The Oakland A's will win the American League West. Yes, this year! We (SFist) are not accustomed to making barrel-chested predictions that eventually turn to fool's gold as it often does on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" -- we're merely pointing out the obvious: the Oakland A's will win the AL West this year. Despite their anemic, Milton Bradley-less performance last night at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels and Joe Saunders-- who they made seem like a young Ron Guidry than the junk-ball throwing Tommy John clone that he is-- the A's will win more of those tightly-sewn games than the Angels, or god forbid, the perennial flame-out Texas Rangers. And they'll do it without resident genius Billy Beane making a nano-move during the trade deadline frenzy. more ›

In May, while the A's struggled along 8 1/2 games behind Los Los Angeles Angeles de Anaheim Anaheim in the American League West, A's Brand Baseball promised not to mention the division standings any more until school started in the fall. It was hard to imagine, back then, that the A's would be playing meaningful games when schoolkids were buying pencil boxes and new backpacks, but here's this (Go Bears!), and here's this. After the first week of school and two disappointing, if hard-fought, losses in three games in the O.C. this week, the A's are tied with Los Los Angeles Angeles for first place. That's right, first place: 75-58. That's the same record as the Yankees, in a three-way tie for the AL wild card spot in the playoffs. more ›

Interleague baseball concludes this weekend with yet another Giants/A's clash, this time at the House Al Destroyed. Frankly, all we can say is, well, umm, yawn. Seriously. At this point, interleague games are like some big sideshow tacked into the middle of a rich and exciting season, or at least everywhere else except for the Bay Area. It's like one of those "Buffy/Angel" Crossover Events in which one character appearing on the other's show served no real purpose other than to excite all the Buffy/Angel 'shippers out there. At least this time around, both teams aren't as much in free fall as they were a month ago. The A's have the third best record over the past month and have joined the chase in the American League West to not be in last place. The Giants, on the other hand, have appeared to have righted their ship and are now valiantly fighting to be a .500 team. more ›