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		A's: Mid-season report By Jerry Feitelberg June 29, 2011

	Tonight the A's played the 81st game of the season. Their record entering the game is 36-44. They are eight games under the .500 mark and are six games behind the division leading Texas Rangers. What does this all mean. It means that the American League west is not very good. The Baltimore Orioles have a better won-lost record (35-41) but they are ten and a half games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East. The A's starting pitching has been very good even with injuries to four of their starters. Dallas Braden,Tyson Ross, Brendan McCarthy and Brett Anderson are still on the disabled list. Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, Josh Outman, Guillermo Moscoso have performed very well. The bullpen has held up even with injuries to Andrew Bailey and Grant Balfour. Craig Breslow, Michael Wuertz , Joey Devine and Brian Fuentes have done a good job in relief. Daric Barton and Kevin Kouzmanoff did not produce and both are now in the minor leagues. Veteran second baseman, Mark Ellis is hitting less than .220 and is on the bench. Josh Willingham leads the club in home runs and runs batted in. Unfortunately, Willingham is on the disabled list. David DeJesus is nowhere near his career average and is hitting .225 at the start of tonight's game. Hideki Matsui is hitting .223 and appears to be at the end of of his baseball career. Perhaps Matsui will prove me wrong by having a strong second half. The rest of the A's are just journeymen players and there is no one in the lineup that strikes fear into opposing pitchers. In order for the A's to improve in the second half they will have to bring in players that can hit and hit with power. Chris Carter is up from Sacramento . Carter has power but is not playing. Billy Beane is going to have to make decisions. Will he make some trades that will he opt to keep the team as it is. Right now , the A's have a low payroll. Will they be willing to spend money to improve the team. There's an old adage in business and that is “you have to spend money to make money.” Right now this team looks like the fictional team in the movie”Major League.”