Eyeball Scout Assesses The “Suddenly Competent” A’s

“For he’s a jolly good fellow...”Was the 1-6 start the fluke? Or is the more recent 5-1 surge for real? Or is the truth, as is so often is, somewhere in between?

We’ll go with “in between” if only because historically very few teams play .143 or .833 ball for too long. The question in front of us is really whether the 2024 A’s are improved enough to avoid 100 losses, a benchmark they missed by a whopping 13 games last year.

Here’s what the Eyeball Scout is seeing from some key A’s players so far...

Paul Blackburn

While the odds of finishing the season with a 0.00 ERA are slim, Blackburn’s success is real. His cutter just looks like it has different action, with that late fold that gets under a…