On next week's podcast, Paul and I will be looking ahead to the second half. If it's anything like tonight, we're in for a treat; two walk-offs and this Yasiel Puig laser.
For a segment on the podcast, we are looking at the best offense and pitching staff for an individual team in the second half. Today's post will discuss the offense and tomorrow's will focus on the pitching staff.
The team that hit the most homers after the All-Star break in any one season was the 1999 Athletics. Actually, they are tied with the 1963 Twins (Harmon Killebrew was pretty good), but the A's did it in three fewer games. Both teams hit 127 homers. Of the top 20 teams, 14 played from 1996-2004; the 1963 Twins are joined by the 2010 Blue Jays, 1947 Giants, 2015 Blue Jays, 1961 Yankees, and 2016 Orioles as those outside that era. Expanding that further, 46 of the top 50 came after the 1994 strike.
The 1999 Athletics lineup is a ton of fun. Billy Beane took over as general manager at the end of the 1997 season, so this was his second regular season. The team went 87-75 (44-31 in the second half) and missed the playoffs for the last time until 2004. Since 1950, the 1999 A's rank 4th in OBP and 14th in SLG for a second half team.
1999 Athletics
| Pos | Name | 2nd Half HR |
|---|---|---|
| C | A.J. Hinch | 4 |
| 1B | Jaosn Giambi | 18 |
| 2B | Randy Velarde | 8 |
| SS | Miguel Tejada | 13 |
| 3B | Eric Chavez | 6 |
| LF | Ben Grieve | 17 |
| CF | Ryan Christenson | 2 |
| RF | Matt Stairs | 21 |
| DH | John Jaha | 16 |
Baseball is here! And more importantly, that means the over/under game is back. It seems as though everyone is an expert this time of year. Somehow we convince ourselves that we are better at predicting baseball outcomes than everyone else. Well, AFITB is putting that to the test for the third year in a row. Think you know more about baseball than us? You probably do. But go ahead and prove it anyway.