Oakland Athletics All-Star Ryan Cook

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The anouncement was made on Sunday that there will be at least one Oakland Athletic on the All-Star and it is going to be rookie set-up man turned closer Ryan Cook. Cook, the lesser known name in the trade over the summer that sent starting pitcher Trevor Cahill & reliever Craig Breslow to the Arizona Diamondbacks in return for starting pitcher Jarrod Parker, outfileder Colin Cowgill, and Cook. Since he has gotten to Oakland, Cook has been the A’s most dominant reliever with the nastiest stuff on the staff.

 Cook started off his rookie campaign by throwing 23 scoreless inning before giving up a run which set an Oakland Athletics record that hadn’t been touched since 1918. Currently Cook is sporting a ridiculous stat line of 1.54 ERA, a WHIP of .94, and a BAA (Batting Average Against) of .106 which not only leads all AL rookies but also puts him 8th amongst relievers in the League. Since becoming the A’s closer, he has locked down 7 of 10 save opportunites and is pretty much considered lights out once he comes in even though this is his first time ever closing. I expect a lot from Cook the rest of this year and hope that he is able to maintain his elite level numbers well past the All-Star game and hopefully into well into the future or until Beane decides to leverage him as trade bait in some future deal for more prospects. 

Cook more then deserves a shot to represent the A’s in Kansas City but he should also have a teammate with him at the All-Star game and that guy is A’s Right Fielder Josh Reddick. Reddick has been the most consistent and best hitter on the team to this point, sorry Brandon Moss and Yoenis Cespedes, and is the A’s best outfielder in my opinioin. Reddick is currently hitting .260 with 18 HR’s, 39 RBI’s, SLG% .517, OBP .340, and OPS .858. Now consider having that stat line in an A’s line-up without Cespedes and you can see that he is a man on an island with no threats or hitting protection. No to mention defensively, Reddick has scared runners from trying to take the extra base on him by having 8 Assists and a .993 Fielding %. Also Reddick is currently producing a WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of 3.1, which puts him in an elite class of players statistically since there are only 9 players in the MLB who have a WAR above 3 with 6 of those players making the team.

 Since you’ve probably already heard it a million times by now but the A’s haven’t had a position player named to the All-Star team since Ramon Hernandez in 2003. It’s just too bad that the AL outfield is stacked with guys like Josh Hamilton, Curtis Granderson, Jose Bautista and even the backups like Mike Trout and Adam Jones are putting up great numbers. The one way Reddick might be able to make the team would be if a couple of the starter’s end up getting hurt or just don’t want to fly out to KC to play in the All-Star game. Which we all know is very, very likely when it comes to the MLB All-Star game starters. Hey when you book a trip to Cancun over the All-Star break, you just can go cancelling it now can you.

So here’s to Ryan Cook, Oakland Athletics All-Star Representative, go out and shut down the NL like we know you can and oh don’t get hurt buddy. The A’s will be needing you for the second half of the season and a Wild Card run. A guy can dream alright.