the likes of recent years in the East Bay. Between the 15 walk-off wins and the comeback victory over the Texas Rangers to solidify the AL West crown, Oakland fans have much to reflect on. 

Bartolo Colon was on the losing end of the 2012 Athletics’ storybook year, though. His 50-game suspension for the illegal use of testosterone brought the RHP’s season to an abrupt end. 

The A’s recently announced their $3 million, one-year deal with the veteran pitcher for the 2013 season, though honoring the five remaining games that Colon is under suspension. 

Colon (10-9, 3.43 ERA in 2012) proved to be an optimal force when called upon to take the hill for Oakland—though the validity of his dominance is now called into question, as with any case of cheating. 

Following the Athletics’ July campaign that left opposing teams in the dust was the news of Colon’s required departure. 

When Colon’s suspension planted doubt in the Athletics’ remaining games, the resilient Oakland pitching staff carried on with little interruption. 

The question is, will signing Colon to a single-year deal be beneficial for the A’s clubhouse in the upcoming year? 

There is no doubt that having Colon’s veteran presence among the extraordinarily young pitching staff will pay dividends for Oakland’s growth.  

The pressing issue is, however, whether or not the Athletics will be receptive to Colon’s wisdom and guidance in light of his mistake. 

The signing of Colon to another year in Oakland exemplifies Billy Beane and Bob Melvin’s level of faith and forgiveness in the pitcher—unlike what was shown to his Bay Area counterpart, Melky Cabrera. 

Ultimately, Colon needs to be heavy on the win-column in 2013 in order for his contract to be just another one of Beane‘s chess-like decisions. 

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The Oakland Athletics are re-signing Bartolo Colon to a $3 million contract. He was suspended for 50 games earlier this year after testing positive for testosterone. And all of that seems to be in the rearview mirror for Oakland management.

According to the AP’s Janie McCauley, Oakland general manager Billy Beane feels that Colon is “cost effective and good.”

Colon has been pitching in winter ball—and that was all Beane needed to know, as the A’s need pitching depth to retain their American League West title.

The team is bringing back Tommy Milone, Jarrod Parker, Travis Blackley, A.J. Griffin, Dan Straily and Brett Anderson. Grant Balfour and Ryan Cook are also coming back.

Why not bring back Colon, who threw 152.1 innings, averaging 6.1 innings per start? Obviously, the Athletics are not squeamish about bringing back a suspended player.

He lost nearly half a million dollars in salary last year and will be suspended the first five games of the 2013 season.

When he comes back, the Oakland team that will go into the season will have the deepest staff in the American League West. Throw in the addition of Chris Young and the possibility of dealing an outfielder for infield depth, and the A’s might have already done everything they need to do for their defense without making a major move.

Is that worth a cheap contract to a former Cy Young winner with a PED problem? Billy Beane says yes. And he hasn’t been wrong yet.

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To the surprise of this writer, the Oakland A’s announced the re-signing of suspended starting pitcher Bartolo Colon for a one year deal worth up to $3 million with performance bonuses. 

Don’t get me wrong, Colon was solid with the A’s in 2012 up until his suspension for performance-enhancing drugs. His stat line was 10-9 with a 3.43 ERA in 24 starts. By all accounts, he had a very good season.

However, what can the Oakland A’s reasonably expect from a 39-year-old starting pitcher whose performance was almost certainly amplified by his use of PEDs? If nothing else, he becomes a stopgap in the event of sophomore recession from Tom Milone or Jarrod Parker.

You have to wonder if Dan Straily and A.J. Griffin will have a spot in the rotation now with Colon’s return (he is slated to miss the first five games of the 2013 season to complete the 50-game suspension levied in August).

As it stands, you can reasonably assume Brett Anderson, Jarrod Parker and Tom Milone are the top three starters. Colon likely slides into the fourth spot. So barring any injury, it becomes a battle between Griffin and Straily, with dark horses in the form of prospects Brad Peacock and Sonny Gray.

What that certainly means is that the A’s could part ways with Brandon McCarthy. McCarthy has been a top-tier starter during his time in Oakland, but has also consistently battled injury. In that way, he reminded me of the tantalizing, but too-often-injured Justin Duchscherer. Of course, we all know he continues to recover from the frightening line drive he took off his skull against the Los Angeles Angels on September 5. 

According to Jane Lee of MLB.com, Oakland general manager Billy Beane insists that it will not impact McCarthy’s return, but realistically, how can it not? Colon’s return puts in the A’s in a spot where even without McCarthy, there are eight pitchers for five spots in the rotation.

And unlike 2012, there are no guys like Tyson Ross and Graham Godfrey in this mix. Granted, Oakland’s recent injury issues with starting pitching makes it a practical move.

But I have not forgotten that Lew Wolff still owns this team. Any type of excessive payroll is not going to be allowed as long as the A’s are still inhabitants of the Coliseum. So the recent history has shown that if Oakland adds, it will ultimately have to subtract. Chris Young’s return was the symbolic end of Jonny Gomes’ time. Derek Norris sped up the departure of Kurt Suzuki, etc.

In other words, Colon (who was solid while pitching in the Dominican) will have every chance to regain his spot in the rotation. Why? Because he comes with great value for a low price. Nothing in the A’s model suggests doing more than necessary at any one position. So welcome back Bartolo. And it’s likely goodbye Brandon. 

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At the last checkpoint, the Oakland A’s were 39-42 at the midway point of the season. On pace for 78 wins, they have gone a blistering 16-3 since to move to 55-45 and are on the verge of taking the lead in the American League wild-card standings. For the month of July, they are 18-3 and show no signs of slowing down.

What is all the more remarkable about this turnaround is that is has happened without many of the cogs people expected the A’s to need to have any kind of chance to contend for anything in 2012. For starters, Jemile Weeks, expected to be the catalyst for the Oakland offense, continues to languish around .220 for the year. The A’s shortstops have combined for splits of .184/.244/.276 as of July 28th. That is by far the worst in baseball. Catchers have not been much better, performing at splits of .198/.250/.269 in 2012. 

Meanwhile, the A’s have the No. 1 pitching staff in the American League despite having three rookies in the rotation. The team ace Brandon McCarthy has missed chunks of the season with a balky shoulder and rotation stalwarts Brett Anderson and Dallas Braden have yet to make one pitch at the major league level. 

So what have the A’s done well? First off, they are getting great production from Yoenis Cespedes. Backed by a hot July, Cespedes currently has splits of .302/.361/.541 for an OPS of .902. Considering “The Cuban Missile” has missed about 30 games to injury, the production he has had is all the more remarkable.

Even more of a surprise has been the amazing play of Josh Reddick. Billy Beane looks like a genius for acquiring the right fielder for Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney. All Reddick has done is lead the team with 22 home runs, drive in 50 runs and compile his own slugging percentage of .537 with an OPS of .885 in 2012. By far the A’s most consistent hitter during the year, Reddick has helped the A’s balance out their lineup over the course of the season. 

Of course, Oakland’s success could not happen without great pitching. The trio of Jarrod Parker, Tom Milone and A.J. Griffin has done more than just complement veterans Bartolo Colon and the surprising Travis Blackley. They have become the lead story in a rotation that continues to surprise.

Parker, while having some struggles in July, still sits at 7-4 with a 3.38 ERA on the season. Milone has been lights out in Oakland, going 9-7 overall, while Griffin has truly been a pleasant surprise. In six starts, Griffin has gone six innings in each, winning his last three decisions while posting an ERA of 2.25 on the year. Instead of being a warm body until other starters got healthy, Griffin appears to be firmly planted in the rotation. 

Knowing how quickly the situation can change, it is important to note that the A’s still have a tenuous schedule to navigate. The 10 games with Los Angeles and six with Texas will likely determine if Oakland has a position in the 2012 playoffs. But there are also six games with Tampa Bay, three more with the Yankees, three with another division/wild-card hopeful, the Detroit Tigers, as well as six with the always pesky Seattle Mariners.

Either way, to be on pace for 89 wins with this team, there is no doubt that Bob Melvin deserves more than just a little consideration for AL Manager of the Year. Whether he will merit it will depend on his team in the next few weeks.

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The A’s came back from a four-run first inning and played long ball en route to an 8-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

The longest and largest of the four home runs the A’s hit was by Brandon Moss, who hit a third-deck shot estimated at 461 feet in the third inning to give the A’s the lead for good. Moss would hit two home runs, and both Brandon Inge and Cliff Pennington also went deep. Seth Smith hit a pair of doubles and drove in two RBI on the night, as well.

While Bartolo Colon was not his best, he did settle down after the first inning to keep the Rockies off the board until Todd Helton’s solo homer in the fifth inning. By that time, the A’s were up 7-4. Colon’s line on the night was five runs allowed on nine hits, three walks and four strikeouts in five innings pitched. But it was enough to notch his sixth win of the year.

The key—along with the offensive outburst—was Oakland’s bullpen. Sean Doolittle and Grant Balfour struck out four and allowed only a single hit and one walk combined in three innings. Then the A’s turned to Ryan Cook to close the game. After a leadoff walk and a single to former A’s utility man Marco Scutaro, Cook responded by striking out Carlos Gonzalez and Michael Cuddyer, and inducing a game-ending force out from Todd Helton for his first save.

Good: Brandon Moss and Brandon Inge (tie)

Both were big during the six-run rally to take the lead in the third. Moss’ first home run was a tape-measure shot with the kind of power the A’s have been looking to add at first base. Inge provided insurance with a long home run of his own and also had an RBI double and a huge defensive play to save two runs in the sixth inning.

Neither will hit .300 in a season, but they are both legitimate power threats when their swings are on. Inge also provides above-average defense at a spot that had been a wasteland before his arrival

Bad: Coco Crisp

Another 0-for-4 at the plate. Collin Cowgill should be playing right now. The A’s need every capable hitter they can get, and it seems clearer with each passing day that Crisp is just not going to turn it around with some burst. It is better to just cut losses now.

With the win, the A’s move to 27-35 and look to build on this performance, sending Tom Milone on the bump against former A’s starter Josh Outman. First pitch is scheduled for 8:40 p.m. ET.

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Ervin Santana went 7.2 shutout innings and Mike Trout and Albert Pujols paced the Los Angeles Angels’ offense as the Oakland A’s fell 4-0 in Anaheim.

Losing pitcher Bartolo Colon allowed four runs on 12 hits in 6.2 innings while striking out four. He is now 3-4 on the season. The A’s only managed five hits and could not get a big hit with two chances late in the game.

In the sixth inning, the A’s loaded the bases on walks by Cliff Pennington and Josh Reddick and a single by Jemile Weeks. But the threat was ended when Seth Smith struck out. In the eighth inning, the A’s had runners on the corners, but pinch hitter Jonny Gomes grounded out to second. Beyond that, the A’s did not do much against Santana, who struck out nine. 

Good: N/A. Nothing good about being shut out and having your starting pitcher allow 12 hits in less than seven innings.

Bad: Bartolo Colon. He was not terrible, but another uneven start has his earned run average at 4.13. This is more indicative of the pitcher the A’s signed. He is good, but not great.

Ugly: N/A.

Now 19-18, the A’s will head to Arlington to face the Texas Rangers for two games starting Wednesday. Tom Milone will start against Japanese sensation Yu Darvish. First pitch is scheduled for 5:05 p.m.

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