Might have spoken too soon because the A's are suddenly the hottest hitting team in baseball and the pitching staff remembered that they don't completely suck.
I don't think they'll be as "good" as they were last season but, considering their best player is still obviously working his way back from an injury, there is a chance that they might hit their stride at the right time.
I'm happy to be wrong! Losing 4 in a row at home to the same Houston team that knocked us out of the playoffs last year was demoralizing and following that up with a series against the defending champs didn't help. But since losing those first 6 games seems to have lit a fire under the players, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. I don't believe in this pitching staff yet (with the possible exception of Lou Trivino who seems to have rediscovered his 2018 fastball) since they've all been both awful and exceptional for about equal stretches. But Oakland usually manages to find enough good pitching to be league average at worst. Luzardo, Montas, and Puk all need to mature in a hurry for us to repeat as division champs.
Here's a brief list of things I like so far (ranked by order of Awesomeness)...
(A1) Ramon Laureano potentially bringing the stolen base title back to Oakland, where it belongs.
(A2) Jed Lowrie back from his very expensive two year sabbatical on the Mets Injury Reserve (lol) showing he's still got at least 1 more All-Star year in him.
(A3) Mark Canha leading off the order and looking good doing it (I'm going to need some more bat flips though Mark)
(A4) Seth Brown hitting bombs! Been a long time coming!
(A5) Chad Pinder diving catches aplenty!
(A6) Elvis Andrus might be a slight upgrade at short defensively, and he's got nowhere to go but up on offense right now. Walking to first on Ball 3 was a nice try though. I like that kind of outside the box thinking.