Manager Mark Kotsay Staying Positive During Athletics’ Horrid Season

One of the best traits a supervisor or leader in any profession can have is being able to maintain a positive attitude, especially during tough times.

Oakland Athletics manager Mark Kotsay has been getting a master class in the power of positive thinking throughout his first two seasons on the job. Kotsay has needed to provide plenty of positive reinforcements to his players while the wins have been scarce during a massive rebuilding project.

The Athletics have been historically bad so far this season despite winning back-to-back games over the Pirates in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday before having an off day on Thursday.

Oakland has a 14-50 record, which is the worst in the major leagues and puts them already 27 ½ games behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West standings in early June.

The Athletics are on pace to finish 35-127, which would be the worst record in the major leagues in the modern era, which dates to 1901. The 1962 New York Mets hold that distinction as they went 40-120 as an expansion team.

A year ago, the Athletics were 60-102 in Kotsay’s first season. Thus, his career record as a manager is 49-177 for a winning percentage of .227.

Furthermore, there is the distraction of the franchise attempting to leave Oakland for Las Vegas, which is a whole another story.

It’s hard to put the blame on Kotsay as the Athletics have torn their team totally apart in the last two years. He has been left to manage a roster filled with inexperienced players with a few journeymen sprinkled in.

“You have to stay positive and that’s definitely one area where I feel is of great importance,” Kotsay said. “I’m always trying to highlight the positives, whether it’s in-game results or the incremental progress that we’ve made since April, even if it doesn’t look like it from the outside in terms of wins and losses.

“We’re always talking about the work (the players) put in day in and day out. The only way to fill out that work is to have success. We’ve had a few uplifting moments like winning a series against (the National League East-leading Atlanta) Braves. When you have success, it breeds more success.”

Success in baseball is usually dependent on good pitching and the Athletics are woefully lacking in that area.

Their 6.57 ERA is so bad that it is more than one full run worse than the team with the second-worst ERA, the Colorado Rockies (5.37). The Athletics’ 297 walks in 64 games are easily the worst mark in MLB.

Compounding matters is the Athletics aren’t much better at the plate. They are scoring just 3.59 runs a game, which is 29^th among the 30 MLB teams ahead of only the Detroit Tigers (3.56).

So, the Athletics look for positives where they can find them such as rookie center fielder Esteury Ruiz. The 24-year-old was acquired in the offseason from the Milwaukee Brewers in a three-way trade that sent standout catcher Sean Murphy to the Atlanta Braves.

Ruiz is hitting .260 in 62 games and his 29 stolen bases in 35 attempts lead the major leagues.

“He is a dynamic baserunner with the innate ability to really study pitcher’s pickoff moves,” Kotsay said. “He’s aggressive and there’s going to be mistakes when you have young players with that type of mentality. It’s my job to kind of help him through those times when he makes those aggressiveness mistakes.”

Just as it for Kotsay to help all his young players try to get better in hopes of better days ahead.

“Baseball’s a hard game,” Athletics left-handed pitcher JP Sears said. “It’s really easy to get down on yourself every day. We’re struggling and we’re grinding but we take every day as an opportunity to get better. You’re still in the big leagues. We’re playing hard out there, and things aren’t going our way right now but we’re trying to get better. It’s not like we’re giving up.”