Welcome to Tuesday A’s fans! It’s All-Star Game Day!
But before we get to the game, the Athletics made a move yesterday afternoon, letting go of pitching coach Scott Emerson and promoting bullpen coach Dan Hubbs to take over for the rest of the year:
The move couldn’t come soon enough. The team is currently second to last in the entire sport in ERA, ahead of only the Colorado Rockies who play in the most hitter-friendly stadium in the world. A’s pitchers have had to pitch in their own hitter-friendly environment over the past season and a half but the pitching has been a problem for a while now, going back to the final Oakland years.
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Emerson, who has been the pitching coach since mid-2017, has been given talented arms over the years but the Athletics have struggled to develop many quality arms in recent seasons. Righty J.T. Ginn has been a success story this year but outside of him many of the younger arms have failed to establish themselves. Veteran arms like Jeffrey Springs and Luis Severino haven’t benefitted from any coaching that Emerson has done. There was a hope that as the offense came into its own that the pitching would soon follow but that hasn’t happened. A’s fans were calling for Emerson to be let go and the team has finally followed through on it.
Bullpen coach Dan Hubbs is replacing Emerson the same way Emerson got the job from Curt Young in ‘17. He likely isn’t a long-term option and the team will surely be on the lookout this offseason for pitching coaches, but the team needed to make a move. Maybe he can help provide a spark for the young arms over the second half. There have been some solid individual performances down in the bullpen.
What does this also say about Mark Kotsay? Now in his fifth year leading the team, expectations were raised entering this year. The club has finally accrued enough talent at the big league level to at least hover around .500 and that’s good enough to be in the playoff hunt. That’s where the A’s were over the first two-ish months of the season but have, for the second year in a row, suffered a season-crippling losing spell in the middle of the summer. The front office hasn’t exactly given him too much pitching to work with but with Las Vegas around the corner the front office may be getting antsy. Perhaps firing Emerson is a sign that Kotsay’s seat may be warming up as well.
Anyway, the 2026 All-Star Game is tonight! A’s fans will be treated this evening with Shea Langeliers catching and batting third. He’s likely only going to get one, maybe two at bats but it’ll still be fun to see the Green & Gold on the national stage. And it’s hard to miss the catcher so extra visibility for ‘Bangeliers’ and the A’s tonight. Any predictions on how our boy does?
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First pitch is at 5 but the festivities start an hour before that. Until then guys. Have a great day everyone.
A’s Coverage:
MLB News and Interest:
Best of X:
This went under the radar but Leo De Vries led off for the AL Futures squad and went 1-for-2 with a two stolen bases, a run scored and a strikeout. Not bad, Leo:
The disrespect!
Quite the honorary spot in the lineup:
Another good look at some of the newest prospects in the Athletics’ system:
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