Billy Beane preaches patience despite A's struggles

The Oakland Athletics are mired in last place in the AL West with the worst record in the majors at 14-26, but general manager Billy Beane isn't panicking.

"Obviously, all this is disappointing, but given the amount of players we have on the disabled list, that's a problem," Beane said Monday, according to InsideBayArea.com. "With the guys we have on the field, there are things that could go better; it's part of the process."

The A's have been depleted by injuries, but Beane said he's not ready to initiate a roster overhaul at this point, preaching patience to allow for the return of more of his sidelined players.

"I think we need to ride this thing out, get some players back," Beane said. "It's similar to the last time we talked 10 days ago. We got Coco [Crisp]back, but we've lost [Jarrod] Parker and [Ike] Davis. We're still looking to get [Sean] Doolittle and [Ben] Zobrist. We need to wait for guys to get back and hope that will help."

In addition to injuries, Beane also cited simple bad luck as a factor in the A's early-season struggles. The A's beat the Astros 2-1 on Monday night, a victory that upped Oakland's record in one-run games to 2-13 for the season.

"To be 1-13 or whatever in one-run games when you are obviously competitive, there's some [bad] luck involved there," Beane said Monday before his team beat Houston. "Any mistake we make has cost us. It's far too early in my mind to start making big changes. We have to remember we are not playing with the team that we had in mind.

"Zobrist is a very big part of this club, and he's gone. Eric O'Flaherty is gone too. We've got three of the main members of our bullpen from last year gone in Doolittle and O'Flaherty on the disabled list and [Ryan] Cook trying to work some things out in the minors. Add to that, we've taken Parker out of a slot in our rotation. Any team would be challenged to maintain through all that. It's not that hard to figure out."

The A's have also been hurt by poor defense, having committed a major league-worst 43 errors in 40 games.

"Certainly the guys on the field at time have been lax at times, but they've also been incredibly unlucky," Beane said. "No matter what, we have to deal with it. [Manager Bob Melvin] and I have been doing this a long time. We've been through it before. The one thing you learn is you have to be resilient."