The Athletics made the first structural change of their lost first half on Monday, dismissing longtime pitching coach Scott Emerson and promoting bullpen coach Dan Hubbs to interim pitching coach for the rest of the season, the club announced. The move came a day after a 9-1 loss in Chicago closed out a nine-game losing streak heading into the All-Star break.
The case against waiting was in the numbers. The A’s own a 5.21 team ERA, second-highest in the majors ahead of only Colorado, and they have lost 17 of their last 20 games to fall to 41-55 — fourth in the AL West, eight games out of first and six and a half back of the final wild card. Emerson had been on the major-league staff for more than a decade and had run the pitching program through the franchise’s entire relocation era, which makes the timing itself the message: this staff was not going to look different in September without a different voice in July.
Whether one voice changes anything is the fair question. The rotation has been asked to cover for an offense that scored one run or fewer twice in the final week before the break, and the young arms the franchise is building around have absorbed most of the punishment during the skid. Hubbs inherits the same personnel and 66 games to demonstrate a different plan for it — starting with how the club manages workloads coming out of four days of rest.
The break also brings a reminder that the roster is not without functioning parts: catcher Shea Langeliers starts behind the plate for the American League in tonight’s All-Star Game and bats third, carrying a .257 average with 21 home runs into the second half. A team whose catcher hits cleanup-caliber power and whose staff owns the AL’s worst run prevention is a team whose problem is precisely located.
On the fantasy side, treat the coaching change as a note rather than a signal to buy: A’s starters remain avoid-in-most-formats streamers until the run prevention actually improves, and the second-half schedule will not soften that. Langeliers stays a top-five catcher on power alone.
